All About Finding Things on Youtube

Back in the mid-1980s, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones had a TV show called 'Alas Smith and Jones'. Along with Blackadder II, it was the first grown-up comedy show we were allowed to stay up and watch. Needless to say, it was aces.

One of the highlights of Smith and Jones was a series of sketches called 'Home-Made Video'. Conceived around the time that the camcorder became a status symbol, the sketches followed the lives of a family (and their dubious mate Mel Smith) as recorded for posterity on an awkwardly-formatted cassette. They were shoddily-made, they revealed the grottier side of suburban England, and we cried with constant laughter from the opening shot of a title scrawled on a torn piece of cardboard, right through to the closing credits scrawled on a torn piece of cardboard. This was laughter which hurt, dammit.

This is going somewhere, honest. On a late-night Coke-n-supermarket-vodka Youtube trawl this evening, what should turn up but the Smith and Jones Home Made Video Christmas Special? This was the holy grail of 1980s comedy, a feature-length Home-made Video screened once over Christmas 1987 and, as far as we know, never repeated. Within 5 minutes, we were in tears all over again (the wreath did it for us). Please, get yourself a drink and spend 30 minutes watching something very funny indeed.

Oh, and look who plays the son.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

PS We realise we should probably wait 'til the Christmas Period before blogging this. However, since the first adverts for Christmas stuff now seem to pop up in late August, we thought it was close enough.

The Online Curiosity Shop

We like to think we sell some interesting stuff at RunForYourLives.co.uk. Bar stools, t-shirts, minature trebuchets, anything without which we think your life would be an emptier existence. We're always scouring the web's better shops in our quest to gather a load of ace stuff to buy.

However, earlier today as we were on our regular trawl for great things to stock, we came across possibly the most fantastic thing we've ever seen for sale.

We've just teamed up with Famous Retail, a site which offers all sorts of authentic signed photos, prints and collectors' items (we would say 'Our friends at Famous Retail', but we're not that close yet), and we've just added some of their great things (and weirder items) to RunForYourLives.co.uk. Anyhow, to cut a long blog post short, in amongst the fascinating items we found, we stumbled across this;



A genuine letter from Charles Dickens.

We love this; A note written by the hand which penned Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities and The Muppets' Christmas Carol. It's guaranteed authentic and comes beautifully framed with a picture of the man himself. How else could you become the owner of an item created by one of our greatest Britons? It's a piece of history and possibly the most brilliant thing we've seen for sale online. And it can be yours.

(Don't worry, there's still plenty of cat's-arse-pencil-sharpeners in stock too)

News Just In

Scary news from the BBC today: Social-networking sites can leave you open to identity theft.

According to experts, "The problem is that people don't realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it".

We're fairly shocked by this news; Since when did the list of acceptable forms of ID for opening a bank account include a long boring blog about what you had for lunch, and a photo of you with a condom on your head?

Don't Tell Us You're Still Using That Old 4-Way USB Hub...

Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you the Doctor Who Tardis 4-Way USB Hub. You may now swoon.

Is there a better USB hub out there*? If there is, we've yet to see it.

*Yes, we do realise that this is probably the dullest question ever asked. Sorry.

Stay Classy, Britain

When we first dreamt up RunForYourLives.co.uk, we decided that our aim was to bring together an eclectic yet selective range of products. Whether you were looking for a unique gift for a loved one, or simply felt like treating yourself, RunForYourLives.co.uk was the place to come. Everything from wine-tasting days to beautiful artwork, with all kinds of music, books and essentials in between.

So with this in mind, what is currently the most popular product on the site?

A pencil-sharpener in the shape of a cat's bottom.

On the plus side, you people must have some very relieved cats.

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M.I.A - Boyz


We would've put this up several weeks ago, but the only video we could find was of a frankly ropey live performance. Sorry.

Friday is Fred Day

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The Wrong Trousers - Video Killed the Radio Star

(Or 'What Roland Browning Did Next').

Buskers, eh? Balboa Park, California gets these chaps. We get a damp student honking his way through 'Wonderwall'.

More fun for Trouser enthusiasts here.

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Tiny Dancers - Hannah We Know



Anyone else think he sounds like Neil Diamond? No bad thing.

Hello! Here Are My Ikea Family Rewards!

I managed to make it to 10:12am this morning without being spooked by society. Then this popped through my letterbox; Hurrah! It's the latest in a long campaign of junkmail that I only agreed to because it meant I got a free cup of tea once. Ikea's Customer Loyalty scheme send us punters the occasional letter containing vouchers, pictures of food and, probably, news of their latest range of stuff. To be honest I only notice the vouchers and the food. But as I read the letter this morning, something caught my eye which 'chilled' me to the 'bone'...

THEY'RE COUNTING MY VISITS.

Now, I'm fully aware that every time I hand over my Clubcard, I'm feeding Tesco's vast database which traces my every move. I know that somewhere out there, Tesco bosses are watching a computer simulation of me bumbling around virtual aisles, tutting in disgust at the sort of tat they pass off as 'toys', spending half the visit trying to work out the best beer offer and fantasising about the bloody death of the idiots who park their trolleys across the aisle while they wander off to be stupid somewhere else. I'm OK with this loyalty-surveillance caper. But for some reason, opening a letter and being told how many times I've visted Ikea is scarier. I can't even remember one of those visits, but it must be true because the letter says so.

Now I know why it's called 'Ikea Family'; It's just the sort of letter that old people would send to their children, if they could work these new fangled computers out.

"Number of visits this year: 2.

Number of veiled references to being put in a care-home: 4.

Number of glances at valuable antique carriage-clock: 5"

Of course, that's where the similarities end. After all, a family visit consists of a reluctant Sunday afternoon car journey to a place you're only going to because you think you should, where you'll spend the whole time not saying much, eyeing up furniture and probably having at least one spousal arguement, with the only high point of the trip being the possibility of a nice meal. Whereas a trip to Ikea, etc.