Category: TV
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Ignorant Reviewer
Friday night saw the first in a new series of Genius on BBC2. It’s a TV transition of the popular Radio 4 comedy presented by Dave Gorman. The radio series is very funny. The TV version is also very funny, being basically the same, except that you can see some of the mock-ups they’ve built…
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Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle
Stewart Lee’s new comedy programme is excellent, if the first episode is anything to go by. Each week Lee addresses a different topic and this week it was books. OK – so this ticked all the boxes with me, with Dan Brown, Russell Brand, “Tragic Lives” and Chris Moyles all targeted for their books. Moyles…
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BARB Changes Afoot
An interesting piece in Media Guardian this morning about some forthcoming changes to TV ratings from BARB. I look forward to reading a bit more detail about how exactly they’ll be able to monitor these new programme streams.
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Comic Relief – The Other Channels
This Friday is Comic Relief night, and I shan’t go on my usual rant about all the plugs that amount to free primetime advertising for Sainsburys, Rymans, Subway, TK Maxx and other participating retailers will receive on BBC1 that evening. Oh… Anyway, what I have noticed is that traditionally the other channels tended to sit…
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Naked = Ratings
When Horizon is good, it’s very good. But when it’s bad, it’s terrible. And tonight we had possibly the worst Horizon I’ve seen in quite a while. What’s The Problem With Nudity was as blatant an example of ratings grabbing as I’ve seen in a long time. Did nobody see that excellent recent Screen Wipe…
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TV Formats
Have you seen the new ITV gameshow presented by Chris Tarrant yet? It’s called The Colour of Money and has nothing to do with the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name. ITV’s clearly very excited by it. It’s presenter comes from the global phenomenom that was Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and the…
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“The Real…”
There’s a documentary on Channel 4 this evening entitled “The Real Pink Panther” which, as The Stage points out, is completely misnamed, as “The Pink Panther” was a jewel and not the criminal (“The Phantom”). This was my comment for that story which wouldn’t seem to post, but was worth putting here: I’ve got a…
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When TV (or Radio) Uses Your Workplace
This Wednesday, ITV2 launches that rarest of things, a new sitcom. Actually, that’s a bit unfair, as ITV has been commissioning a reasonable amount of programming for ITV2. It’s just that most of it really doesn’t interest me. But this week there’s something that I am looking forward to – FM. Indeed, if you head…
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BAFTA Technical Foul-Up
And it was all going so well. Last year the BAFTA awards had the sound messed up for the BBC1 broadcast. There were apologies all around, and we were told that this wasn’t because the OB was put together by an independent. We were told that the production team had years of experience. This year,…
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Digital Switchover – US Style
What on earth is going on in the States? As UK readers will almost certainly know, we’re currently embarking on digital switchover. That’s to say that by 2012, nobody will be able to watch TV in the UK without some kind of digital box. Sky hopes that will be via their system (and they posted…
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One More Moan…
Given the general lack of science programmes on TV, it’s a bit of a shame that when they do come along – they clash. Last night Horizon returned with an edition entitled “Why Are Thin People Not Fat” (I’ll just leave that there…) while at the same time on BBC Four we had the first…
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Too Demanding For Watch
There’s a wonderful story in this week’s Broadcast magazine. In a piece that explains how UKTV chanel “Watch” is having a bit of a rethink, it explains that challenging fare like Cranford, Mistresses and Love Soup is too “demanding” for its viewers. Instead they’re going to show more Dancing with the Stars and Wipeout (aka…
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Follow The Inauguration on CNN?
A news report announces the fact that CNN launches on Freeview this week – effectively replacing Nuts TV. That’s got to be good news for Freeview viewers, giving them an additional news service alongside the BBC News channel (never News 24!) and Sky News (will it remain on Freeview?). But The Guardian’s report (perhaps based…