This Life

There’s some muffled, indistinct but obviously British pop music murmuring in the background – could it be Tindersticks? – and various half-empty bottles of wine resting self-consciously in the foreground. The picture is murky and flickering, as if lit entirely by scented candles, and keeps flipping erratically between long shots, close shots, and ridiculously close-up close shots. There is talk – chattering and shouting, hysterical laughter and knowing insults, whispered asides and intimate confessions. Chopped vegetables, joints, huge sofas, wooden floors, suits and ties and offices and courtrooms and endless legal-speak. At last - This Life is on the telly again. Read more

Through the Keyhole

David Frost drawls his way through another tedious show. It appears as though he must get blasted before ambling onto the set and to be honest the viewers ought to as well. Read more

The Weather Forecast

Serving a small but useful function we often take The Weather Forecast for granted. Read more

Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned

“Two blokes, one sofa, no script” goes the tag line as David Baddiel and Frank Skinner improvise for 30 minutes (well, the ITV equivalent of 30 minutes) in a live programme in front of a studio audience. Is this a folly? Read more

Hollyoaks

For quite a while now, Hollyoaks has been the best soap opera on TV. Read more

Arena: The Veil

Yes, it’s still going. I rather thought that Arena had ended ages ago, because I haven’t seen any extensive theme nights or overlong documentaries for a while. But no, the familiar “message in a bottle” title sequence introduced the documentary, and this wasn’t the only old-fashioned motif in the programme. Read more

The Bafta Television Awards 2000

So they still do these kind of things, do they? Starry clothed backdrops? Cheap, cheesy music? Camera shots from the gods either side of the commercial breaks, and appalling Steve Jones voice-overs? Read more

Bob Martin

“‘Phone Ainsley Harriott’ – great” Read more

Tony’s New Boy Network

t’s a key part of Tony Blair’s obsessive modernity rhetoric that his government has removed all the old barriers, appointments simply because of an old school tie, and power of unelected peers to overpower what a democratically-elected government has done. Read more

Vote 2000

There is almost something addictive about waiting for the result of an election on BBC television; a sort of nervous excitement that accompanies staying up late into the night to watch, hoping to find yourself witness to some of the most dramatic and memorable moments of television history. Read more

jam

The Real John Betjeman

Channel 4, not really feeling any responsibilities to suck up to establishment values, has always been able (especially in the Secret Lives series) to take a more ambivalent, more analytical view of old Establishment figures than the BBC tends to. Read more

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

As Jeannie and Jeff drove off along the long and winding road, and Marty and Wyvern returned to the ether, we were left with the sense that Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) has come a long way since its first episode six weeks ago. Read more

jam

A few episodes in and more definite opinions start coalescing. Read more

When Louis Met… Jimmy

Fellow of the Royal College of Radiology, Papal Knight and an ex-wrestler “feared in every girls school in the country”, Jimmy Savile has endeavoured to make himself likeable to people for aeons; his latest ruse was to dress up another bout of vain self-promotion as amiable participation in a piece of investigative filmmaking: When Louis Met… Jimmy. Read more

Doctors

Christopher Timothy was on This Is Your Life last week. A pleasing enough actor who will forever evoke All Creatures Great and Small the tribute was heavily slanted towards his participation in Doctors, the Corporation’s new daily weekday drama serial. Read more

jam

The Radio 1 series Blue Jam (1997-99) was Chris Morris’s timely abandonment of the tired formulae of “satire”. It had to happen. Read more

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

Reeves and Mortimer are usually the last word. Read more

Hollyoaks

Channel 4 played a game this week with regular viewers of its teen-orientated soapHollyoaks. They simultaneously encouraged a certain demographic to tune in for this special late night not-in-front-of-the-kids extended episode, while endeavouring to convince another opposing age group that no such programme actually existed. Read more

Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq

Tony Blair claims his quarrel is “not with the Iraqi people – it never has been”, yet has spent £60m of GB taxpayers money on a bombing campaign against Saddam Hussein that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Read more

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