Category: TV

John Simpson presented an excellent Panorama on Sunday night about his experiences of the war in Iraq, culminating in an American jet inadvertantly bombing the convoy he was in. Despite the US special forces being in the convoy, several people died, and many were injured. Among the dead, was a local translator that Simpson’s team…

Obviously this’d never happen in Britain would it? Well not quite the same. Although if a government’s feeling really vindictive, they can see to it that you lose your licence altogether. CBS have made a mini-series about The Reagans to run in one of the all-important sweeps weeks in the US. But the Republicans have…

When bad “reality” programmes go good…

An interesting attempt by the BBC to look at viewer feedback. One would expect them to use this in conjunction with usual research methodologies!

It really has been quite a season for ITV drama so far this year. I know that in the US, many series have already been cancelled, and that shows that are already in the can will probably never see the light of day (unless Trio decides they’re worthy of revisiting), but here in the UK…

A fanstastic story about The Simpsons being sued for a brief moment, by sister channel Fox News for carrying a fake news ticker. Read down to the full list of stories they ran.

I’ve got to be excited by the news that HBO and the BBC are making a major 12 part drama series – Rome. Only two more years to wait now!

Although it’s not the best argued piece I’ve ever read, it’s certainly true that Channel 4 is dropping its standards quite badly just now. Yes they broadcast suff like The Deal, and Tony Robinson’s historical pieces, but their mass market stuff is getting worse and worse, with a real common denominator at the bottom their…

The row engendered by the BBC unencrypting their services on digital satellite is getting worse, with News Corp threatening to sue over the likes of Buffy, The Simpsons and 24. This follows disputes with some film companies – although Buena Vista signed a deal last week with the BBC. Basically the footprint of the Astra…

Indeed there may now not be any B7 ever, as it turns out that the people behind the plan haven’t really got the best interests of the series at heart. They’ve fallen out with Paul Darrow (Avon), and since he’ll no longer be taking part, it seems unlikely to happen now. And I hadn’t previously…

Finally, after having to wait just over five years, UK viewers tomorrow night get to see the final series of Homicide: Life on the Street. I think that when Channel 4 first stopped showing this, you began to see the station for what it really is – a ratings whore. Anyway, we have the Hallmark…

Less than 24 hours after being given permission to merge into near enough one company, ITV are already out there trying to ditch some of their public service duty. Nigel Pickard, ITV’s director of programmes, is trying to reduce the amount of public service programming he has to put out, as he laid out in…

Well last night Derren Brown’s Russian Roulette programme aired “live” on Channel 4. He survived of course. Mark Lawson writes a slightly more informed piece about it than you get from the average Daily Mail article just now. The main point of contention seems to be that there were a lot of gun incidents last…