Just for one day

And, yes, they did play ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. That was last night’s BBC-we’re-doing-it-just-because-we-can whizzo Heroes press party, held at the very top of the Gherkin in London. Stalking outside, a handful of enthusiasts in “Nathan Petrelli for President” t-shirts. Read more

WIll they go through to boot camp?

As much as I am loving both The Restaurant and Kitchen Criminals, I can’t help but long for the development of a new kind of reality show mechanic. All of this bottom three, boot camp, and pregnant pause before announcing the eviction stuff is old hat, no? Indeed the use of the term “boot camp” in Kitchen Criminals, as if everyone knows what that means in the context of a TV show is something of a commentary on how pervasive and tiring this format has now become. The problem is, if you lose the eviction format, what do you replace it with?

Great news for all readers

I’ve got a vested interest in BBC4′s upcoming Comics Britannia, having written a modest history of British comics which, dear reader, is still available to purchase here, and recently compiled the imminent Look-in: The Best of the Seventies. And, in fact, I met the show’s producer Alastair Laurence a few months back, wherein he generously allowed me to bend his ear for an hour with thoughts about what should go into the season of programmes. Read more

The IT Crowd

For all that certain commentators might have claimed to feel “betrayed” by the thought of erstwhile hard-hitting satirist Chris Morris appearing in a warm-hearted laugh track-enhanced sitcom, the first series of Graham Linehan’s The IT Crowd was an unexpected if thoroughly deserved hit. Read more

“Why don’t we do Jonathan Creek?”

Alan Davies has been doing the rounds to publicise the imminent return of QI. Now, that’s a great show, but when I got my 20 minutes or so with him, I was intent on bringing the conversation round to Jonathan Creek. More precisely – would it ever come back? Read more

Di another day

Hah! On Saturday 1 September, BBC Parliament are going to be rescreening – in full – the Beeb’s live coverage of Diana’s funeral. The channel’s best-ever ratings in the offing?

More here.

Me ‘on’ Sky

We’re slap-bang into ‘season’ season now, with the channels laying on beanos of varying ferocity in an effort to nab as much press coverage as possible. Sky One held their bash last night. The law of TV listings land is the digital channels do the most impressive do’s. Hence, Sky can always command pretty much a full house. Read more

Last Man Standing

It would be very easy to be cynical about Last Man Standing. The BBC has had, embedded in its DNA almost since its first day of transmission, a mission to educate and inform the nation’s youth. Read more

A whole new ball game

As I mentioned a few months back, all I ever watch on telly these days is football, and so I was certainly excited to see the new graphics, title sequences and theme tunes this weekend on both Sky Sports and the BBC. Most exciting of all, though, was the arrival of a brand new channel for Premier League football, as Aston Villa vs Liverpool was the first ever live Premier League match not to be broadcast on Sky Sports, but on new boys Setanta Sports. Read more

“Are you smarter than a 10-year-old?”

According to this email I’ve just received, SRO Audiences are looking for punters to watch a new show: Read more

“This calls for a sexy party!”

Nine months after it was going out at midnight, this week’s Broadcast reports that Family Guy is now the second most popular programme on BBC3. Read more

Malcolm and Barbara: It rumbles on

Now Michael Grade’s released a statement. Read more