Category: TV
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Some Christmas Television
Overall I thought that there was some pretty good stuff on at Christmas. I can’t claim to have watched all of it; just a little here and there. But here, in no particular order, are the things that have stood out for me over the period: The Magicians. I love magic on the television, and…
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Radio Times 26 December 2010
And finally, for the time being, here are you choices for Boixing Day: You’ll need to click on the large version to read it.
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Radio Times 25 December 2010
Let’s face it, you’re going to watch TV today: Best viewed large. [Note: In fact, the programme I’m most looking forward to is later on Radio 3 – Jonny Trunk’s BBC sound effects focused Between the Ears at 2225.] Merry Christmas!
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The Daily Show
I have two programmes permamently set in my Sky+ organiser. Everything else comes and goes as I choose. One of those is Sky at Night which normally airs at ungodly hour on BBC1 on a monthly basis. The other programme is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We get new episodes Tuesday to Friday at…
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YouView
It really has been a busy few days, but one thing I was pleased to see happen was that Project Canvas – now YouView – will not be investigated by Ofcom. This is the IP connected TV service, that Sky and Virgin Media had both been very keen to stop. Their problem was basically that…
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The BBC Licence Fee Settlement
It’s still really hard to quite get my head around how the BBC licence fee settlement plays out. The quickest way to get a handle on what the BBC is being asked to do, is to read the letter to the BBC Trust from the DCMS website. The key elements of the statement are: The…
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ITV in Good Drama Shocker
It’s very easy to knock ITV, and I’m always quite prepared to do so. I don’t like reality garbage like X-Factor, so aside from Champions’ League football, it has been off my radar for a while. But to give the channel its dues, it does seem to have turned a corner recently. Last night we…
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Things That Have Piqued My Interest Recently
Further proof that BBC Four is the best channel in the UK comes through a series of excellent programmes that have been on-air this week: – Storyville had YouTube Hero: The Winnebego Man starting briefly with the stories on people who made it “big” on YouTube, but highlighting the story of Jack Rebney who shot…
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His Girl Friday on TV Tomorrow
Tomorrow BBC2 is showing a couple of classic films during the daytime. At 11.00am there’s Holiday from 1938 with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. And then at 12.30 is 1940’s His Girl Friday. This is a film that I’ve mentioned before as it’s one of my favourites of all time. But Wikipedia noted a couple…
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Sky Doing More Import Deals
The other day I tried to assuage fears that every decent US TV series was going to disappear from free to air screens following Sky’s deal with HBO for the next five years. Today, I’m not so sure. Seemingly Sky is attempting to do similar deals with Showtime and AMC. That would be a disappointing…
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Sky’s HBO Deal
Sky has completed a £150m deal for exclusive rights to all HBO’s back catalogue and future programming for the next five years. There’s a certain irony that over the years various Sky One channel controllers have claimed that they’re going to make Sky One the UK’s version of HBO. I’ve pooh-poohed that in the past,…
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Identity
What should we make of Identity, ITV1’s big new police thriller series? It stars another refugee from The Wire, Aidan Gillen, as well as Keeley Hawes who’s fresh from finishing Ashes to Ashes. The series is set in the plush offices of Scotland Yard’s Identity unit. Hawes’ DSI Martha Lawrence has had to take on…
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Grotesque Television
Stage 1 of the Tour de France had finished in a series of crashes, and Rafa had wrapped up another Wimbledon title. What else was there in the way of sport to watch on television? I strayed over to ESPN America, where usually I’d find something like live baseball at this time of year. But…