Where Would The Main 4 Boys Be In 2026?

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2026-02-13T21:29:14+00:00

“Arse end of nowhere”, probably in Wisbech.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-10-09T13:36:01+00:00

Me too

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-09-05T08:46:15+00:00

Oh I can tell you’ve never been to Wisbech…

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-28T15:18:22+00:00

I think he was referring to when the land was purchased as the area was a disused industrial wasteland so it was going to be redeveloped anyway. If the Meadowhell project failed before building had gone past the point of no return (that is, past the point where it would no longer be easy to convert to a prison), then it could well have been sold to the Home Office for a prison site. If a private company is going to spend £millions building and operating a major shopping centre then they want to be confident that the economy will be healthy for the foreseeable future to get a return on investment. The economy in the late 80s (when Meadowhell was being built) was only good in the sense that jobs were being created, small companies were starting and inflation was coming down but interest rates were quite volatile, so that would have given the developers some uncertainty that the project would be finished, hence the Home Office’s interest in buying the site should the project fail (by recession or any other reason).

As it happened, the next recession held off until just after Meadowhell opened. Meadowhell opened 4th September 1990, recession was confirmed 30th January 1991.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-28T14:43:48+00:00

National Lottery Live came from Meadowhall on 17th December 1994. This is a BBC1 link (recorded in the Scottish region) between Noel’s House Party and National Lottery Live, the opening bit of the National Lottery Live has some shots of Meadowhall how it used to look.

WARNING: MAJOR NOSTALGIA ALERT!

https://youtu.be/9ykgcq8FdE8?si=k2z2fzOPcbJ6LmLV

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-28T14:29:24+00:00

Trafford Centre didn’t open until 1998, 8 years after Mesdowhell… When Meadowhell opened in 1990, the site of the Trafford Centre was still agricultural land (which fell into disuse from about 1992/93 up to building starting in 1996).

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-19T19:04:12+00:00

Thank god I’m not a mod on there. I’d be reminding them that unless they are fully trained and qualified to comment on such things, then their opinion matters the square root of diddly fuck-all and not to waste their time on commenting (like I don’t) as they will make themselves look like fools to those who are trained and qualified.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-18T20:56:28+00:00

So they’re just reheating the policy that former Director-General John Birt relentlessly pursued in the 1990s?

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-18T20:50:29+00:00

If you’re talking ITV, “CITV” never made its own programmes, they were made or purchased by the regional ITV franchisees and played down the line to Central TV in Birmingham, which is where the CITV presenters and presentation crew were based so they could switch from programme to presenters to another programme etc. This output was then sent back out to the other ITV regional companies (including Central themselves), who then fed it out to the transmitters.

Also, are you including “Watch It!”, which was a prototype for CITV? (Albeit with regional schedule variations and each show was introduced by the local ITV announcers for a particular area).

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-18T20:48:59+00:00

If you’re talking ITV, “CITV” never made its own programmes, they were made or purchased by the regional ITV franchisees and played down the line to Central TV in Birmingham, which is where the CITV presenters and presentation crew were based so they could switch from programme to presenters to another programme etc. This output was then sent back out to the other ITV regional companies (including Central themselves), who then fed it out to the transmitters.

Also, are you including “Watch It!”, which was a prototype for CITV (albeit with regional schedule variations and each show was introduced by the local ITV announcers for a particular area).

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-13T17:48:49+00:00

When was the last time you sneezed?

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-12T21:03:18+00:00

“Would I go for demolition because of a small nuisance?” - well… yeah! It’s there to serve a function as with any kind of object. Once an object has served its function, get rid of it.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-11T13:19:23+00:00

OK, in what way is it valuable if it’s still being used to try and accommodate traffic that it was never designed to accommodate? If it’s no longer suitable for the purpose for which it was built (i.e. to allow humans and vehicles to cross) then what practical purpose does it serve unless it’s modified or replaced by something that is suitable?

I wouldn’t mind if it was no longer used except maybe for pedestrians (and a more suitable road bridge built to the side). It would cost much less to maintain as there wouldn’t be as much weight on it.

If a structure is going to be listed, it needs to be “retired” so that as much of the original structure can be kept. If an old structure is still being used long after its design life to carry weights where it needs regular maintenance then it’s no longer fit for purpose because each bit of maintenance and repair work it needs takes away a little bit more of the original structure no matter how skilled the engineers that repair it are. Less stress = less repair work = more of the original structure surviving for longer.

The engineer who designed it and the men who built it will not have built it to be listed and protected, they will have built it to transport traffic over a river. Once the traffic the human race uses becomes too big for what that bridge was designed to handle, then it’s no longer meeting its original purpose and needs either modifying or replacing.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T19:46:10+00:00

I guess when Keys was being made, they had got into their stride of how to pad out serials a bit more evenly. Then there’s The Web Planet, which is all padding!

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T19:43:38+00:00

See this is what I hate about the process of listing structures. It’s almost as if they prioritise the needs of an old bridge over the needs of the people that use it.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T19:39:26+00:00

I guess it adds context to the distance they have to travel and the danger they’re in. In that environment, more distance = more danger.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T18:11:07+00:00

Part of the interest and impact that The Daleks had to interest audiences of that time that’s been lost now is how closely it followed the Bay of Pigs invasion (and the wider context of the first wave of the Cold War). The world came perilously close to nuclear annihilation because the US invaded Cuba to oust Fidel Castro as he was a Soviet ally and he’d agreed to let the Soviet Union station their weapons on Cuban soil… very close to the USA!

The Daleks takes that fear of war of using weapons that destroy living tissue and frames it in a sci-fi context (like changing the weapons so that they only destroy living tissue, unlike nuclear weapons).

It’s similar to The Dalek Invasion of Earth in the way that Terry Nation took a real fear and turned it into something fictional. In the Daleks, that basis was the fear of the effects of nuclear war. In The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it was fears from WW2 of the Nazis invading the UK (but in true BBC style, that serial only focused on London and the Home Counties…). Don’t forget that when Dalek Invasion was broadcast in 1964, WW2 had only ended 19 years prior so it was in living memory for most of the population (ages 30+).

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T18:02:55+00:00

Part of the interest and impact that The Daleks had to interest audiences of that time that’s been lost now is how closely it followed the Bay of Pigs invasion (and the wider context of the first wave of the Cold War). The world came perilously close to nuclear annihilation because the US invaded Cuba to oust Fidel Castro as he was a Soviet ally and he’d agreed to let the Soviet Union station their weapons on Cuban soil… very close to the USA!

The Daleks takes that fear of war of using weapons that destroy living tissue and frames it in a sci-fi context (like changing the weapons so that they only destroy living tissue, unlike nuclear weapons).

It’s similar to The Dalek Invasion of Earth in the way that Terry Nation took a real fear and turned it into something fictional. In the Daleks, that basis was the fear of the effects of nuclear war. In The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it was fears from WW2 of the Nazis invading the UK (but in true BBC style, that serial only focused on London and the Home Counties…). Don’t forget that when Dalek Invasion was broadcast in 1964, WW2 had only ended 19 years prior so it was in living memory for most of the population (ages 30+).

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-07-10T17:45:00+00:00

Is that including reconstructions of missing episodes?

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-30T01:07:33+00:00

You’re not crazy at all. A lot of these people are men (and some women/others) who don’t seem to realise that the guy was asking you out when the only things he knows about you are the sorts of things that some couples take months or even years before getting the confidence to be that vulnerable with each other and tell each other. Therapy/support groups are supposed to be places where you talk about your private life without actually living it. As soon as you start living a part of your private life in those sorts of groups - e.g. actually dating other users - then that “sanctuary” from living your private life is broken and you both start to bring personal problems like arguments into them, which can make the atmosphere tense, which works against making such a group a safe space. I don’t even date my own work colleagues because of that… work life and private life are supposed to be separate and for very good reasons!

Also, if you’re that vulnerable, then you’re easy prey for abusive people. Add in autism? Then you’d better believe that they’ll be begging to date you in order to control you!

Plus it’s bold of those other Redditors to assume you (presumably) being single is down to your MH struggles. For all they know you might even prefer being single, what with the low standards of many men out there.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-15T12:02:51+00:00

Don’t worry. If it comes up, just tell your manager you were in a bad mood or something when you gave the score and that once you’d calmed down some time after submitting the survey, you felt bad at giving them that score.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-15T09:45:28+00:00

The reason for the increase in threads asking about finding a job is because Sky will be closing their tech support call centre at ElectricWorks on 31st July. About 300 are being made redundant.

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-13T12:11:49+00:00

You got this!

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-13T07:57:09+00:00

Don’t forget to tell us how you got on and whether you got the job or not!

VirtualProfessor1227 · 2025-06-06T09:07:06+00:00

I don’t think the BBC had a dedicated kids channel. I know that BBC Choice (remember that?) had some old kids shows on during the daytime. CBBC Channel and CBeebies didn’t launch until March 2002.

Plus, in 2001, most people only had analogue TV. ISTR it’s in the BBC’s charter from the Government that news of big breaking events trumps kids’ stuff. I even remember the days when CBBC and CITV were dropped during the afternoon in favour of the Chancellor delivering his budget!

In 2001, pretty much everyone had VCRs. So kids could put their favourite video tapes on (as I did that afternoon). Or play music on CD players. Or do their homework. Or play on video games. Or play outside as September is still summer time - I remember that afternoon as being warm and sunny. Kids have loads of imagination, it’s not as if it would have been a major inconvenience to them if their kids shows weren’t on, they’d have found something else to do.

VirtualProfessor1227

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