Tag Archives: west wing

Caron Lindsay

A 4th July Bonus

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th July 2015 - 9:53 pm

Best wishes to all our American friends as they celebrate their special day.

We were talking amongst ourselves on the LDV team, wondering what the best way to to mark the occasion would be. We decided that it just had to be with some clips of the best programmes ever made. And the first one, suggested by Nick Thornsby,  even has tennis. After the way Mr Murray has just dragged our emotions through a mangle, that’s only appropriate.

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Watch Spanish premier Rajoy’s “fin de la cita” cock-up

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th August 2013 - 10:30 am

Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy has been having a tough summer. The country’s economy continues to contract, unemployment has soared, and — most personally damaging of all — he and his (very) right-wing Partido Popular have been embroiled in a slush fund corruption scandal.

A recent speech to the Spanish parliament was intended to draw a line under the affair. But Rajoy seemed not to have read his text in advance: after each quote, he also read out loud the words in parentheses, ‘(fin de la cita)’ — ‘(end of quote)’. He did this nine times, with varying intonations of intensity, triggering confusion among his peers in parliament and prompting guffaws among the public at home.


(Watch here on YouTube.)

It brings to mind the classic “As I look out over this magnificent vista” clip from The West Wing. It’s Sunday, so why not enjoy those four minutes once again…

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Posted in News and YouTube | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

The right to privacy: “in a country born on the will to be free, what could be more fundamental than this?”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd June 2013 - 6:30 pm

With news today of yet further alleged intrusion into private citizens’ communications — GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world’s communications (Guardian) — here’s how The West Wing anticipated the past week’s furore…

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Nick T

Where is the British Borgen?

By Nick T | Sun 20th January 2013 - 12:39 pm

Alastair Campbell asked an interesting (if not altogether original) question on Twitter this morning:

As a massive fan of The West Wing, and an avid viewer of Borgen, it is a question I have also thought about. Britain is the world leader in political satire, yet we must be close to bottom of the league when it comes to political drama.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: The West Wing explains the US debt ceiling in under 60 seconds

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st July 2011 - 11:35 am

Everything you needed to know about the current ‘epiphenomenal imbroglio’ ((C) Will Self at 0:48 here) engulfing the US economy, courtesy series 6 of The West Wing:

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Posted in LDVUSA and YouTube | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

In memory of Ron Silver

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th March 2009 - 1:50 pm

Danny Finkelstein at The Times’s Comment Central pays tribute to Ron Silver, known to West Wing fans everywhere as political strategist Bruno Gianelli, who has died:

Ron was one of the most committed political figures in Hollywood, but not in the usual way. A brilliant debater and public speaker, he had been the actor’s union leader for a decade and a well known advocate of abortion rights. And then, in 2004 he took one of the biggest political steps in his life. He endorsed George Bush for President.

Meeting him in New York after he had addressed the Republican Convention, he explained to me that he had taken this big step because he believed that Islamist terrorism was a danger to liberal values, and he didn’t believe the Democrats realised this.

He expected to pay a big professional price. And he did. He found it much more difficult to get big roles in quality productions after his Bush endorsement. But he did get another stint as Bruno, with Gianelli switching sides to become a Republican. …

Ron wasn’t a Republican, though. He remained a liberal. And in 2008 he voted for Barack Obama, telling me that Sarah Palin was the final straw.

Here’s one of his – and indeed the series’ finest moments:

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Take out the trash on Sunday evening

By the founding editor | Sun 26th November 2006 - 11:53 pm

The Voice is supposed to cover good news and… not so good news, so as it’s late on Sunday night lets get some not so good news out of the way:

Tomorrow is another …

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Posted in Polls | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
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