August 2006 Archives

…but only fictionally, of course. Channel 4’s upmarket digital channel will air a drama, shot in the style of a retrospective documentary, about the consequences of the Commander-in-Chief being killed in office.

Of course, as any fule kno, the real consequence is that the whole thing would be solved within twenty-four hours by a rogue counter-terrorist agent who everybody thought was dead, and who looks remarkably like the head vampire in The Lost Boys.

Reuters’ coverage gives a little more background as to the dramatic content of the piece:

In the film, Bush is killed by a sniper, and the investigation quickly focuses on a Syrian-born man…

“It’s a pointed political examination of what the war on terror is doing to the American body politic,” said More4 boss Peter Dale at a press conference on Thursday.

while Liz points out in her news story that:

while a number of different agencies are under suspicion for the murder, the programme ends with a twist.

Which can only mean one thing. Yes, Guardian TV pundit and presenter of BBC4’s sublime Screenwipe, Charlie Brooker, will finally get his man. Back in October 2004, he ended a column on then forthcoming US Presidential Election with the words

John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley, Jr. — where are you now that we need you?

…objections to which sentiment caused The Guardian to take the highly rare step of removing the whole column from the paper’s website.

Elsewhere in the More4 lineup, Robert Lindsay continues his ongoing battle with Michael Sheen to become “person most likely to play Tony Blair”, reprising the role in The Trial of Tony Blair, written (as was his previous protrayal in A Very Social Secretary) by Alistair Beaton. Of course Sheen, currently on stage playing David Frost in Frost/Nixon, played Blair in The Deal and again in the BBC’s forthcoming The Queen, leaving them both at two apiece.

More4’s other big politically-related show for the autumn is a spin on a Channel 4 staple — the list show. The 30 Greatest Political Comedies sounds like a great excuse for trotting out the old clips of Yes, Minister and The New Statesman again. Thankfully, it won’t be presented by clip show veteran Jimmy Carr, although that may have been preferable (and I can’t believe I just typed those last words) to the presenters they have got in his place: Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy. One to record on Sky+ and then fast-forward through the pain-inducing links, then…

After yesterday’s musings on the rise of broadcasting archives in our consumption of television and its increasing importance to a channel’s revenues, the BBC has just stumped up the folding stuff to acquire a stack of childrens’ TV classic, Dangermouse, to show front and centre on the corporation’s premier terrestrial channel.

It’s the White Wonder’s 25th Anniversary this year (my, I feel old), and Auntie has seen value in bringing these colourful classics to a new audience of children (and I’m sure some of us wrinklies will have a looksee). What I find interesting is that in the past, shows like Dangermouse and all manner of other vintage fodder, are passed back and forth in the multi-channel world at an alrming rate of knots (Lovejoy on ITV3? It’s wrong!), but this is the first exampe I can recall of an old show, childrens’ or otherwise (aside from the usual suspects of Dad’s Army, Only Fools, Fawlty Towers or Porridge), being placed in such a premier slot (away from BBC2 and the multi-channel world).

The question being, will Dangermouse and Penfold stand up to the scrutiny of a dusting off?

According to BBC head of new media, Ashley Highfield, at Edinburgh this weekend, by 2009, around 25 per cent of television viewing will be accounted for by archive material. Highfield also goes on to say that within the next five years, a terrestrial TV hit will be attracting less than 5 million viewers.

And on the evidence suggested by my own viewing habits, and the current trend in TV ratings, I have to agree. I’m more likely to sit down and watch a DVD of a television show I have sitting on the shelf in a shiny box set, rather than plumbing for something first run from a broadcaster. We’re also in a TV world where a channel such as BBC 4 can have reasonable success with a vintage rerun of I, Claudius, proving that audiences are responsive to nostalgia in spades.

And as to the ratings issue, aside from the soaps, we’re already heading into the age where 5 million is considered a decent rating for a prime time drama. Outside the soaps, the highest rated dramas line up as follows in the overnights:

16 Casualty 6.8 million (Saturday)

28 The Bill 5m (Thursday)

(source: BARB)

Casualty and Holby aside, which are mainstay items of the BBC schedule, Silent Witness, Murphy’s Law and The Bill (a once big hitter) are highly successful, important shows, and back in the day would have been likely to pull 10 million plus. And unless you want to start crying, don’t even look beyond number 30 in the chart.

In the last week, I’ve watched an episode of Black Books, two episodes of I, Claudius, one of Firefly, half a box set of The West Wing, all peppered here and there with soaps, Holby City (yes, I know) and the mercilessly excellent Murphy’s Law (which you may have guessed is my new favourite thing). Am I adhering to a future model of TV viewing? Plundering the archives and picking and choosing carefully from the first run broadcast menu? I’ll get back to you in five years.

ITV have unveiled the trio of lovely heroines to star in its forthcoming Jane Austen season.

Former Doctor Who favourite Billie Piper, as we all know, is to play Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Adapted by Maggie Wadey, the show will be produced by Company Pictures.

Meanwhile Tipping the Velvet star Sally Hawkins has been lined up to play Anne Elliot in Persuasion, which has been re-worked for the small screen by Simon Burke and is a Clerkenwell Films production.

And finally Felicity Jones, best known to fans of Radio 4’s The Archers will play Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey. The drama will be made by ITV Productions and has been adapted by Andrew “Period Drama” Davies.

ITV will also be showing the classic 1997 Emma starring Kate Beckinsale and Samantha Morton, as part of the season. The move is part of the broadcaster’s attempt to broaden the appeal of its drama and bring in a younger, savvier audience. And judging by the publiciity images… it might just work. Next week’s edition of The Stage will have more details.

Network drama director Nick Elliott said:

Viewers love Jane Austen. Her stories always make great TV drama and our Jane Austen season features the absolute cream of British acting talent. This is such an exciting prospect.

Back after the Bank Holiday, and with her spiel at the Edinburgh Festival fresh in everyone’s minds decrying the state of British television, Don’t Get Me Started (Tuesday, 7.15pm, Five) gives Selina Scott a wider audience for her views. Is TV really that bad? Probably, but from the former presenter of The Clothes Show, Ms Scott may be standing in a glass house on this one.

As a rebuke to Scott’s opinion piece, the concluding episode of Murphy’s Law (Tuesday 9pm, BBC1) shows that drama is not tired or samey. Yes, this is a cop show of sorts, but it’s brutal and dirty and gives Jimmy Nesbitt something meaty to get his teeth in to show he’s more than the Irish scamp with the twinkle in his eyes. This three-part story has done the business, and TV Today is certainly hoping for more from Colin Bateman’s undercover ‘tec.

You may have discovered this over the barren weekend, but BBC4’s British Spies season is bearing lots of fruit, including a repeat of the excellent Cambridge Spies (Tuesday 11pm, BBC4). Tonight, though, you can catch Timeshift: Spy Stories, which seeks to examine the rich history of fictional spying antics, and how these characters relate to the real world of espionage. Brilliant stuff.

One former fictional spy, ex-Spooks actor David Oyelowo stars in the challenging Shoot the Messenger (Wednesday 9pm, BBC2) as teacher Joseph Pascale, a teacher who acts for the best intentions to protect the black pupils under his care from a life of crime. But when he is sacked after being accused of assault by a pupil, he starts to descend into madness. This zips along with pace, the direction is clever and fluid, and poses some interesting questions on how a black person might perceive his own people.

And will wonders never cease? Somebody gave a former Hollyoaks actress some work! Jodi Albert headlines new Five comedy Respectable (Wednesday 10.30pm, Five) about a group of women working in a brothel… You never know, there might just be comedy gold in them there hills down Five way.

And after the terrible week its just had, Square Eyes feels duty bound to recommend the under threat Bad Girls (Thursday 9pm, ITV1). It’s still damn good entertainment, and with a storyline that centres round a Prison Idol competition while Pat is trying to hide the body she dumped in the spin dryer, you know there’s still life in this old warhorse yet. One more series, please!

Oh, and there’s mud wrestling in Emmerdale (Thursday 7pm, ITV1). And it’s Katie and Jo, getting down and dirty over Andy. Is there any chance this could be an hour-long episode up against EastEnders? Expect the usual ratings stories from the red tops come Friday morning.

And after C4 was crowned Channel of the Year at Edinburgh, the triumphant channel unveils its new signing and awards Charlotte Church her own chat show, imaginatively titled The Charlotte Church Show (Friday 10pm, C4). Will it be Parky all the way for the Welsh temptress, or will it all go a bit Davina? Nobody knows, and that’s the fun part! She can certainly talk for Wales, so no worries on that front, but has she got what it takes to go the distance?

If some Church worship doesn’t do it for you, The Sharon Osbourne Show (Tuesday-Friday 5pm, ITV1) might be more your cup of tea, and ITV might just have found the long-sought replacement for Paul O’Grady. Again, Mrs O likes to chat, and with a promise that Ozzy might pop in from time to time, this could have what it takes. But when Chico is turning up as a musical guest later in the week, perhaps not…

In an ironic twist, it seems that somebody has been taking the spirit of BBC1’s lavish new spin on the Robin Hood legend, due this October, a little too literally. A band of not so merry men has nicked some tapes from the offices of Tiger Aspect productions in Hungary, where the series has been filming on location for the last few months.

Nobody really knows the true nature of what was nicked - whether advanced edits of the forthcoming episodes, rushes, rough cuts - and neither has much credence been put into whisperings of the thieves demanding a £1 million ransom. But I’m finding it hard to believe that the stolen tapes would be the only copy of the material (or maybe that’s wishful thinking), but still, no publicity is bad publicity, and that’s what’s furrowing my brow…

Not so long back, when the thought of a successful reboot of Doctor Who sounded like blind stupidity, an employee of the canadian broadcaster, CBC, allegedly leaked the very first episode of the new series all over the Internet several weeks before its premiere. The BBC were quick to remove this aberration, but not before thousands of tech-savvy fans had downloaded the episode and passed comment, not to mention the column inches the story garnered in the press.

Am I being a mite bit suspicious that the Robin Hood theft bears a remarkable similarity to its stablemate’s previous pre-launch publicity garnering exercise? Well, you may think that, I couldn’t possibly comment…

It looks like ITV is raiding the Harry Potter trough with fervour. After snapping up Rupert Grint to star in forthcoming autumn drama Driving Lessons, comes the news that the network have signed Daniel Radcliffe for a new production called My Boy Jack.

The production, which is being made by Ecosse Films, will follow the relationship between Rudyard Kipling and his son Jack - with Radcliffe in the title role. Kipling spent the last twenty years of his life searching to find out what happened to his son John (Jack), who had gone missing during the Battle of Loos in 1915.

He had only got into the army because of his father’s influence - poor eyesight rendered him medically unfit. David Hay will play Kipling.

The drama is part of the plan to broaden the appeal of ITV’s programming to a wider audience and bring in new stars. As The Stage exclusively revealed earlier this year, the network revealed it was lining up a drama by Tony Merchant, entitled Whistleblowers.

I don’t think it will come as much of a surprise to any of you to discover that Channel 4 has been named terrestrial channel of the year. Currently the golden child of television it seems the station can do no wrong… well unless you’re Charles Allen…or anyone who hates big brother. Meanwhile BBC4 took home digital channel of the year after a strong year in factual and drama. Rather tellingly, and with more self awaredness than I perhaps woud have credited them with, ITV decided to do their autumn launch at the same time as the event. More on that later…

The latest project from Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, is probably the most hotly anticipated new series to come out of America this year, and will air on Channel 4/More4. Set around a live comedy show, it certainly sets out it stall right at the beginning.

In the pre-credits sequence, show producer Judd Hirsch stops a sketch mid-flow (one that, in a tribute to the show’s predecessor, is set in the Oval Office) and slags off the anodyne quality of American television. It’s a blatant nod to classic film Network — which, in typical Sorkin style, is openly acknowledged as the news networks start to cover the event. To take advantage of the coverage, the new network president plans to re-hire former Studio 60 writer Matthew Perry and producer Bradley Whitford.

Just as Sorkin used his political drama to mix comedy and polemicism, with side swipes at politicians on all sides, so here he does the same thing, this time with TV and film in his sights. Just as with WW, the scripts are fast, slick, clever and skirt the line between passionate and preachy in a precarious manner. Visually, too, it has the same richness and pace of its predecessor.

I know several of my friends were turned off The West Wing because of its overblown “America has the best political system in the world” nonsense. On the basis of the first episode, Studio 60 is (so far) staying away from such patriotic/jingoistic (delete as applicable) sentiment about television. But just as the Christianist element of politics came under fire in Sorkin’s last series, it looks like their influence in modern television will come under close scrutiny too. It’s a bold step to make one of the series’ leading characters a devout Christian, but then have them defending a sketch which lampoons the church. And that’s the thing that Studio 60 looks like satirising most effectively of all — that it should be such a bold thing in the first place.

Okay, at some point the screenings changed their schedule, so I missed the first half of a new comedy Lovespring International. It’ll show on Sky One here in the UK. Presented in a semi-improvised format that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Curb Your Enthusiasm, the absurdist plots set within this LA dating agency seem to be aiming for that market too. And I’m sure this is unintentional, but the agency receptionist, a petite blonde who is so completely self-absorbed that she can’t comprehend anybody fancying her co-workers and not her, is surely a not-too fictional version of Big Brother’s Nikki Grahame…

So I’m here, sitting in the chilly square outside the Edinburgh International Convention Centre, at one of the many public screenings put on as part of the Television Festival. Thankfully, the weather seems to be holding off — an open-air TV screening in a British summer is always a risky venture. (Post-screening update: spoke too soon…)

As we told you back in June, the new US TV comedy-drama (yes, there’s that term again), Ugly Betty, has been bought by Channel 4, and they’ve just shown us the pilot episode. It’s based on a Latin American telenovella — if you’re not familiar with the term, think of long-running soap operas with lower production values than either version of Crossroads, but gazillions more viewers. This being American prime-time, production values are much higher. They definitely seem to be aiming for the light-hearted, female-oriented market: kind of like Sex and the City without the whiny introspective voiceover.

Betty, a plain-looking girl with buck teeth, braces and a natty line in hand-knitted ponchos, is hired as assistant to Daniel, the womanising editor-in-chief of Mode, a top fashion magazine, on the grounds that she’ll be the one assistant he won’t ask her to take his, er, ‘dictation’. Naturally Daniel, who is told he can’t fire her, is desperate to make her life hell so that she’ll quit on her own.

The sideswipes at fashion magazine life are painted with broad strokes so far, more in the style of a by-the-numbers Hollywood chick flick film. Quite how they’ll transfer to a full series remains to be seen.

In fact the whole thing feels remarkably like a low-rent Hollywood ‘date movie’ compressed into an hour of television, right down to the heroine’s success against the odds and the redemption of the flawed leading man. Only a brief scene at the end, featuring a mysterious masked woman, hints at where the series may go from here.

Brit star Ashley Jensen, who makes her US debut as Betty’s new best friend, stands to gain the most from the move to a full series. She’s only in a few scenes, but manages to steal them all by coming across as the most normal person in an office full of freaks (although the costumes she’s been given are hideous). Also look out for brief cameos from executive producer Selma Hayek, appearing in little hat-tips to Ugly Betty’s telenovella origins.

Later today: free screenings of Will & Grace star Eric McCormack’s new project, the semi-improvised Lovespring International, and West Wing/Sportsnight creator Aaron Sorkin’s new project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. They’re open to all — but they’re open to the elements too, so if you’re heading down here, bring some wet weather gear just in case. There are some umbrellas in place, but as I found out to my cost, they don’t provide total protection…

Ah, the Bank Holiday weekend, a time when any self respecting member of the public should be outside getting some fresh air, and all the major broadcasters seem to oblige by leaching anything worth watching out of the schedules (mainly because they’re all in Edinburgh for the Festival, along with my TV Today colleagues Scott and Liz). But, praise the Lord! The Towering Inferno is on (Saturday 4pm ,C4)!

Thankfully, Saturday evenings are currently all about the battle of the singers, with How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (Saturday 6.45pm, BBC1) going up against The X Factor (Saturday 6.45pm, ITV1). Square Eyes is a fan of both these gems of the light entertainment schedules, so is more than happy to advocate a watch one/tape one policy. For my money, Maria is just pipping The X Factor in the enjoyment stakes, but it’s by a hair’s breadth, and ITV will doubtless be pleased with its first decent ratings banker in months with the performance of Cowell and Co.

Earlier in the day, and this is manna from Bank Holiday heaven, Time Team: Big Royal Dig (Saturday-Monday various times, C4) sees Tony Robinson and his gang of nostalgic vandals being given access to the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyrood House. Whether the royal grounds will bear any fruit remains to be seen, but the unprecedented access the show has been given for this special dig to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday should provide an extra dimension. Somebody once told me that you know you’re getting old if you accidentally tune into Time Team and find yourself getting drawn in. Well in that case, I’m happy to be getting old.

If the pub doesn’t beckon in the twilight hours, then The Story of Light Entertainment (Saturday 9.25pm, BBC2) has reached a chapter on the impressionists (no, not the artists). All the usual suspects crop up here, from modern mimics like Alistair McGowan, going back through the golden age of the 70s, and then into the 50s, when there were some pretty odd restrictions on who could be impersonated. This series has been pleasurable company for the last month, and the material tonight of the legendary Dick Emery is a delightful memory jogger.

The Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend usually brings with it that sense of comfy smugness of knowing you won’t be going to work tomorrow, and just lying on the sofa is not an activity designed to wrack you with guilt for a change. Neither is The All*Star Cup (Sunday-Monday various times, ITV1). Although it kicks off on Saturday, this celebrity golf tournament gets into its stride on Sunday, with literally hours of the schedule given over to it. Last year, this Ant and Dec brainchild was consigned to Sky One, which prevented the amiable Geordie hobbits from taking up duties in front of the camera thanks to the terms of their ITV contract. Although last year’s tournament had the bonkers sight of Catherine Zeta-Jones teeing off against the likes Chris Evans, this year has no such Hollywood luminaries working on their handicap, but stalwarts like Brucie will be mixing with, erm… ex-footballer Ruud Gullit and James Nesbitt…

…which is a nice move into a welcome return for Murphy’s Law (Sunday-Monday, 9pm, BBC1). This vehicle for the ever likeable Nesbitt, created by novelist Colin Bateman, has always been enjoyable fare, with last year’s series taking a more violent turn (although it wasn’t as frightening as Nesbitt’s Village People-esque ‘tache, which makes a return here). In the midst of the light entertainment bent of the Bank Holiday schedules, this is a hefty slice of quality drama that sees undercover cop Tommy Murphy confronting his family background while seeking to bring down a gangster in Northern Ireland. This three-part tale concludes on Tuesday.

As always, the soaps still occupy their standard slots, Bank Holiday or no Bank Holiday, and Coronation Street (Sunday 7.30pm, ITV1) is worth tuning in for just to boggle at the lengths Charlie Stubbs will go to manipulate Maria. It does make you wonder how Charlie is able to show his face round Weatherfield after everything he’s done, but as a soap villain, he’s one the classics. Not quite Alan Bradley, but nearly…

And Monday plays exactly to type, by offering very little in the way of quality television, save for the aforementioned Murphy’s Law (9pm, BBC1) and The All*Star Cup (why the badly placed asterisk? Answers to the usual address please…). But then, we’re being remiss here – it’s the Love Island final (Monday 9pm, ITV1)! A whole 90 minutes of C-list fun from Fiji as people I’ve never heard of are crowned the Golden Couple (or something).

Square Eyes has had a love hate relationship with this controversial ITV show, at once deriding it for being ill-conceived nonsense, and then taking a sneaky peek every now and then and guiltily enjoying it. If ever there was the TV equivalent of a Pot Noodle, this is it… Love Island is a relic from the Charles Allen years of ITV1, and it’s doubtful we’ll see it’s like ever again as the channel retools and repositions. So, enjoy Patrick Kielty’s last stand while you can.

After months of criticism and taking the flack for ITV’s woes, outgoing chief executive Charles Allen, giving this year’s MacTaggart keynote speech has attacked Channel 4 for getting a free ride and failing to live up to its public service remits.

Allen recently announced his resignation from the post but will not step down until January. Giving the annual lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival today he said:

It gets a free ride in terms of its spectrum and makes absolutely no return to either the Treasury or to shareholders. In exchange for these privleges you would expect Channel 4 to be held to a far tougher set of principles than its commercial competitiors. Wrong. Channel 4 has a PSB remit high on warm words, low on specifics. Effectively it makes it up as it goes along. In key areas, Channel 4 is delivering less than its commercial competitors. Less original production. Less production outside London. Less news in and around peak.

He also went on to criticse the number of repeats, acquired programmes and US imports on the pubcaster. He added

And let’s not forget Channel 4 does spend £90 million on education. Mind you that includes such instructive fair as Scrapheap Challenge and Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice.

Channel 4 have hit back however saying that ITV simply want to restrict its ability to compete for advertising revenue.

A spokesman said

ITV is angling to lose all its public service programming, including children’s programmes and regional news. A glance at Channel 4’s schedule any week of the year shows a far broader and more challenging mix of programmes than on ITV… In the week when one of ITV’s own senior executives called its flagship channel unwatchable it would have been better for Charles to use his last major industry platform to set out a vision for ITV’s own commercial and creative reinvention.

When the BBC first announced that hit show Who Do You Think You Are? was set to switch from BBC2 to BBC1, I did suggest it was only a matter of time before executives cottoned on to what a winner The Apprentice was.

Well it’s finally happened folk, Peter Fincham, dubbed the magpie controller, has snatched over the Alan Sugar business show. No doubt attracted by the glint of ratings safely around the 5 million mark and the lure of easy positive column inches - the show’s third run will be on the flagship channel.

Peter Fincham denied he was plundering output and said that the transfer of programming across channels was a long BBC tradition. He pointed to the migration of comedy shows over the year such as French and Saunders and Smith and Jones as an example. He added:

The Apprentice is a strikingly modern and highly compelling series which audiences love, and it’s made an unlikely but utterly watchable star out of Sir Alan Sugar.

It’s that time again, the Edinburgh TV Festival is upon us, and has got off to a cracking start with the sacking of ITV director of television Simon Shaps.

Now before you all get over excited, and trust me there are a fair few folk out there that would, I am of course talking about the television executive version of BBC2 hit The Apprentice.

After last year’s cringetastic revamp of Strictly Come Dancing, a whole new range of industry supremos, including Simon Shaps, Tiger Aspect’s Andrew Zein, Channel 4’s Andrew Newman, Beeb boss Jana Bennett and former BBC1 controller Peter Salmon.

All in the style of the tradition television show, complete with smug commentary and brutal putdowns, the team, which were split by gender, had to sell products on shopping channel QVC.

It was painful. Probably the highlight was Zein and Salmon attempting to sell a hoover, neither having a clue how to use and essentially just pushing the dirt around. Shaps was in the back room attempting to give some form of direction. It was futile. By the time the pair announced:

Your cleaner will love this

The writing was on the wall. Come on guys, it’s QVC, you work in television. For Christ’s sake know your audience.

Rather predictably when it came to the showdown in the boardroom the boys lost out. It was a terribly middle class display of mutual backpacking and appreciation, but Sugar was having none of it, by the end announcing, with what some would argue was uncanny insight or clever editing, that Shaps seemed like the type that would hide in the bushes while all the shit hit the fan, before the inevitable:

Simon, you’re fired!

As reported in today’s print and online editions of today’s Broadcast, a leaked email from ITV’s director of television Simon Shaps to colleague Laura Mackie must have created a few red faces around Network centre over the last couple of days. The contents of the email, which you can read in full here, reveals a cautious lack of confidence in the long-term future of action pilot The Outsiders, and the more than distinct possibility that Bad Girls will come to an end at the close of its eighth and current series…

It seems the email was sent to controller of drama, Mackie, who then forwarded the correspondence on to head of drama Nick Elliott, but, buy fair means or foul, the contents arrived in the inbox of an executive at a rival channel. It’s the stuff of nightmares in this IT-charged world – one wrong flick of a qwerty keyboard can reveal innermost secrets to your entire inbox, and I can only find myself sympathising with the crushing embarrassment this must have caused, not just on a business level, but personally.

But the contents of the email are, undeniably, meat and drink to the media, and I’m sure Shed Productions are more than a little annoyed about the situation.

“Should we also be planning to announce Bad Girls comes to an end this series?”

ponders Shaps in his opener to Mackie, believing the cancellation of Footballers’ Wives earlier this year to be a useful sweetener to more possible bad news they may have for Shed. Mackie’s response is very much a wait and see view, saying:

“it comes down to what choices we have, particularly in that price range.”

It’s not all bad news for Shed, though, with Mackie very much looking forward to the first script from the production company’s Rock Rivals, which she describes as:

“really promising”

But should Bad Girls really be under the threat of the axeman’s gaze? It’s true the prison-based drama’s ratings have not been up the highs of the 2001 series’ average of 8.6 million, with the current series averaging 4.6 million But, in current ITV terms, that’s huge, and it is winning the time slot. But on the other hand, it’s been around since 1999, and that’s a good old run in this day and age. Perhaps it’s time to retire gracefully and go straight after the forthcoming Christmas episode.

But for Shed, that wouldn’t be the ideal scenario. The independent currently has a second series of Waterloo Road in production for the BBC, and with an uncertain future for Bad Girls, Rock Rivals in development and Zoe Lucker military vehicle, Bombshell, sitting unaired in the archives, they’re definitely not at peak output. And that’s a shame – for a time, Shed was the only independent providing sparkly, vibrant drama for ITV. It was glitzy and a bit tawdry in places, but at least it didn’t have “heart” in the title.

And what of these “choices” Laura Mackie refers to? The rest of the email discusses the merits of upcoming drama pilot, The Outsiders, starring Nigel Harman, to which Mackie responds:

“Outsiders looks very glossy, with well-executed action sequences, very photogenic leads and hopefully will appeal to the audience who enjoy Hustle. It’s a bit hokey and doesn’t deliver quite the tongue in cheek ‘Persuaders’ type humour that we’d hoped for and if we go to series then we need to push for wittier, more knowing scripts.”

So, hedging bets across the board there. I could write all sorts into this statement (considering what TV Today has already written about The Outsiders), but in all probability, this is just the kind of discussion that top TV execs must have every single day about upcoming projects. It’s good to see that blind faith doesn’t rule the roost at ITV, and a realistic approach is being taken to development.

However, Mackie does feel that, as far as the critics go, they’ll be:

“a bit sniffy”.

Erm… She might just have me banged to rights on that one.

Read the email in full here.

One of the cornerstones of BBC One’s autumn schedule will be a series of five one-off comedy dramas, to air over successive weeks. No definite times yet, but the first, Aftersun, will air in the week of 2-8 September.

Aftersun

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Sarah Parish
Writer: David Nicholls (Cold Feet, Rescue Me, ShakespeaReTold: Much Ado About Nothing)
Produced by: Tiger Aspect

Jim and Sue married young, and 20 years later find themselves on holiday in Spain (an anniversary present from their children) with very little to say to one another.

“I was attracted to the character of Sue because she’s brilliantly written, typical of David Nicholls, who writes fantastically for women,” explains Sarah Parish.

“She’s very strong and has a wonderful way with language – quite damning in some ways and fairly waspish – but the challenge for me was to play a role with age and a weightiness of history behind her.

“Sue has the weight of a 20-year marriage and two adult children and so I thought that would be quite interesting - to play a character at quite a difficult stage in her life.

“Her children have left home and she is suffering from what they call ‘empty nest syndrome’ which is a form of depression – her marriage has hit a point where it’s pretty stale and they’re finding it very hard to be in each other’s company.”

Writer David Nicholls says, “When I was writing it I was thinking of the tradition of plays that I grew up with, from the likes of Alan Bennett, Jack Rosenthal and Mike Leigh.

“Plays like Nuts In May and some of the earlier Alan Bennett plays were a big influence on me when I was growing up. The situation of four people thrown together in a closed environment appealed to me and I love that mix of characters that you get with Mike Leigh and Jack Rosenthal.

“This was a bit of a departure for me as usually I write romantic comedy and this is a little bit darker than some of my work.”

More after the jump…

Of all the websites set up by fans to celebrate their favourite TV shows and creative TV people, Whedonesque has long been top of the list. Even when they criticised an old article of mine about allegations of homophobia in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I still loved them. (To be fair, it deserved any criticism, but then it was thrown together at short notice, after the editor of the site in question was sacked, and we realised we had no content…)

I’m not the only one who likes Whedonesque, though: Joss Whedon himself, creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly and inspiration for the site in the first place, is a semi-regular commenter. In this post he passes his opinions on the best TV characters of all time. His list:

1. Number 6, The Prisoner
2. George Michael Bluth, Arrested Development
3. Diana Bennett from the last series of Beauty and the Beast (“Does anybody remember the desperate last-minute revamp… where they got all thrillery, killed Linda Hamilton and replaced her with a sort of female Will Graham, before half the characters on TV were sort of female Will Grahams — before, in fact, Clarisse Starling? Well she was awesome. Cool, and wicked beautiful… Show died in a month.”)
4. Belzer, Hill Street Blues
5. Josh Lyman, The West Wing
6. Lou Grant from, er, Lou Grant and, of course, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (“Oh, I’ll just slide my character from high comedy to high drama like people do all the time. What’s that you say? Well, surely very often, yes? No?”)
7. Mr Hudson, Upstairs Downstairs
8. Phoebe, Friends (“That was one of the best written shows ever for a spell and when it was she could not miss”)
9. President Roslin, Battlestar Galactica (“The role [Mary McDonnell] was born for. You wanna go head to head with Edward James Almos? Perhaps you don’t remember what a bad-ass he was on Miami Vice [as Lt. Martin Castillo]”).
10. Lt. Martin Castillo, Miami Vice (can you tell what he did there?)
11. Rod Serling on the Twilight Zone (“He wasn’t a character per se, he was just TV at its finest and smoking at its coolest”)
12. Quincy, M.D.
13. Logan, Veronica Mars
14. Jim, The Office (US version) — the Americans’ version of our Tim (“I’ve watched that scene between him and Pam in the season 2 finale like 17 times and his readings are smooth like booze”)
15. Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks
16. Anna Devane, General Hospital
17. Jonathan Banks, Wiseguy
18. Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, a recurring character on Saturday Night Live played by Phil Hartman
19. Letitia ‘Buddy’ Lawrence, Family (“Early crush. Can’t remember much more.”)
20. Columbo
21. Maude (Bea Arthur’s classic 1970s sitcom)
22. Lennie Briscoe, Law & Order (a character who originated in Homicide: Life On The Street). “I hated the obligatory wisecrack, but [the late Jerry Orbach] is New York personified (and a Broadway Hoofer) and as real as it gets…
23. “…Unless it gets to [Mike Torello, played by] Dennis Farina in Crime Story, who actually WAS a cop before he started acting.”
24. Dick Van Dyke. “He’s diagnosing… murder! Also I think he had a sitcom.”
25. House. “If you saw him in Blackadder, even more so, but if you haven’t, House. The last great humanist.”

Naturally, as an American, Whedon’s list is heavily US-based. So who would you pick? Personally, I’d definitely want the Doctor, from Doctor Who, Rigsby (Rising Damp) and Bet Lynch (Coronation Street) on my list…

[Hat-tip to Rob for pointing Joss’ list out. Thanks, Rob!]

Digital terrestrial platform Freeview gained a whopping 800,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of this year, according to a report by research company Datamonitor (via New Media Age). In the same period, Sky added just 77,000. If uptake on both platforms continues at the same rate, the report suggests, Freeview will have overtaken the satellite broadcaster by 2008.

Of course, nothing’s ever that easy. Sky’s uptake in early 2006 could well have been depressed by the launch of Sky HD, for example — if you were thinkng about buying a new satellite system in the first three months of the year, it may have seemed prudent to wait until you found out a bit more about the next generation product. And in terms of future projection, it’s unlikely that Freeview would ever be able to maintain an 800,000-units-per-quarter schedule. But the DTT platform’s growth is good news for the consumer, in that any dent into the dominance of one broadcast platform over another will increase competition and (hopefully) keep charges down.

For many, of course, Freeview is digital telly’s gateway drug: it starts off casually enough, but soon you crave more channels, at all times of day. Sky and cable companies have traditionally been seen as the next step up, but telecoms company BT are targetting their TV-by-broadband service, BT Vision, at dissatisfied Freeview customers, according to a C21Media report. BT’s CEO of TV Services, Dan Marks:

Look at Freeview customers - and pretty soon everyone who’s not a TV service subscriber will be a Freeview customer. They make the jump from analogue to digital and for a period of time they are very satisfied. But then they would like a little bit more choice, a bit more convenience, and more control over what they get than what Freeview has to offer. This is where BT Vision comes in.

BT has signed deals with four major indies recently — Entertainment Rights, Wall to Wall, Portman Film & TV and NBDtv — to go with the existing deals it has with the likes of BBC Worldwide, Universal and DreamWorks.

With the relatively small installation costs of a broadband connection compared with that of a satellite dish, it’s not Freeview that Sky will have to worry about…

I was a little sceptical when the silver fox began raving about ITV2’s new American import Entourage. His brand of humour is more of the Owen Wilson, Will Farrell school, and while this is fine and dandy I like my stuff a little drier.

Occasionally we come together though, The Thick of It or Jack Black, for example and, having sneaked a preview thanks to those kind folk at Henry’s House I think Entourage will be firmly added to the list.

Hugely watchable and slickly written, I’m completely won over by the show, which follows a rising Hollywood star and his three goofy buddies all hailing from Queens but living it up in the Hills.

From the teenage angst of The OC to the thirty-something angst of Sex and the City its all been a bit girl-centred in recent years so its probably about time something came along that let the boys swagger in, slump on the sofa and be proud of the hairs on their chest.

With lines like

I fucked like a puma

or

They drive that way in Tiananmen Square, bitch?

This ain’t one for your grandma, or the easily offended but frankly it is easily the best thing that ITV2 has had on screens. Ever.

The brilliant Jeremy Piven, best known for Very Bad Things, probably steals the show as aggressive agent Ari Gold, but there are also treats with guest appearances from stars such as Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johannson and Val Kilmer.

With the digital channel set to broadcast more of its homegrown comedy offerings in coming years, it makes sense to get a show like this in the schedules, to get audience in and associating it with the genre.

Trust me, this is the first time I’ve said this, but make sure you tune into ITV2 this autumn.

What with Paul O’Grady (when he’s well again, poor love), The Price is Right and the forthcoming Sharon Osbourne Show, early afternoons are certainly light entertainment friendly right now. And into this arena comes BBC2’s latest effort — a good old-fashioned talent show by the name of Let Me Entertain You.

The daily show, hosted by Brian Conley, plays host to an eclectic, nay eccentric, mix of acts. Monday’s first show boasted a 13-year-old operatic tenor, a run-of-the-mill impressionist, a comedy saxophonist (complete with dancing worm — don’t ask), a man talking about his collection of weird hundred-year-old inventions, a Bollywood dance troupe, and a toe wrestler. Yes, that’s not a typo: a man who wrestles other people’s big toes with his own thought this would be a suitable outlet for his talents. Worryingly, I think he may have been right…

This being the 21st century, of course, there has to be a degree of interactivity. While every act has a nominal three minutes in which to showcase their talents, the studio audience can dictate otherwise: each has a button to press when they’ve seen enough — and when half the audience have pressed, the act is over. Prize money is awarded based on how long the act lasts on stage, with prizes of £100, £200 and £1000 available for acts who last one, two or the full three minutes.

The audience voting certainly carries elements of The Gong Show, although with a larger number of voters than just a celebrity judging panel, Let Me… maintains at least a veneer of respectability. It’s not without its flaws, though: each contestant must endure a pain-inducing pre- and post-act interview with Conley’s co-presenter. Quite why this show need two presenters when one would be more than adequate is a mystery. As indeed is why some acts don’t get booted off straight away. One can only surmise that the audience in the studio find them just as car-crashingly compelling as they come across on screen: it must be tempting to hold off pushing the button just to see if the act starts getting good (clue: if it starts off rubbish, it’s unlikely to improve…)

All in all, it’s inoffensive nonsense really, and it’s nice to see variety acts start getting exposure on telly again, even if they’re not particularly good. Still, I’d much rather have Let Me Entertain You than a British version of Simon Cowell’s US venture, America’s Got Talent. As befits the high-trousered one, the stars of that show are the judging panel, which in this case includes (for some reason best known to, well, nobody) Piers Morgan.

The bad news is that ITV are planning to produce their own version, Britain’s Got Talent, with both Morgan and Cowell on the judging panel. Just when we thought ITV might be turning the corner…

I can’t say I blame Andy Harries, head of the drama, comedy and film department at ITV Productions for having a pop at the current state of things at the channel (although I am wondering where the comedy aspect of his title is hiding in the schedules). As Charles Allen heads off and the new brooms begin to sweep, expect more damage limitation statements from them upstairs at ITV declaring: “It wasn’t me, guv!”.

“There’s been a deep complacency, combined with arrogance. ITV has been caught napping big time.”

is Harries’ main beef, not far out of step with what the press have been saying for many long months now. He also goes on to slam the scheduling problems created by moving the main news to 10.30pm, necessitating an unworkable slot of 90 minutes for most of the channel’s backbone drama output.

And he’s not wrong, with this unwieldy slot also having a knock on effect elsewhere. Yes, Love Island isn’t the height of televisual brilliance, but it might have had a fighting chance to pull in better ratings had it not been split into two half hour slots after 10pm. ITV is not a post 10pm channel, that’s where Channel 4 tends to score big. That 9pm hour for ITV should be sacrosanct, and to elongate dramas to stretch out right through to 10.30pm, or slash perfectly good (ish) reality fodder in half leaves your audience unsure of where they are with your schedule.

Harries makes some sensible sabre rattling noises throughout his denouncement of the Charles Allen regime, claiming:

“the difficulty was the business became more important than the channel”

a notion that TV Today has previously cited as one of the crucial failings of the modern ITV. Joe and Jane Public don’t care who’s sitting at the top, they care that they’ve got something decent to watch. This is something that Harries, with the right kind of support should be able to deliver, having being a guiding hand in the likes of mega hit Cold Feet over the years.

And on the basis of the current new drama trailer doing the rounds on ITV1 ahead of the official launch of the autumn schedule this weekend, it seems that bright times could be just around the corner. The trailer has a bright, sunshiny feel about it. I’m not convinced about the choice of music though – would Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead not be more appropriate?

But I am now looking forward to some of the upcoming dramas on ITV with a sense of optimism such as I haven’t felt for a long time. New Prime Suspect and Cracker and you say? I’ll be first in the queue. Housewife, 49 with Victoria Wood was always going to be top drawer, and Driving Lessons, starring Julie Walters (and yes, Rupert Grint is in it, and for the record, I’ll just add that TV Today does not have a problem with that…) should do very brisk business. And then there’s Ray Winstone starrer, Vincent which after a shaky start, I’m expecting good things from this year.

Of course, there will be misfires. The Outsiders, a vehicle for Nigel Harman, looks hysterically bad, and I’m never going to be crazy about Wild at Heart (although 10 million people can’t be wrong) or Heartbeat, but, these shows importantly highlight that ITV has to cater for a wide audience, just like everybody else.

The media seems to be of the opinion that Andy Harries is treading water at ITV Productions, waiting to take up some fabulous offer elsewhere in the industry. I’m hoping this won’t be the case, as a bit of stability in key areas won’t harm ITV’s future one bit, but more high-profile departures could be disastrous.

With the departure of Big Brother (Pete to win! LOL!!) and the impending demise (please let it be for the last time) of Love Island, it seems the schedules are about to ripen and bursting with the promise of fresh TV fruits. Autumn launches are on the horizon, ITV might just be steering a course to calmer waters, and Graham Norton is another 4 million quid richer. Again.

To Kidnap a Princess (Monday 9pm ITV1) sees ITV step in the right direction by dramatising the attempted abduction of Princess Anne in 1974 by Ian Bell. For starters, I didn’t even know there was an attempted abduction of Princess Anne in 1974, so ITV instantly satisfies a rare public service remit by educating me on something I previously had no knowledge about. I expect the channel is more in shock about this fact than I am… It’s a credible job, but I am getting a little weary of the constant need to dramatise events (although C4 wakes me up somewhat on Thursday in this genre). Why can’t anybody do a simple documentary anymore?

Even more of a surprise is the sudden upturn in EastEnders’ likeability (Monday 8pm, BBC1) as Ian Beale drags “Mrs Beale” (being Dawn in disguise) off to the Walford Community Charitable Trust conference, thus beginnign a week of comedy situations for Walford’s whipping boy. This is the kind of cringe-worthy comedy material that Enders has a track record of doing so badly in the past, but bizarrely pulls it off. With Jane on the way to the hotel and threatening to ruin Ian’s deception and Dawn getting it on with a bloke called Rob, I had to look twice and make sure Ray Cooney’s name wasn’t on the writing credits.

In the interests of balance, Coronation Street (Monday 7.30 and 8.30pm, ITV1) continues to ride high in the effortless way it just seems to have in spades at the moment. Tonight, my oft cited emotional heart of the show, Ashley and Claire, are having some strife as Claire displays just how much she isn’t adapting to life as a mother and leaves Baby Peacock in the back of the car while she goes walkabout. And I’m not even going to mention the whole Charlie/Maria thing…

Sorted (Tuesday 9pm BBC1) comes to a satisfying conclusion, and I’m hoping this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this likeable drama in the company of the Manchester posties. The series as a whole has been a bit like the Royal Mail itself - it delivers nine times out of ten, and you’re usually happy to see it coming down the drive. Tonight, it’s Dex’s wedding, while Barmpot struggles in the aftermath of his involvement in an armed robbery.

Elsewhere, the first episode of Little Miss Jocelyn (Tuesday 10.30pm, BBC3) has me more than a little nervous. BBC3 sketch comedy goes from the immortal (early Little Britain), through very promising (Man Stroke Woman), to the embarrassingly risible (Tittybangbang, what else?), and the trailers for this vehicle for the talented Jocelyn Jee Esien, late of Three Non Blondes, leads me to think this will be promising, with reservations. The trailer has become just too ubiquitous, but there seems to be a wide mix of characters to satisfy in fits and starts. One to watch…

Channel 4 enjoys its new-found schedule freedom and promptly lands itself with a slab of prime American drama, and one that will strike a chord in these troubled times we live in. Sleeper Cell (Wednesday 10pm C4) applies a The Sopranos style approach to character development by depicting a cell of terrorists as rounded, real people. Controversial? Oh yes, but don’t worry, our main character is an undercover FBI agent, so we still get to cheer along for the good old US of A. This is slick stuff, and highly compelling viewing, but beware, C4 has decided to run the 10 part series as a five feature length instalments. Get the coffee on…

Storyville: Behind the Couch (Wednesday 9.40pm, BBC4) is an edition of the always-excellent BBC4 documentary strand. Behind the Couch focuses on the work of the casting director as German director Veit Heimer shadows the casting process of a Hollywood movie. Interweaved are interviews with some of LA’s top casting directors, going someway to showing that the casting director’s work is possibly the most important aspect of a film’s genesis.

Although I was bemoaning the lack of straight down the line documentaries on our screens these days, I’m quite throwing that moan out of the window in the face of the magnificent Nuremberg: Goering’s Last Stand (Thursday 9pm, C4). Stunning. That’s the only word needed to describe this dramatisation of the events surrounding Hermann Goering’s life from 1945 to his cell-bound death in 1946. This has shades of the supremely brilliant Downfall about it, not least of all in the breathtaking performance of Hannes Hellmann as Goering. You will find this thoroughly engrossing, and fair play to C4 for devoting two hours the schedule to such a stupendous piece of television.

And on Friday, we’ll just pause for a second for our ritual laughing and pointing at My Hero (Friday 8.30pm, BBC1). To my knowledge, Rupert Grint hasn’t been in it, so I’m safe to deride this nonsense for the dross that it is.

And again we turn to C4 for the best TV of the evening, and in a moment of nice symmetry, one household of dysfunctional idiots has been replaced in the schedules by another Yes, The Simpsons are back on terrestrial prime time. Yes, these episodes have been shown to death already on Sky One, but who cares, it’s great to have Springfield’s finest at the heart of C4’s schedules, and blasting off with a double header featuring one of the always excellent Hallowe’en specials.

Telly aficionados amongst our readership may not know that TV Today has a sister blog revolving around theatre. Every so often, Mark Shenton’s Newsblog covers topics that come within our scope, too — such as the current Saturday evening BBC1 reality show, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?.

Mark’s latest blog posting delves into the reasons why he thinks Maria is bad for the industry:

There’s a great deal at stake here, not just the professionalism (or otherwise) of the people in the contest, but also the integrity of the theatrical process itself. Putting them on public display in this demeaning way is no way to encourage raw talent forward; it merely exposes them in a very public way. And the serious training that professional actors put themselves through is completely undermined as well if that can be entirely short-circuited by a process like this.

Mark also highlights the dismissive attitude taken by Belinda, the potential Maria who left the show on Saturday. In response to producer David Ian’s criticism of her performance, her only response was a dismissive, “What-ever!” Hardly, as Mark points out, the way to endear oneself either to your potential employer, or to the public paying money to both vote you into the job and, possibly, to see you in live performance.

This tradition of talking back to the panel has been a staple of the live talent show for some years now. In many ways, it has its genesis in the first series of Pop Idol, when Will Young stood up to Simon Cowell’s unwarranted denigration with a calm, eloquent rebuttal. From that, though, it now seems expected of contestants to argue back regardless &#