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The doctor is in

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by · Comments Off 

Two years ago, I blogged about ITV1 dropping a repeat run of Afterlife after one episode, and quoted Broadcast‘s William Phillips – one of the most perceptive writers about television there’s ever been – to say that drama repeats don’t work. Read more

Questions about Corrie

Friday, June 6, 2008 by · Comments Off 

1 – If Jerry’s had a heart attack, why hasn’t the absent eldest daughter come back to see how he is? And what the hell happened to that grandad? Read more

Getting jiggy with it

Friday, May 9, 2008 by · Comments Off 

What’s the most shocking thing about the ITV phone-in scandal? Surely it’s the fact that the problems on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway stem from the two worst items on the show. Read more

From Gladiators to Beadle

Sunday, April 27, 2008 by · Comments Off 

A couple of days spent at TV show recordings, courtesy of the relevant press offices. Read more

Velly poor taste?

Monday, March 10, 2008 by · Comments Off 

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…”

Friday, March 7, 2008 by · Comments Off 

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 DVDThe Fixer: The Making of a Hit Series.

Corrie court out?

Thursday, March 6, 2008 by · Comments Off 

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

Fresh fields for Marple!

Monday, February 11, 2008 by · Comments Off 

Fun news from ITV… Read more

Farm titles

Friday, January 25, 2008 by · Comments Off 

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.

Schedule reel

Thursday, January 3, 2008 by · Comments Off 

ITV1 are revamping their weekend line-ups, then. With Coronation Street and Emmerdale returned to weekdays (two eps of the former on Friday nights, an hour-long edition of the latter on Tuesdays), how do the first new-look Saturday and Sunday evenings stack-up? Well… Read more

Great to be back, so it is!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 by · Comments Off 

Jim McDonald’s return to Coronation Street has been long overdue, and for once I’m actually not speculating nor pondering the plotlines ahead for Charles Lawson, though one can imagine that something isn’t quite going to go to plan when Liz and Vernon (a fantastic character) tie the knot in two weeks. I’m just glad the ex-con, ex-Army patriarch with the temper from hell is back. Read more

Be seeing you

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by · Comments Off 

Lark Rise to Candleford is a splendid period drama, which will be livening up Sunday nights on BBC1 from mid-January. And I’m just back from the press launch at London’s Soho Hotel. Read more

All talked out

Monday, November 19, 2007 by · Comments Off 

So, ITV1 have announced the guest line-up for the last ever Parkinson. Prepare to fill in your bingo cards now: “Joining him in the studio for this final time are David Beckham, Billy Connelly [sic], Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Michael Caine, Peter Kay, Dame Edna Everage with music by Jamie Cullum”. Read more

“I can reveal the latest news from the I’m a Celebrity… camp”

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 by · Comments Off 

To the Soho Hotel in London, and ITV1′s winter season launch. Taking to the mic – to no applause – Simon Shaps, now tentatively essaying a beard. He began with a few “messages” from the I’m a Celebrity… camp, revelling in the fact this was a show that required no context-setting with the assembled. Lynne Franks had suggested we “all hold hands” apparently. Read more

Sunday trading

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 by · Comments Off 

So, from Sunday 7 October (the day after the first episode proper) Strictly Come Dancing gains a regular Sunday edition, in which the losing dancers are booted out of the show. Coincidentally, that same weekend, The X Factor sprouts a one-off Sunday episode…

Grade one tinkering at ITV

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 by · Comments Off 

It looks like Michael Grade is making his mark at ITV. BBC News reports that he plans to double spending on content to £1.2 billion by 2012, scrapping those awful late-night money-raking quiz “programmes” and merging some of ITV’s smaller regional news services. Getting rid of the quiz rip-offs has to be a good move (not because they are appalling programming by the way, but because “negative publicity… has seen call volumes drop to uneconomic levels”), but is merging the regions wise? Hasn’t regional identity been diluted enough as a result of corporate branding?

2 become 1

Monday, September 10, 2007 by · Comments Off 

Due to a, er, clerical error, I’ve ended up watching two of the three episodes so far of Holly and Fearne Go Dating on ITV1. And surely it’s only a clerical error that has put this on the main channel in the first place, as with its flimsy concept and production budget of, seemingly, 50p, this show has got ITV2 written all over it. Read more

Holly and Fearne Go Dating

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 by · Comments Off 

Amidst declining ratings, ITV1 has been quick leap on other channel’s ideas and make their own version. This policy has so far brought us classics such as Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway, You Don’t Know You’re Born and the recent Britain’s Favourite View. Read more

First it was noddee, now it’s reality

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 by · Comments Off 

Further to my review of the first episode of Hell’s Kitchen, I am still trying to get to grips with why the show should feature the celebrities doing so well this early on in the series. As I have previously written, if they run a competent dinner service from the off, the series has no arc to follow. Read more

Hell’s Kitchen

Monday, September 3, 2007 by · Comments Off 

So who won the last series of Hell’s Kitchen? This particular reviewer turned his back on the run somewhere near the beginning of week two. Read more

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