Digging for victory. TV star Dr Neil Oliver notches up another success.

There’s not much on TV ithat nterests me theses days.

Reality shows are a turn off - even those which, like The Apprentice, I’m told are pretty good. I’ve never been one for soaps or British cop shows. Then I’ve lost track of the baffling number of comedy shows on offer and struggled to find one to really make me laugh (though the news series of Peep Show is getting rave reviews).

Meanwhile, the big dramas, like the recent ITV offering, Flood, are total gash. Thankfully, I didn’t invest any time in watching it though it must have been grim for the TV critic Ally Ross and columnist Lorraine Kelly to each give it a hearty kicking in consecutive days in The Sun.

Nah. I’ve turned into a curmudgeonly old sod and only rarely pull my nose out of a book to switch on the telly. And then, it’s usually to watch some nature or historical documentary. Give me Attenborough or Schama any day of the week.

Which brought me recently to an episode of the BBC’s Coast. I’ve caught this before but this time I was struck by how visually impressive it is. Mibbes it was something to do with the new flat screen telly. Or mibbes it mostly caught me attention because windswept Dr Neil Oliver was striding across the landscapge.

TV is always more interesting when you know the person on screen and I have a passing acquaintance with Dr Neil, from his time in Scottish journalism. So I sat up straight and paid that bit more attention while he was on.

I was impressed. Even more so when I mentioned the subject next day to my business partner Raymond Notarangelo, who said that Dr Neil apparently writes most of the show and the accompanying book. Among his many other achievements is that he also wrote the book, Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys.

Coast is obviously a success, since they seem to be making a new series. Earlier this week I picked up a copy of the Evening News to find an appeal for anyone with interesting stories about coastal life in East Lothian to contact the BBC (read it here).

Then in Saturday’s Daily Record I read that Dr Neil has an even greater reason to celebrate - the birth of a third child. Wife Trudi gave birth to new son, Teddy this week. A wee brother for Evie and Archie.

Congratulations all round. Dr Neil likes wee boys to have decent role models - and certainly wee Teddy and older brother Archie are going to grow up with a successful dad they can really look up to.

Frank Gilbride’s new business partner is a financial expert … so what advice would he give to the Brasso Kid?

It’s just as well the Brasso Kid Frank Gilbride is a journalist, or he’d be appearing sometime very soon in an expose in the Sunday Mail or the News of the Screws.

We’ve all seen the type of story I’m talking about - businessman leaves a trail of financial misery behind in the wake of an unexpected business collapse.

Only to resurface a short time later in some new moneymaking scheme, yet somehow remaining insulated from having to pay what he’s due to those who had their fingers burned.

It’s always amazed me how such people get away with. I can only assume it is thanks the kind financial advisers who aren’t too squeamish when it comes to casualties of the accounting process. While it might all be strictly speaking legal, it’s still just a bit unsavoury .

By coincidence, I’ve just  discovered that the Brasso Kid’s new business partner has a strong background in the financial services sector. Bernard Mooney Mellon is now Frank’s co-director in the snappily named company,  Property Solutions Scotland.

He also holds directorships in Brian Mellon Financial Services Ltd and - I kid you not - Money Wisdom Ltd. I wonder if that’s “wisdom” as in he didn’t see Frank coming. Or “wisdom” of the sort that miraculously brought Wee Brasso back from the brink of apparent financial oblivion.

I mean, I was almost starting to feel sorry for Gilbride. First Long-serving and loyal staff were shown the door without even their wages - let along any sort of redundancy money? Then there we Liquidators announcements in the Public Notices sections of the newspaper.  Now those same staff have started  long and drawn out Industrial Tribunal procedures against Gilbride in an attempt to get some sort of settlement.

Indeed, things got so bad that unpaid Newsflash utility bills were being redirected to Gilbride’s former right hand woman, Jenny Morrison - the latest insult visited upon her.

All in all it suggested the financial woes must be genuine - and maybe Gilbride really was feeling the pinch as a result of a tightening newspaper market, as he claimed here.

Forgive me, though, for being just a tad sceptical. He’s not quite in the grubber yet, is he? Indeed, he had his wife and five kids on a luxury break in Florida just days before chucking his staff on the dole with no pay off. And his children (at least the ones of school age) are all pupils at the far-from-cheap Independent School in Central Scotalnd (minimum fees £6500 per year, per child).

Then there’s the new business - complete with fancy-dan website and the proud boast that they’ll “turn your property into cash in your pocket” as well as the rather intriguing claim to “offer debt counselling from experienced advisers”.

(You what? Just let me recap here. A firm that is being run by a man who got into so much business trouble he had to lay off the staff without payment is offering … debt advice. You could not make it up).

Here’s how Property Solutions Scotland puts a gloss on what it does:

If you’re facing repossession, divorce or separation, relocation or are emigrating, we can help. If you’re having financial difficulties or have suffered a bereavement then contact us. If your dream holiday home in the sun has become a nightmare PSS can help end your worries and allow you to move on with your life with our fast and friendly, bespoke service.

Awww. It sounds really nice and cuddly, doesn’t it? Indeed, it even follows up with this absolute pearler:

We can even buy your home and rent it back to you allowing you to stay on as a tenant as part of our “sell and rent back” solution. We may even offer a rent free period. No-one needs to know you have sold , there will be no “For Sale” or “Sold” signs outside.

Jeez, that’s just soo considerate, sensitive and thoughtful.

In fact, I really must stop thinking the worst of Frank. Perhaps he really did wake up one morning and realise that Newsflash was in trouble just a fraction too late to do anything about it, thus leaving him, heartbreakingly, unable to pay his loyal staff.

And that under no circumstances whatsoever did he carefully plan events and painstakingly remove all assets and availabe cash from Newsflash before very, very carefully winding down the business.

Honest guv.

Abracadabra - BBC newsreader’s pen trick magicks up a new star

Nigh on 50,000 people have already viewed this video on YouTube. Evidence, as if it was needed, that all those late 1990s fears about “dumbing down” in the media have been well and truly realised.

No apologies for robbing you of four minutes to watch this clip, because as the man who made it might say (in a nasally, West Coast whine), it’s right funny by the way.

Nobody really cares about Robbo’s sleight of hand (sorry, sleight of hauns). But this guy’s bewilidered Weedgie act is priceless.

Especially since he pulls it off despite looking like he works for a trendy graphic design firm or ad agency and lives in a pretty swanky-looking flat with his pricey laptop, video camera and editing software.

So I wasn’t surprised when I checked out his website and discovered that he’s not actually some Glesca taxi driver or street patter merchant but actually a stand up comedian for the Web 2.0 generation.

Sure enough his website looks exactly like the portal for a so-trendy-it-hurts design agency or advertising firm. Until you try out the brilliant (if foul-mouthed) “Xylophone” or “Halloween” playthings.

For their next trick the powers that be at BBC Scotland want to get Limmy on the payroll. He’s funny, innovative and on current hits he’s getting more viewers than Reporting Scotland.

(thanks due to Stewart Kirkpatrick, since i first saw this video over on his blog)