News Review of the Year
Friday, December 17, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
“Who can spy on the spies?” George Smiley once mused out loud, in an echo of that perennial philosophical teaser of old: who guards the guards? Read more
The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody
Saturday, December 4, 2004 by Graham Kibble-White · Comments Off
When I was 11 I thought Queen were the business. I also rated US comic books, and I don’t think the two were unrelated. Read more
Imagine…
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
What links Jamie Cullum, The Darkness, Iggy Pop, Ruth Rendell, veteran satirist Michael Frayn and a bunch of 1950s rock and roll tunes? Read more
Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere
Friday, November 12, 2004 by Graham Kibble-White · Comments Off
When the stand-out moment from a new comedy is a sequence involving funny dancing, things aren’t going great. Particularly when said comedy has been perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of the year. Read more
US Election 2004
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Befitting an occasion that somehow felt far more exciting than any recent polls this side of the Atlantic, the BBC unfurled its coverage of the American Presidential election results with the kind of swaggering, bombastic signature tune that’s been sorely absent from homegrown hustings for far too long. Read more
Countdown
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Several months after OTT ruefully predicted Countdown was on its way out, Channel 4 promptly recommissioned the series to run for another five years. Read more
The X Factor
Saturday, October 23, 2004 by John Phillips · Comments Off
How many times can the same idea be recycled? After Popstars, Popstars:The Rivals, and two series each of Pop Idol and Fame Academy, surely there can’t be room for more wannabe singers trying to win recording contracts on live television? Read more
Little Britain
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 by Chris Orton · Comments Off
Like The League of Gentlemen before it, Little Britain has managed to become the nation’s latest must-see comedy show. Following a rapturous reception for the first run last year, the programme has enjoyed two three-CD releases, a script book and a superb DVD set. Read more
Election ’74
Sunday, October 10, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
The last time we looked in on Alastair, David, Bob and Robin the country had only two weeks of coal left and was “right on the edge of a ghastly disaster.” Read more
The Apprentice USA
Thursday, October 7, 2004 by Graham Kibble-White · Comments Off
“You’re fired.” It’s pretty much mandatory for reality shows to bandy about their own catchphrase, but when the oddly coiffured Donald Trump utters these words, curtailing what feels like a genuinely freewheeling boardroom discussion, you can’t help but feel that – to purloin another slogan that’s in heavy rotation at the moment – this programme’s got the x-factor. Read more
NY-LON
Tuesday, October 5, 2004 by Stuart Ian Burns · Comments Off
There was always a nagging feeling when watching NY-LON that something was missing – like everything was so close but not quite there. And yet, I kept coming back for the seven episodes. Read more
That’ll Teach ‘em
Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
What a difference a school year makes. A mere 12 months separate this series of That’ll Teach ‘em from its highly successful forerunner. Read more
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Thursday, September 2, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It’s rare for a TV programme to leave you so inclined that the minute it’s finished you want to watch the whole thing again straightaway. It’s even rarer for the programme in question to be a sitcom. Read more
Steel River Blues
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 by Chris Orton · Comments Off
At the start of this Teesside-set successor to London’s Burning, a car thief posing as a hitchhiker says to new fire station chief Bill McGlinchy: “Do I sound like a Geordie?” when Bill asks if he is. Bill shrugs and the scene continues. Read more
Spy
Sunday, August 29, 2004 by Jack Kibble-White · Comments Off
The TV phenomenon of the last five years has undoubtedly been reality television. As a genre it has been almost universally derided for clogging up our television screens with hundreds of hours of cheap television in which – apparently – “nothing ever happens”. Read more
The West Wing
Tuesday, August 17, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Apropos nothing whatsoever, Press Secretary CJ Cregg interrupts a conversation with Communications Director Toby Ziegler to reveal she misses the “husky voice” of some person called Ben she recently lived with for six months. Read more
Scotsport SPL
Monday, August 16, 2004 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
The phrase car-crash television comes nowhere close to doing this excuse for a programme justice. Read more
Newsnight Review in Edinburgh
Friday, August 13, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
A trio of prim yet blunderingly choreographed half hour talking shops are all we’re getting by way of nationwide TV coverage of this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Read more
CD:UK
Saturday, July 24, 2004 by David Hendon · Comments Off
The Radio Times bills CD:UK, ITV1′s Saturday morning music show, thus: “Up-and-coming stars mingle with established names as the musicians of the moment perform live in the studio.” Read more
Rule the School
Friday, July 23, 2004 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Fraser, striking as casual a manner as a woollen hat-sporting teenager can muster, eyed the throng of shifty-looking adults towering a few feet in front of him. “I think I’m pretty laid back,” he challenged, “so if you all play the game, we should have a good time.” Read more