Category: TV

Hot on the heals of last night’s big audiences for the end of the first series, we now hear that C4 are going to start the second series “in the spring”. This is a smart move for them. I was amazed that they held off for as long as they did in the first place,…

I love a good bit of new TV sports technology, so I was excited to read about StroMotion, which we are to see in the BBC’s Winter Olympics coverage. It takes snapshots of competitors during their movement – for example an ice skater performing a move – and allows you to see them as a…

This news sounds quite interesting – the BBC are int eh process of putting together a pair of single dramas about Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. I wonder if they have a US co-production partner for the Darwin film yet? It’s strange that the Einstein film should come this year (assuming it’s not next), since…

Russia has just finished airing a dramatisation of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which sounds really interesting. According to this story in Variety and this story from BBC News, it’s been a massive hit. While there are often stories about how many programmes we export around the world – you know, 123 different…

Thanks to Slate for another story on the strangest televisual New Year’s tradition I’ve yet to hear about. Dinner For One is a sketch performed in English by two English actors that, since its first broadcast in 1963, has been repeated as part of the festivities pretty much every year across Germany and much of…

Wow. I’ve just watched an episode from the sixth series of CSI and you might just have thought that the writers of the episode had watched episodes from Death on the Staircase. Because in this story, a man is suspected of murdering his wife who’s found dead at the bottom of the staircase with blood…

And while we’re on the subject of breaks, are the ones on ITV4 actually being planned by a human being? I really to appreciate the mix of shows from ITC fare through to Homicide: Life on the Streets. But I was just watching Senator John McCain on David Letterman (obviously I was staying up late…

A couple of months ago, I noted that Channel 4 are running Lost in a timeslot that lasts 65 minutes. What I didn’t know was how many ads they were squeezing into the slot. Today, Ofcom upheld complaints about the way the ads were scheduled within it. The problem seems to be twofold: 1) C4,…

I really don’t know what to make of this. Granada are said, by today’s Broadcast website (no direct free link I’m afraid, although the story’s possibly in the paper version), to be making a new version of the all time classic TV show – The Prisoner. I don’t know anything else about it for the…

So exactly who’s idea was it to essentially put on national television, the kind of charity auction that normally happens at expensive balls? Is it really entertaining to watch people who evidently have far too much money spending the equivalent of several salaries on various prizes? There’s something obscene about seeing these disinterested people sitting…

The BBC has announced its HDTV trial plans, with highlights of the main channel’s output available on satellite and cable. This’ll mean the timing should conincide quite nicely with Sky’s expected HDTV push around the same time. Interestingly the Beeb are also going to trial HDTV via Freeview in London where there are seemingly unused…

Somehow, Sky News in widescreen still doesn’t appear quite right when viewed in 4:3. They’re doing a split screen at the moment (showing the Chinese premier’s procession through London alongside protestors). But the more interesting part of the split is significantly smaller than the other part.

Have I told you how much I love BBC Four? Truly, madly, deeply – that’s how much. I’ve just seen a trailer to say that The Avengers are coming soon on the channel. Fantastic news! From the looks of the stylish trail, they’re starting with the Emma Peel episodes. Roll on the re-released DVDs…