And so with just one more show in the series to go, it’s time for the traditional exit interviews from the semi-final’s departing dancers, Mandy Montanez and Alastair Postlethwaite.
According to Mandy, participating in the show has reignited the love of dance that spurred her to pursue it as a career from the age of 12:
For Alastair, as with most performers, he’s been here many times before, getting so close but not getting the job:
And so once more those lovely people at E4 have provided TV Today readers with a special preview of next week’s episode…
In Throwdown, Sue Sylvester is now co-director of the glee club, and her ongoing battle with Will sees the club splitting in two — with Sue getting all the ‘minority kids’ (or, in Sylvester-speak, “Santana, Wheels, Gay Kid, Asian Kid, Other Asian Kid, Aretha, Shaft”). Meanwhile, Quinn and Finn have to contend with a blogger threatening to reveal their secret, while Terri has to find a way to stop Will from heading to the hospital for her ‘baby scan’…
EastEnders BBC1, Monday 8pm
One by one, the Jacksons are returning to the Square. Tonight, it’s the turn of Sonia (Natalie Cassidy) who joins in Bianca’s hen celebrations.
Law & Order UK ITV1, Monday 9pm
A backpacking student arrives back in the UK, only to collapse at the train station vomiting blood. On the autopsy table, it transpires she was a drugs mule, with the rupture of one of seventy packages of heroin causing her death. As usual, the show’s far more interesting during the police investigation than in the CPS courtroom scenes, although they’re enlivened by Eddie Marsan as the prosecution barrister. Keep an eye out for the most improbably named driving school in television history…
Glee E4, Monday 9pm
In order to keep an eye on her husband, the scheming Terri takes a job as school nurse. Not that she knows anything about nursing, of course. But those pills she hands out to the pupils go down a treat… Meandwhile, Will starts up a mashup contest in the glee club, with the boys and girls each having to come up with numbers that amalgamate two different songs.
Vampires: Why They Bite BBC3, Wednesday 9pm
What with Being Human, Vampire Diaries and True Blood on our TV screens as well as the diabolically awful Twilight saga in cinemas, the vampire has transformed from movie monster to romantic hero. Historian Lisa Hilton examines the phenomenon, with input from Sookie Stackhouse creator Charlaine Harris, and Being Human’s Toby Whithouse.
Dancing on Wheels BBC3, Thursday 9pm
Celebrities learn to ballroom dance. So far, so Strictly — but the difference here is that they are learning wheelchair dancesport with a non-celebrity wheelchair user who is equally new to the genre. Under the tutelage of Brian Fortuna, an active proponent of wheelchair ballroom in the US where his mother developed the dance syllabus, it’s all pre-recorded so there’s no public vote. Hopefully this series will help wheelchair dancesport take hold in the UK.
What Katie Did Next ITV2, Thursday 9pm
Unfortunately, “decided to be silent for the sake of her children” does not seem to be on the list…
This week’s So You Think You Can Dance was a different experience for me, as the BBC were kind enough to invite me down to the studio to save me live tweeting from home. And it was a great atmosphere down at TV Centre, and it was great to have the chance to meet Nigel (shorter than I imagined) and Sisco (taller) as well as all the dancers (who are all shorter than I’d thought. Even Robbie, who strides out like a Leviathan in comparison to the others, but is of, I’d say, average height).
But enough of the hob-nobbing (for now, at least) and back to the show. As it was the semi-final, the structure changed slightly again: all three couples, again selected at random, would be dancing two routines as a pair, as well as each dancer doing a solo and, in the results show, all six joining together for a group dance.
As usual, couple dances (and, this week, the group dance) are in the video playlist below. The main show and results show are still available on iPlayer until next Saturday.
Archive on 4: Open Sesame Radio 4, Saturday 8pm
Jim Henson’s Muppets have lived alongside humans in Sesame Street for forty years, educating children around the world as they entertain them. Konnie Huq looks back over the show’s four decade-long run, and the iconic characters (Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo) it has created.
The Wire: The Gold Farmer Radio 3, Saturday 9.45pm
Terry is a clerk in a Cardiff law firm, who only moved to Wales to be closer to his oblivious colleague Sally. Online, he plays the sword-and-sorcery game Kingdom of Dragons, where he adopts the persona of warrior Tork Thunderbolt. But his fellow gamer Greyhawk is harbouring a shameful secret… Rory Kinnear stars as Terry in the first of his two performances in Radio 3 dramas this weekend.
Desert Island Discs Radio 4, Sunday 11.15am
This week’s castaway is the normally gregarious TV fashion presenter Gok Wan. Away from the spotlight, as with so many presenters whose outrageousness is part of their schtick, he’s a lot calmer and, as a result, a delightful companion for three quarters of an hour.
Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
Today’s studio guest is Sheridan Smith, currently appealing to audiences as pink-clad wannabe lawyer Elle Woods in Legally Blonde at the Savoy.
How to Broadcast Radio 7, Sunday 2.10pm
How to Give a Party Radio 7, Sunday 2.50pm
Stephen potter and Joyce Grenfell’s satirical self-help guides were, apparently, a radio comedy highlight in the 1940s. Indeed, when the Third Programme started in 1946, How to Listen was the very first programme to be broadcast. Here, as part of Radio 7’s mini-Grenfell season to mark the centenary of her birth, we are given a 1951 show made to celebrate the Third’s fifth anniversary, followed by an earlier, 1943 edition.
Drama on 3: Amazonia Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Rory Kinnear returns after yesterday’s drama to play author Arthur Ransome. Years before he became famous with the publication of children’s novel Swallows and Amazons, he became swept up in the events of the Russian Revolution, combining his role as a journalist with that as an agent of both the Bolsheviks and the Foreign Office. As the world prepared for war in 1917, he also found himself falling in love with Trotsky’s secretary, Evgenia Selepina (Michelle Dockery).
Afternoon Play: Raft to Bondi Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
Ian Kershaw’s tale about a father and son struggling to come to terms with loss, set to a backdrop of England’s 1990 World Cup semi-final match against West Germany.
Book at Bedtime: Capturing America Radio 4, Monday 10.45pm
To coincide with a new Mark Lawson-fronted series about US authors, the Book at Bedtime slot is being given over to extracts from five different writers. Monday’s slot is of special interest to readers of The Stage, being David Mamet’s advice for actors from his essays on Emotions, The Rehearsal Process and The Play and the Scene.
Afternoon Play: Buffalo Bill and Little Matty Dyer Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
In 1930s Leeds, the most famous American in the world, Buffalo Bill, arrives with Wild West show — and changes the life of 15-year-old Matty for ever. Kerry Shale stars as Bill, with Christian Foster as Matty.
Come Fly With Me: the Legacy of Jimmy Van Heusen Radio 2, Tuesday 11.30am
Rupert Holmes considers the legacy of four-times Oscar-winning song composer (and celebrated hellraiser) Jimmy Van Heusen, whose collaborations with Sammy Cahn and Johnny Burke have produced some classic numbers, including Love and Marriage, Come Fly With Me, Swinging on a Star.
Fags, Mags and Bags Radio 4, Wednesday 11.30am
Snajeev Kohli and Donald McLeary return with a third series of the sitcom set in a Scottish corner shop.
Afternoon Play: Postcards from a Cataclysm Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
As Matt reported last month, Radio 4 is interested in experimenting with shorter dramas, and that’s part of the reason why Wednesday’s AP slot is taken up with nine short plays, all set as Earth prepares to be destroyed by an approaching asteroid. The quality’s variable, but the advantage of the format is that none of them outstay their welcome. The plays are:
Afternoon Play: Say What You Want to Hear - The Start-up Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm
Stephen Tomkinson and Ewan Bailey are two entrepeneurs trying to get funding for a new website, Say What You Want To Hear. You send them your secret thoughts, they record people reading them out and put them on the website, almost like an audio version of PostSecret. No, I’m not convinced either. Nor am I convinced that such a high-concept drama necessarily works the day after Postcards from a Cataclysm.
Afternoon Play: Bad Faith - Vengeance is Mine Radio 4, Friday 2.15pm
After last week’s repeat of a 2008 pilot come three additional episodes about Jake Thorne (Lenny Henry), a police chaplain questioning his own faith. In this episode, Jake stands between a bereaved mother and the accidental killer of her child.
Claudia Winkleman Radio 2, Friday 10pm
As the Sheffield Crucible reopens after its major redevelopment, new artistic director Daniel Evans’ first production is Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. Claudia talks to its stars Anthony Sher and Lucy Cohu.
Lost Sky 1, Friday 9pm
The sixth and final season of whathas developed into one of the most confusing fantasy shows starts with a double bill of episodes. Forgotten what’s gone on in the previous five seasons? Fallen by the wayside? Never seen it before? Catch up with the preceding show, Lost: Final Chapter at 8pm - or rely on the Reduced Shakespeare Company to bring you up to speed in ten minutes.
So You Think You Can Dance BBC1, Saturday 7.05pm & 8.55pm
It’s semi-final time already? This series really is too short. Six dancers are left in the competition and as far as training establishments go it’s shaping up to be a Tring Park vs Laine Theatre Arts vs Urdang Academy affair, with each training establishment having links to two of the six dancers competing this weekend. No live tweets from me this week, as I’ll be in the live audience at TV Centre — and hopefully getting some content for TV Today for the run-up to next week’s final…
Casualty BBC1, Saturday 9.25pm
Ever since Casualty’s high-concept episode a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been hooked again. Job done, I’d say. This week, Jessica makes an ill-advised return to work, her friend Linda (Christine Tremarco) is still hanging around, and Slyvia Sims pops in as a dotty old lady.
Being Human BBC3, Sunday 9pm
A Mitchell-focussed episode this week, which should please the fangirls, as he tries to impose order on the leaderless vampires and come to terms with his feelings for Lucy. Meanwhile Annie has to babysit a dead baby’s ghost, and George’s relationship with Sam develops.
That’s the Reduced Shakespeare Company rather any other RSC. They were hired by Sky 1 to summarise the past five seasons of Lost in ten minutes, to promote the start of the sixth and final season this Friday.
Drew McOnie and Yanet Fuentes, last Saturday’s departing dancers from So You Think You Can Dance, talk about their time on the show, and the future.
First, choreographer Drew, who’s a little upset that he didn’t get to dance Broadway competitively:
Next up, Yanet also laments the lack of an opportunity to learn Broadway under Stephen Mear, as well as working with Rafael Bonachela on contemporary dance:
Next Saturday’s semi final sees the six dancers further whittled down to the four who will compete for the series title the following week. TV Today will be in the studio watching the performances live, so next week’s show review will be a little different…
Once again, those kind people at Channel 4 are allowing TV Today readers a sneak peek of the next episode of Glee, a full week before the full episode is shown on E4.
In episode 6, Vitamin D, Will tries to engender a sense of competition within the glee club by starting a girls vs. boys mashup competition. Meanwhile, Terri decides she needs to keep an even closer eye on Will, so she becomes the school nurse — despite having as much medical experience as Doctor Fox. So that’s bound to end well…
As the number of dancers still in competition get whittled down, with us just down to four guys and four girls, the gap between all the dancers is clearly narrowing. I still feel that, in two weeks’ time when the one overall winner is announced, it’s far more likely to be one of the boys — but this week I did feel that the playing field was a lot more level than it has felt previously.
Apparently this week’s audience share for SYTYCD were, according to overnight figures, quite a bit down on previous weeks. I’m sure that will disappoint people at the BBC, who do like to ensure that BBC1 has a strong presence in live Saturday night viewing. However, as I discussed last month, the BBC’s remit means that ratings alone, especially overnight ones, shouldn’t be the only means by which the Corporation’s output should be assessed.
But back to the show, and as with previous weeks, the couples’ dances are available below. This week more than any other, though, I felt that the real highlights came from one or two of the solo dances and, in particular, the boys’ group dance — and to my disappointment, the BBC doesn’t put those highlights onto YouTube. However, the main show and the results show will be available for the rest of the week on the BBC website.
Tinga Tinga Tales CBeebies, from Monday 4.10pm
When I was growing up, I found the African folk tales of Anansi the spider and his various allies and enemies of the African animal kingdom engrossing. This new set of animations is based on East African rather than West African mythologies, but the principles are the same — and with the animation itself inspired by Tanazanian folk art, it looks beautiful too.
Glee E4, Monday 9pm
With Rachel having defected to Sandy’s musical, the glee club needs a star soprano. With nobody in school up to the job, who better than Will’s former classmate? Well, just about anybody, when the classmate is a middle-aged alcoholic… Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth makes her first appearance.
The Cleveland Show E4, 10pm
Sometimes, the oddest characters make for the best sitcom spin-offs. Who would have thought that the neurotic psychiatrist from Cheers would go on to eclipse his parent show, especially after The Tortellis bombed so spectacularly? Anyway, this new animated sitcom from Seth Macfarlane sees Peter Griffin’s drinking buddy from Family Guy up sticks and move from Quahog to his home town in Virginia. It doesn’t quite have the edge of its parent show yet, but FG took a while to find its feet too. Check below for a preview clip:
The Vampire Diaries ITV2, Tuesday 9pm
What’s that, you say? A school girl gets a crush on a high school vampire who’s trying to be good and not feed on humans? Why yes, it is reminiscent of the Twilight saga. The source material predates the whole Robert Pattinson obsession, though, being based upon LJ Smith’s novels form the early 1990s. Adapted for television by Scream and Dawson’s Creek writer Kevin Williamson, the result is an expected mix of spookiness and teenage school melodrama. Comparisons with Twilight will abound, not least because of the pilot episode being similarly shot in Vancouver (produciton later switched to Georgia, which should provide a more unusual visual look). Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev play the would-be lovers with the usual down-the-line charm, but Ian Somerhalder as nasty vampire brother Damon steals every scene he can.
Caprica Sky1, Tuesday 9pm
It’s definitely US import week on Square Eyes, as this prequel to Battlestar Galactica makes its UK debut. Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales star in a series which will depict how, and why, the Cylon menace first came to be created. While its space-bound predecessor had a lot to say about warfare and terrorism, here the target seems to be our increased dependence on technology, identify theft and lack of privacy.
Melrose Place Fiver, Wednesday 9pm
Look, I’m trying to find UK series to plug, but it’s not that easy, okay? Anyway, following the successful relaunch of 90210, it was only a matter of time before Aaron Spelling’s other big 1990s show got a 21st century makeover. The original series’ Laura Leighton returns as Sydney Andrews — only to be murdered within the first few minutes. The investigation into her murder will be just one storyline amongst many, soapier, ones.
Alan Carr: Chatty Man Channel 4, Thursday 10pm
A new series of the toothy comedian’s chat show. You rarely learn much about the guests that you don’t already know, but that’s hardly the point. It’s a far more pleasurable experience than the supposedly higher brow Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, but then so is root canal work.
Terry Pratchett’s Nation Radio 7, Saturday 6pm (repeated 12 midnight)
First of an eight-part dramatisation of the novel about a boy who survives a tsunami, which has also been successfully adapated for the stage at the National Theatre.
Between the Ears: The Chekov Challenge - the Sound of a Breaking String Radio 3, Saturday 9.15pm
One of the most engimatic stage directions in theatre history occurs in Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard:
Silence reigns, broken only by the mumbling of old firs. Suddenly a distant sound is heard as if from the sky, the sound of a string breaking, dying away, melancholy
Different productions have varied radically in their approach to create the sound. As electro-folk musician Leafcutter John attempts to come up with an appropriate effect, we also hear from Paul Arditti, who used a mix of industrial, musical and bird sounds for Sam Mendes’ production, and Peter Kavanagh, whose recent Radio 3 adaptation opted for a slowed-down gunshot.
Drama on 3: The Seagull Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Siobhan Redmond and Paul Higgins star in the latest new Chekhov adaptation of the BBC Radio season celebrating the 150th anniversary of the playwright’s birth.
Woman’s Hour Drama: How Does That Make You Feel? (Ordinary’s Not Enough) Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am
Cathy Belton stars as Martha, a therapist who cannot understand why her clients want to be something they are not and why they are surprised that it’s driving them mad. Her clients include Richard Allam as an MP who thinks he knows why he’s not getting promoted to the front benches and Tim McInnerny as both a TV presenter who fears becoming invisible after being moved onto radio and a chef whose 31-year-old son still lives at home. If you miss the individual episodes in the morning and tune in for the usual 7.45pm, don’t worry - while A History of the World in 100 objects is now in that slot, an hour-long monibus edition will feature on Friday at 9pm in the Friday Play hour.
Afternoon Play: The Ditch Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
A deceased sound recordist had been working on a natural history project in a remote fenland area - but the resulting soundscape has disturbingly terrifying consequences. Written and narrated by Paul Evans, this is a horror tale that is no less effective for being broadcast in the middle of the day.
Afternoon Play: The Right Ingredients Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
Lisa is deep in grief following the death of her six-year-old daughter. Part of her coping strategy is to only buy things from supermarkets that she finds on other people’s discarded shopping lists. When she starts to accumulate the ingredients for the cake recipe she used to enjoy making with her daughter, she begins to reconnect with the world.
Afternoon Play: No Trampy Immigrants Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
Based on events in Belfast in the summer of last year, writer Eoin McNamee tells the story of a community fractured by a shocking racist attack. Adrian Dunbar, Brid Brennan and Frances Tomelty star.
Mark Thomas - The Manifesto Radio 4, Thursday 6.30pm A new series of the show in which comedian and activist Mark Thomas looks as policy suggestions from the audience and works out whether they would actually be practical, and whether they’d make the world a better place if enacted. Transparent 4x4s? A maximum wage? A comedy with a serious edge, nobody does material like this better than Thomas.
Celebrity Big Brother Channel 4, Friday 8.30pm & 10.05pm
The final night of the seventh, and final, series. Fingers crossed the gorgeous Stephanie Beacham triumphs over the classless berks she’s trapped in with.
So You Think You Can Dance BBC1, Saturday 6.30pm & 8.20pm
We’re down to the final eight, and it’s getting harder to predict who’ll be out. As usual, join us on Twitter live during the show (I’m @scottm) and come back on Monday for my review.
Harry Hill’s TV Burp ITV1, Saturday 7pm
It may not have felt like it’s been away, with the various best of shows that have been running recently, but we get a new eight-part series of the superb take on the week’s telly. Who and what will be the targets are anyone’s guess, but I daresay Heather from EastEnders will make an appearance at some point…
Hamlet BBC4, Saturday 7pm
In retrospect, maybe early evening on Boxing Day — when most people are still in that post-Christmas stupor — wasn’t the best day for this brooding, clever reworking of the RSC’s recent stage production. Ratings weren’t particularly high then, so this repeat is welcome now. David Tennant stars as the Danish prince, with Patrick Stewart as Claudius.
Mo Channel 4, Sunday 9pm
The highlight of the weekend, as Julie Walters produces one of her best performances yet as Mo Mowlam, the forthright MP who, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, helped to broker what would become the Good Friday Agreement while fighting her own battle with cancer. For more, read the Square Eyes Special from earlier this week.
The South Bank Show Awards ITV1, Sunday 10.15pm
As ITV1’s only highbrow arts show has gone, so goes its annual awards bash. Reports are that it turned into a bit of a wake, with the likes of Prince Charles and Billy Connolly criticising ITV for giving culture the boot — how much of those comments make the final cut will be anyone’s guess.
This morning, the Daily Mirror reported that Liza Minnelli was being considered for a judge’s role on Strictly Come Dancing.
…Strictly chiefs may be taking quicksteps to replacing Alesha Dixon. And after last year’s ageism row - following the sacking of veteran judge Arlene Phillips, 66 - BBC bosses could be about to turn on their heels and waltz back into the arms of an older woman.
Cabaret legend Liza Minnelli, 63, is said to have been lined up as Alesha’s successor after just one series - although one of her knees will have to be replaced first.
Apart from the other odd mention of her knee replacement surgery (which is going ahead anyway, but as written implies it’s a precondition of sitting behind a desk and holding up paddles with numbers on) the piece seems to be more about knocking Alesha Dixon rather than providing anything concrete.
It would be possible, one supposes, that Minnelli could be Strictly bound, although I would have thought that she would be better used as a guest judge for the final shows, in the same way that Darcey Bussell was in the 2009 series. According to Digital Spy, though, the BBC denies it:
There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in this story - Liza Minnelli is not being lined up as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing
Personally, I think there’d be a much better match for Ms Minnelli’s judging talents. Surely as the daughter of Judy Garland and having given the finalists of I’d Do Anything a masterclass, she’d be ideal for the judging panel on the BBC’s forthcoming quest to find a Dorothy for The Wizard of Oz, Over the Rainbow?
Previous series of Skins have kicked off with a lighter episode, showcasing the series’ knack for comedy as a means of drawing in its audience, before heading off into darker territory.
Not so series 4. Co-creator Jamie Brittain’s first script of the new series has its lighter moments, for sure, but it’s a much more sober storyline than we’ve seen at the start of earlier series.
The very first scene is a blistering steadicam shot following a young, drugged-up girl as she walks through a heaving nightclub, blithely walking past the series regulars, heading up towards a balcony and then throwing herself off, killing herself in the process. It’s a shocking scene that works so well partly because, in typical Skins style it doesn’t shy way from showing anything: where other series would cut away just before impact and rely upon sound and other people’s reactions, we see the whole thing (thanks to some clever use of digital compositing).
The investigation into the girl’s death — and who sold her the drugs she was taking — is something that will provide an ongoing story in at least the first few episodes. The bulk of the first episode, though, is taken up with Thomas (Merveille Lukeba) who was organising the club night at which the girl died. As he struggles internally with the desire to move away from the drug world of the clubs, his encounter with the daughter of his church’s pastor lead him to betray his girlfriend Pandora (Lisa Blackwell).
As usual with Skins, the adults are predominantly feckless idiots, none more so than new college director David Blood, played by The Thick of It’s Chris Addison as a simpering, smarmy bureaucrat. It’s a great role, if the sort of caricature that doesn’t always sit well with the wonderfully drawn teenagers who make up the central cast. But Skins was ever thus.
All in all, then, this makes possibly the show’s strongest first episode to date, and suggests that Series 4 may have the potential to be the best yet.
Oh, yeah - and Effie’s back. Things are going to get interesting.
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