The perfect blend?

Do you know anybody who still watches Neighbours? Read more

The One Show

Here we are again, inspecting the turf of post-teatime telly and kicking up the dust for traces of good play. Read more

The West Wing

It’s always tempting, when a long-running TV show that’s not as good as it once was, lumbers into the finishing straight amidst a flurry of eulogies and reminiscences, to stop fighting and just give in. Read more

Lowe and behold

On last night’s episode of The West Wing there was a real, genuine, bona fide “yes!” moment of the kind the show used to do as a matter of course, but which hasn’t bothered with for ages. Read more

Blue Peter

For all the armies of faces that have marched across teatime screens down the decades, very few have ever possessed the secret of contemporary children’s telly. Read more

Calm, calm

Alan Bleasdale showed up on Radio 4′s Front Row the other night to plug the DVD release of his trio of Channel 4 dramas, GBH, Jake’s Progress and Melissa. Fortunately the man was in the mood for being reasonably talkative. Unfortunately the man asking him the questions was Mark Lawson, who as usual conspired to avoid asking anything of consequence and instead sought to use the time to unearth desperately uninteresting and hopelessly tangential “themes” and “ideas”. Read more

Loose at 5.30!

If anything should serve as a warning not to tune in to a programme, it is the sight of an exclamation mark adorning a timecheck. Read more

Going for a gong

At Sunday night’s TV BAFTA ceremony, out of a total of 19 awards, ITV won just one. Yes, just one. One single, solitary award. Read more

Election 2006

“I wouldn’t call them boring,” sniffed David Dimbleby hailing us yet again from his election hearthside, “it’s hard to think of a more fascinating night.” Read more

The Queen at 80

“We’re told she doesn’t want much fuss,” confided Sophie Raworth from amidst a bewildering battery of cameras, arc lights, cables, microphones, scaffolding and cake. Read more

Speak for yourself

“When was the last time you used a phone box?” tittered one of the presenters on BBC News 24 the other night. “Go on – have a think!” “Oooh,” the other replied, hamming it up for all they were worth, “it must be at least 10 years. How about you? When was the last time you used a phone box?” “Probably …” “Yes?” “… Probably around 10 years as well.” “Now doesn’t that seem such a long time ago?” continued the first. “But now, the weather. Darren, when was the last time you used a phone box?” Read more

The Apprentice

“It’s cold up there,” whispers Lindsay Duncan in GBH when tartly reminding her father of his lofty position in British society. “So cold.” Read more

Deal or No Deal?

In a turn of phrase that wouldn’t be out of place tumbling from the lips of its loquacious host, the Saturday night incarnation of this show has turned out to be something of a curate’s egg. Read more

“Before you send $30m of my money to Mexico I want to ask some questions!”

The seventh – and last – series of The West Wing has begun transmission on More4. Having previously bailed out from the show on grounds of it no longer being not even a faint shadow of its former mighty self, it’s proved impossible not to be drawn back to see how the whole sprawling mess tries to resolve itself. Read more

Davina

A chat show at 7pm? On a Wednesday night? On BBC1? Those were indeed the days. Read more

Rock School

Two teenagers scour the newspaper listings for somewhere to play host to a fledgling heavy rock group. They’re both part of the band’s management team, and hence have a shared interest in finding a suitable venue – and fast. Read more

Box clever

Decent TV shows about TV have always tended to fall into one of two categories: the pithily pedantic (Open Air, See for Yourself, Right to Reply) or the waspishly whimsical (Take Two, Ask Aspel, Windmill). A programme that tackles telly from a topical, informative and genuinely enthusiastic point of view has, it feels, never been treated as a serious proposition. Convention seems to dictate there always has to be a gimmick bolted on, be it Gloria Hunniford, video booths or “Call the Controller”. Read more

“If I was asked to go back, of course I would”

To mark the second anniversary of the publication of the Hutton Report, yesterday’s Independent rustled up a where-are-they-now? inventory of all the main players. Tellingly absent from Greg Dyke’s biography was, well, pretty much anything of note. Read more

Calendar countdown

What have been the most watched programmes of the decade so far? Read more

Snowmail

When he wasn’t otherwise occupied with the trifling business of reading the news, Reginald Bosanquet divided his time between playing tennis, holding court in the ITN bar and penning amorous poetry about Anna Ford. Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »