Category: TV

Mediaguardian asks whether we watched Dumped or Hell’s Kitchen (now with Marco Pierre White). Obviously, I watched neither. I can report that the trailer for Hell’s Kitchen seems to be exactly the same as The Restaurant over on BBC2 – both showing people slinging food around the place (the BBC has already had to respond…

So we get two sets of interesting pieces of news today. First of all, after a significant amount of rumour regarding the future of Doctor Who, and David Tennant in particular, the Beeb has announced that 2009 won’t see series five. Instead there’ll be three specials. This isn’t surprising given that Tennant is now committed…

It’s interesting to see that iTunes in the UK is now finally offering some TV programmes for anyone with a video iPod to actually watch. More to the point, there might actually be a reason to get an Apple TV now (although I suspect that an Xbox 360 might be slightly wiser). Previously there was…

Over on the BBC’s Editors’ Blog, Newsnight Editor Peter Barron invites readers to post their thoughts on the current state of British television. He’s one of the organisers of the Edinburgh Television Festival and he’s planning on putting the comments on both the festival website and the walls of the conference centre (I assume they’ll…

Obviously this is an ongoing story, and since I’ve spent the whole weekend in a field outside of Chelmsford, I’m basing this on Monday evening’s coverage. I noticed that the BBC had relatively few pictures on News 24 for their “B-roll” of Jamaica post the hurricane’s passing. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as the…

What an interesting week for sceptics on television. On Monday night, Richard Dawkins began a two part documentary entitled Enemies of Reason. Dawkins takes on a great many things – aside from religion – under that premise that superstition has taken over from reason. I can’t really fault him on much. At one point he…

I’m all for inclusiveness but, let me list the specialist subjects on Mastermind this evening: The life and career of Henry Ford German wines The life and works of Frida Kahle The life and career of Jennifer Aniston No. That last one is not a typo. Guess who came last? You guessed right! At the…

Every year, when the likes of me complains that one quarter Channel 4’s peak time output over the year is used up by a single programme, others will point me to all the viewing figures it achieves. It massively bumps up the channel’s share across the year, and reports even suggest that it accounts for…

I mentioned a Reuters report in the States highlighting the lack of awareness and equipment in the lead-up to digital switchover in the US on 18 Feb 2009. Today, US Today has a further piece on the issue, and it’s worth a mention for a couple of things. First, there’s this quote: “This scares me…

Last Sunday, Sky One started showing series two of Weeds. This coming Monday, Showtime, the US premium cable channel that makes the series is starting series 3 (Link to the Showtime website now unblocked for non-US visitors!). I really don’t understand why, in this day and age, Sky is taking so long about bringing its…

Does television fakery know no bounds! This morning’s Telegraph presents the picture below and exposes it as – shock, horror – a CGI creation. Wow. Who’d have thought? Next you’ll tell me that the word “Mountain” isn’t really there, floating in the sky, either! Look, if there are genuine things to expose, then do. If…

Last week, BBC2 aired a special edition of Top Gear, in which Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove a vehicle to the “North Pole” against Richard Hammond who was on sledge pulled by huskies. Now while it was as entertaining as ever with lots of boisterousness as is the norm, there are three specific issues…