Tv Licence

[Vaughan]

12 hours ago, PastorsDayOff said:

Technically, it’s a TV reception licence, but is there actually anywhere on the Broads you can pick up a decent TV reception?

The best picture we got last year was on a mud weight, on Rockland Broad!

When I was truck driving, we sometimes did a removal, for people going to live in France and I always took the serial number of the TV before putting it in the trailer, as the French customs would always ask for it, on the border with Belgium. The first time, I had to unload half the lorry in the customs shed, to find the TV!

[Timbo]

I think I must be in a minority in that I don't watch television. This I believe is from growing up with Uncle Albert who had a television in each room of his house, all of them tuned to a different channel, all of them on at full volume because he was deaf. Uncle Albert would then start wandering between each room in his version of channel surfing. The moment that Breakfast TV was invented Uncle Albert would turn on his TV sets to watch and they would stay turned on until the National Anthem, the White Dot or the last beardie weirdy in a 1970's nylon shirt disappeared from the screen.

For me, the saddest sound in the world is the Coronation Emmerdale Enders Theme blurting from a boat across the Broads. In the late 80's early 90's my then girlfriend and I hired a boat on the Broads. Uncle Albert heard about our holiday and he himself hired a boat to join us on our holiday. Marvellous! After four days of being followed everywhere by Uncle Albert & his wife and their television, we'd just about had enough.

On the fifth day, I nicked Uncle Albert's TV ariel. At Lathems he bought another one, so I nicked that. He bought another one. The following day we slipped our moorings early and tried to lose Uncle Albert, his wife and their television. That night I'd hidden our boat in the trees along the Ant. Relaxing with a glass of wine and cuddled up with the girlfriend we heard a boat pass, the Coronation Street Theme blaring and Uncle Albert cruised past and moored behind us. 
"You were lucky we found you!" said Uncle Albert.

Day seven. I nicked Uncle Albert's TV and returned it to the boatyard. My girlfriend explained our problem to the nice chap and lady behind the desk. Who to give them their due only laughed for five minutes or so. Uncle Albert reported to the boatyard that someone had nicked the TV and the boatyard, thankfully, told him not to worry and they would replace it for him the following day when the boats came back in as they didn't have a spare. While Uncle Albert went with his Mrs in search of a pub with TV my girlfriend and I headed back down the Ant, made our escape, and managed to enjoy the final week of our holiday in peace and quiet.

Not having a TV, my biggest annoyance these days is the TV Licensing authority who insist my 'claim' to not watching television is somehow 'abnormal'. Every two years they begin their campaign of harassment, writing to me, emailing me and knocking on my door demanding entry to inspect the premises. I take great delight these days in letting them come into the house. I love watching their little hands tremble when they see the 50" monitors attached to computers. I love watching them trying to trace the wires from the satellite dish of the flat above, I love the 'aha' moment when they twitch aside my curtains to reveal...my monitors are not connected to an antenna. I really love it when they try to access my browsing history on my computers to reveal...I don't watch TV. To really add insult to their injury, while they are wandering around the flat I will go and turn on a monitor and start to edit some film footage and wait for them to come blundering through to investigate. I'm really looking forward to next year when they 'come a knocking' to find Ellie's studio in the front room, my studio and editing suite in my office and the shed converted into yet another studio.

Watching the sad little fellers walk dejectedly back up the path gives me a warm glow inside.
"You will tell us if you start watching television, its the law!" they always say as they leave.
"You do know I'm not, don't you?!" 
"What, tell us or watch TV?"
"Both!"

 

[grendel]

Living in an area where freeview is by repeater (and limited to about 12 channels) plus with the fact that directly between me and the freeview repeater some inconsiderate person placed a tower of a cathedral, freeview was not an option (before freeview we could actually get BBC2 only) so we had a sky dish for TV. fast forward and nowadays I find I only really watch a couple of channels (quest and talking pictures) unfortunately not on the freeview repeaters. and I noticed i was paying a small fortune to sky for them to allow me to watch a couple of channels that most people get for free. so time to act, I purchased a freesat box then cancelled sky. the initial cost is covered by a few months of skys charges, and after that its free. Added to that, if i want to watch a movie, I can just buy the DVD (even a dvd a week is cheaper than sky)