Katrina

USA in crisis

The images coming in this week from the deep south and New Orleans in particular will live long in the memory. It’s difficult for TV news to fully convey the enormity of what has happened.

What really stays with you is the human side of the tragedy and in my view ITV News have come into their own this week with their coverage. The likes of Robert Moore and Bill Neely have been more effective than most in bringing home to us just how dire things have been for those caught in an area of catastrophe larger than our own nation.

While the British news teams have been good, it’s been CNN that have really got to the heart of things for me. The report from the police station labelled Fort Apache was desperately moving. A third of police officers in the area are alleged to have quit and the despair and anger of those left, attempting to provide some last vestige of law and order while being fired upon by those they had sworn to protect and serve, was truly gut-wrenching.

A load of balls

I thought we’d grown beyond daft stunts on the public for the purposes of entertainment. Candid Camera and Game for a Laugh had their place in history but I believed audiences had grown more sophisticated since those days.

However with Balls of Steel, Channel 4 commissioners seem to believe that you can take that format, adopt an aggressive attitude, throw in some offensive language and somehow make it cool again.

They are wrong. This is crass entertainment aimed at the lowest common denominator.

The cast are supposed to be the rising of the comedy scene. They’ll be precious few laughs in the future if that’s true.

Awful.

Being picky

Digging up trouble

A bit of a conundrum in EastEnders this week. Just what is Charlie Slater doing on his allotment if he needs a pickaxe? Odd.

It was so obvious that Chrissie Watts was lying this week that even the continuity announcer referred to the smell of burning underwear. Obvious to everyone in fact except the Walford police force.

Shouldn’t Pauline have been nicked? Her dabs are all over the murder weapon. Indeed there is no shortage of killers on the square. The blushing bridegroom Dennis is one of course and then there’s Martin (Jamie), Dot (Ethel) and Johnny (Andy Hunter and Det. Sgt. Boulton). Still to return we’ve got Phil (some old tramp), Frank (Tiffany) and if we’re really lucky Nick Cotton (Reg, Eddie).

Dangerous place to live, Albert Square.

50 Years of ITV

Continuing my own personal selection of ITV shows from the last 50 years:

30. Children of the Stones
Spooky kids show from HTV featuring Gareth “Blake’s 7??? Thomas as a a new arrival in a village that is strangely affected by the stones that surround it. Creepy stuff that probably deserved a better slot than it received. Iain Cuthbertson is particularly scary an the nominal baddie.

29. Edward the Seventh
Extravagant costume drama from ATV featuring Timothy West in fine form in the title role, with great support from the likes of Felicity Kendall. A pre-One Foot in the Grave Annette Crosbie steals the show in fine turn as Queen Victoria.

28. Budgie
Adam Faith charms his way in and out of trouble as a cockney wide boy while villainous mentor Charlie Endell, as played by Iain Cuthbertson steals every scene.

27. Agony
Delightfully over the top sitcom featuring the adventures of agony aunt Fay Lucas (Maureen Lipman) and her strange array of friends and family. Airing in a post watershed slot, this was near the knuckle comedy not afraid to tackle some of the taboo subjects of the day.

26. The Beiderbecke Affair
A quirky comedy drama from the pen of Alan Plater, concerning a jazz loving woodwork teacher who together with his girlfriend, a fellow teacher and an eco-warrior as they get embroiled in mystery and intrigue. James Bolam and Barbara Flynn provide the chemistry and hold the interest, despite the ponderous pace of the action.

25. The Tomorrow People
A bunch of telepathic teenagers save the world from malevolent forces and woeful special effects. Despite this, an imaginative piece of sci-fi from Thames with an ever changing cast.

24. The Benny Hill Show
At his peak Benny used to deliver just four shows a year for Thames ensuring that the comedy levels were always high. The humour has dated now of course but at his peak, he was one of the most original and funny performers on the box, even if the shows quickly became overly formulaic.

23. Whicker’s World
Alan Whicker managed to get the balance right as he travelled around the globe. He managed to stamp his own personality on the show without ever over shadowing the subject of his interviews. Someone should send Jonathan Ross a tape of his style.

22. Tommy Cooper
It’s said that Tommy Copper could get laughs reading from a phone book. Indeed Tommy’s writers claim that he stayed on script so rarely it was barely worth writing. There was just something about though that tickles the funny bone of almost everyone.

21. Brass
As Granada’s stock in trade was the gritty northern drama, it was a bit of shock to see this savage lampoon of the genre emanating from the same stable. Gloriously irreverent. Felling free to mix subtle parody with dreadful puns and Carry On style innuendo, this was a true delight. Timothy West was superb as evil mill owner Bradley Hardacre.

20. On the Buses
A massive hit for LWT, this vulgar tale of the adventures of bus driver Stan Butler and his randy clippy Jack was so successful that it spawn no less than three feature films. Reg Varney was the star but the most memorable character was bis inspector Blakey, played with relish by Stephen Lewis.

19. The New Statesman
Rik Mayall has fun in this savage political parody as a corrupt and unscrupulous MP with seemingly no redeeming features. Written by Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran, there were no depths to which Alan B’Stard would not sink.

18. Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Great detective show with the gimmick that one of the gumshoes is a ghost. Another neat trick is the chemistry between the living partner and his haunter’s dead wife. Cracking stuff and there would have been more episodes had it not flopped in America.

17. News at Ten
Television news came of age with this dual hosted half hour show which changed the way things were done forever. Stalwarts included Sandy Gall, Andrew Gardner and Alistair Burnet.

16. Spitting Image
Nothing and nobody in the public eye was safe from the savage satire of Fluck and Law’s grotesque puppets.

15. The Jewel n the Crown
Paul Scott’s The Ray Quartet brought lavishly to life with a starry cast. Tim Pigott-Smith was superb as the embittered Ronald Merrick as the story played out across thirteen episodes.

14. Rainbow
Pre-school kids show in which a man lives with a six foot teddy bear, a pink hippopotamus and what can only be described as a gimp. Wholesome and educational entertainment, though I can’t help wondering what Rod, Jane and Freddy got up to when the singing stopped.

13. Man About the House
Considering daring in it’s day, a sitcom about a man sharing a flat with two women. Enormously successful, due in part to a great cast featuring the honed sitcom talents of Richard O’Sullivan and Paula Wilcox, it spawned two equally successful spin offs, George and Mildred and Robin’s Nest.

12. Emmerdale Farm
Beginning as a twice a week daytime soap surrounding the misadventures of the Sugdens and their farm. Things rumbled along nicely for years with tales of sheepdogs and poachers and the occasional ill-advised romp in the hay leading to marital discord. Village life was changed forever when a plane crash landed on the village, wiping out several cast members and beginning the slippery slope to the pantomime style that hangs over the show today.

11. The Professionals
Take a couple of tough guy actors, throw in Hudson from Upstairs Downstairs, car chases with Ford Capris ploughing throw cardboard boxes. Add completely impenetrable scripts and you have a ratings blockbuster.

My top ten next week.

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