Category: TV

Today saw the final regular Time Team of the current – and last series. There are a couple of specials in the next two weeks, as well as the odd special in the future. But that was the last of the regular three day digs that Time Team has been doing for the last twenty…

Why have one Meteor “quick turnaround” documentary tonight when you can have two? Yes, both BBC Two and Channel 4 have decided that there’s enough footage from Russian dashcams to fill an hour explaining to viewers what meteors are. Now I’ve seen neither of these programmes at time of writing, and I’m sure they’re both…

The BBC today announced that BBC Two HD will launch full time from March 26. It will replace the current BBC HD channel, retaining that channel’s EPG position on the major digital TV platforms. This isn’t a surprise – as part of the savings that the BBC’s Delivering Quality First (DQF) initiative instigated, the closure…

Unless you’ve been keeping your head under a rock, you’ll know that a week or so ago, the streaming video service Netflix launched one of its first original series, with an adaptation of the 1990s BBC series House of Cards. It made all thirteen episodes available to watch in one go, and in the process…

I really enjoyed the first episode of Channel 4’s new run of The Twilight Zone Black Mirror. It was a well worked tale of future possibilities, played out wonderfully by Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson as loving couple suddenly separated by death. I watched the programme in near real time – starting about fifteen minutes…

As I type, guests for the BAFTA Film Awards are beginning to arrive at a soggy Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Are they getting to the venue super early, since the awards themselves aren’t on for ages? No, it’s because we get recorded highlights of the BAFTA Film Awards on BBC One from 9pm.…

Back in early 2005, BBC Four showed an extraordinary eight-part documentary series called Death on the Staircase. It was originally made for French television by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, and covered a single murder case prosecution in extraordinary detail. Michael Peterson, an author, writer and sometime local politician, who lived in some comfort with his family…

Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a disparate entry about all things television. ITV As most people have noticed – well most people in the UK – ITV has rebranded, and no longer do we have ITV1. Instead, ITV has returned. It’s got a whole new curvy logo, and to be honest…

Last week Channel 4 stripped their four part thriller, The Fear, across Monday to Thursday, nightly at 10pm. They ran lots of press advertising that I saw, even after the first episode had aired. I’ve explained previously why I think TV channels that adopt this kind of scheduling are foolish. But rather than go through…

In this week’s Media Talk Media Guardian podcast, there was a brief discussion a tthe end about the sound issues with some of our recent big TV dramas. In particular Parade’s End and Birdsong were mentioned with viewers complaining that they couldn’t hear the sound properly. Now I must admit that I’ve not suffered this…

It’s a blindingly obvious thing to say, but the choice of which channel airs a television series can really determine how successful it might become, irrespective of the programme’s actual overall quality and appeal. Case in point. Sometime in the not too distant future – September or October I believe – Sky Atlantic will start…