The Honourable Woman

I have watched more TV over the past two weeks than I probably have since the beginning of the year. Heady days of World Cup football, Wimbledon tennis and F1 Grand Prix racing have kept me entertained amidst a calendar containing no 'soap' episodes, much to my wife's chagrin.

Beside my love for sport I do enjoy a good drama series. The Scandinavians are particularly good at producing these; The Killing and The Bridge are two typical examples. Occasionally we British come up with the goods and my interest was aroused in a new BBC2 drama entitled 'The Honourable Woman' - the first of eight episodes aired on Thursday. Written by Hugo Blick (that alone is usually a good recommendation) and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as businesswoman Nessa Stein, this first episode had me gripped from the start.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

This could turn out to be the 'spook' drama to eclipse all predecessors. Scene stealing Stephen Rae (did you see him in 'The Crying Game' - brilliant) portrays sceptical MI6 agent Hugh Hayden-Doyle, a terrific performance that put me in mind of George Smiley. I will watch this first episode again today (series set to record on the Virgin box) with my wife who has yet to see it.

The momentum, richness and complexity of this drama are maintained throughout. If the remaining seven episodes are equal to this, The Honourable Woman will win every award going (yes, it's that good) and when it ends in the final days of summer its fans will be legion and messianic in its cause. Nothing on telly is going to be this good for some time to come.

Coping with Arthritis

I heard someone talking about arthritis this morning on BBC2. It can be very debilitating. I know. Last year over a period of a few months the joints in the fingers of my right hand in particular (not so severe in the left) became painful and stiff and 'clicked' with movement. It progressively got worse to the extent that I could no longer form a fist (not in anger I hasten to add!).

I spent the last few years of my business career employed in the health supplements industry and amongst many had sold a product called Celadrin, a natural product comprised of a proprietary blend of cetylated fatty acid carbons. More recently this product has become vegetarian sourced.

I had to do something and saw no benefit in visiting my GP. So, during the Autumn of last year I took to a daily regime of 525mg of Celadrin combined with 1500mg of Glucosamine HCl and 250mg of Rose Hip Extract.

This treatment took a while to have any affect. But eventually the results were truly astonishing. Today I enjoy full, painless movement in all finger joints with no sign of the arthritis that I used to suffer with, quite badly. I still take these products on a daily basis.

If you suffer with arthritis you might also benefit from following this treatment regime.

The Trip to Italy

I have just watched the second episode of 'The Trip to Italy' on Catchup TV; I forgot that it was airing last night on BBC2. I love this melancholy comedy featuring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan; their gentle banter and delightful impressions (which are remarkably accurate) of such celebs as Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Roger Moore, et al are a constant joy to watch. But above all this series is about their visits to various Italian restaurants, as Brydon has been commissioned to write another series for The Guardian, acting as a restaurant critic. Coogan goes along for the ride as it were.

This series follows on from the first 'The Trip' where these two visited restaurants in the North of England. I watched that as it was broadcast and have the box set on DVD.

In this latest episode they enjoy lunch at La Cantina, a delightful beachside trattoria located in San Frutuosso, a quaint fishing village nestled in a cove of Portofino. Dishes made with fresh fish and shellfish looked superb and certainly reflected in the price: lunch for two with wine at Euros 170.

I was so captivated by this place that it has been added to my Bucket List. Read about it here: http://www.lacantinasanfruttuoso.it/

Horizon: What's Killing Our Bees?

This documentary aired last night on BBC2 and was presented by Bill Turnbull who has been keeping bees for 12 years. It was excellent, a well balanced and thought provoking documentary concerning the plight of our bees. Bill said that for many beekeepers the main challenge over the past few years hasn't been harvesting honey, but simply keeping their colonies alive.

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for us in the form of honey and the work they do in pollinating our crops is vital. One mouthful in every three that we eat we owe to the work of bees, but their numbers have been falling for decades.

The list of suspects that has contributed to this alarming decline is several:

• the weather. This year's cold spring could have been fatal for many colonies weakened by the wet summer of 2012.
• the varroa mite, a pernicious little pest that sucks the bee's bodily fluids and in return injects it with fatal viruses. The varroa mite can wipe out a colony in a matter of weeks.
• the most controversial suspects are the modern systemic pesticides known as neonicotinoids. The EU has imposed a two-year ban on the use of three of them.
• the effect of modern agriculture on habitat. Scientists have started to show a link between the decline in bee numbers and the practice of using vast fields to grow single crops. And here is the environmental Catch-22: by boosting agricultural production to feed our growing world population we are threatening the bees on which we rely to produce those same crops.

Simple things can be done however to help turn things around and as was well illustrated in the programme. Farmers can sow wildflower strips on the edge of fields, which would give bees somewhere to feed all through the summer. And we can all do our best to plant bee-friendly flowers in our gardens - or even just in window boxes. 

It is up to us to make the changes that can save bees.