Category: TV
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BBC Trust on Jonathan Ross
The BBC Trust reported today on lots of things. Of most interest to the press was the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand fiasco. But frankly, that’s so dull now, I can’t be bothered to get into it at all. Tomorrow’s papers will be all over it. Of far more interest, in the same report, is the response…
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Voting Openness on TV?
So John Sergeant has quit Strictly. Don’t say that I don’t cover the important issues of the day. What’s that about Congo or pirates off Somalia? What I still find perplexing is the lack of openness in whole TV voting world even post the telephone voting scandals we’ve had over the last eighteen months or…
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Irony Layered on Irony
There’s a new series of The IT Crowd starting this week on Channel 4. Hurrah! In the last series, one of the episodes opened with Roy and Moss sitting down to watch a DVD. We then saw a brilliant mock DVD piracy advert to warn viewers of how bad the criminals you’re supporting are if…
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Kangaroo: The State of Play
These are interesting times for Kanagroo – the BBC Worldwide/ITV/C4 joint venture that, simply put, is supposed to do for commercial (and commercially sold) TV, what the iPlayer does for the BBC. Last week Ashley Highfield quite the consortium after four months, having moved across from the BBC mothership to take charge. And a long…
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Children in Need
I never know quite what to make of Children in Need. Simplistically it’s simply a fund-raiser to help children in variety of ways shapes and forms. And nobody can argue with that. But there are the other elements of it, that I always find uncomfortable. It’s notable that Channel 4 always gives its comedy programmes…
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Help Me, Wolf Blitzer, You’re My Only Hope
CNN’s Election Night “hologram” was truly the most pointless graphical mechanism I’ve ever seen on any type of broadcast. I say get Max Headroom as a pundit for 2012.
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Election Viewing
As America votes, there were a couple of fascinating films on TV recently which had well-timed screenings. On Friday there was a cracking film on BBC Four which isn’t available to watch on the iPlayer, so I can only recommend picking up the DVD instead. CSNY Deja Vu followed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on…
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Dead Set
I’ll write more about this perhaps at a later date, but it suitably scary and a thoroughly enjoyable piece of drama. Obviously influenced heavily in style by 28 Days Later, but still excellent. How many times did I find myself saying “If only… If only…”? I see that it got a very strong audience of…
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ITV
Far too much has been written about Kerry Katona and her behaviour on This Morning a couple of days ago. I can’t be bothered to go into it, and if she is ill, I’m not about to link to YouTube clips of her being ill on national television. That’s despite whatever I might think about…
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Freeview News
It’s been an interesting week or so for Digital Terrestrial Television in the UK – or Freeview as it’s better known. SDN has somehow been able to squeeze a little extra space out of the platform and put another channel up for auction, and it was won by Discovery. Before everyone gets too excited thinking…
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When Will We Take TV Criticism Seriously?
While many papers like the Daily Mail are getting rid of their TV critics, despite the fact that vast parts of their paper revolves around the medium, others provide a fuller service, but I begin to wonder why they bother. My paper of choice is The Guardian. And they employ one of the finest television…
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Peter Kay’s X-Factor Pastiche
[I must admit that this is a revised version of some comments I already posted on a Guardian blog] Peter Kay is someone I’ve observed more from afar than anything. I’ve never watched Phoenix Nights (shoot me now), and I’ve only caught bits of his various live routines. I enjoyed the Amarillo video enough, but…
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Radio Times 11 October 2008
These seem to be popular, so I might attempt one a week or so as the mood takes me. Best viewed large (or even original). Think of them as an ongoing comment on the state of British TV.