The book, so cunningly planned and so crammed with incidental delights, has a remarkable, sombre ending.
You can ask it to record programmes on a particular topic thus, in effect, programming your own channel.Special report Thrills and spills Sex, news and statistics Play to win Putting the colour in Black and White Siren songs Learning to e-read There's nothing on Two new-media moguls At least television works Smart boxes A sombre ending ReprintsThe networks' fear is understandable.
The Scott/Logan version of I Am Legend was a mix of sci-fi and psychological thriller, without dialogue in the first hour and with a sombre ending.
The sombre ending, the overly negative story (what did they expect from a story that features depression, alcoholism and mass death?!), and a lack of commercial/merchandising appeal lead WB to become much more forceful about how their money was being spent.
"Attempts to redress the balance of power between capital and labour can end up hurting the poor," they warned.Their sombre conclusion has not gone unchallenged, however.
But after their sombre last gig at Madison Square Garden, documented in the brilliant Shut Up and Play the Hits, we had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't really the end for über-creative frontman James Murphy.
It was a sombre moment, the end of a pilgrimage.
The sombre sequence finally ends with the Ascension chorus "Lift up your heads", which Handel initially divides between two choral groups, the altos serving both as the bass line to a soprano choir and the treble line to the tenors and basses.
From his amusing ditties composed for his colleagues in the ambulance service, O'Brian's focus shifts to the countryside of Wales, where he moved after the second world war, then to France, where he lived most of his life, finally ending with sombre reflections on ageing and death.
This is far less sombre, and by the end - Iran beat Bahrain 1-0, theavensavens - has made a good case for football not as a male preserve but as a bonding agent of national pride and togetherness.
