And the winner is ....oops!

Tonight sees the final of Great British Bake Off on Channel 4. However the tension of who the winner will be has apparently been spoiled by one of the show's judges. Prue Leith in a Tweet let slip the identity of the winner. How the ratings are affected remains to be seen.

More X-Factor pain

Sunday night's edition of X-Factor was watched by an audience just below 6 million. In complete contrast David Attenbourgh new BBC1 documentary Blue Planet II was watched by over 10 million viewers. X-Factor's decline will be worrying for ITV bosses with the vital pre Xmas advertising period coming up.

Massive ouch for ITV

In what should be a night for high viewing figures ITV suffered a humiliating night. A Simon Cowell less X-Factor got less than 6 million viewers and to make matters worse for the broadcaster that was the bright of the evening. All the preceding programmes got less than 2 million. ITV will be hoping for I'm a Celebrity... Get me Out of Here to bring in the ratings in the vital pre Xmas period for advertisers.

Tracy becomes Jeremy

Coming back for a 3 episode series tonight is Tracy Breaks the News in which Tracy Ullaman takes a comic look at the week's news. Having done impressions of Angela Merkel, Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon the show sees Ullaman present a new one Jeremy Corbyn. This brings to mind that main impressionist of Margaret Thatcher was Steve Nallon.

Bad news for Nick

BBC Radio 1 breakfast show has had many hosts down the years. Tony Blackburn, Mike Smith, Simon Mayo, Chris Evans and Zoe Ball to name just 5. However the current host Nick Grimshaw has posted listening figures of under 5 million. While Evans now hosting the equivalent show on Radio 2 has posted figures of 9 million. Whether Grimshaw remains as host remains to be seen.

Hanging plot threads no 2

Perhaps one of the most iconic characters in British soap opera history was the lovable Benny as played by Paul Henry in Crossroads. The character maintained his child like outlook of life despite being at one point being falsely accused of murder. The character's last appearance going up a ladder to put Christmas decorations up in 1987. He was not spoken. seen, or heard of when the soap ended in 1988. The character did not return for the short lived revial in 2001.

Piers in trouble?

Last night saw a Panorama special about people approaching their 100th birthday beating the first in the new series of Piers Morgan's Life Stories in the ratings. Despite interviewing Hollywood star Kim Cattarll the forthright Morgan could only get just over 1m while the BBC1 offering got over 2m. Things will likely get worse for Morgan when the final episode of Inspector George Gently is shown on BBC1.

Four a crowd?

For her first season on Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker will be joined by 3 companions. Two are played relative newcomers Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole. But the biggest name new recruit is Bradley Walsh, best known nowadays as the presenter of quiz show The Chase has some acting credits including Law & Order:UK starring alongside one time Doctor Peter Davison and an another companion Frema Agyeman. How Walsh's casting affects his hosting duties on The Chase remains to be seen. Talking of Peter Davison's time as The Doctor this will be first time since his tenure in the early 1980's that the TARDIS will have 4 people on board, It will be a year till Whittaker's comes to the screen.

TV review: Gunpowder

Starring Kit Harrington, Liv Tyler, Mark Gatiss

BBC1 9:15pm Saturday

For those who think the true reason why November the 5th is remembered has been forgotten as some people take it as an excuse to set off fireworks will be glad that this 3 part series has been made. The first episode shows the politics of the time as Roman Catholics are prosecuted for following their faith. There is a scene which features 2 executions in which the victims are put through torture to recant their beliefs before they are killed. Harrington plays Robert Catesby (whom he is a descendant of) the mastermind of the plot, he goes a portrait of a man who has had enough of being punished for his belief's and Harrington through his performance makes us understand him. Tyler playing the role of Catesby's cousin is unreconsigble, though she didn't have much to do in the opening episode so we just have to see her full contribution.  Following on from his role as the Prince Regent  in Taboo Mark Gatiss plays an another historical figure through the use if make up in the role of Robert Cecil adviser to James I, Cecil comes across as a Machiavellian figure plotting to stir the plot of unrest for his own gain. Gunpowder provides a thoughtful look at one of the most turbulent times in British history.

Hanging plot theard No1

In the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Doctor's Daughter, The Doctor has his DNA used to create a daughter Jenny as played by Georgina (the real life daughter of Peter Davison) Moffett. In the original script Jenny died but incoming showrunner Steven Moffat asked for the character to be reprieved for future use. However in the 7 years he was in charge the character never reappeared. Georgina Moffett would actually marry the Doctor at the time David Tennant in real life. One has to wonder how Jenny would interact her 'father's' new form.

What Guy Fawkes tried to do.

Gunpowder is a new drama that starts on Saturday on BBC1. About the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, it stars Kit Harrington in the role of Robert Catesby the mastermind behind the plot. It turns out that Harrington is a descendant of Catesby. Gunpowder has already has raised some hackles over the violence in scenes depicting the prosecution of Roman Catholics that led to the plot being hatched. Viewers will soon be able to judge for themselves the merits of those scenes.

Where is my Wikipeadia page?

Andy Warhol made the now immortal statement that everybody in the World would be famous for 15 minutes however with Wikipeadia you not really anyone without a Wikipeadia page. Here is one such person who really should have one.  Simon Parkin rose to fame with hosting jobs on Children's BBC in the late 1980's, even at one point hosting Top of the Pops on 2 occasions. However in 1990 after regular weekday CBBC host Andy Crane  moved to host ITV's Saturday morning kids show Motormouth, Parkin was passed over for the post in favour of Andi Peters. In 1992 Parkin would himself move to ITV to present kid's slots for the newly launched Breakfast show GMTV however after it's disastrous launch Parkin was one of many presenters who lost their jobs. Since then he has mainly been working in Radio with a couple of spells presenting weather forecasts on a couple of ITV local stations. Simon Parkin is now hosting the weekday morning show on BBC Somerset Radio.

The watch is over

The BBC have announced that after 33 years on air that Crimewatch UK is to be axed. The programme that asked viewers to solve crimes with the use of dramatic reconstructions. Some of the most noted cases to featured on the programme include the murders of James Bulger, Stephen Lawrence and the one that struck close to the production one time host Jill Dando. From it's debut in June 1984 to June 2016 Crimewatch UK had been shown on a once a month basis, then in late 2016 it was shown in a 6 week run with another one in early 2017, The second of these runs would turn out to be the last episodes to be broadcast, The Crimewatch name will still be on air through the daytime spinoff Crimewatch Roadshow. However it is sad to see such a long standing name to go in the TV memorial wall.

Remembering Sean Hughes

The death has been announced of Sean Hughes at the age of 51. Hughes made his name as a stand up comic including winning the Perrier Comedy award. He had part in the film version of Roddy Doyle's book The Commitments playing a record label executive. In 1996  he gained what some would say was the biggest exposure in his career when he became a regular team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Hughes would inject his sense of humour in his contests against Phill Jupitus and with host Mark Lamarr pulled in for good measure. One example of this was in an identity parade round in which Lamarr put himself in the line up for an early 1980's rockabilly band lead singer on the basis on his own fashion self only for Hughes to insist that Lamarr was the subject of course he was wrong. Hughes left the show in 2005 and some would say the show was never the same since. He also did some straight playing Peter Davison's friend in the cop show The Last Dectecive..Hughes's death mean the world of comedy has been robbed of one of it's most unique voices.

On the nose reference?

In this week's episode of Casualty the Queen song Don't Stop Me Now was played twice. Among the episode's guest actors was Anita Dobson who is the wife of Queen guitarist Brain May. Surely some coincidence?

3 TV rip offs

Success can breed lookalikes and the TV industry it is no less the case., Here are 3 examples.

Shafted

ITV's 2001 attempt to have it's own version of The Weakest Link which was hosted by Robert Kilroy-Silk. However the show sank in the rating so ITV pulled the show after a month with an number of episodes unaired with some saying they could be as many as 12.

The Roxy

An Attempt by ITV to have it's own Top of the Pops ever so far as having one time TOTP presenter David Kid Jensen as one of the presenters. But the show barely lasted a year when it ended in 1988.

Fame Academy

BBC1's attempt to replicate the success of Pop Idol even having it's own nasty judge in the form of Richard Park. It ended in 2003 after 2 series. The show's biggest find is perhaps best now for shouting at James May  in a Top Gear challenge while presenters Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty got married in 2012

Notable Red Dwarf guest stars

A new series of Red Dwarf starts tonight on Dave. If features guest appearances by the likes of Johny Vegas. Here are 3 others have appeared on the show.

Don Henderson

The actor best know for playing General Tagge in Star Wars played a rouge simluant in the 1997 episode Beyond a Joke. Sadly this would be Henderson's last acting role before his death from throat cancer.

Jenny Agutter

In the 1993 episode Psirens the crew are attacked by alien creatures that poses as their heart's desires. Agutter plays Kryten's (Robert Llewellyn) creator.

Brian Cox

Playing a medieval king in a VR game Cox finds that Lister (Craig Charle) is cheating just so that he get to bed his wife played by Sarah Alexander

Early appearances on The Detectives

Starring Jasper Carrot and Robert Powell The Detectives was based on a five minute regular sketch on Carrot's comedy show Canned Carrot. The first series featured 2 actors who went on to become big names.

Philip Glenister

The actor whose best known role is as another some what different detective Gene Hunt played an uniformed policeman when Briggs (Powell) and Louis (Carrot) get taken hostage by an escaped prisoner played by one time Eastenders Micheal Melia

Lucy Davis

Carrots own Daughter who would go own to find fame on her own terms in roles both on TV (Pride and Prejudice, The Office) and film (Shaun of the Dead, Wonder Woman) played a club goer when the defective pair go undercover at the Paradise Club. Which had been the for a short live Leslie Grantham show.

Finishing Shada

Shada the famed unfinished Doctor Who story written by Douglas Adams is set to be completed. Organaly meant to be the final story of the 17th season Shada was abandoned due to an industrial dispute though this is somewhat ironic as earlier in the season the show got some of it's biggest due to an another dispute lead to a blackout for ITV. Some footage from Shada did make an appearance when Tom Baker refused to appear in the 30th anniversary episode The Five Doctors with the footage used to explain why Baker's incarnation did not appear. In 1993 Shada was released on Home Video with Baker  providing narration for the missing parts while in 2003 Paul McGann lead a full cast audio that included Andrew Sachs, James Fox and reprising her role as Romana Lalla Ward. Adams himself used elements for his Dirk Gently novels while a novelisation by Gareth Roberts was published in 2012. For the new release surviving cast members have recorded dialogue for animated sequences that will replace the missing scenes this is a simaller technique that has for other stories with missing material such as The Invasion had animated scenes with the surviving dialogue. Who fans have one more thing to look forward to.

Curtailed Doctor?

Details have emerged that the next series of Doctor Who will have a shorter episode count of 10 episodes. However they will now run for a hour which means an extra 15 minutes.  Not only the new series will feature a female Doctor in the form of Jodie Whitaker but with longer episode.

Who watches the Doomsday clock?

This year will see the start of a 12 issue comic book series called The Doomsday Clock that will bring iconic DC Comics characters like Superman and Batman face to face with characters from the seminal 1986/87 series Watchmen. Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen was considered the point when the printed superhero genre grew up.  It started as a story proposal by Moore involving characters from the then recently defunct Charlton Comics line that DC had just brought. Despite not being giving the go ahead to use the Charlton characters Moore instead used original characters based on the Charlton ones for his story. So for example The Comedian whose murder kicks off Watchmen is based on Charlton character The Peacemaker. With it's blend of political commentary, deconstruction of the superhero genre and superlative art Watchmen soon gained an audience beyond that one would expect from such a venture. One example of Watchmen having an impact beyond the comic community was when it was announced by Time magazine as being one of the greatest pieces of literature of the 20th century by Time magazine. Over the years there had been attempts to turn Watchmen with various directors including Terry Gilliam until 2009 when it screens in a film directed by Zack Synder. The film was criticised for either being too slavish to the original or departing from it too much. Despite Watchmen's success breaking out from the narrow comic market Moore and DC Comics had a very fraught relationship over various matters. Though this has not stopped DC from mining Watchmen, in 2012 they published an number of prequels focused on characters from the series, while in an ironic twist writer Grant Morrison got put the Charlton characters in a Watchmen pastiche called Pax Americana and now we are getting The Doomsday Clock.  Already it has sparked some fury by over writing the ambiguous ending of Watchmen and that the writer is Geoff Johns. Johns made his name by writing the adventures of the likes of Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman to name just 4. One review summarised Johns work as baddie unleashes evil scheme, hero(es)  find themselves on the back foot but rally to thwart the evil scheme. Many people will seeing if Johns can make any where near the same impact in the 1980's

Have I got any point anymore.

Starting a new series on BBC1 tonight is Have I Got News For You, a show that really should have been axed years ago. My main issue is that since Angus Deyton was forced to leave his role as host the failure to have a regular host has meant that Ian Hislop's pontifications goes unchecked while Paul Merton's babbling is only funny to him. If anything today politics does not need anybody to mock it when it can the job fine by itself as seen in Theresa May's speech at this week's Conservative Party conference. Still going only due to ITV's lacklustre schedule HIGNFY really should be put to pasture.

Roy of the Rovers highlights of the 1980's

In the 1980's the comic strip saw very soap opera oriented story lines here are 3 of them.


Who shot Roy?

Roy Race is shot by an actor who is due to play him in a TV series leaving him in an coma. His position as Melchester Rovers manager is taken by the manager of the 1966 England World Cup winning team.

New Faces

Roy decides to inject some new blood in the team. The pair of ex Footballers turned TV pundits of Bob Wilson and Emlyn Hughes. And then is bizarre signing of real life Pop star Martin Kemp and Steve Norman from Spandua Ballet!

New home

The team are forced to play at Wembley Stadium after damage to their usual pitch. Though in the years after this story was published both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have had extended stays at the stadium.

The return of Roy

Just in time for next year's World Cup the return of Roy of the Rovers has announced. The comic strip that told the story of Melchester Rovers striker Roy Race ran from 1954 to 1995. The title was one of an number of titles purchased by Rebellion from the now defunct Fleetway Publisher. Rebellion already had been publishing the most famous Fleetway title 2000AD since 2000. Football fans have one more event to look forward next year.

The Breaking Bad myth

In today's edition of Pointless contestants were asked to identify TV programmes by haiku. One answer was Breaking Bad, it turned out to be the lowest answer. This is surprising for the show that became a status symbol for those with Netflix.

Stupid quiz answer of the day 1-10-2016

On today's edition of Tipping Point a contestant was asked which Reggae singer had posthumous hit with One Love. The contestant replied with Stevie Wonder. Must be a shock to Mr Wonder if people think you are dead.

Types of wrong Pointless answers

There are many kinds of wrong answers that are given on Pointless, here are just 3.


Thinking the answer is right but it is not

2 example of this are the contestant who thought John McEnroe was a Golf player and the other who said Mexico was a state of the USA.

Just making up an answer not matter how stupid it makes you look.

When asked to named the former oil executive who became Archbishop of Canterbury, a contestant replied Dai Petrol.  The answer for the record is Justin Welby.

The split second lack of reason.

When asked who was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas a contestant gave the answer J. R. Ewing and then suddenly realised her mistake.