TV
There once was a ugly duckling…
Jade Goody has made a name for herself since leaving Big Brother with her infectious personality rather than any discernible talent, so the assumption has always been that she didn’t have any.
I was somewhat taken aback to find that her appearance on Stars in Their Eyes wasn’t the car crash telly I was expecting it to be. She did really well with her taken on country music’s Lynn Anderson. She even won and deservedly so.
Never knew she had it in her. Sign her for up the next Celeb Fame Academy. I’d love to see her do battle with Richard Park.
If the point of The Goody’s fame has been that she is talentless, has she put this at risk by proving that she could actually turn out to be a bonafide entertainer?
Keep on running
Who would have thought that would-be Tory MP and ex Corrie star Adam Rickett would turn out to be this year's Mel Giedroyc in The Games?
I'm surprised that when the competitors are taking part in such strenuous events that the sub hasn't gone through the training along with the others. After all he finished up looking increasingly marginalised as his better-prepared fellow celebs acquitted themselves with aplomb.
I can remember feeling really gutted when Javine lost in Popstars The Rivals but her sulky nature whenever she failed to win an event and seeming inability to bond with all the other competitors have put me right off her to the point when I was hoping she'd foul up.
Even the usually supportive Sheffield crowd saw fit to boo her at one stage.
I’ve not really taken a shine to The MP or Amanda Lamb either, though Bernie Nolan wasn good value and Michelle Gayle livened things up. While Javine was winning the swimming torpedo style, Michelle, a new swimmer, valiantly completed the short course having stopped in the middle. Somehow it's far more gratifying to see someone conquering their personal demons than watching a former county swimmer giving it the large one because she beat a bunch of also-rans.
Annoyingly, the MP was constantly announced as Shadow Chief Secretary to The Treasury so what on earth was she doing taking part in this in Budget week?! It just didn’t seem right to me.
The Champion of Champions show brought back Shane Lynch and with it the charisma that year’s bunch have been sadly lacking.
I can see clearly now the rain has gone
The BBC enthuses over its high definition trial telling us it's especially good for sport. Sorry to disappoint you boys but a boring game of football is a boring game of football no matter how sharp the image is. Moreover, if a game is particularly engrossing, being able to pick out faces in the crowd will scarcely enhance enjoyment. Who needs to be able to see every blade of grass? Do they really think that people would have enjoyed the dull fest of Charlton and Middlesboro's FA Cup clash any better because it was in HD?
Shows that will benefit are those where image is almost all, so natural history shows such as Planet Earth may help to drive sales.
Channel 4 seems remarkably quiet on the subject of HD, which seems odd since a large chunk of their imported content from the states is made in this way. As for ITV, is the nation really ready for Jack Duckworth on 720 lines progressive? Probably not so they can drag their feet as long as they like.
The whole HD thing is bit of a minefield, requiring a new set and then a choice of provider. Assuming an eventual Freeview service will be quite limited for the first few years, it’s looking increasingly like a choice between satellite and cable. Up until now, I’ve always favoured the dish option myself but Sky’s recent announcement on prices for the launch will see me taking serious note of what the opposition has on offer before I take the plunge.
Doctor, doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning…
I'd forgotten just how original and how much an acquired taste Green Wing was so the rerun of series one in the graveyard slot on Channel 4 was a welcome reminder.
Early reports suggest that the avant-garde feel of the first series has been a bit lost in the second as the plot gets in the way of the silliness. I'll let you have my take on that next week but in the time it's worth catching the re-runs, if not for the tangled relationships of the hospital staff than certainly for the inspired lunacy of Michelle Gomez's Sue White who provides some of the most surreal comedy on telly since the passing of Spike Milligan.
If you’ve not caught this before, you may find you have to persevere with a couple of episodes before it clicks, but it is ultimately rewarding, though will never be to everyone’s taste.
Afternoon delight
I'm inexplicably still loving Deal or No Deal but as the game continues Noel is occasionally getting less genial and tetchier with contestants than he allowed himself to in the early shows.
Normally this is fine - Noel’s an expert at knowing just how far to go - but the wheels came off a bit with the show featuring chirpy Dave Cheeseman. The atmosphere seemed very uncomfortable and it turned out to less than enjoyable to watch which seemed odd.
Channel 4 have ordered shed loads more of these shows but I wonder whether it is beginning to run out of steam already. Certainly you have too much of good thing and giving the show a break for a few weeks every now and then could revitalise things. However with this offering pulling more viewers in the afternoon than vast tranches of Channel Four output can glean in primetime, it's likely to be fixture for a good while yet.
He ain’t heavy, he’s my bruv
I suppose it makes a change from endless repeats of Porridge but UKTV Gold’s EastEnders weekends sometimes feel like money for old soap.
This weekend’s Mitchell Brothers special was somewhat better than usual though with some well chosen episodes and a very good and entirely up-to-the-minute retrospective of the boy’s history in the show hosted by the much missed Kim Medcalf, which was a nice touch.
Events on the square itself this week were in part designed to warm things up for “Johnny Allen week” and the return (again) of The Brothers Grim is sure to liven things up in coming weeks.
It turns out Joe’s guilty secret is that he is a dirty rotten housebreaker, which will have done much to diminish his popularity with the large chunk of the audience who’ve suffered at a burglar’s handiwork. Joe is probably right to keep this a secret, being nearly as embarrassing as letting people know that you find the prospect of spending the rest of your life with a battleaxe like grumpy old Pauline an attractive concept.
No doubt Joe’s secret will eventually come out in packed Queen Vic and if he ends up getting framed for a break in he didn’t do, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
If you like your telly on the soapy side, why not give Digital Spy's new podcast a listen?
There’s one born every minute..
Now a new feature in Dek’s TV Diary, the “we thought you were dead” slot.
Dr. Kildare himself, star of The Thorn Birds, Richard Chamberlain turned up in Hustle this week meaning that Robert Vaughn wasn’t the only member of the cast who looked more like an animatronic than a real person.
I love shows that muck around with expectations of the genre and the silent movie inserts into this episode worked well, certainly more than the con aspects. Though remaining enjoyable, the cons in this series are so obvious that surely even the most gullible mark would see them coming.
Somehow though the thing just about hangs together no doubt helped by the knowing looks to camera punctuating each episode.
People in glass houses…
Jonathan Ross took time out on This Morning to join in the general criticism of Davina’s admittedly poor chat show. Perhaps he should look a bit closer to home.
What’s the point of getting the likes of David Attenborough on and getting some great clips to illustrate a few points and then conducting the interview in such a superficial way that it becomes frustrating for both the subject and us viewers?
Ross seemed more interested in his own earwax than any of his guests, with Gavin Henson looking uncomfortable and Pink, who should be a dream to interview, quite disinterested.
I don’t mind him polishing his ego every now and then – we’ve come to expect it – but he needs to get the balance right again. Maybe he was just miffed because Morrissey didn’t turn up.
Jade Goody has made a name for herself since leaving Big Brother with her infectious personality rather than any discernible talent, so the assumption has always been that she didn’t have any.
I was somewhat taken aback to find that her appearance on Stars in Their Eyes wasn’t the car crash telly I was expecting it to be. She did really well with her taken on country music’s Lynn Anderson. She even won and deservedly so.
Never knew she had it in her. Sign her for up the next Celeb Fame Academy. I’d love to see her do battle with Richard Park.
If the point of The Goody’s fame has been that she is talentless, has she put this at risk by proving that she could actually turn out to be a bonafide entertainer?
Keep on running
Who would have thought that would-be Tory MP and ex Corrie star Adam Rickett would turn out to be this year's Mel Giedroyc in The Games?
I'm surprised that when the competitors are taking part in such strenuous events that the sub hasn't gone through the training along with the others. After all he finished up looking increasingly marginalised as his better-prepared fellow celebs acquitted themselves with aplomb.
I can remember feeling really gutted when Javine lost in Popstars The Rivals but her sulky nature whenever she failed to win an event and seeming inability to bond with all the other competitors have put me right off her to the point when I was hoping she'd foul up.
Even the usually supportive Sheffield crowd saw fit to boo her at one stage.
I’ve not really taken a shine to The MP or Amanda Lamb either, though Bernie Nolan wasn good value and Michelle Gayle livened things up. While Javine was winning the swimming torpedo style, Michelle, a new swimmer, valiantly completed the short course having stopped in the middle. Somehow it's far more gratifying to see someone conquering their personal demons than watching a former county swimmer giving it the large one because she beat a bunch of also-rans.
Annoyingly, the MP was constantly announced as Shadow Chief Secretary to The Treasury so what on earth was she doing taking part in this in Budget week?! It just didn’t seem right to me.
The Champion of Champions show brought back Shane Lynch and with it the charisma that year’s bunch have been sadly lacking.
I can see clearly now the rain has gone
The BBC enthuses over its high definition trial telling us it's especially good for sport. Sorry to disappoint you boys but a boring game of football is a boring game of football no matter how sharp the image is. Moreover, if a game is particularly engrossing, being able to pick out faces in the crowd will scarcely enhance enjoyment. Who needs to be able to see every blade of grass? Do they really think that people would have enjoyed the dull fest of Charlton and Middlesboro's FA Cup clash any better because it was in HD?
Shows that will benefit are those where image is almost all, so natural history shows such as Planet Earth may help to drive sales.
Channel 4 seems remarkably quiet on the subject of HD, which seems odd since a large chunk of their imported content from the states is made in this way. As for ITV, is the nation really ready for Jack Duckworth on 720 lines progressive? Probably not so they can drag their feet as long as they like.
The whole HD thing is bit of a minefield, requiring a new set and then a choice of provider. Assuming an eventual Freeview service will be quite limited for the first few years, it’s looking increasingly like a choice between satellite and cable. Up until now, I’ve always favoured the dish option myself but Sky’s recent announcement on prices for the launch will see me taking serious note of what the opposition has on offer before I take the plunge.
Doctor, doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning…
I'd forgotten just how original and how much an acquired taste Green Wing was so the rerun of series one in the graveyard slot on Channel 4 was a welcome reminder.
Early reports suggest that the avant-garde feel of the first series has been a bit lost in the second as the plot gets in the way of the silliness. I'll let you have my take on that next week but in the time it's worth catching the re-runs, if not for the tangled relationships of the hospital staff than certainly for the inspired lunacy of Michelle Gomez's Sue White who provides some of the most surreal comedy on telly since the passing of Spike Milligan.
If you’ve not caught this before, you may find you have to persevere with a couple of episodes before it clicks, but it is ultimately rewarding, though will never be to everyone’s taste.
Afternoon delight
I'm inexplicably still loving Deal or No Deal but as the game continues Noel is occasionally getting less genial and tetchier with contestants than he allowed himself to in the early shows.
Normally this is fine - Noel’s an expert at knowing just how far to go - but the wheels came off a bit with the show featuring chirpy Dave Cheeseman. The atmosphere seemed very uncomfortable and it turned out to less than enjoyable to watch which seemed odd.
Channel 4 have ordered shed loads more of these shows but I wonder whether it is beginning to run out of steam already. Certainly you have too much of good thing and giving the show a break for a few weeks every now and then could revitalise things. However with this offering pulling more viewers in the afternoon than vast tranches of Channel Four output can glean in primetime, it's likely to be fixture for a good while yet.
He ain’t heavy, he’s my bruv
I suppose it makes a change from endless repeats of Porridge but UKTV Gold’s EastEnders weekends sometimes feel like money for old soap.
This weekend’s Mitchell Brothers special was somewhat better than usual though with some well chosen episodes and a very good and entirely up-to-the-minute retrospective of the boy’s history in the show hosted by the much missed Kim Medcalf, which was a nice touch.
Events on the square itself this week were in part designed to warm things up for “Johnny Allen week” and the return (again) of The Brothers Grim is sure to liven things up in coming weeks.
It turns out Joe’s guilty secret is that he is a dirty rotten housebreaker, which will have done much to diminish his popularity with the large chunk of the audience who’ve suffered at a burglar’s handiwork. Joe is probably right to keep this a secret, being nearly as embarrassing as letting people know that you find the prospect of spending the rest of your life with a battleaxe like grumpy old Pauline an attractive concept.
No doubt Joe’s secret will eventually come out in packed Queen Vic and if he ends up getting framed for a break in he didn’t do, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
If you like your telly on the soapy side, why not give Digital Spy's new podcast a listen?
There’s one born every minute..
Now a new feature in Dek’s TV Diary, the “we thought you were dead” slot.
Dr. Kildare himself, star of The Thorn Birds, Richard Chamberlain turned up in Hustle this week meaning that Robert Vaughn wasn’t the only member of the cast who looked more like an animatronic than a real person.
I love shows that muck around with expectations of the genre and the silent movie inserts into this episode worked well, certainly more than the con aspects. Though remaining enjoyable, the cons in this series are so obvious that surely even the most gullible mark would see them coming.
Somehow though the thing just about hangs together no doubt helped by the knowing looks to camera punctuating each episode.
People in glass houses…
Jonathan Ross took time out on This Morning to join in the general criticism of Davina’s admittedly poor chat show. Perhaps he should look a bit closer to home.
What’s the point of getting the likes of David Attenborough on and getting some great clips to illustrate a few points and then conducting the interview in such a superficial way that it becomes frustrating for both the subject and us viewers?
Ross seemed more interested in his own earwax than any of his guests, with Gavin Henson looking uncomfortable and Pink, who should be a dream to interview, quite disinterested.
I don’t mind him polishing his ego every now and then – we’ve come to expect it – but he needs to get the balance right again. Maybe he was just miffed because Morrissey didn’t turn up.
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