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