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Trouble at the Big Top

Tuesday, December 26, 2000 by · Comments Off 

That the Millennium Dome turned out to be arguably the most controversial construction project in the nation’s history is hardly surprising. The warning signs were there in the pre-construction phase and, from inception onwards, this has been one of the longest running and compellingly watchable tragi-comedy shows of the ’90s. Read more

Big Brother Night

Saturday, December 23, 2000 by · Comments Off 

“It’s only a game show” chanted the Bow house contestants as the nine weeks rolled by. Yet in terms of its sheer scale, ambition and seeming ubiquity, Big Brother was the television (and internet) phenomenon of 2000. Read more

Chewin’ the Fat

Wednesday, December 20, 2000 by · Comments Off 

With the final episode of Chewin’ the Fat, it is perhaps appropriate to look in again on this third series and dwell on whether it has been a success overall, or if it has failed to deliver the goods. Read more

Hollyoaks: The Movie

Monday, December 11, 2000 by · Comments Off 

As an occasional viewer I don’t really follow Chester’s beautiful people too closely, yet as other writers here have noted it has had its moments of superb drama. So what of tonight’s after-hours episode? Read more

Hollyoaks: The Movie

Monday, December 11, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Sending a soap opera abroad usually portends either a dramatic dénouement to a ridiculously long-running story-line, or the beginning of a sudden, new, unexpected plot which just happens to come about thanks to the exotic balmy location (see EastEnders‘ various European vacations). However this special 90-minute edition of Hollyoaks was different. Read more

The X Files

Wednesday, December 6, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Well we finally got that episode of The X Files almost a year after its original transmission in the States and the predictable question is, was it worth it? Read more

The State Opening of Parliament

Wednesday, December 6, 2000 by · Comments Off 

At primary school there were only two occasions when our normal lessons were abandoned for some unexpected viewing time in front of the Big Telly On The Trolley. One was the raising of the Mary Rose, an event that was deemed so significant that timetables across the country were abandoned for a shared national TV moment; the other was the State Opening of Parliament. Read more

Smash!

Sunday, November 26, 2000 by · Comments Off 

One of the great TV phenomenons of the last year has been the pop nostalgia series. From Channel 4′s Top Ten, through BBC2′s I Love the Seventies, to Sky One’s TV Years, every channel now seems to have a programme taking an ironic look back at pop culture of the past, using archive footage, contemporary interviews and Stuart Maconie. Read more

One Foot in the Grave

Monday, November 20, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Pre-publicity for the final series of One Foot In The Grave had made no bones about the fact that Victor Meldrew was going to die at the end of this run. In fact we even knew how he was going to be dispatched: the intrigue was how it could happen within the strictures of a sitcom. Read more

Chewin’ the Fat

Wednesday, November 15, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Chewin’ the Fat returned for its third series, with a sprinkling of old favourites and a dash of new characters added to the mix. The question is, now that its popularity within Scotland is at an all-time high, has it affected the recipe? Read more

Brookside

Monday, November 13, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Still deeply suspicious, I find it impossible to wholly recommend that you all seek out Brookside in case (as with may of its plotlines) it all goes “bang!” Yet, the revitalisation (promised by the makers for so long that OTT was actually talking about it almost a year ago) does now appear to be here. Read more

Brookside

Monday, November 6, 2000 by · Comments Off 

“Over my dead body you will!” – Susannah Morrissey Read more

Countdown

Thursday, November 2, 2000 by · Comments Off 

“Words and numbers game”. That’s how this programme is famously often described by the Radio Times – just four simple words. A laughably concise billing, but what more needs to be said? Or rather, what else could be said that does justice to every painful pun, accidental gaffe or memorably pointless incident that makes up your average edition of Countdown? Read more

Points of View

Sunday, October 29, 2000 by · Comments Off 

You’ll not catch me slagging off Anne Robinson. Alright, so Watchdog is often self-satisfied and badly researched, and she may be unpleasant on The Weakest Link (actually, I think she’s quite funny), but a while ago, she was one of my favourite people on television. Read more

Malcolm in the Middle

Sunday, October 29, 2000 by · Comments Off 

So there’s this new American family comedy. Its central character is a gifted child from a dysfunctional family – throw in a black kid in a wheelchair, a right-on teacher, girlfriend problems and a whole host of other clichés. Serve up with the proclamation that it’s a live action version of The Simpsons from the same network who gave us Ally McBeal. Read more

Hollyoaks

Thursday, October 26, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Three years ago, the fictional residents of Hollyoaks had their aimless lives thrown into turnoil when local hero Kurt Benson was prosecuted for deliberately pushing a fellow labourer off some scaffolding on a building site. His “trial” was screened on five successive nights on Channel 4 in a desperate attempt to inject some tension into this crucial occasion. Read more

Attachments

Tuesday, October 24, 2000 by · Comments Off 

The internet – a signifier for progress or simply a rancid melting pot of cyberjunk? If the new Information Age was intended to usher in innovations in mass communication rather more exciting than the flurry of onscreen e-mail chat we currently understand by it, then the idea of a television drama centred around the web is a beguiling concept on paper. Read more

Coronation Street

Sunday, October 15, 2000 by · Comments Off 

At the end of an eventful week for the Street, in which Curly, Ken, Mike, Alma, Les and Ashley have found themselves hostages in a botched supermarket hold up, it is a triumph for the human spirit to see – just days later – Ashley back on the job with his Mrs, Mike restraining his wife when she attempts to kick off a bar room brawl in the Rovers, and Curly manfully providing emotional support for the police markswoman who gunned down the armed robber (who in a twist of fate so beloved of the soaps happens to be the brother of Linda Baldwin). Read more

Pokémon

Saturday, October 14, 2000 by · Comments Off 

One of life’s great cliches is that you know you’re old when you start complaining to your kids about the bleddin’ orrible racket coming from Top of the Pops. Read more

Conference Live

Thursday, October 5, 2000 by · Comments Off 

Political Party Conferences have been a feature of British daytime television for many a year. The days when both Tory and Labour gatherings consisted of the great and the good sitting in a row behind several trestle tables and rubber plants talking about nationalisation in an atmosphere reeking of musty, creaking senility may be long gone, but an uneasy relationship between conference and live television remains. Read more

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