Monday, 30 April 2018

The holiday is over

Wednesday's night episode of Benidorm will be it's last ever it has been announced. The ITV comedy about a group of tourists on the titular location has been running for over 10 years. Cast members have included Johnny Vegas, Steve Pemberton, John Challis and Sherrie Hewson. Benidorm will go down as one of ITV's few comedic high spots of the last few years.

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Best of: Doctor Who - The Fifth Doctor

After Tom Baker's epic run starring on the show, Peter Davison took on the baton of the title role. Here are his 10 best stories

1. Kinda

Forget about the whole rubber snake that appears at the end, this is an engrossing tale of the fragility of the Human mind, Guest starring Nerys Hughes, Simon Rouse and British cinema legend Richard Todd.

2. Enlightenment

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough find themselves in a sailing ship race in Space as Alien beings race each for a prize (the story's title) that one is willing to kill for. Guest Keith Barron and Lynda Baron.

3. Resurrection of the Daleks

The Doctor's oldest foes return in this slam bang action tale that sees one of his companions make their departure. Davison has compared the story's body count to that of a Terminator film. Leslie Grantham the future Dirty Den in Eastenders makes an early appearance

4. The Caves of Androzani

Davison's final story in the role. The Doctor and Peri land on a planet where a brutal conflict rages. The Doctor finds that he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice

5. Eathshock

The Doctor tries to stop the Cyberman from destroying the Earth. However on of his companion makes an effort to stop their plans

6. The Five Doctors

Jon Pretwee and Patrick Troughton return to the role for the 20th anniversary special. Richarad Hurdneel stands in for the William Hartnell. Tom Bakers appears from footage in the uncompleted Shada

7. The Visitation

3 on the run criminal aliens are about to unleash a plague on the Human Race. However The Doctor stops by starting History's most famous fire

8. Castrovalva

The Doctor's regeneration proves to be troubled. So he, Tegan and Nyssa go to somewhere that may help. However behind the tranquillity lies a dark secret.

9. Snakedance

The Mara from Kinda returns for revenge. Featuring an early appearance by Martin Clunes

10. Planet of Fire

An intergalactic distress signal sends the TARDIS to a planet that suffers constant volcanic eruptions. Featuring the last appearances for 2 of the TARDIS crew.


Friday, 27 April 2018

To go where no Woman has gone before

It has been announced that S J Clarkson will become the first woman to direct a Star Trek. Clarkson has a varied track record. In her native UK she started directing soapy shows like Eastenders, Footballers Wives and Bad Girls before directing the last episode of Life on Mars. She moved to the US  where she directed such shows as Dexter, Heroes and Jessica Jones. Clarkson returned to the UK to direct the David Hare written thriller Collateral. There have been female directors on the various iterations of Star Trek on TV with the most famous being Roxann Dawson who also played the half Human - half Klingon B'Enna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager who directed episodes of both that show and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Thursday, 26 April 2018

Wembly for sale?

News has emerged that the Football Association has been offered 800 million pounds by Shahid Khan. Khan is both the owner of Fulham Football club in England and Jacksonville Jaguars American Football team in the US. It is rumoured that Khan wishes to bring over the Jaguars and base them at Wembly. First he would need permission from the National Football League to do that. Some have also air their concerns that the England national Football team will not be playing home matches at their traditional home. Needless to say this story has a long way to go.

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

The word of Eamon

For outspoken views on Football view you can not beat Eamon Dunphy. You can see his work for RTE where he is more than forthright his views. Describing the current status of Manchester City as nothing more than a project. Though he can get it wrong, when asked to pick the winner of the 2014 World Cup Dunphy went for Colombia only for them to be beaten by hosts Brazil in the quarter finals. You can see many videos featuring Eamon airing his views on Youtube.

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Music powered by streaming

In figures released today it has been revealed that Streaming is the biggest source of income for the Music industry. Outfits like Spotify and I-Tunes have helped turn around a 15 year period in which the industry has seen decline. This is is bit of a turnaround from the early 2000s in which the music sharing web site lost a law suit brought Thrash Metal giants Metallica.

Monday, 23 April 2018

Normal service disrupted

Those expecting Tipping Point found instead coverage of a pack of newspaper photographers outside a hospital . This was of course due to the birth of the third child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge