ScillyOnLine

[Mitz]

Just watched An Island Parish on the BBC. Scilly looks great. Much better than the videos sold to tourists. Scilly should be seeing increased visitors this year - great for the locals just a pity for us poor people who can only visit and enjoy the peace and quiet of the islands.

[Agnes Dei]

Yes it was beautufully photographed - the aerial shots of the islands were particularly good.

Why is it a 'pity for us poor people who can only visit'?

[shoestrung]

I think that Mitz wants to live here, but doesn't have the opportunity.....just appreciating the islands.

[Carpetman]

Saw this review of the programme and just had to share it!
Some poor sad person living in London...now I know how they manage it, their reality is alot different to ours!
This copied from the times newspaper website...

Island Parish (BBC Two) was slow, slumberous, beautiful and often very dull — a bit, I imagine, like living on the Isles of Scilly. Ostensibly a documentary about the search for a new parish priest to serve the Scilly Isles, it was obvious from the clever shots of its spectacular, idyllic scenery that this was a cunning plot by the BBC to exploit the January depression with our rat race lives by feeding us Good Life porn.

Well, it didn’t work on me. Maybe it’s the years I spent living in London being ignored by people who had lived on my street for a decade, but the very thought of everyone knowing my business and needing a boat to escape my neighbours makes me need to breathe into a brown paper bag.

By the end I felt quite stressed; I couldn’t quite cope with the idea of the farmer doubling up as the fireman and the police having to use the tourists’ holiday ferry to get to the scene of the crime unless I was, say, Miss Hoolie in Balamory. Pity. With Celebrity Big Brother appearing, at the time of writing, to be dying on its backside, we could have done with some decent escapism.

[Keswick]

Sounds like someone living in denial that there actually is a better quality of life out there if only he had the balls to accept considerably less materially.

[Grumpy Old Man]

[Captain Pugwash]

What's he going to make of Carpetman working on screen

[Bymore Mutton]

Well I read the Times article and I saw the program, and the article was right. If Scilly was even 1% like the portrayal I couldn't live here. Even Noddy would pack all his belongings into his little yellow car, give Big Ears the finger and f""" off.

Where was all the healthy hypocrisy, the drunkenness, the downright unabashed nastiness we all know and love?

Let’s hope the remaining series investigates the sordid underbelly of Scilly and shows it like it really is. Somehow I doubt it though, we will have to watch the remainder, teeth clenched to keep down the bile, noses pinched to keep out the stench, through each and every cloying "peace" of nonsense television.

[chocoholic]

Bymore, I take your point totally - this was no accurate reflection of Scilly in any real sense. But was it really meant to be? Basically the original series revolved around the church therefore the spin off is also based on the idea of a parish. However I don't think anyone in their right mind would think of Scilly as being home to 2000 odd religous zealots! Lets face it, for the majority, the identity of the new vicar may not have any impact at all, neither would the arrival of the summer wpc. In fact that was the first time I saw her! In my humble opinion the purpose of the programme is not to reflect reality, but to provide some nice soft winter escapism with some stunning views of the place, which in turn might provide some much needed help to our tourist industry. This I think, it achieved.

[Bymore Mutton]

I agree, it was winter escapism, it was I nice piece of feel good TV, which some will take as truth. And the producer seems to have his head in the clouds, "A real life Ambridge" as he describes the Islands, without one assumes the rape, the incest and the bleating of the lambs. Though there are obviously a plethora of Eddie Grundys.

The only problem with this type of program is that it is food and water to the deluded maniacs who infest the ScillyWebCam guest book.

Nice pictures though.

[olim]

I thought the views were good and overall a good programme albeit through an idealistic view of the islands.

Those who watch this on the mainland may be inspired to check the islands out for themselves and this will be good for business on the islands.....so long as they don't expect 1970's prices!!

It'll be intersting to see how the series develops and exactly what carpetman looks like.

[Carpetman]

If you really want to know what I look like simply check out my website...easy!

You know, I don't think its a bad thing to portray ANY place in the world with just the good bits of living in that particular place.
I had an amazing holiday in Cape Town, South Africa that blew my mind because of the beauty and the cheerful people we met..however I watched Ross Kemp on Gangs, all about Cape Town and after that I didn't want to go back!!
(I would go back though!)

But you take the rough with the smooth I guess.
I've met the Producer and he seems a cheerful bloke who obviously wakes up pleased to be alive and sees life in a different way to Mr Mutton.
Each to their own, I think living here is great!!

And as for the scillywebcam guestbook devotees..I know most of them and they simply love it here totally, with the pros and cons fully understood and accepted.
To some people Scilly is magic and just feels like no other place in the world.
If you can't sit down on a fine summers day and feel happy then MAYBE you should think about living somewhere else and give someone else the chance of coming here and enjoying themselves

[Bymore Mutton]

I feel like I've just told a three year old that Santa is an elaborate hoax fomented by the Coca Cola Corporation, and was dismissed as an unrealistic old sod.

Scilly is a wonderful place, if you can put up with the people. It's not "our little corner of paradise" (which is a relief) and its scraping the bottom of the barrel of stupidity to suggest it is.

Doesn't mean I want to live somewhere else. It’s better to be realistic about the place than to wander round in some delusional pre-war dream world, like (shudder) Tresco.

But if you really think you've found heaven, then good luck to you.

[Carpetman]

Bymore.
If you ever see me out in the pub, take me to one side and I'll see if I can convert you!

I've just got back from a weekend away and let me tell you I'm not in any hurry to go back!
I took the camera to take a few "scenic" pics..
I managed to take 2 going across the severn bridge and the rest were all from the helicopter as I got back.
This place is very special, to me and several hundred other people.
( Even Shoestrung!)
Let me dream!

[shoestrung]

I'M FED UP WITH EDITORIAL COMMENT!

My penny's worth. 1)My opinion and it is just that is that B Mutton is having a bit of a snipe and trying to stir the natives, If I'm wrong, as ever I apologise. But having lived here as long as I have (no clues there) there have been some unpleasant characters that I have come across, but few and far between. We may not be the jolly "yokel" types, fishermen chewing tobacco and washer women looking after the troops, but we operate as a community. The grumpy/unpleasant among us, I have little dealings with (unless of course I am one of them and everyone else avoids me) and this system works rather well. I have a happy, relaxed and contented life. It's wonderful in the summer with boating and beaches and the quiet spot you can ALWAYS find with a little looking. And in the winter it's quiet. With few people around, and the awesome power of a force 8+ rattling straight off the Atlantic. You look at Hugh Town from the air and all it is is a cluster of houses sticking up out of an ocean with nothing else but rolling seas for thirty odd miles. Delusional, I feel positivly sane but my opinion of these islands appears to differ wildly from Muttons. But they are just that, opinions. Paradise...... I think this place can be and often is. Perfect, Never.