Channel 5 is teh Awesome!!!

That's right, you heard me. Channel 5 is friggin' amazing.

They have quite possibly the widest range of motorsport on any UK TV channel. Of course they put it on at a sensible time of day, usually between midnight and 6 in the morning, but you can't have everything can you. This time penalty doesn't bother me though, because I have technology on my side. I have a freeview DVR.

For those that don't know a DVR is a video recorder for the 21st century. No more mucking around to find a blank tape. No more expensive DVD discs cluttering up the house. It just records directly onto a hard drive with the press of a button.

So every night I scan through the guide (paying particular attention to Channel 5) and line up the next nights viewing. This can include such gems as the NASCAR Nextel Cup, A1GP, Motorsport Mundial and Race and Rally UK. "Perfect" I think, "This will give me something to do when everyone else is in soap and drama land."

So imagine my annoyance when i come to watch (for example) Race and Rally UK. I press play and I am surprised to see baseball. Hmm never mind, lets fast forward. Now I don't know much about baseball (nor do I want to) so I have no idea if its near the end or not. After getting fed up waiting for the show to end I speed up the fast forward.... and again... and again!

Eventually I work out that the baseball has overrun by a full 30 minutes. Race & rally UK is (you can guess can't you) a 30 minute program. So the program I want to watch has just vanished completely, gone, disappeared, done a bunk. Bastards.

It gets worse if the overrunning program doesn't overrun by the full half hour. The program ends and Race and Rally UK (or whichever unfortunate show has copped it this time) just carries on as if it has been going the whole time.Well that's bloody useful then! Now I have half a race recorded. I'm not sure who is in it, where they are, whether there is a championship battle underway. And I missed the start, which as we all know, is normally the best bit.

So this is just a quick note to channel 5. Thanks for the motorsports, but can't you treat it with a little more respect! Even just a banner at the bottom of the screen telling us its been rescheduled would be good. Preferably not for later that night though or I won't have a chance to record it. Cheers.