Talking the Michael

If anyone can sort out ITV, Grade’s the man. There’s really nobody else. Well, there is, but when Greg Dyke was asked about it the other week he reckoned Pol Pot had more chance of getting the job. Read more

Who’s a Hero two

Well in an update to my earlier post, it now appears that BBC2 are going to be screening Heroes next year. This of course is great news (although I wonder where they’ll schedule it), and having now watched the first nine episodes, I am still proclaiming this to be the best thing on telly in ages (albeit ep six is a bit dull).

Norks at 10

Ironic, Media Monkey-style sight of the day: Neil “Ray Von” Fitzmaurice – the star of ITV1′s upcoming anti-cellphone polemic Mobile - texting away while waiting for journos to join his table at the post ITV1 Winter Season launch Q&A. Read more

MacIntyre’s Underworld

As anyone who’s seen shirtless Newcastle supporters on a winter evening at St James’ Park will testify, Geordie men are made of hardy stock. Read more

Who’s a Hero now?

Not sure if this is confirmed or not yet, but it would appear that Christopher Eccleston is to join the cast of NBC’s new Lost beater - Heroes. If this news is true, then you have to conclude that it’s going to be a real waste if Heroes ends up on the Sci-Fi channel (which is supposedly bringing it to UK screens next year). After all, with repeats of The Tomorrow People and Quatermass excepted, the Sci-Fi channel has remained one of the last ports of call on most people’s remote controls. Read more

Entourage

By rights, Entourage should be, and is, a difficult show to promote to friends, family and well wishers. Read more

Dating the Enemy

Being honest, did we ever want the Blind Date couples to live happily ever after? Read more

“We’ve got Carol Vorderman in here tonight!”

He’s no stranger to inheriting other people’s quiz shows, having stepped into the dapper shoes of Michael Miles for the 1990s revival of Take Your Pick. But does Des O’Connor have enough sartorial know-how to slip into the capricious cloak of Richard Whiteley, especially after his titular namesake found it impossible to wear such a garment for a little over 12 months? Read more

The Cult of… Adam Adamant Lives!

I’ve been trying to dig up the past. For some reason, Gerald Harper, the star of BBC1′s Adam Adamant Lives! was referred to in my family as “Old Lemonade-Bottle Shoulders”; after a few years nobody could remember why. Read more

“I’m like a fucking rottweiler”

Yes, all right. Hands up. I’ve been at the Channel 4 preview discs again. This time, it was the first three episodes of the new series of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. It kicks off tonight on C4. And indeed, kicks off is as good a phrase as any, as Gordon is in reliably acerbic form. Read more

Private investment

Thankfully, no-one in the office noticed I was blubbing silently. Read more

Torchwouldn’t do that in real life

Watching the third episode of Torchwood, things were rolling along quite merrily for me until the moment when Gwen decides to take that week’s alien gizmo home. For some reason I couldn’t get past this point – the same thing had happened during episode one. Read more

Countdown

By the look on Des’ face, you’d have thought someone had died. But no, it was just Countdown‘s 24th birthday, and as usual our man was doing his best to grace the occasion with a crisply-executed ill-suited response. Read more

“You just want a happy-clappy programme”

Heat magazine (yeah, yeah) reports this week that the centrepiece for next year’s Comic Relief will be, oh God, Fame Academy again. It’s quite remarkable given that, by the time it comes around, it’ll have been four years since the last proper series of the show, but seemingly such is the dearth of ideas for Comic Relief, it’s being allowed to live on purely in its celebrity version forever. Indeed I’m not sure how the BBC are happy with this flop continuing – what next, Celebrity Eldorado? Read more