Category: TV

Channel Four’s big new acquisition starts tomorrow night – Desperate Housewives. Much has already been written in the “quality” press about this, but somehow I don’t think that many of the commentators have quite got the tone of this show quite right. You might think that shagging in the suburbs is the full nature of…

This works far better in print than on the web. I can, however, tell you from experience that it doesn’t translate too well to the radio…

The BBC aired a disturbing drama-documentary this evening just before the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy. Aside from people still suffering terribly, and the whole area being unclean, there’s still a warrant out for the arrest of Warren Anderson (There is an extradition treaty). Union Carbide never accepted responsibility. Dow Chemical claim never to…

A number of ABC TV affiliates in the States are refusing to show Saving Private Ryan because they’re worried about getting slapped with massive fines from the all powerful FCC. When Janet Jackson bared a breast during the Superbowl, various individuals and pressure groups managed to organise over half a million complaint letters. That seemed…

This article appeared in Mediaguardian the other week, and highlighted the difficulty that C4 have had with The Sopranos. A massive critical success, but less so for audiences. I don’t think that it’s down to the quality of the programme as much as the thoroughly screwed up scheduling it’s suffered. C4/E4 have tried to streamline…

I’d only managed to tape the first couple of episodes of this extraordinary three parter – The Power of Nightmares – before watching them today while I was getting over the election. Then I watched the final part tonight, and how timely is its scheduling. The first two episodes basically take us through the twin…

The BBC chose tonight to launch their heralded new interactive service – Ten O’Clock News Extra. So eagerly, I pressed my red button once we reached the weather forecast, and after a few seconds, the menu loaded up. I selected the video option which was due to give me a behind the scenes report at…

Tonight ITV3 launches. Up until now, it was only going to be on Freeview and cable, since Sky are holding up new channel launches due to a pending reorganisation. An email alert from Broadcast magazine tells me that ITV have negotiated a buyout of GSB – the joint venture between Granada (as was) and Sky,…

A great article from the Boston Globe on my favourite new US TV series, Lost, and what it defines as mythology TV in general. The author talks about the danger of these types of shows running away with themselves towards deeply plotted by untenable solutions – he mentions series like Twin Peaks and The X-Files.…

Is something in the wind? The last couple of days have seen two stinging attacks on Channel 4 being published by ex-chiefs and executives. Yesterday, in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the channel’s first chief executive, said that the channel relies too much on such programmes as Big Brother and How Clean Is Your…

Well maybe not quite a teaspoon of sugar. I’ve just been watching this week’s Panorama all about sugar and the underhand goings on that the sugar lobby have been up to. As I mentioned earlier in the year, big sugar has tried to flex its muscles in the past. Sugar is a big big business,…

In December 2002, Richard Lambert published a report through the Department of Culture Media and Sport reviewing the BBC’s 24 hour television news channel. The Independent Review of BBC News 24 (PDF) was published at a time when the channel was underperforming in comparison to Sky News, and questions were being asked about what it…

Well, BBC Four are giving us a reshowing Tanner ’88 nightly from Saturday 23 October at 11.00pm until the following Thursday. And we get the newly filmed introductions that were done for the Sundance Channel’s reshowings. With the election happening the following Tuesday, I guess that Tanner on Tanner will be shown over the weekend…