Time Shift: Malcom Muggeridge

About 20 years ago I received a novelty card game for Christmas. On the cards were printed a picture of a television character and a series of questions. Answer one correctly and move on to the next laying the last down to make a square and winning the game. There is a point to this. Read more

Designing the Decades

Like its little brother the ’80s, the 1970′s has received a rather rough press. Crap fashion, crap music the critics carp. Well, bollocks to that. The ’70s were bloody brilliant. I know. I was there. Read more

Reborn in the USA

As the song so beautifully stated – let’s get this straight from the start. Under no circumstances can Davina McCall be considered as a suitable host for a television show. Read more

Monk

As a child growing up watching television with a fanatical fervour in the early 1970′s, I came to hate only one thing – Saturday afternoons beyond the football results as this inevitably would mean only one thing – the frickin’ rinky-dink Pink Panther. Read more

Jonathan Creek

At a time when runs of television series seem to be getting longer and longer (or in the case of Holby City – never ending), the brief return of Jonathan Creek after however many years away (save for a superlative special a couple of Christmases back) sticks out like the sore thumb in the tightly clenched fist of modern day scheduling. Read more

Comic Relief Night

Of all those dates in the calendar that remind you of advancing age, one of the most commanding, and depressing, is Comic Relief Night. Every two years it returns, unhelpfully prompting comparisons with last time round, and encouraging you to lower your expectations accordingly. Read more

The Great War

There’s something strangely reassuring but also a bit unnerving about settling down to watch a weekly television series not due to finish for another half a year. What will have happened to yourself, those around you, the rest of the world, come six months time? Read more

Curb Your Enthusiasm

I was never one for American sitcoms. They were always overly simplistic and aimed at the lowest common denominator, with characters reduced to a load of tics ands catchphrases so the audience could applaud wildly whenever they entered the set. That was until I saw my first episode of Seinfeld. Read more

Coronation Street

And relax. Read more

The Luvvies – The Awards the Stars Don’t Want

Irony is a much abused concept in television. It’s why no self-billed “in-depth” look at showbiz ups and downs can go without interviewing Keith Harris, and why Tony Blackburn has had a complete change of public profile in the last year. Read more

The Royal

ITV1 would really like to own Sunday night. In a way, they think they do. John Whiston, director of drama at Granada, launched a broadside at BBC drama’s Sunday night strands last year calling them “me too” programmes – supposedly copies of ITV ideas. Read more

The Last Detective

Apparently the money ITV1 invests in programming is only recorded as having been spent once a show has been transmitted. This mildly obscure piece of accounting trivia may at first seem irrelevant, yet as The Last Detective tells us, it is only by examining and re-examining such minutiae that one is able to solve a mystery. Read more

Coronation Street

With Soapland’s favourite pantomime villain de jour having committed his foul, dastardly deeds it now remains to be seen whether the writers and actors of Coronation Street have the will and also the ability to maintain this much welcomed (and, to be truthful, desperately needed) rich vein of form. Read more

The Book Group

The golden rule in our house is that you must watch an entire series before even considering condemning it. Sometimes this rule proves to be a blessing; on other occasions a damned curse. And I should have known so much better than to switch back on to The Book Group again. Read more

RI:SE

Being dubbed a flop by the rest of the world, RI:SE is taking its revenge by speaking ill of it. Read more

Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

“Messing about” has never been such a serious business. It could be said that the second series of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway is the most important programme on ITV1 at the moment. Yeah, there may be more prestigious or more expensive shows, but if this series fails, it could have huge repercussions. Read more

Coronation Street

Death walks tall amongst the big soaps this weather. In one of them a major character gets busy dying, on the other a major character gets busy killing. What one to watch? How long do I get to answer that? Read more

Serious Jungle

Currently being honoured with its second repeat run on terrestrial TV in as many weeks, Serious Jungle is resounding testament to the resilience and potential of reality television. Read more

Without Prejudice?

Much – probably too much – has been written about the continuing trend for TV programmes to encourage us to make negative judgements about each other. Whilst Big Brother asks us to evict a housemate, The Weakest Link wants us to pick on the less able. But we know all this already. Read more

« Previous Page