For the love of Ada

I spent most of Good Friday morning sat on a train that firstly didn’t move for ages, and then followed a route seemingly planned by throwing darts at a map of Britain, but it wasn’t so bad, as it meant I got to read most of We Don’t Know What We’re Doing, the quirky, good-humoured and thoughtful book on what it’s like to be a football fan, written by the quirky, good-humoured and thoughtful Adrian Chiles. Read more

Fleetwood Mac said to be “quite pleased, actually”

Formula 1 is moving back to the BBC, although it seems nobody has managed to uncover why ITV are dropping it midway through their contract or, indeed, F1 are dropping ITV. The timing is a bit odd, given that Britain has, in Lewis Hamilton, a driver capable of winning the world title for the first time in a decade. Read more

“I’ll give you $10 for a verbal response”

What’s happened to Curb Your Enthusiasm on More4? Read more

Velly poor taste?

Adrian Edmondson’s upcoming, and much postponed, ITV1 sitcom, Teenage Kicks (currently due to air Friday March 28 – but that could all change) is an old school, broad-brush effort. And, here’s a thing, it features a Chinese, Star Wars-loving nerd called David (Jonathan Chan-Pensley). There’s a bit where one of the Caucasian characters takes the piss out of his accent, and gives it the full-on Charlie Chan. Is that okay, now?

“No consumer advice is available for this work…”

If you want even more proof of ITV1′s confidence in their heavily trailed new series, the BBFC have just passed a documentary for the DVD: The Fixer: The Making of a Hit Series.

Corrie court out?

So, is Casey the Mad Arsonist, Abductor and Adulterer ever going to be put on trial on Coronation Street? Read more

Rags to riches

The Curse of Steptoe is the first in BBC4′s The Curse of Comedy season. And I’ve just finished watching it on preview disc. It’s wonderful – Jason Isaacs (Harry H Corbett) and Phil Davis (Wilfrid Brambell) nail their roles. There’s a moment early on when the two actors are in a read-through for the pilot episode. Corbett is working “off book” and giving it the full-on “you dirty old man” accent. Brambell is still reading from the script, and uncomfortable at the prospect of turning on his “‘Arold!” performance. But then Corbett gets in his face so much, it’s as though he can’t help it. Suddenly he switches on the sneer, and Phil Davis is old man Steptoe. It’s great. Read more

“Fuelled up and powered on by Subway!”

NBC enjoyed – well – something like four hours of power this Sunday, courtesy of two TV revivals which have been doing fantastic business. And I’ve been watching both. Read more

“My wife left me”… again

A mail from Craig Robins, who was the one-man band behind the release of Steven Moffat’s sitcom Joking Apart. And it’s good news… Read more

Cheryl weedy

I mentioned ages ago how, while I still think Curb Your Enthusiasm is extremely funny, I can’t always enjoy it as much as I’d like because I get frustrated by the supporting characters behaving in totally illogical and unreasonable ways. I know the whole concept of the series is that we’re supposed to laugh at Larry’s ineptitude, but he’d such an appealing character that you often can’t help but root for him and take his side in arguments. Read more

Fresh fields for Marple!

Fun news from ITV… Read more

Swales must go now

As of this week, ITV4 are broadcasting 24 hours a day, and one of the programmes in the new afternoon schedules every Thursday is something called The Big Match Revisited. As a football anorak, this did of course sound very tempting, although I assumed we’d have to suffer some smart-arse narration from Ned Boulting or someone about bubble perms. Read more

Cooking doesn’t get tougher than this!

Inevitably, I’m obsessed with Masterchef. So, I was excited to get details of how the final week is going to stack up. Read on (and worry not, there are no spoilers regarding who gets through)… Read more

“Hello. I’m bulge temptingly!”

I’m enjoying the repeats of Whose Line is it Anyway? on Dave, although there has been some quite brutal editing done for watershed purposes; the type which Canadian and American audiences used to suffer even in more appropriate later slots when the episodes were first aired. This was not what Hat Trick nor Channel 4 intended…

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School’s out forever

It won’t surprise many to read that two days shy of its 30th birthday Grange Hill has been axed. Increasingly out of place on BBC1 – in fact, the last series didn’t even graduate from the CBBC channel to terrestrial – it’s perhaps a mercy killing, what with the revamped “The Grange” media centre-led series currently in production at Lime Pictures, awkwardly shoe-horning primary school kids into the format. Read more

Watching us, watching you

Terribly sad news about the death of Jeremy Beadle. Read the TV Cream tribute here.

Farm titles

Does anybody know the reason why the production team have introduced episode titles for Emmerdale? Is there any point in doing this for a soap, given that they are by their very nature, ephemeral? It is difficult to imagine even the most dedicated soap fan referring to individual episodes by a title. You just don’t remember individual episodes of soaps, you remember the big storylines, or the famous characters. I believe that Neighbours also does something similar these days.

Calendar countdown – slight return (again)

It’s time once more to update OTT’s chart of the most watched programmes of the decade so far. Read more

Better than Life on Mars…

…that’s my assessment of Ashes to Ashes after last night’s press launch. I’m fearful of embargos and the like though, so will say no more. I’m happy, I hope you’re happy too…

Quintessential inhabitants

I like QI. I’ve watched every episode many times over. I frequent the official forums. I have had correspondence from John Lloyd. And I even got the play-at-home game on DVD at Christmas 2006, though I’ve only looked at it once. Read more

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