Blue Peter
Monday, July 3, 2006 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
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
Family Affairs
Friday, December 30, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It’s rare these days to be present at the very end of a TV programme’s life.
The Comic Strip Presents… Sex Actually
Wednesday, December 28, 2005 by TJ Worthington · Comments Off
Television revivals are difficult to pull off. Sometimes, if enough thought has gone into it and the wind is blowing in the right direction, a one-time laughing stock can be reborn as a massive ratings hit, heaped with praise and hailed as the saviour of Saturday night television. Other times, you can just end up with The Legacy of Reginald Perrin. Read more
Pete and Dud – The Lost Tapes
Monday, December 26, 2005 by TJ Worthington · Comments Off
Sometimes, giving a little context to repeats of old television shows can be a very useful thing. Read more
Doctor Who
Sunday, December 25, 2005 by Jack Kibble-White · Comments Off
So “The Christmas Invasion” then. Perhaps the only episode of Doctor Who in the last 20 or so years not designed to stand up to the rigours of the home video (let alone DVD recorder with hard drive) age – and that’s possibly as it should be. Read more
OFI Sunday
Sunday, November 27, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It’s one thing fronting a TV programme that’s been so intensely ill-conceived it doesn’t even have a proper ending. Read more
Little Britain
Thursday, November 17, 2005 by John Phillips · Comments Off
You always become the thing you hate. We’ve all had this conversation at some point: You’re talking about a famous band, and some tiresome individual hogs the discussion by insisting that, “They were much better before they became mainstream”. Read more
Hell’s Kitchen USA
Monday, November 7, 2005 by Chris Hughes · Comments Off
In the end, it was the short ribs oso buco with roasted red garnet yams that won it for Michael. So all that talking to a 12-foot billboard of Gordon Ramsay at 3am in the morning finally paid off. Read more
Deal Or No Deal?
Monday, November 7, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Who’s the best when it comes to handling a telephone on television? Read more
Countdown
Monday, October 31, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It had long become the case that you could tell exactly what type of Countdown was on the cards by the precise kind of fanciful countenance struck by Richard Whiteley in the show’s opening seconds. Read more
The West Wing
Friday, October 21, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
An ex-alcoholic and a wizened septuagenarian with a heart problem running the most powerful country on earth? Read more
Afterlife
Saturday, October 8, 2005 by Jack Kibble-White · Comments Off
Broadcasting a drama serial which deals with issues of psychology and paranormal in primetime Saturday night deserves brownie points. Read more
Sunday AM
Sunday, October 2, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
We all know Andrew Marr’s an ace political journalist and a pretty fine writer to boot. But why try to persuade us he can be a nifty presenter as well? Read more
Arena: Dylan in the Madhouse
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 by TJ Worthington · Comments Off
“Come gather round, people, and hear what I say, ’bout the time Bob Dylan was in a BBC play, we’d all like to see it but they threw it away, and the tape it is a-missing”. Read more
Zippy and George’s Puppet Legends
Saturday, September 17, 2005 by Chris Orton · Comments Off
For some reason you just don’t seem to get a decent quality of puppet on the television these days. The kind of fuzzy-felt stars in this rundown simply cannot be matched by the lacklustre ones that appear on the television all too rarely now. Read more
49 Up
Thursday, September 15, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
A considerable amount of glitter came out of the TV set during ITV’s birthday celebrations. Read more
Spooks
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 by David Hendon · Comments Off
If awards were handed out for prescience, BAFTA would lob the cast and crew of Spooks the keys to their annual gong show and instruct them to switch off the lights just as soon as they were done. Read more
Sunday Past Times
Sunday, September 11, 2005 by Daniel Stour · Comments Off
Remember when television used to look forward to the future? Now it’s all about living in the past. Read more
Election ’87
Monday, September 5, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
The BBC’s exit poll from the 1992 General Election always gets slammed as the most inaccurate political prediction TV has ever made. Read more
Arena at 30
Saturday, September 3, 2005 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Of all the ways to celebrate your 30th birthday, proffering viewers a couple of scanned pages from Broadcast magazine is perhaps erring a little too much on the wrong side of decency. Read more