Alan Partidge: The low lights

Tonight on BBC2 there is an new documentary exploring the career of the famed broadcaster from Norwich. Here are 3 of the famed moments that have made Alan's name.

Changing Rooms

Alan follows a Female Australian Showjumper into the changing rooms after an event. Conducts the interview there and then with only a slight pause when she takes of her bra to put on an new one.

More than meets the eye.

On his chat show Alan interviews an agony Aunt. Throughout Alan flirts with her until she reveals she was born a man. Alan then orders her off the set which she does but not before sticking her tongue down his thoart.

Don't play with those.

Alan interviews a writer who has just brought Bryon's duelling pistols just to annoy Micheal Winner. Things take a deadly turn when Alan accidentally shoots dead the writer with on of the pistols. Alan is last seen helping the Police with their enquires.

Xmas Day TV rout

BBC1 dominated the Xmas Day TV ratings. Mrs Brown's Boys was the most watched programme of the night with nearly 7 million viewers. Elsewhere Peter Calpadi last episode as the Doctor in Doctor Who was watched by around 5 and half million viewers. Meanwhile ITV had a very bad night. Emmerdale which currently holds the title of the UK's second soap was watched by under 4 million viewers while historical drama Victoria fared even worse with 2.72 million viewers. So Game, Set and Match to BBC1.

Unlikely Xmas viewing

For the last 2 years BBC1 have at Christmas shown an new adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, in 2016 it was And There Were None and the following year Witness for the Prosecution. This year there was supposed to be another Ordeal by Innocence but following allegations concerning one of it's stars it was dropped from the Xmas schedules. In it's place is The Miniaturist based on an novel by Jessie Burton. Set 17th Century Holland it is a tale in which a miniature predicts the events of the home it is located in. The novel won an number of prizes but may prove to be too niche for a mainstream Xmas audience.

3 memorable Xmas specials

Xmas is upon us so here are 3 Christmas specials that left a mark.

Blackadder's Christmas Carol

Dickens classic is giving a makeover by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. A caring Blackadder is shown how his ancestors behave and gets some ideas.

Only Fools and Horses - Dates

Del Boy goes out on a date and finds the love of his life. Meanwhile Rodney goes out one of his own only to find himself in the middle of a high speed chase.

Yes Minister - Party Games

The Prime Minister resigns leading to all out back stabbing. The last man standing turns out to be the unlikely figure of Jim Hacker but only after being pushed into the role by Sir Humphrey.

The Jedi backlash

The fallout of the fan backlash over new Star Wars The Last Jedi continues. Sales of toy figures for this film are massively down for those for the last film The Force Awakens at the same point of release. There are videos on Youtube decrying the film for it's treatment of classic characters like Luke Skywalker. Weather Disney take on those views as director Rhian Johnson has announced plans for a separate trilogy. The fans will be watching The House of Mouse's next move.

TV ratings 20-12-2017

A special featuring U2 at the famed Abbey Road Studio could only garner just over 1 million on BBC. While on ITV The Royal Variety Performance was seen by just over 4 million though this was one the lowest figure the event has ever posted.

TV Review: The League of Gentlemen

Monday 10pm BBC2

Starring Mark Gattis, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith

After a gap of 15 years (excluding a 2005 film version) the village of Royston Vasey and it's inhabitants make a return to the TV screen. And in it's first few minutes it maintains it reputation to be both shocking and hilarious in the same moment. A regular character is swallowed by a photo booth while another the World's worst vet Dr.(Gatiss) Chinnery blows out the insides of a Hedgehog over a Mother and her Daughter. Elsewhere there is plot revolving around the town getting redrawn in a boundaries exercise which lead to some characters plotting to vent their fury. The League of Gentlemen is a show that plays by it's own rules so will never gain a mainstream audience, one way to describe is to think of an episode of Last of the Summer Wine as directed by David Lynch. If you are in a mood for dark laughs then these 3 new episodes will be right up your street.

Whoops Sir Mo

Sir Mo Farah the long distance with 4 Olympic and 6 World Gold medals was named BBC Sports Personality 2017. However things did not go to plan, the event was held in Liverpool while Sir Mo was in London. When Sir Mo was announced as the winner he was supposed to be interviewed over a video link however it broke as soon as it went to him. So Sir Mo could not make an acceptance speech. Elsewhere during the event one of Sir Mo's fellow British 2012 Olympics Super Saturday heroes Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

TV ratings 17-12-2017

The final of Strictly Come Dancing was watched by 13.1 million viewers. In a shock actor Joe McFadden took the title  beating heavy favourite Debbie McGee. While on ITV a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was seen by just by an over a million viewers.

R Rated Disney

There has been some concern that R rated Marvel comic adaptions like Deadpool could be a thing of the past due to the Disney take over of Fox. However Disney has put more adult fare under subserdies they own.

Pulp Fiction

Quintin Tarintino's interweaving tale of bloody murders, accidental drug overdose and damn fine burgers was released under the banner of Miramax the company Disney brought from Harvey Wienstein.

Good Will Hunting

The Oscar winning tale of a troubled maths genius which launched the careers of both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was an another Miramax release.

Con Air

The all action tale of convicts taking over the plane transporting them to a new prison was released by another Disney subsidiary Touchstone.

The Mouse buys the Fox

After weeks of speculation (even at one belived to have stalled.) Disney have taken over 21st Centenuary Fox. This creates the media group in the world. It would take too long too name all the assets that cover the deal but here some. The ABC network in the US, Walt Disney Filma and ESPN sports network. What happens to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch will be of much interest.

Awful TV quiz show answer of the day 13-12-2017

In Tipping Point contestants were asked from country a Kenyan came from. One buzzed in with the answer  Africa! The answer of course is Kenya.

Bullseye non-gamblers

In a clip of from mid 1980's edition of Bullseye, the mix of Darts and general knowledge quiz the star prize is turned down by all 3 pairs. First Jim Bowen asks the winners of the edition to gamble their cash and prize winnings against winning the prize but they decline. One member of the runner ups declines on the basis that he is a treasurer so is against gambling, so again the star prize is turned down. The last pair come on and turn the prize down again. So the show ends with Bowen revealing that the star prize is a dining set (table, chairs, etc) and saying his goodbyes to the audience at home. You can find the clip on Youtube.

Keith Chegwin (1957-2017)

The death has been announced of Keith Chegwin or as some people knew him 'Cheggers'. A career as a child actor saw him appear in TV shows like Z Cars and even in Roman Polanski's  Macbeth. However by the late 1970's he would his greatest fame as the presenter of Kids TV shows like Saturday Swap Shop, Saturday Superstore and Cheggers Plays Pop. However by the late 1980's an alchol problem saw a breakdown in his marriage to Swap Shop co-presenter Maggie Philbin and he retreated from the limelight. In 1992 in an interview on ITV's This Morning he confessed to his problems with alchol. Chegwin saw a career upturn as he hosted shows like Channel 4's Big Breakfast. He was not adverse to making fun out of himself as a guest spot BBC2's Extras. Keith Chegwin can claim that he had diverse career.

TV ratings report 10/12/2017

BBC1 saw Strictly Come Dancing watched by 10 and a half million viewers, Michael McIntrye's Big Show just over 5 million and Casualty under 4 million. ITV saw I'm a Celb.. just under 7 million for the first time this year and Through the Keyhole with 2.3 million.

Prime time footie

As part of an new package for broadcasting live games from the English Premier League broadcasters have the opportunity to bid for Saturday night games. These games will effectively be going out during what is said to Prime time during which programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor. The broadcaster who will show these games will be announced soon.

Hanging plot thread no. 4

In The Assest an episode from the first season of Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D Ian Hart plays the role of scientist Franklin Hall is kidnapped by one time business partner and nefarious industist Ian (David Conrad) Quinn. However this turns out to be a part of plot by Hall to use a gravity field to cause mass destruction until he finds himself dropped into the gravity field by S.H.E.I.L.D agent Phil (Clark Gregg) Coulson thereby turning him into a gravity force called Graviton and put into S.H.E.I.D custody. But halfway through the season agents of the evil organisation H.Y.D.R.A take control of Graviton and place under the control of Quinn. In the season finale Quinn is seen fleeing from the scene of H.Y.D.R.A's defeat with the container that has Graviton. There has been no mention of either even though Graviton is an actual comics character in the 4 season that have followed

Downsizing

News has been announced that The Guardian and The Observer newspapers are to be published tabloid size.The new look newspapers will be printed at the Trinity Mirror plant. How readers respond to the change will be of great interest.

The Spotify related artist game

As users of Spotify will know that when you type in the name of an artist once they come up you get the option of related artists, this tends to be contemporaries of the artist though this throws up some weird choices. For example when you pick the World Music influenced Red Box who had 2 sizable top ten hits (Lean on Me and For America) in the mid 1980's you will find in selection of the frothy Bucks Fizz. ABBA have a much more varied, a couple of fellow Swedish acts whose careers came after their more famous compartiots and again those who were around the same time. You can play a game of making a chain by a going through different artists. Down below is an example using ABBA as an start.

ABBA

Blondie

The Pretenders

Spandau Ballet

The Human League

Banarma

Kim Wilde

Now that is a rather small chain but you get the idea. So if you have a day to spare and have Spotify there is something for you to do.

TV ratings 04-12-2017

This years x-Factor delivered the show's worst ratings  in it's 14 year history. Only 4.4 million viewers saw Rak Su win the big prize. One guaranteed thing is that there will major changes to the programme next year.

TV Ratings report of the day 03-12-2017

The first half of the X Factor continued the series decline by only attracting nearly 4 and a half million viewers. Even I'm a Celebrity... Get me Out of Here has shown signs of decline by posting just over 7 million viewers. Has the reality bubble burst?

2018 World Cup draw

the draw for next year's World Cup draw has thrown up some intriguing match ups in the group stages. The most appealing is the match up between Spain and Portugal, it already has the feel of a local derby. Other juicy matches include England vs Belgium, Germany vs Sweden and Saudi Arabia vs Egypt. The cup starts next June.

The Night Manager returns

It has been annoucned that Matthew Orton will be writing the sequel to the Night Manager, the extremely successful adaptation of John le Care's tale of the murky world of arms dealing. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Oliva Colman and a BAFTA winning Tom Hollander, the series gained massive ratings and many awards. The new series will not based on a le Care so therefore will tread it's own path.

The Hatton Garden mystery

ITV have just postponed a new drama about the infamous Hatton Garden robbery of 2015 in which £200 million pounds worth jewellery was stolen. The drama starring Timothy Spall and Kenneth Cranham as members of the gang was due to shown over 4 consecutive days from 11th December and was even trailed quite heavily. Then suddenly ITV pulled the drama from the schedule and replaced it with the fictional crime drama Bancroft starring Sarah Parish. ITV say the Hatton Garden drams should be seen next year.

Stupid quiz show answer of the day 28-11-2015

On today's edition of Tipping Point contestants were asked which Northern English city hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games. One contestant buzzed in with the answer Edinburgh which of course is in Scotland. The answer is Manchester.

Where have the Suits gone?

The announcement of the engagement between Prince Harry and Meaghan Markle has of course made the headlines. One interesting aspect is that Suits the legal drama Markle starred in until this year was dropped by British TV channel Dave and was snapped by streaming giants Netflix. One has to wonder how the bosses at Dave are feeling just now.

The return of Toast

Matt Berry has announced that an new series of Toast of London is being made. Berry who stars as the luckless actor Steven Toast as well as co-writing with Arthur Matthews. Episodes have seen Steven star in a film called Prince Philip: Scoundrel Dog, buried alive and fleeing from Michael Ball who is trying to collect a gambling debt he owes to Andrew Lloyd-Webber. The show has seen guest appearances from many famous actors either in Character (Brian Blessed, Timothy West, Amanda Donohoe) or as themselves (Ball, Peter Davison, John Nettles). Fans are waiting to see what misadventures Steven gets up to this time around.

Comic Review: The Doomsday Clock #1

Writer - Geoff Johns, Artist - Gary Frank

The first issue of the 12 issue mini series that brings the DC universe with the world of the most acclaimed comic book series has just been published and the question is worth it? Well you can not judgements on just one issue but you can gain a feeling for what may follow. Johns just like Alan Moore did with Watchmen is transposing current political events on the story. The first issue deals with the fall out of Watchmen with an International manhunt on for Adrian Veidt after his deadly attack on Manhatten in order to defuse a geo-political crisis is exposed. Johns does some ground work in laying out the plot and introducing new characters with the final pages depicting how Superman could become embroiled. Gary Frank proves up to the task of following in the footsteps of Dave Gibbons in providing atmosphere, character design  and a well choreographed fight scene in a prison cell. What the remaining 11 issues have in stored should be good given the set up this first issue has given us.

Hanging Plot thread No 3

By the fourth season of 24 the character of John Keeler as played by Geoff Pierson had succeeded Dennis Haysbert's David Palmer as US President. However his term would see a massive terror campaign being waged on the USA with members of his cabinet being kidnapped and nearly being executed on the internet, train bombings and the safety codes for nuclear reactors being overridden. However for Keeler he himself would end being a target when flying on Air Force One. A terrorist stole a Stealth Fighter and shot down AFO though this turn out to be an attempt to steal the Football device which carried the codes to the US's nuclear arsenal. The last heard of Keeler was that he was taken to hospital. Only on 24 could the fate of the US President could be (sorry about the forthcoming pun) left up in the air.

Great British comic writers

Below is a list of 5 writers who have left their marks on comic books

Alan Moore

With just Watchmen alone Moore has left an impression on the art form bringing in a more adult tone. Moore brought contemporary politics into stories that would be consider fantastical like Watchmen.

Grant Morrison

Morrison has shown himself to be comfortable writing the adventures of  the likes of Batman, Superman etc with more unusual material like The Invisbles which was said by some to be a influence on The Matrix

Garth Ennis

The writer of comics featuring hard as nail characters such as The Punisher saw his series Preacher turned into a TV show

Mark Millar

Having reshaped various Marvel character like Nick Fury. Millar wrote a string of titles turned films. Wanted, Kick-Ass and The Secert Service which was filmed as Kingsman

Warren Ellis

The one hand Ellis could comics like The Authority that feature action scenes that would not be out of place of a Hollywood movie and the other small scale titles like Hellblazer.

Awful quiz show answer of the day 21-11-2017

On an edition of Tipping Point a contestant was asked who was Ronald Reagan's Democratic opponent in the 1980 US Presidential election. The contestant exercised his option to pass the question to his rival who gave the answer George Bush Senior. Bush was of course Reagan's running mate while the opponent was Jimmy Carter. However the pass would prove to be in vain as the rival won.

Ratings report 20-11-2017

Last night saw the importance of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here to ITV being underlined as the first show of this year's edition posted viewer figures of over 10 million. For the rest of the night ITV suffered badly under the double punch Strictly Come Dancing and Blue Planet II posted impressive figures for BBC1.

Ratings report 19-11-2017

The decline of X Factor continues as it only got last night 4.69m viewers. ITV bosses will be hopeful that viewers will start tuning for the start of this year's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

The end of Murray and Who?

Reports are circulating that Murray Gold who has composed the music for every episode of Doctor Who since it's return in 2005 may be stepping away from the position of composer after this year's Xmas special. If true Gold will going of his own accord unlike Dudley Simpson who providing the music between 1964 and 1980, Simpson went to a lunch with the then new producer John Nathan-Turner telling him he was looking forward to working with him only for Nathan-Turner to sack there and then. Nathan-Turner later admitted for future sackings he did take the persons concerned to lunch to do it.

Awful quiz show answer of the day 16-11-2017

On today's edition of Tenable a team of 5 contestants were asked to name the last 10 Conservative party leaders. One of them offered Kriss Akabusi. Everybody laughed in the studio as soon as it was given. Akabusi has claims to fames, one as a world class athlete and the other having the most famous laugh in the UK.

Keith Barron 1934 -2017

The death has been announced today of Keith Barron. As an actor he starred in a wide range of production covering many genres. His big break came in the 1960's in 2 politically minded plays written by Dennis Potter Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton. Barron's most high profile role came in the sit-com Duty Free which ran from 1984-86, the show saw Barron's character having an affair while on holiday in Spain. He made guest appearances in many hit shows like Doctor Who, Minder and Dalziel & Pascoe name just 3. Barron appeared in the first ever episode of The Professionals playing a mad man threatening to poison water supplies unless his demands are met. Keith Barron leaves behind a varied body of work.

Football's end times

The world of Football has been shocked by the news that one of the game's powerhouses have not qualified for next year's World Cup. Italy who are in the top 3 countries with the most wins in the tournament lost a play off with Sweden 1-0 on aggarete. The reaction in Italy has been one of trauma, with some comparing it to the Acoiypse. When you think that Iceland one time whipping boys of International Football qualified at the first time of asking it just goes to show how the pecking order of the sport has changed a great deal in recent years.

Toons sell out

In a review for The New Statesman of Paddington 2 critic Ryan Gibley bemoans the fact that the famous bear from Peru currently appears in an advert for Marks & Spencer, he also cites the example of the characters of the Oscar winning Inside Out selling Sky Television packages. Perhaps Gibley just overlooks the fact that cartoon characters are used by the companies that for maxium commercial results.

The age of Howard

A new production of the E M Forrester novel Howard's End. There was of course the Oscar winning film version of 1992. I thought to make a comparsion of the ages of the actors playing the 2 main characters.

Henry Wilcox


1992 - Anthony Hopkins - age at time of production - 55

2017 - Matthew MacFadyen - age at time of production - 44


Margerat Schengal


1992 - Emma Thompson - age at time of production - 33

2017 - Haley Atwell - age at time of production -35

As you can see the age gap between Hopkins and Thompson was 22 years yet the one between MacFadyen and Atwell is only 9. Does this reflect a growing unease about the large age gaps of screen couples. we may never know the answer.

The Encore is over.

ITV Encore is to close down as a standard TV channel. The channel that showed many ITV dramas of the past such as Brideshead Revisted, Poirot and Upstairs,Downstairs plus new productions  such as the Frankenstein Chronicles will now become an premium box set service via services like Virgin.  If this is to herald a change with ITV's other digital stations remains to be seen.

Leaving the Street

In the last month ITV have started to show a second episode of Coronation Street on Wednesday night. Last night the first edition at 7:30pm got nearly 7 million viewers. Yet the second edition on at 8:30 lost a million and a half viewers. ITV bosses will be concerned the high number of viewers not tuning for the night's second instalment.

Not knowing your Michaels

During a round on Pointless a contestant answered the clue played the Phantom in Phantom of the Oprea with Michael Ball. The answer is of course Michael Crawford..

No marriage of the Fox and the Mouse

The sale of 20th Century Fox to the Walt Disney will not be going ahead. If it had gone ahead it would have seen the merger of 2 biggest film libraries in Hollywood. One group of people who will be disappointed will be Star Wars fans considered that a Star Wars film is not Star Wars film unless it has the Fox fanfare, it has been missing since Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Panorama and how the BBC views it.

The long running BBC news strand Panorama has hit the headlines again due it's investigation into tax havens and how many high profile individual and groups use them. Yet at times the BBC has treated the programme in a very curious manner. Since it's inception in 1953 has every now and again made headlines, in a hoax it transmitted a report about spaghetti being grown on tress. Of course as a hard news programme it has hit the headlines itself most famously in 1995 an interview with Princess Diana had her remarking of her marriage to the Prince of Wales ' there were three of us in that marriage' referring of course to Camilla Parker-Bowles. Yet at times it is seen as non-attractive viewers, in the 1970s when told his sit-com Bless This House was to go out on a Monday night the actor Sid James was delighted as he known it would go against Panorama and draw a large audience. However things changed when Michael Grade became controller of BBC1 and moved Panorama to 9:30 pm after the 9'0 clock news. It stayed there until 1997 despite the grumbling of Grade' successors in the role at having 70 minutes of unbroken news when the then acting controller Mark Thompson moved it to 10 pm. in 2000 due to schedule changes iniatied by then Director-General Greg Dyke, Panorama (which had always been on a Monday) was moved to a late night Sunday slot and less editions were made. However in 2007 Panorama returned to Monday nights due to an edict from the BBC Board of Governors, although it was put an slot opposite the second Monday night episode of Coronation Street. However the one thing that can be said of Panorama is that it has stood the test of time while other programmes of it's ilk like World in Action and This Week have fallen by the way side.

Sore losers?

An almost regular sight on Match of the Day is the sight of fans leaving the stadium early due to their team being beaten. Does this indicate loss of faith or just simple resignation.  But it still looks like bad PR.

The missing years of The Bill

UK TV channel Drama had recently started showing repeats of long running cop drama The Bill from it's start in 1984. However the channel has announced that it will be skipping a 10 year period of episodes from 1988 to 1998, this covers a period when the show was a twice weekly half hour show. It's fans will argue that this was when the show at it's most popular. Drama have put forward 2 reasons, the first being cost of paying repeat fees to cast and crew and the other being low ratings. The one thing is clear, fans of The Bill are not happy.

A Solo effort or not?

The recent Star Wars films have all had their production problems but the clear winner is the trouble that has hit the spin off film focused on a young Han Solo. The film went into production under the directing duo of Chris Lord and Phil Miller who were more well known for comedies like 21 Jump Street. However just before the film was to cease production the pair were fired, the reason given was that producers were unhappy with their working methods. To replace them Oscar winning director Ron Howard was brought in. Howard rang many changes including changing a CGI character into a live action one. This has lead to speculation that Howard will get sole directing credit however a recent statement by actress Thandie Newton who 90% of her role was filmed with Lord and Miller. We will have to wait a year for the answer.

The return of Jenny

In a recent blog about hanging plot threads, one I wrote about was the character of Jenny in Doctor Who. In the show she was created with the DNA of the Doctor, in the original draft Jenny was killed off however incoming show runner Steven Moffat. But the character did appear in the 7 years of his tenure in charge. Now news has broken that the character will be the main character in an new audio play. Jenny will again played by Georgina Moffett though she now uses her married surname of Tennant, her husband of course being David Tennant the actor who was playing The Doctor in the episode she appeared in.

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.

Sorry but your family history is too boring

A news report has emerged that a proposed episode of Who Do You Think You Are? about Eamon Holmes was dropped because his ancestors were too boring. The show which features famous people discovering all about their family history. Previous episodes have featured regular screen cockney Danny Dyer that he was related to Royalty. In the case of Holmes researchers could only find was that he was from a very long line of farmers so he was dropped. This brings mind to an Armstrong & Miller sketch in which Alexander Armstrong discovers some very unfortunate skeletons in the cupboard when he appears on it. Think yourself lucky Eamon.

Best of: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes

The 10 best episodes of the 2 shows featuring Philip Glensiter as tough as nails cop Gene Hunt dealng with the time displaced Sam (John Simm) Tyler in the 1970s and Alex (Keeley Hawes) Drake in the 1980s.

Note as episode titles were not used for either series so for reference initials of the series then the series and episode numbers

1. LoM S1 E3.

When a foreman dies in a factory Gene suspects the union rep while Sam is not so sure. Gene also has to deal with a rival copper.

2. LoM S1 E2

Sam is uneasy over Gene's techniques to nail would be robber and tries his own methods. The opening features a funny foot chase set to Wings Live and Let Die.

3. AtA S1 E6

Gene comes face to face with an old foe when on a robbery case. When Alex finds herself locked in a freezer Gene comes to the rescue to the Ultravox's Vienna

4. LoM S1 E5

A mans death may be linked to Football hooligans so Gene and Sam go undercover working at a pub. John Simm as Sam delivers a powerful monologue about the carnage that would come to the Football stands.

5 AtA S1 E7

A charity fund raiser claims to have be mugged and all his takings stolen however that may not be the case. Matthew Mcfadyen Keeley Hawes Spooks co-star and real life husband plays the fund riser.

6. LoM S2 S1

Sam comes face to face with an old foe from the 2000's however Gene seems to be in his pocket

7. AtA S3 E8

The final episode where all the threads of the 2 shows are all tied together with an appearance by an old face.

8. AtA S1 E4

A murder investigation sees Gene and Alex probe secrets of the highest order, even at one point getting trapped in a Government building. There is a sly reference to Keeley Hawes role in spy show Spooks.

9. AtA S2 E8

Gene and Alex find themselves trying to foil a robbery by a group of crooked cops. Just when you think all the twists there is one final shocker.

10. AtA  S3 E5

2 of Genes former colleagues from Manchester come to London looking for a stand up comic who they claim has committed fraud however that may not be the case. Real life comedian Roy Hudd plays the comic.

Bobby goes for a dive

One of the most (in)famous moments in a celebrity competition came in 2003's The Games. The show feature celebs being trained to take part in Olympic events. One such event was Diving. Bobby Davro best known for his impression shows in the 1980's went to the highest 10m board. The result was a very painful belly flop. You can watch re cored off TV screen footage on Youtube.

The holiday over?

Reports have emerged that ITV's long running comedy Benidorm could be heading for the axe. It has been one of ITV's few comedy hits in the last decade even going from a half hour duratation to a full hour programme. Though the news may spark a campign to stop the axe. We shall see.

Pop promos with actors

This is a list of 3 pop promos that feature actors in them. Please note none have no connection to films.

Kate Bush - Experiment IV

This 1986 track features Hugh Laurie and Dawn French at a time when they were blazing a trail in British Comedy. The video also features veterans Peter (Porridge, Game of Thrones) Vaughn and Richard (Goldfinger) Vernon. The video was deemed too disturbing that it was one point banned.


Paul McCartney - Take It Away

Featuring a mini Beatles reunion with Ringo Starr on drums and legendary producer George Martin on piano.  This 1982 video has John Hurt playing a manager on the look out for new talent. No need to guess who he discovers.


Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness

A year before his death from cancer Graham Chapman appeared in this 1988 video. Chapman takes on the role of a strict Art teacher who after scolding one of his pupils for drawing Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie ends up meeting him. Chapman taking on the role of a strict teacher was an obvious play on his personal reputation as a hell raiser.

William G Stewart (1933-2017)

The death was announced this week of William G Stewart a man with perhaps the most unique career in TV. In the early 1970s Stewart was producer/director of sit-coms like Bless This House and Father Dear Father. By the 1980s he had moved into working on game shows like Family Fortunes and The Price is Right.  Before taping for The Price is Right Stewart would walk out before the audience wearing a Bomber Jacket with Rule Britania blaring out the studio pa in order to get them to get them into a frenzy. Stewart would then find himself in front of the camera when Jonathan Ross could not commit to presenting to general knowledge quiz 15-1 which would run for 15 years from 1988.  During one edition in 2001 in which a large number of contestants did not make it past the first round Stewart was faced with airtime to  fill and so decided to air his view that the Elgin Marbles should be handed back to Greece by the Royal Museum of London. The many tributes that have been paid to Stewart is testament to his legacy in the industry.

What a hair cut says

When Emilia Clarke recently posted photos on Instagram the Internet was set afire. The actress best for known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thornes was seen with her hair cut short and hair dyed white. For the past 7 seasons of Game of Thrones Clarke has worn a long white blonde wig, this has led to speculation about the 8th and final season. We will see why the drastic change in hair in more than a year.

Dumb quiz show answer of the day

On an edition of Pointless  constants were asked to name a Golfer who had won more than 2 majors ( The Open, US Open, US Masters and US PGA) since 1946. One said he did not know much about Golf and gave an answer on the basis that they were a Golfer, The answerer was John McEnroe. Do I need to go any further?

Popular programmes I have never watched

A follow up to a list from  last year as the title says this is a list that a great deal of many people have watched but not me

Doc Martin

Coming back tonight is the Martin Clunes vehicle in which he plays a grumpy doctor. Sorry Martin but I either change the channel or switch off after 5 minutes.

Monarch of the Glen

The Highland based show that for a brief time starred Richard Briers ran for 5 years but I just could not stand the shortbread tin version of Scotland,

Broadchurch

Chris Chibnall crime story set in an English coastal town was watched by millions but I was  put off by the overly grim trailers and the fact that last time Olivia Colman played a policewoman was in Edgar Wright's action spoof Hot Fuzz.

Why GoT is needed

The record ratings low that hit this year Emmys show how much missed was Game of Thrones was this year and it could get worse if the final season does not air until 2019

The Emmys 2017: Anyone watching?

Last night saw US TV's version of the Oscars, the Emmys take place. However the general public seemed uninterested as it recorded it worst ever ratings with just over 9 million viewers. Some blaming the overly politicised attempts at humour as a turn off. An another was the awards being dominated by show with rather niche followings like the winner of the Best Drama award The Handmaid's Tale. It appears that this is another case of the general public tastes at odds with the major awards.

Question Time face off wish list

The debate programme is well known for it's furious debates here are some confrontations I would like to see.

Nigel Farage vs Mark Steel

The man who came to symbolise the railing against the EU takes on the most right on person


Owen Jones vs David Starkey

The youthful left wing firebrand confronts the historian who is not shy in making his views known


Isabel Oakshott vs Mhari Black

Right wing political commenter Breexit cheerleader against SNP MP who is currently the youngest just now

Unlikely Brits in Hollywood movies

Down the years many British actors have appeared in Hollywood productions, here are 3 of the most unlikely examples


Tom Watt

Best known as lovable loser Lofty in Eastenders Watt had a bit part in Patriot Games as an electrician who on his latest job makes a discovery that tips off a terrorist.

Mark Wingett

For many years he was famous playing Jim Carver in The Bill. Wingett played a villager in Snow White and the Huntsman whose son death sees him join the uprising led by Snow White.

Jeff Rawle

Yes the Harry Potter films were filled to the brim with British actors but it takes time to take in that Cedric Diggoary father's is George the luckless editor from Drop the Dead Donkey

Many ways to end the Game

In an attempt to thwart the hackings that plagued the most recent season of Game of Thrones producers have announced that multiple endings in order to keep the series ultimate outcome under wraps. Perhaps the only programme to have stair up such fevered interest was Dallas with the who shot J.R. storyline. No firm date has yet been announced as when the 8th and final season will be screened.

The diminished appeal of The Simpsons

In today's edition of Tipping Point in the head to head round contestants were asked to name the 1991 No. 1 song inspired by The Simpsons. One of them replied they had not seen The Simpson while the other replied Doing the Bartman. The answer was Do the Bartman. It curious to think The Simpsons once had a grip on pop culture conicuness.

Brotherly clash: the first results

The first episodes of the 2 dramas written by Brothers Harry and Jack Williams Rellik and Liar went out last night and the ratings are in. Rellik got 3.6 million viewers while ITV's Liar got 4.86 million. Some ratings watchers blame Rellik inferior score on a combination of non-traditional story telling and having a low rating Panorama lead in.

Brotherly clash

Tonight's TV schedule sees an intriguing clash. BBC1 will be showing Rellik while ITV has Liar, both dramas were written by brothers Harry and Jack William who were responsible for The Missing. The 2 shows play around with narrative structure, Rellik goes back in time to discover the motive of a serial killer while Liar presents the differing sides of a rape case. Both shows have been heavily trailed in the last few weeks but the advantage is with Liar as it goes out after Coronation Street, Whatever the result there will be at least 2 people happy.

TV ratings 9-9-2017

The launch of 2017 Strictly Come Dancing more than comfortably beat The X-Factor. SCD scored 8.5 million viewers to X-F's 5.5 million. Eyes will be on how this yearly rivalry develops. Early in the day BBC1's coverage of Athletics Gateshead Games got 800 hundred thousand viewers double that of  ITV's coverage of the Horse Racing meeting at Haydock. There will be those concerned at the low ratings of Horse Racing on ITV given the expense and whether it can justified by the annual ratings boost of the Grand National.

Newspaper consolidation

The news has broken that Trinity Mirror is in talks to take over Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell group.  Trinity Mirror are the publishers of the Daily Mirror while Northern & Shell count among it titles The Daily Express, The Daily Star and OK!. There has been much speculation of the future of some titles in particular The Daily Star which has dubious record of the lowest selling national  daily newspaper. As always many eyes on how the story develops.

Where has the star commenter gone?

After the news of John Motson's retirement from commentary work the question has to be asked where have all the commenters gone? By this I mean those whose work leave a impression on you, for example those whose voice became synonymous with the sport they commented on like Dan Maskell with Tennis and Bill McLaren with Rugby Union. Then there were those who worked on various sports like Barry Davies who in a long career worked many different sports including Football, Gymnastics, Figure Skating and Hockey to name just 4. Of today's crop they are some who were quite famous before they took up the mike like Steve Cram who had a successful career at the highest levels of Athletics, Andrew Castle who is better known for his media career than that of a Tennis player and Garry Herbert whose emotional display at winning gold for the Men's Rowing Coxed Pairs has continued onto his work behind the microphone. You may get the odd exception like Jonathan Pearce best known for his exuberant football commentaries but seems to be sidelined for the big games. Perhaps we just have to wait for the current generation of commenters to imprint themselves on the public in the same way their predecessors did.

John Motson: End of an era

After a 50 year career John Motson has announced his retirement from the world of sports coverage. Motson has not been as prolific in the last decade due to him no longer doing live coverage when the BBC temporary lost the contract for FA Cup. John Motson will go down in broadcasting history as one of the most definitive sports broadcasters.

The continuing decline of The X-Factor

The past weekend saw the start of this year's X-Factor and it is not good news for ITV. The 2 episodes shown had viewing figures barely approaching 6 and a half million viewers. This is a far cry from the days when the show had 10 million viewers and had a stranglehold on the Xmas no 1 for many. It is clear that the fact the vast majority of viewers are young people who are attractive to advertisers, though they may be stating to concerned by the slide in ratings. Many people will be watching over the next few weeks to see if there is any upturn.

More skipped TOTP

As I have written before there are episodes of  Top of the Pops that are not shown for BBC4 various reasons, The most common cause being those presented by either Jimmy Savile and Dave Lee Travis other wise known as the Yewtree 2. Savile whose unpunished crimes caused the operation to come into place and Travis who was convicted because of it. This week an episode is skipped because it features a performance by Gary Glitter. A huge star in the early 1970's Glitter was convicted in the UK of sex offence before being serving a prison sentence for simaller offences in Vietnam. Due to Operation Yewtree Glitter was charged with more offences in the UK for which he was convicted and given a 16 year sentence.

A tale of 2 soap sets

What follows is the contrast between 2 settings for now defunct soaps. Brookside Channel 4's long running soap prided itself in the beginning as being more down to earth than it's rivals. No where was this more true than the soap's main filming location. An actual 13 house development was brought by Mersey Productions the makers of the soap, 6 were given over as the residence of the various character while the other 7 were taken up by the various other arms of productions like make up, editing, catering etc. Even after Brookside finished in 2003, the character houses were used for Channel 4's other (still running) soap Hollyoaks. However in recent years it has become an actual residential estate.
This brings us to the case of Eldorado the infamous BBC1 Euro soap. launched in 1992 and set around a small Spanish town it had it's own specially constructed set. Eldorado was plauged by various troubles such as bad acting, bad sound recording in houses with barley painted walls and numerous off screen troubles. Even after a radical overhaul the show was axed after just a year. Barring the odd pop promo and TV filming the town set has in effect become a ghost town. Perhaps to serve as a reminder of foolish hopes and ambitions.
I leave you to consider what was the best use of money.

The Full Monty 20 years on

August 1997 saw the release of a film that would be the highest grossing film in the UK until the release of Titanic and won awards including an Oscar. Not bad for film which centred around a group of unemployed steel workers who decide to form a striptease troupe in order to earn some money. With hardly any star names with the sole exception of Robert Caryle whose character comes up with the idea of the men becoming strippers. For the most part The Full Monty could be a Ken Loach film if it were not for the striptease element. But the film's popularity can be found that it does not like a Loach (or any film of the same ilk) film to keeping preaching the same message throughout. Come the award season The Full Monty won a large number of awards. At the BAFTAs Caryle took Best Actor while Tom Wilkinson won Best Supporting Actor. From the Oscars it had 4 noms from which it claimed 1 when Anne Dudley won the Best Comedy Film score award. Perhaps the most notable win came when it won the Best Ensemble prize at the Screen Actors Guild awards beating Hollywood heavyweights Titanic, L. A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting. So what of the cast and crew? Caryle and Wilkinson continue to maintain their screen through various screen while Mark Addy in his sole season in Game of Thrones as Robert Barathon whose misunderstanding of a personal situation leads to the great upheaval that sets up the show's premise. Writer Simon Beaufoy has been working on various projects since, including winning an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Peter Cattaneo the director has a much more subdued career though this Monday on BBC2, he is director of Diana and I a drama about how the death of Priceness Diana affects 4 characters. The popularity of The Full Monty still maintains a hold on the British public as it is being shown on Saturday night on BBC1 at a time when the showing of films outside of the big draws like Harry Potter is very rare. Just to goes to show how some films live on for a very long time.

Good shows ruined by bad presenters

3 examples of the above

Room 101

Paul Merton took over from Nick Hancock and his bored looking method of hosting may have pleased some people but the show was relaunched in an new format.

Time Commanders

After 5 years the show that had teams pit their wits in simulation of real life battles was brought back. However it was hosted by Gregg Wallace whose brusque style did not go down well with everyone even the show's historical experts.

Call my Bluff

The word game was revied in 1996 with the genial Bob Holness as host. After 7 years Holness was replaced by Fiona Bruce and the ratings slip soon meant the show was soon axed though perhaps the biggest blame should go to regular panel member Rod Liddle and his rather stumbling manner

GBBO opening night 2017

After it's much publicised transfer to Channel 4 Great British Bake Off had it's first showing of this year. Overnight viewing figures show 6.5 million viewers tuned in. This is lowest total for the show since 2013 but is by far the biggest show Channel 4 has had this year. Many will watching the figures for the coming years with great interest.

The power of the Iron Throne

The season 7 finale of Game of Thrones continued it's record of breaking viewership records for HBO. The episode was watched by 16 million viewers. The figures are impressive when it is considered that live TV viewing is considered unfashionable in these days of streaming. HBO will be hoping that the final season will be ready to air sometime next year. One thing that is not in doubt is that Game of Thrones has cemented it's place as the TV programme of the decade.

TV review Strike,

Sunday 9pm BBC1

Starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grangier

The opening episode of the adaptions of the crime novels written by J K Rowling under the pen name of Robert Galbrieth has the same themes of class and identity in her other non Potter literary outing. Burke plays the title role of a one time Military Policeman who had a leg amputated in the line of duty who now works as a Private Detective who works on the case of the supposed suicide of a model when asked by a friend of his. Giving a decent take on a man who has suffered greatly both on physical and mental levels Burke makes a low key but very effective impression as Strike. Grangier plays a sectary temp who ends up helping Strike on the case and manges to make what could have be an irritating role into a likable one. Though the one actor who makes the biggest impression is in it for only 5 minutes, Playing the role of a lawyer trying to get Strike off the case Martin (and remember the last legal role he played was the title role in the pious Judge John Deed) Shaw just exudes slime in his brief screen time. The opening episode has set up an intriguing mystery

The all new most righteous kill in Game of Thrones is....

SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON FINALE FOR THOSE WHO  HAVE NOT SEEN YET

After 7 seasons of backstabbing and dripping poison in other people's ears, Lord Petyr Baelish finally got what was coming to him. After trying to get sisters Ayra and Sansa Stark against each other Baelish found himself on trial for various crimes. With Bran Stark's new found mystical skills as the 3 Eyed Raven providing evidence against him, Littlefinger was begging on his knees only for Ayra to cut his throat with the knife he used to foment a war between the Starks and the Lannisters. A fitting end for such a vile character.

Forgotten panel shows

In the wake of the BBC saying it wants to cut down on the number of panel shows that are their channel here are 3 forgotten examples.

Bygones

Shown for just 1 series in 1994 and hosted by Danny Baker, this nostliga based quiz show had 2 teams compete over rounds on what they could remeber many years back. One round had panel members trying to pop hits on the obscure Stylophone instrument to see if anyone could recongise what they were playing, regular team captain (and keyboard wizard) Rick Wakeman used 8 and was guessed right  away.

If I Ruled the World

Devised by Pointless co-host Richard Osman and hosted by Clive Anderson, this was a politics based show. One round saw panel members make groveling appeals for votes to audience members. While an other saw panel members ask rivals what seemed resonable only for them to be rebuffed, one such example saw Tim  Brooke-Taylor ask (fellow Goodie) Grame Garden that it should be time for the Goodies to repeated which Garden responds with 'No I disagree The Goodies should have been repeated a long time ago'.

It's only TV .... But I Like It

Hosted by Jonathan Ross this was a show in which 2 teams competed over an number of TV based rounds. One saw panel members act out TV shows, an example of which saw Peter Davison putting his hand up the back end of a fake cow, pull out some custard and put some in his mouth. Between rounds Ross would banter with panel members, one such exchange was with Terry Wogan who talked about his feud with the Danish host of the 2001 Eurovison song contest who may have called him a c********r.

The war of what is a strong female role model

A war of words has erupted over current hit Wonder Woman. James Cameron has called the film a step back in depicted a strong female character, he cites the character of Sarah Connor in his own Terminator films as played by his one time wife Linda Hamilton as a better example for women. In response Patty Jenkins has pointed out some flaws in Cameron's argument. Most of these come from the second Terminator film, Jenkins cites that Connor has become a bad mother and has undergone a physical transformation that has striped away most of her female facets. This is one of most interesting conversation between 2 film maker about a film made by one of them ever seen.

An advance for women

In a change to the advertised schedules ITV will be showing the final of this year's women's Rugby World Cup with England playing New Zealand. This has shown the great strides Women's sporting events in the last 10 years. Events like the Women's Rugby World Cup would have relegated to short items on news bulletins.

End of the panels?

In a speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival BBC entertainment commissioning editor Pinki Chambers has said that the BBC may cutting down on panel shows. Panel shows have been a staple of the BBC for the last 2 decades but ratings have been decline for them, with the biggest of them all Have I Got New for You only getting over 4 million viewers. The viewing public will just have to see what take their place.

From The Chase to The Doctor

Bradley Walsh currently best known as the host of game show The Chase has been rumoured to be lined up to be the companion of Jodie Whittaker's The Doctor. If confirmed this would be another breaking of Who traditions as companions tended tended to be young females, Walsh is 57 while Whittaker is 35. This would not be Walsh's first involvement in the world as he had appeared in spin off show The Sarah Jane Adventures. As for game show hosts appearing in Doctor Who, Nicholas Parsons who hosted Sale of the Century between 1971 and 1983 appeared in 1989 story The Curse of Fenric.

What the Game could have been

Details of the first draft of George R R Martin A Song of Fire and Ice emerged. Among the original details are Sansa turning against her family and bearing Joffery's child, Tyrion being more accepted by his family and Jamie claiming the Iron Throne for himself. Would the public have accepted this plot line one has to wonder.

Hey Peter! Read this

In his column in today's Mail on Sunday Peter Hitchens blasts current cinema release Atomic Blonde. One of his particular bugbears bearing the film's stylised fight scenes which he compares to those of a cartoon strip. The irony is that Atomic Blonde is based on a graphic novel called The Coldest City (which I reviewed in a earlier blog) which is much more in the vein of le Care and Deighton of no frills spy craft tales. Perhaps someone should give Peter Hitchens a copy to keep him happy.

Bruce Forsyth highlights

In tribute to Bruce Forsyth who died yesterday here is a rundown of 3 shows that he hosted to great success.

The Generation Game

Based on a Dutch format, Bruce hosted this show in 2 (1971-77 and 1990-94) stints. Each 2 pairs of family members competed against each other in a series of challenges in which after seeing a professor doing their skills and they try to copy them. The winners would then take in a memory test final round in which they had recall the objects that gone by them, usually including a cuddly toy. Larry Grayson and Jim Davidson both hosted the show but Bruce remains the one host everyone remembers.

Play Your Cards Right

An another show that Bruce hosted in multiple stints, this time 3 (1980-87,1994-99 and 2002-03) though in this case Bruce was the sole host. The show saw couples trying to guess whether the as yet to be unveiled card was higher or lower than the card that was on show before the winning couple tried their luck on winning a bonus prize like a new car.

You Bet!

Hosted by Bruce between 1988-90, You Bet! was a show with a sense of altruism. Each week a group of celebrities would sponsor challenges that could be mental or physical. The 100 strong audience would be asked if they thought the challenger would succeed. The other celebrities would also be asked if their fellow member's bet would succeed.  If the challenge was met with success, the celebs who thought it would get points based on many audience members backed and with those that did not vice versa. Unsuccessful sponsors would have to do a forfeit like flamboyant cocktail making. At the end of the show the winning celeb would be given a cash prize to donate to the charity of their choosing. Also hosted by Matthew Kelly and Darren Day. Simon Cowell created Red or Black that had many similarities with You Bet! only without the charity element, it was an absolute failure.

Michael Barrymore: the forgotten star

Today Michael Barrymore was awarded damages for his claims of wrongful arrest against Essex Police in charges they filed against him surrounding the death of Stuart Lubbock in 2001. It brings back into the spotlight a man who for many years the man who was without a doubt the biggest star on British TV. Born Michael Parker, Barrymore was always destined for a career in showbiz being a Butlins red coat, winning an edition of talent show New Faces and being the warm up act for Larry Grayson's Generation Game. His big break came in 1986 as the host for the game show Strike It Lucky where it was his interaction with the contestants than the actual game show element was the big draw to the audiences at home. At it's peak Strike It Lucky had viewing figures of over 20 million. In the 1990's Barrymore went from strength to strength. He had his own TV show bearing his (adopted) name which saw him interacting with members of the public and just like Strike It Lucky it was a massive success. Barrymore even made a sit-com, though Bob Martin was a far more introspective offering that any one would expect  from some one with such wide spread appeal as Barrymore but it had a sense of the autobiographical to it. Like many others who have brought joy and laughter to countless Michael Barrymore has had his share of personal demons. Like so many he had problems with the bottle and sometimes it came out in public, one particular incident being a speech he made at the National Television Awards. Barrymore also faced much tabloid speculation about his sexuality at a time when he was married. This came to a head when Barrymore took to the stage at a gay club and basically admitted he was gay. The death of Stuart Lubbock would become the biggest cloud to haunt Michael Barrymore's life. Lubbock's body was found in the swimming pool of Barrymore's home after a party. With only an Open verdict following Lubbock's death the case still hangs over Barrymore. In 2007 Barrymore and 2 other men were charged in connection with the death of Stuart Lubbock but were released without charge that led to the verdict today. Michael Barrymore has made the odd media appearance over the years but nothing like at the peak of his stardom.

Gaiman on screen

Following from the news that Good Omens the novel that Neil Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett is being made into a TV mini series here are some other productions to have bore Gaiman's name.

Neverwhere

This fantasy aired on BBC2 in 1996. Given that this was a time when the BBC was barely making any genre TV productions the fact that this tale of a hidden city beneath London got made at was a miracle. Despite featuring future Doctor Peter Capaldi as an angel the show was not a success. Though the idea has carried into the likes of comics and radio.

Stardust

Gaiman's graphic novel was made into a film by Matthew Vaughan in 2007. When a fairy crashes to Earth various parties go after her for various for various reasons. the cast includes Clarie Danes as the fairy, Michelle Pfeiffer as a witch, Robert de Niro as a cross dressing pirate and Peter O'Toole as an ailing King whose sons are jostling to take his throne.

Doctor Who

Gaiman wrote 2 stories for Matt Smith's Doctor. The Doctor's Wife's see the TARDIS given humanoid form when the Doctor answers a distress call, Suranne Jones plays the title character. Meanwhile in Nightmare in Silver finds the Doctor fighting his old foes The Cybermen inside his own mind. Warwick Davis and Jason Watkins are the guest stars in this episode.

American Gods

TV series based on Gaiman's award winning novel. A released convict finds himself in a war between old and new gods. Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday a character who may be more than he seems. Gillian Anderson plays the new god Media, the role sees her takes on guises of Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and David Bowie.

Omens of the future

Good Omens the 1990 novel co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett is set to go into production as  a 6 part TV mini-series being co-produced by the BBC and Amazon. The plot which is a mickey take of The Omen sees the Anti-Christ being raised in a sleepy English village with an American airbase nearby. An angel and a demon team up to stop the Apocalypse happening. Michael Sheen will play the angel while David Tennant will play the demon. Good Omens should be seen next year.

Blown up Athena

In 1988 while hosting a segment from the military display event The Royal Tournament for the long forgotten Saturday morning kids show UP2U, Athena Turner found herself in a dangerous situation. Sitting on the back of a truck Turner was doing a piece to camera when she forgot that a motorcycle stunt rider would jump out of the truck with accompanying pyrotechnics. The resulting blunder left Turner with second degree burns though she did recovered to maintain a long career.

You can see the incident on Youtube

Goodbye Bren

This year's World Atheltics Championships will see the end of the track careers of 2 of the biggest names the sport has seen in recent years. Usain Bolt and Mo (though he will he still compete in road races) Farah. However off the track will see the retirement of someone after a 37 year career as an analyst. Foster began his career behind the microphone after years of competing as a high level athlete, among his many achievements were an Olympic bronze, European gold and being voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1974. Foster at one point was going to hang up the microphone after the 2012 Olympics but decided against it after seeing Farah win 2 gold medals. His reasoning was that Farah would provide even more moments like that and he was proved right with Farah adding even more gold medals. Thanks for giving us your views Bren.

Worst advert on TV just now

The title of the worst advert currently airing on UK TV goes without a moment's hesitation to the one that currently airs for Warner Leisure Hotels. For those who are not familiar with Warner Leisure Hotels it is a chain of hotels who operate an adult only policy. The current advertising campaign features guests saying how good it was to get away from their grandchildren before behaving in a childish manner. The reason why I hate this advert so much is the smug and self satisfied way the people act. Feel free to put in the advert you most in the comments section

Doctor Deja Vu Who

Tonight on BBC1 an new drama called Trust Me begins. It is the tale of a nurse who finds herself out of a job due to workplace politics. She then takes on the identity of a doctor friend of hers to get a job. Of course trouble rears it's ugly head. The role of the nurse turned doctor is played by Jodie Whittaker who recently made headlines by becoming the first female actor to play The Doctor in Doctor Who. One of Whittaker's predecessors in the role appeared in a film with a simaller premise. In 1990's Paper Mask Paul McGann plays an orderly who takes on the identity of a recently deceased doctor to take up a post at an A&E department. However things start to go wrong and McGann's character is forced to resort to murder to keep up his charade.

More Gatlin fallout

In the aftermath of Justin Gatlin's 100m win at the World Atheltics Championships there was a bit of fall out between Steve Cram and Michael Johnson 2 members of the BBC TV team covering. Johnson complained that Cram was not as critical of other drug cheats. Gatlin continues to be a much discussed prescence at theese championships.

A story where the bad guy wins

Last night saw the Men's 100m final at  the World Athletics Championships. It was the final major individual for that sporting titan Usain Bolt. However the dream finale did not happen as he only came away with the bronze. Adding to the disappointment of the crowd in the stadium was Justin Gatlin. Gatlin has served 2 bans for doping, though he blamed the first one on medication he had taken as a child. During the Championships each time Gatlin.s name was announced there were loud boos. The race itself saw Gatlin taking victory away from his fellow American Christian Coleman. The result was greeted with large boos around the stadium. Bolt will however be remembered for his achievements for the ages to come.

More leaked episodes

Early this year the final episode of  the third season of Sherlock leaked online. Now the same has happened with this Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones. Clips have appeared on Youtube. With 2 of the biggest TV shows suffering such cases in the space of a year, one wonders what measures networks will take to stop the same happening again.

Goodbye Shelly and Siegfried

Today the the deaths of 2 British actors who appeared in some of the biggest film and TV projects in the last half centuary.

Robert Hardy biggest role in recent years was the role of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic in the Harry Potter films. Though his most famous role was that of Siegfried Farnon the vet he played between 1978 and 1990.  Hardy played Winston Churchill in 3 different TV productions. He made guest appearences on TV shows like The Saint, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders and Spooks to name just a few. Outside of Potter his film credits included The Spy Who came in from the Cold, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Sense & Sensilbity.

Hywell Bennett best know role was that of the title character of Shelly, a work shy man who lives his life by own code. Another well known TV role was that of Ricki Tarr in the 1979 adapatation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Other TV appearences included Doctor Who , Eastenders, The Sweeney and Last of the Summer Wine. His best known film was  the starring role in The Virgin Soldiers, a film in which before his days as a Rock legend David Bowie appeared in as an extra.

More bad news for Chris

In new figures released today it has be shown that Chris Evans breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 has lost half a million listeners in the last year. Given the recent  boo ha about his status as the BBC's highest paid personality some will question his worth. On top of his short lived stint as the host of Top Gear this not been the best of times for him.

And the Games goes to...

The hosts of both 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics have been announced as the only 2 cities that were bidding Paris and Los Angles came to a deal. Paris will host the games in 2024 100 years after it last hosted them, these were of course the games that were the focus of the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire. And four years later LA will host the games having previously hosted them in 1932 and 1984. It has been bit of a come down for the IOC as the bidding process for previous Olympics had seen multiple bidders leading to fervent speculation about who would win the grand prize.

Oh what a Carry On!

A legal wrangle has encased one of the UK's most famous series, the Carry On films.  The case goes back 20 years when Carlton tried to put a trademark lock on the films. Carlton would later merge with Granada to the all powerful ITV and it is they who are being sued. Brian Baker a businessman says that they did not have the right to place the trade marks on the Carry On name. One effect if ITV lose the case would be that they may be new Carry On films produced.

Casualty at 31

Tonight on BBC1 Casualty will be a special episode in which there will be only 1 take. The reason for this is to celebrate it's 31st anniversary. The show has seen many changes over the years, one of the major ones being going from being produced in Bristol to Cardiff though since it is set in the fictional city of Holby this is something that can be explained with. One complaint about the show is how is turned from it's stated aim of being a drama about the state of NHS to what some would call nothing more than a medical based soap as it is on nearly all year round. The reason for this is partly down to the period in the early 1990's where BBC1 suffered a long list of drama flops from new shows like Moon & Son that were supposed to replace long running hits like Bergerac. So Casualty found itself being turned into a soap.  One can not deny that Casualty has outlasted many attempts to replicate it's formula (can anyone remember Medics with Tom Baker?) but can anyone say that it is the same show as the one that started in 1986.

The trouble with Chris

The recent disclosure of BBC stars pay has put Chris Evans under microscope again. It was revealed that Evans was paid £2.2 mil. There was his brief reign as Top Gear host last year. But the most intriguing chapter in his relationship with the Beeb came when he became host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. When then host Steve Wright in 1995 resigned the job when he became unhappy with the direction the station had taken under the stewardship of Matthew Bannister which saw many of Wright colleagues being sacked or resigning. All this change saw declining ratings for the station Bannister and the BBC's head of music production Trevor Dann needed a godsend and Dann thought it came after a conversation with one of Evan's associates that suggested that he would be interested in hosting the Breakfast show. However after Evans signed the deal to host the show, Dann found out that Evans had come with firm ideas. The main sticking point was that the show would be produced by Evans's own production which would put it outside the control of Dann. However Evans's various demands for Bannister that he refused to give Evans Friday off so he could his TV chat show TFI Friday for Channel 4, this prove too much for Bannister who refused the request. Evans then quit in 1997. Evans then returned to BBC to work for Radio 2 in 2005 taking over the Breakfast Show from the late Terry Wogan. Chris Evans will always be someone to ruffle feathers.

For more on the Radio 1 situation you can watch a documentary called Blood on the Carpet on Youtube.

More gameshow returns

In the last week the return of 2 famed gameshows have been announced.. The Generation Game will return with Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc taking the role of hosts that had been previously taken by Bruce Foysth, Larry Grayson and Jim Davidson. Making a one off return for this year's Children in Need night is the Weakest Link with Anne Robinson as ever to deliver sharp barbs at unfortunate  contestants.

From Compo to Cersei

Further to my piece about Steven (From Jasper to Brad) Knight, here is another one with an unlikely career path. Mark Mylod began his career in 1992 as a production manager on Last of the Summer, the wistful sit-com about Compo, Clegg and Foggy 3 men who may be old in age but not in heart as they tried out various ideas that would cause havoc. Mylod would later graduate to the director's chair to work on such shows as Cold Feet, the remake of Randall and Hopkirk Deceased and the original British version of Shameless. In 2002 Mylod made his feature film directing debut with Ali G in Da House which saw Sacha Baron Cohen wannabe gangster become a MP with a supporting cast including Michael Gambon, Charles Dance and Martin Freeman. With a move to the US Mylod worked on such shows as Entourage, the American version of Shameless. However it is his work on Game of Thrones that has put Mylod name in the spotlight though not for reasons he wanted. Fans of the show have called his episodes the worst in it's history though given the massive viewership of the show it is doubtful if he cares. Mark Mylod has come a long way from working on Last of the Summer Wine.

Radio review: Brothers

Drama starring Tom Burke and Jack Lowdon

BBC Radio 4, Saturday, 2:30 pm

Perhaps best know for his career writing films including winning an Oscar for All the President's Men William Goldmen also had a career as novelist. Without a doubt the most famous of these being Marathon Man which was turned into a film starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Oliver and Roy Schider. In 1986 Goldman wrote a sequel called Brothers which featured the supposedly dead character of Doc (Schider in Marathon Man) coming back from exile. Following a radio version of Marathon Man being broadcast last weekend, Brothers was broadcast. Now some might dismiss it as a standard airport thriller about world peace being threatened by terrorist attacks but Brothers has a satirical edge to it. One example being the description of the then US President as a celebrity is probably just as apt now, while other I do not what to disclose for fear of giving away the plot.The production has a very hard boiled feel to it, a case in point being the some what amplified sound effects used during the fight scenes. Tom Burke as Doc gives a suitable world weary performance that fits the material. Brothers is a production that keeps twisting and turning until the end.

You can hear Brothers on the BBC website for month

A return of music?

It has been announced that BBC1 will be airing in the Autumn in peak time viewing a new show that will be music based with some interviews and comedy sketches. This will be the first time since the demise of  Top of the Pops (except for the annual Xmas specials) that BBC1 will be showing a music based show that is not a talent contest. There will be many keen observers in both the TV and music industries who will seeing if the new show turns out to be a success.

The age of Who

Colin Baker the 6th Doctor has commented on the perceived unpopularity of Peter Capaldi is down to younger viewers of the show being only familiar with David Tennant and Matt Smith (2 actors with boyish good looks) playing the role. With the first female Doctor making her debut next year who knows what their reaction will be?

From Jasper to Brad

Steven Knight has perhaps one of the most interesting career tracetorys of any British writer working in Film and TV today. As Steve Knight he wrote episodes of The Detectives the sit-com starring Jasper Carrot and Robert Powell as a pair of incompetent policemen. The show was based on a skit that appeared on Canned Carrot which was a showcase for Carrot's comic skills. The show ran between 1993 and 1997 featuring guest appearances by the likes of John Nettles, Leslie Grantham and Anthony Head, with early roles for Philip Glenister and Carrot's own daughter Lucy (currently to be seen in Wonder Woman as Etta Candy) Davis. Knight now has become more known for serious fare. His first major success was Eastern Promises the London based crime thriller which saw Viggo Mortonsen earn an Oscar nomination. the most recent film that Knight wrote was the Brad Pitt vehicle Allied. Among his future cinema projects is Girl in the Spider's Web Hollywood's latest crack the Lisbeth Salander character after David Fincher's overly expensive production methods cut in to that film's profit margin. Knight still works in TV with both Peaky Blinders and Taboo still running. And just for variety Knight also worked on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Charlie and his pay

One of the most intriguing disclosures from the BBC's pay revelations was that the highest paid actor was Derek Thompson for the role of nurse Charlie in Casualty, which he has done the show's creation in 1986. Thompson beat out higher profile names like David Jason, Emila Fox and the departing star of Doctor Who Peter Capaldi. Former BBC head Michael Grade has said that one consequence of the disclosures is that agents will now start demanding higher fees for their clients who will feel on seeing what their colleagues are getting paid are they being underpaid.

Too much Ed

Game of Thrones returned for it's 7th season yesterday. While the opening episode had rave notices there were some complaints about the cameo of Ed Sheeran as a Lannister soldier with fans complaing about him taking up screen space and time for little effect. The series it self continued to earn it's reputation as one of the most blood thirsty of TV shows with the mass poisoning of the Frey clan. The next 6 episodes will even more scenes of that vein.

Calling Doctor Jodie

The 13th actor to play the title role in Doctor Who has been announced, and for the first time a woman will play the part of the Doctor. Jodie Whittaker will start in the role next year. The announcement has of course set the Internet alight with some calling it stunt casting and political correctness gone mad. Perhaps the 2 cases of casting anywhere near the uproar that has caused are that of blond haired Daniel Craig playing James Bond who in the original Ian Fleming novels had dark hair and Michael Keaton who had built a reputation for comedy being cast as Batman, history showed that both actors proved their doubters wrong. We can see if Whittaker can do the same to hers next year.

I am in charge now, you are axed

Here are 3 TV shows that were axed by incoming bosses


The House of Eliott

The brainchild of Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh who also created Upstairs, Downstairs, it was the BBC's most expensive drama until the infamous Eldorado. Also notable for being the last drama series to be made at BBC TV Centre. The show was axed Alan Yentob who become controller of BBC1 who it was said to have a dislike for it. An number of cliffhangers were left unresolved as the Third and final season had made before the decision.


Throne

SKY1 made adaptions of 2 of Mark Billingham's books featuring Police detective Tom Thorne starring David Morrisey. They were well received so plans were made  for a third book to make the transfer to the screen. However according to Billingham an new head of drama at SKY did want anything to do with  they predecessor's project so Thorne was axed. Though fans of Billingham's books will be interested to know that BBC1 will be screening In the Dark based on another of his novels.


Gamesmaster

The show that remains the high water mark for computer and video gaming on UK TV is said to have fallen foul of a person feud. in 1997 Micheal Jackson was made controller of Channel 4 and axed Gamesmaster on the basis that were too many entertainment programmes on the channel. Others say the decision was more to do with a long running spat between Jackson and Gamesmaster producer Jane Hewland that dated back to the start of their careers at LWT.

TV shows that most people do not know are still being made

Here is a list of 3 TV shows that had a high profile but have slid into the past but are still being producing


Blue Peter

The show that became a national institution found itself in digital exile when the BBC moved all it's children's programming onto the digital CBBC channel where it has seen diminished ratings.


The South Bank Show

The long running arts and culture programme that was such a Sunday night fixture was axed by ITV in 2010. However presenter (Lord) Melvyn Bragg brought the show to the Sky Arts Channel which produces new episodes


South Park

The late 1990's pop culture hit (it even spawned an Oscar nominated film)  that would often push the boundaries of taste with such scenes like a fight between Jesus Christ and Santa Claus. Yet most people would think it finished years ago yet is still being produced.