September 2006 Archives

It’s getting very dull recommending both Saturday Night Takeaway and The X Factor for the weekend edition of Square Eyes, so in a buck with tradition, I’m not going to. You’ll either watch it, or you won’t, and you don’t need me to hold your hand. Unfortunately, it does make the weekend recommendations slightly thin on the ground if you take them out of the equation

Drama is clearly the way to go on Saturday night, with Casualty (Saturday 8.20pm, BBC1) kicking off the first of two weekend episodes . Worth it for checking out the new arrangement of the theme, if nothing else. The second episode rushes in on a gurney on Sunday at 8pm.

The Good Housekeeping Guide (Saturday 9.10pm, BBC1) finishes off this run of one-off comedy dramas. Alan Davies stars as Raymond, a suburban househusband who tended house while his ex wife (the always fantastic Michelle Gomez) buggered off to her hot career. There are some good moments here, and despite the marmite presence of Alan Davies (does he really serve a purpose outside of Jonathan Creek?), this passes a nicely cheeky hour.

The 9.10pm hour seems to be the one for drama. A quick flick to BBC2 has yet another turn from Michael Sheen, this time taking on the mantle of HG Wells in HG Wells: War with the World (Saturday 9.10pm, BBC2). This dialogue is cribbed wholesale from Wells’s many writings, and as such gives it an odd slant, but a Sheen performance is always worth looking at. An oddity from start to finish, this paints a curious picture of Wells and his life.

It’s probably best to skip quickly over Afterlife (Saturday 9.10pm, ITV1) until it can decide what it wants to be and stop being frustratingly schizophrenic, and if you’re evening demands something meatier, Downfall (Saturday, 9pm, More4) should do nicely. I’ve probably recommended this before, but this depiction of Hitler’s last days in Berlin is as compelling a drama as you’re ever likely to find. The central performance from Bruno Ganz is hypnotic and despite a lengthy running time, you won’t find yourself flagging. Brilliant.

And after all that fairly competent drama, Sunday is left looking a bit thin on the ground, so in times like this, it’s best to turn to the delights hidden away on ITV3. Upstairs, Downstairs (Sunday 6.25pm, ITV3) is enjoying a repeat run, and is perfect for a bit of lazy Sunday evening nostalgia. This is still one of the finest dramas ever produced in these fair shores and well worth revisiting.

The Match (Sunday 7pm, Sky One) kicks off a new series, with Zoe Ball and Mark Durden-Smith putting 21 celebs through their paces in the run up to the live final a week hence. Who will make to the starting 11, and how many blatant shots of lads in their pants will the producers let through? Answers on an email, please…

But, without doubt, the TV event of the week is the return of Cracker (Sunday 9pm, ITV1), as Robbie Coltrane takes on the mantle of Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald for the first time in 10 years. The icing on the cake is that the unique talent of Jimmy McGovern is once more on writing duties, so this is not to be missed. McGovern gives his piece a quite brutal anti-American slant (and there are some fair jibes against our own Labour administration) in a tale about an ex-soldier who sees all the horrors he has experienced count for nothing in the declaration of the war on terror. Fitz’s job is to unravel just why the soldier took his revenge on two American citizens.

There’ll doubtless be a sense of anti-climax to proceedings – this was never going to be as good as the very best of Cracker – but it’s good to have the cuddly, dysfunctional psychologist back. Don’t stay away so long next time.

Oh, dear God. It seems Alan Yentob, whose official title is Director of Drama, Entertainment & CBBC and BBC’s Creative Director, has discovered YouTube. But not in a good way.

Unlike, say, geriatric1927, he’s not contributing something that’s eminently watchable, and taking part in a constructive way. Instead, he leers over the camera, doing his best to come off as friendly and approachable — and in the process, manages to seem even creepier than ex-con and recent YouTube convert, Jonathan King:

If the BBC is really serious about investigating the culture of user-generated content, then maybe it ought to approach it on its own terms, rather than indulge one of their senior execs in such a way that makes the whole Corporation seem incredibly patronising…

You’d think somebody might have thought this through a bit more…

Ahead of the launch of Five’s new Freeview channels, Five US & Five Life, the channel has revealed the rather hefty marketing campaign that will go alongside and has splash-landed rather heftily in the lake of hot water patrolled by the Advertising Standards Agency over alleged racism. No, really!

The tag line for Five US proclaims:

WHO SAYS NOTHING GOOD EVER CAME OUT OF AMERICA

which, the missing question mark aside, is all fine and dandy. But, look here for the Five US website. As you’ll see, the tagline starts by saying:

NOTHING GOOD EVER CAME OUT OF AMERICA

before morphing into its final proclamation after a few seconds. Oops.

There could be a touch of over sensitivity going on here, but we do live in oversensitive times, and the ASA has received a number of complaints, with some citing the tagline as racist. The ASA says:

We have to assess whether there are grounds for an investigation and if there is we will liaise with the advertiser to see whether or not there has been a breach

Five says:

“These are both emotionally intelligent and visually arresting campaigns, capturing the essence of each channel.”

Well, they would, considering how much the channel has coughed up for the branding and associated campaigns. Put it this way, the £1.2 million thrown at some CGI hippos by Auntie sounds like a bargain in comparison.

And besides, who actually says nothing good ever came out of America? What about Dr Pepper or Entourage or, erm… Taco Bell?

Five US and Five Life will launch on Freeview on 16th October, racism not included.

One of five’s increasing range of well-received comedy shows, housewife mafia sitcom Suburban Shootout, is to make a second trip across to America.

The first series of the show, which stars Amelia Bulmore as a new arrival to the deceptively sleepy town of Little Stempington who discovers two feuding gangs of women (led by Anna Chancellor and Felicity Montagu), aired on the Oprah Winfrey-backed women’s channel Oxygen even before it turned up here in Blighty. And now, according to Broadcast (subscription only, chaps — sorry), programme makers Feelgood Fiction have sold the format rights to cable giants HBO.

The remake will be transposed to American suburbia, with the UK scripts being recrafted into a pilot by Michelle Ashford, who wrote for and produced the short-lived US crime drama series Boomtown.

With The Sopranos coming to a conclusion, would a show that’s more akin to Desperate Housewives be able to fill the gap?

The second series of the UK version is currently under way. For a glimpse of some behind-the-scenes nonsense, then Emma Kennedy’s blog should be your first port of call (Kennedy plays the firearms-mad Lillian Gordon-Moore).

Apologies for yesterday’s relative silence from TV Today. Sore heads were being nursed from Monday night’s rather jolly Inside Soap Awards, at which I was lucky enough to be in attendance. A big thanks to the team who always put on a top notch bash, and with EastEnders being voted Best Soap yet again, providing plenty of column inches.

But, getting back to business, Ofcom deserve a round of applause for finally getting tough on ITV and reigning in the channel’s mission to totally eradicate children’s programming from its afternoon schedules. This worrying trend has finally been halted by the regulator after ITV lodged an official request to reduce children’s programming hours from the current eight, to just two hours a week. The regulator said:

“The Ofcom board met last week to consider the proposal from ITV to reduce the hours of children’s programming on ITV1. I can confirm the proposal from ITV was rejected by the Ofcom during the meeting.”

Finally, somebody is thinking of the children. TV Today has made its views on ITV’s attitude to childrens’ programming very clear, and I can only applaud this move. The kids, as our guest-blogger James Micael noted a few weeks ago, are the prime time adult audience of the future, so alienate them at your peril.

I loved the response from ITV, which is best read through the rictus grin of gritted teeth:

“Ofcom has acknowledged that children’s output is an area that might be difficult to sustain on ITV1 in the run up to digital switchover. ITV has consulted with Ofcom on the provision of children’s programming on ITV1 and we take note of Ofcom’s public statement on this matter.”

but the icing on the cake in the channel’s response is the very terse:

“ITV will meet its regulatory requirements…”

Bless them, they sound like a teenager being forced to do their homework, which is ironic really…

I haven’t been posting much recently — for which my apologies: in one of my other roles here at The Stage, I have a project which has been eating up a lot of my time. So there have been some various telly-related things which I haven’t been blogging about. So, now’s the time to catch up!

First off, what’s with the new Casualty theme arrangement? They’ve replaced the classic electronic score with a fully-orchestrated, “pop goes the classics” style version which completely removes any semblance of tension. It’s nearly, but not quite, as bad as EastEnders’ abortive jazz theme from 1993 — which thankfully was replaced within a year by the updated version of the original arrangement which lasts to this day.

Visually, the new titles remain as strong as the last set they did — and cogratulations to those actors in the regular cast who are now, for the first time, featured within the titles themselves. Does it, I wonder, mean that those actors have their future in the Holby ED secured? I don’t think any of us could ever imagine Charlie going anywhere, but Simon MacCorkindale’s presence in the titles surely means that my hopes of a Manimal revival have been dashed forever.

Staying with music, last weekend saw the UK premiere of the Disney Channel’s High School Musical, which has become something of a phenomenon in its home country. Its success seems to be partly down to the paucity of children’s programming in general, because it’s really not as good as its PR people would have us believe. (If you missed it last week, it’s on the Disney Channel again this Saturday at 4pm, probably repeated countless times after that, and comes to the BBC sometime over Christmas).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not particularly bad — it has one great song (Get’cha Head In The Game), a couple of good ones and several competent, if unnotable fillers; but the book is incredibly weak, taking a supposed Grease-style storyline, watering it down to homeopathic levels and then trying to make a slight inconvenience out to be the greatest calamity ever to fall upon its lead actors’ Hollywood-perfect shoulders.

Finally, last Friday’s instalment of BBC One’s (or should that now be ^BBCone?) series of one-off comedy dramas, Magnolia, came across as the one most likely to actually be a pilot for a new series. Dave Spikey’s script, while slight, gave the impression that each character had a lot more to give. Is it a coincidence, I wonder, that both Magnolia and the final play in the series, The Good Housekeeping Guide (confusingly airing next Saturday evening, instead of the usual Friday slot), the films showing the most promise for future episodes, have both come from Red Production Company? While Magnolia is certainly no Clocking Off, it’s always good to see the Red name come up in the series credits; a sure sign of quality.

Auntie Beeb has, this very morning, unveiled its new screen idents, and the early thoughts of TV Today are that we really rather like them. The proof of the pudding is on the viewing, and we’ll reserve our full judgement until we see them with all the moving parts, so to speak. We can’t wait to see the swimming hippos! But, it’s nice to see a return to an almost globe-esque motif instead of some chirpy, out of step dancers. Well, it’s a circle, so close enough.

Our one reservation as of this morning? A far too discreet logo in lowercase…

See the final results for yourselves on Saturday 7th October.

We thought we’d seen the last of her, but a Weatherfield great returns for a one night only appearance in Coronation Street (Monday 7.30/8.30pm, ITV1). Shelley Unwin (the quite simply wonderful Sally Lindsay) pops back to say hi, and if there’s the potential to wipe that smug git grin off Charlie Stubbs’s face, this is it. It won’t take a genius to work out just what piece of cliff-hanging news Shell is going to dump on her bad boy builder ex, and this looks like it could be the beginning of the end of Chuck’s reign of terror from one side of the cobbles to the other.

TV Today’s New Favourite Thing, otherwise known as Spooks (Monday 9pm, BBC1) continues its fifth series apace, and this pleases me no end. After the energetic opening salvo, things don’t let up this week as Zaf goes undercover to infiltrate an al-Qaeda cell. This show never has any problem about offing central characters, as exemplified by last week’s merciless death of lovable geek Colin, and that helps keep the tension taut. For a more sedate alternative, you may want to take safe haven in the arms of Life Begins (Monday 9pm, BBC1).

Oooh, is Lost (Tuesday C4, 10pm) still going? So it would seem, as season two draws to a close with a double bill. I still can’t decide whether Lost is a work of genius or truly ham fisted, but I can’t deny the power of the show’s following, so it must be doing something right. As usual, the climax poses more questions than it asks, ensuring the longevity of the show into a third season and beyond, and does it with considerably more style and verve than its stablemate, Desperate Housewives.

Who Do You Think You Are? (Wednesday 9pm, BBC1) is still proving to be a fun addition to the BBC1 schedules since its move from BBC2, and this welcome episode focuses on rapidly rising star, David Tennant (must not mention that thing with the police box and monsters, must resist). Tennant is officially one of the nicest people in showbiz, and he makes for an affably watchable subject as he heads out on the quest to discover his roots. As always, there are some surprises on the way. One suspects that Who Do You Think You Are? is in for a very long, very successful life…

Another show I regularly forget is still around is The Bill (Wednesday 8pm, ITV1). It just doesn’t seem to have that vibrancy it used to have in spades and almost seems to earn its keep in the schedules by force of habit. Still, a two-part story kicks off tonight that sees popular characters Sam Nixon and Phil Hunter assigned to busting a people trafficking ring in Romania. It’s slicker, and certain passions that have brewing between the good-looking detectives recently well and truly come boiling over. Entertainingly patchy.

After surprising myself and laughing like a drain at last week’s Extras (Thursday 9pm, BBC2), a little bit of magic touches the series this week with an appearance by Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe, alongside a conveyor belt of other cameos, from Diana Rigg to Richard and Judy. What this series has over the first is a much more natural sense of how to invoke those cringing moments of dread that have you almost changing channel to avoid them. The second run has much more of an identity, getting over that tricky Office-lite phase it hit during series one. It would be a shame if Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant decided not to do any more, just when Extras has well and truly found its feet.

The Sopranos (Thursday 10pm, More4) snuck in under the radar somewhat for its final series, but remains rewarding nevertheless. If you haven’t succumbed to its dark heart by now, you might do better than to seek out The Sopranos on DVD or wait for a repeat run from the start.

Friday provides you with two choices in the drama stakes. Lenny Henry stars in Berry’s Way (Friday 9pm, BBC1), part of the strand of original one-off dramas to have graced BBC1 for the last few weeks. The modern day Lenny Henry frequently falls flat in the comedy stakes, but here he reminds us what a good actor he is (anybody remember the overlooked Hope and Glory?). Berry Cottrell’s life has gone off the rails a little. He’s a single father, his dad’s in a nursing home and his dry cleaning business is far from sparkling. Will his decision to start an Open University degree change his fortunes? Erm… what do you think?

And finally we have Rebus (Friday 9pm, ITV1). I’ve waxed lyrical of late on my love for Ian Rankin’s dour Edinburgh detective and where the shortcomings in these TV adaptations lie (Let It Bleed, this week’s outing is a prime example), so I won’t bore you. But, I’m a little confused as to why ITV is showing these now. In a couple of week’s, Rankin’s supposedly penultimate Rebus novel, The Naming of the Dead, is released, and will sell somewhere in the region of the right side of a million copies, along with a storm of publicity. There’s no publicity like free publicity, and in ITV’s case, this is nothing like free publicity. Oh well. Here’s hoping for more of Ken Stott in the role.

But, if none of this week’s recommendations appeal, I strongly suggest (and I always will) that you take the trouble to turn the dial of your radio in the direction of Ambridge for The Archers (Monday-Friday, Sunday, 7pm, R4). It’s by far the best soap out there, and if you’re in any doubt, I’m writing this with a straight face.

I’m not particularly an aficianado of daytime television, it all seems a bit too brightly coloured and valium stained for my, admittedly rather dry and dour, televisual preferences. But a hearty welcome back to screens for the lovely Paul O’Grady, only three months after he suffered heart attack number two.

A source tells me that the host is fighting fit and raring to go, with first show guests including old pal Barbara Windsor and Desperate Housewives’ Jesse Metcalfe. Sadly though his hugely popular pooch Buster, who has been with him since his Lily days and these days is rarely not seen in some part of the show, is poorly and so will not be on the show. Insiders couldn’t say when the wee dog, which is a Shih Tzu/ Bichon Frise, will be back but one of the star’s other pets may stand in at the vital moments.

The comedian’s return to the tea time slot with The New Paul O’Grady Show sees him go head to head with one Sharon Osbourne, now taking up the space he once presided in before his very public spat with ITV, in what is a much-talked about clash of the titans. O’Grady reckons there is no bad feeling and the pair are still chums, but we’ll see once the gloves come off and the ratings figures are out.

He told The Sun: “I know what it’s like when you’re brought in to be a ratings winner - the 5pm slot has become like prime time. And it’s hard work if you feel like you’ve got no one on your side.”

Word is this week the Channel 4 show has a host of lively stars including Terry Wogan, Charlotte Church, Ricky Tomlinson and Lenny Henry.

Every now and then a little something comes along that just makes you smile, and The Imp is one of them. This darling creature is actually evil incarnate, but well, to be honest despite his best (or worst) intentions he’s just not very good at it.

Its being billed as a kids thing, with the first series already snatched up by Cartoon Network USA and Disney Japan, but as with a few children’s shows this definitely has an adult appeal… particularly if, like me, you chuckled away at Pinky and the Brain while babysitting your kid sister. What? It was an educational and bonding experience for both of us.

For us folk in the know, The Imp has been floating around hyperspace for a little while, and has quite a fanbase and even has a cult following on site of the moment YouTube. In what can only be described as ingenious casting, Green Wing favourites Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt, provide the voices of The Imp and his sidekick brother Bob as they hatch ill conceived plots to spread evil across the world.

The television series will be in 3D but I have to say I think there is something quite charming about the flat black and white animation. I reckon it will be a sure fire hit before you can say “The same thing we do every night, try to take over the world”.

Another weekend, another slab of light entertainment goodness! With How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? saying goodbye, farewell… (oh, you get the idea) last week, the way is clear for the Geordie Hobbits and Simon Cowell to rule the Saturday ratings roost.

Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway(Saturday 6.05pm, ITV1) is starting to show signs of fatigue, but is still the perfect way to kick of the evening’s viewing and clear indication that LE is far from dead. This week, Al Murray and Harry Hill take on the lads in Beat the Boys, and Beyonce (who?) plugs her new single. There is talk of this being the last outing for the format, which, however well it still performs, might be the best move to ensure the continued longevity of Ant and Dec’s careers.

And, it’s business as usual for The X Factor, but this week, The Three Who Rule will discover which category they will be coaching through the rest of the competition. It’s still pot noodle television, naturally, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

After That Mitchell and Webb Look’s merciless skit on Casualty (Saturday 8.20pm, BBC1) with a medical drama that eschews the techno-babble (“Quick, get the medicine in here!”), it’s become that little bit harder to take Casualty seriously anymore. Nevertheless, after 20 years, the show is still a ratings mainstay of the Saturday night schedules, and the anniversary is marked with a double header of episodes to open the new series.

And look – it’s Duffy! Cathy Shipton returns to remind us where Casualty began, and now she’s opening a clinic in Cambodia and Charlie, Guppy, Abs and Comfort have gone over to help. I still think Holby City has the edge over Casualty, but these episodes (part two is on Sunday at 8pm) are a good opener. One thing is still a mystery – where did Duffy’s impenetrable Bristol accent from series one disappear to? Is it still floating round Holby A&E, waiting to be rediscovered down the back of an ECG monitor?

Elsewhere, Afterlife (Saturday 9.20pm, ITV1) is still worth watching, mainly this week for David Threlfall’s creepy turn as an imprisoned murderer that reminds us there is more to this great actor than his Shameless persona. My misgiving about Afterlife is that I can’t help but feel it would work better on the BBC. Auntie seems to have a much better track record with slightly esoteric fare like this.

Is Casualty and Afterlife aren’t for you, the even money will have you going for a repeat of Elizabeth I (Saturday, 8.20 pm, Channel 4), a timely showing in light of Helen Mirren’s tour de force turn in The Queen, currently in cinemas. Watching again, it’s not hard to see why this drama, epitomising the word lavish in both cast, script and direction, bagged itself nine Emmy awards. Alongside Mirren, Jeremy Irons is note perfect as court favourite, the Earl of Leicester.

BBC1 has the drama pick of the weekend with a four-part adaptation of Jane Eyre (Sunday 9pm, BBC1), and not even the presence of Toby Stephens as Rochester can put me off this (sorry, I just don’t get him). After a swift gallop through Jane’s early days, the drama can get down to business and focus on the core relationship between Ms Eyre and Rochester. Let’s face it, it’s what we’re all here for, and such is the Beeb’s skill with costume drama, this is like pulling on a comfy pair of slippers (Square eyes apologises for the blatant use of analogy in this edition).

It was encouraging to see debutant US show Entourage (Sunday 10pm, ITV2) piling a good few thousand on its viewing figures across the first few episodes thanks to positive word of mouth. It’s still early days, but this is bedding in for a welcome stay in Freeview Land and could prove to be the real making of ITV2.

If you are so inclined, stick with the ITV younger sibling directly after Entourage for the debut episode of season two of The Office: An American Workplace (Sunday 10.40pm, ITV2). BBC3 has missed a trick in not picking up this second series up, as it really is knock out. In many ways, this is a spooky recreation of the BBC2 original, but Steve Carell’s performance as Michael Scott transcends anything that Ricky Gervais is capable off (sorry Ricky). From a shaky start, this is now a bona fide hit in the States, and with a 22-episode run this season, highlights the brilliance of the original format.

The South Bank Show (Sunday 11.10pm, ITV1) provides a nice trailer for the upcoming Cracker with a profile of Robbie Coltrane), but Square Eyes would advise sticking with the US theme for the evening. The third season of Arrested Development (Sunday 11.15pm, BBC2) kicks off with two episodes of this devilish family drama. Michael (the beautifully understated Jason Bateman) discovers it was his Uncle George who has been banged up all this time, not his father, George Sr, and in the second episode he heads to Britain to investigate claims that a Blighty-based company framed his dad in the first place. The life expectancy of Arrested Development is never assured, so it’s best to catch this while you can.

You may recall not too long ago that TV Today came in for some flak for daring to suggest that The Outsiders, based on about 5 seconds of footage of ITV’s Nigel Harman pilot, might not be much cop…

You may also recall that a few weeks later, ITV1’s controller of drama, Laura Mackie, suggested in a leaked email that The Outsiders was not quite what the channel had been expecting, describing it as “hokey”.

Well, the preview discs are out, the press launch is over, and the verdict is… well, that would be telling. There’s plenty of time for that. As a prelude to a more detailed preview, I just wanted to share a quote from actor Brian Cox that the great thesp uttered at the junket to the assembled hacksters.

Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter and well-established Brit actor in Hollywood, plays Gabriel, head of the secret organisation that Harman’s character works for. When quizzed on the background of his character, Cox murmured:

I absolutely can tell you nothing about the background of my character. I don’t know what it is. I don’t go into that kind of stuff. I don’t think there is any background. He’s just a mystery man, so I play mystery. He’s whatever you want him to be.

When pushed on this point, he elaborates:

I just said my lines and didn’t bump into the furniture! There wasn’t a lot of furniture. It was a nice set and a very nice two days in Liverpool. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s what I called a really nice job. I worked with a very great producer. I was very lucky, I had a very great producer, so it was a very happy experience. So, er, no. I don’t know. He’s just one of those guys. I don’t know. One of those mystery men. They’re all sort of … I find these people curiously … they’re like soldiers really. They’re curiously underdeveloped in certain areas. Living a certain lifestyle, with secrets and all that. But it’s interesting to play, because they have these amazing shortcomings. Does that answer your question?

Erm…

All I will say is that, in these statements, you have everything you will ever need to know about The Outsiders…

I imagine the red tops will be sharpening their ratings knives for Friday morning’s reports of Emmerdale giving a thorough spanking to everybody’s favourite soap whipping boy, EastEnders. Yes, tomorrow we have another of the infrequent hour-long Emmerdale specials that resolve some major storyline shenanigans for the everyday northern folk, seeing it directly compete for our affections with the Walford regulars. And, on the basis of the current Emmerdale storyline, involving kidnap plots and the departure of Pasty Kensit to pastures Holby, I’m afraid to say that, with cold inevitability, EastEnders will get it’s chirpy cockernee behind kicked. Sorry lads.

I’m thoroughly enjoying Emmerdale this week, and I will happily sing the virtues of Thursday’s episode having had a sneak preview. I have said this in the past, but it consistently impresses me that Emmerdale can pull these huge storylines out of the hat, week in, week out. There’s always an event, a big moment to spike the ratings, and on a soap’s filming schedule, that’s tough to achieve.

This week has seen the twisty-turny kidnap plot that sees Sadie King and Cain Dingle abducting Tom King, holding him ransom for his considerable fortune, but the script keeps everything fluid and will have you stumped right to the very end. It feels like some bleak action thriller, not a soap about farms, and you’ve just got to love the audacity.

And as for Patsy Kensit, Emmerdale will miss her deeply. This could have been the riskiest piece of casting in soap history – a soap actor should never be bigger than the show, and Kensit’s form was such that her entrance as Sadie could have seriously upended Emmerdale. But she played the game like a seasoned pro, putting in the hard graft it takes to be truly successful in a soap, showing she’s still gorrit, and then some. Whether Sadie survives the plunge into the quarry remains to be seen, but I’m sure the prospect of Pats walking the halls of Holby City in a nurse’s uniform will be ample consolation for some…

Sadie King, you will be missed.

The rumours first emerged back in July last year, but now it’s official — BBC2’s twentysomething drama This Life is to return for a one-off feature-length special, marking the show’s tenth anniversary.

A very astute friend of mine told me about this last week, after seeing an interview with Jason Hughes, who played Warren in the series and is now starring in ITV crime series Midsomer Murders:

I’m contracted to Midsomer Murders for 10 months of the year but even though we have a break at the end of September I go straight into filming a one-off film of This Life, which catches up with everybody 10 years later. I start that on the 23rd of September, get married on the 24th, have the 25th off and then I’m back at work on the 26th!

Following a repeat on BBC2 of both series 1 and 2 of the original show, the special will reunite Warren with fellow original Benjamin Street housemates Miles (Jack Davenport), Anna (Daniela Nardini), Milly (Amita Dhiri) and Egg (Andrew Lincoln). There’s no news yet on whether Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White) or her bisexual biker cousin Ferdy (Ramon Tikaram) will appear, or whether Natasha Little’s über-bitch, Rachel, ever survive the pasting she got from Milly in the final episodes.

Says the BBC:

One of the group has become a commercial success after writing a book based on their friendship, and a TV production company is keen to film the group’s reunion. Viewers will discover how the group’s lives have changed and whether they are friends, lovers or enemies – or all three!

The cast have had varying degrees of success on stage and screen — Jack Davenport, of course, stars in the Pirates of the Caribbean films; Hughes attends more improbable deaths in Home Counties villages than could be reasonably healthy; Tikaram is fresh from a turn at the ENO as Gaddafi — The Living Myth. But the show has proved a springboard for otrher successes, too: series creator Amy Jenkins is now a chick-lit novelist; supporting actor Cyril Nri would later become Superintendent Okaro in The Bill; background artist Martin Freeman went from nicking money from Milly and Egg’s bedroom at a party to starring in The Office; and the show’s music supervisor, whose track choices helped ground the series as perfect twentysomething fodder, has achieved a modicum of success, too.

His name? Ricky Gervais.

This Life — Ten Years On is expected to air sometime around Christmas.

Watching the first two episodes of Spooks brought to mind comments from Ricky Gervais on the state of British TV in the not too distant past. Gervais, reported to be ending Extras after its current run, is keen to move into TV drama, but has previously bemoaned that British TV won’t attempt anything with the scale of something like 24 or The Shield, among others.

Quoted around the time of his appearance in The Simpsons, he said:

“”The Sopranos, 24, CSI, The Wire, bang! We’ve got nothing like that. Nothing! It’s such a big gap.”

On the one hand, I see where he’s coming from, but methinks Mr G should be looking a little bit harder. I hope he watched Spooks, as here we have a homegrown hit that can easily go toe to toe with any series of 24 for sheer scale and verve, along with slick production values and a lead that matches Kiefer Sutherland for a granite, understated performance.

Likewise, has Gervaise looked at Doctor Who or Life on Mars for imagination and innovation, achieved on budgets that go nowhere near the levels awarded to an equivalent US show. How about Wire in the Blood for a cold, stark crime series? Or Prime Suspect? How about a new outing of Cracker written by Jimmy McGovern? And surely, Heartbeat… Erm, never mind.

Gervais cites State of Play as being the only thing close to anything the US has produced in recent years. He’s not wrong, State of Play is one of the greatest dramas to air on British TV in the last 10 years, but it’s also a predictable, default example to use. The rest of his argument doesn’t add up and fails to take into account the cultural differences not only in output, but also the radically different way our TV industries are structured. He also fails to mention that for every great American hit, there’s a load of dross propping up the schedules – just look at ITV2 and 3 to see some of it. And while we’re here, when did US TV ever produce something like Boys from the Blackstuff or Edge of Darkness? Where are the quirky little dramas with the depth of Clocking Off or The Street? Not to mention Coronation Street – it’s all too easy to dismiss the soaps as being inconsequential, but they’re still bloody well made bits of telly that America just doesn’t come close to, in my view. Where are the shows that tell me what the condition of being a US citizen actually is, because it sure as hell isn’t CSI or The Shield (however good both those shows are.

Just for the record (so as not to anger any Ricky Gervais fans out there and bring their wrath down on my head – see, I’m learning…) I’d like to say I consider him a huge talent in modern television. It’s just in this case, I think he’s wrong.

I’d love to see what he can achieve if he moves away from comedy into drama, but I think he’ll find it a harder deal than pulling off a six part sitcom.

After the shock of my EastEnders experience yesterday that almost forced me back into holiday exile, thankfully there is Spooks (Monday 9pm, BBC1) to restore my faith in our glorious TV output. And after last night’s sensational opener to the fifth series, the tension just keeps on going, higher even than Rupert Penry-Jones’s impressive cheekbones.

What I love about Spooks is that it manages to take the perils and worries of this modern world we live in and amplify reality by far too many degrees of magnitude, yet somehow remains vaguely plausible. All you need to know about tonight is that there’s lots of running round, some punching, some fast driving, lots of Adam and Ros (Hermione Norris at her absolute best) batting their eyelashes at each other, while giving Peter Firth enormous mouthfuls of set to chew in the most delicious fashion. Welcome back Spooks, you’ve been needed.

After the satisfying finale of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Graham Norton crashes back down to earth for the new series of Graham Norton’s Bigger Picture (Monday 10.30pm, BBC1). This spin on the chat shoe concept is not bad as far as it goes, but isn’t time the Beeb found something that Norton could truly sparkle in again? Maria was a definite step in the right direction, but Bigger Picture never manages to fire on all cylinders.

Tuesday’s most noteworthy piece of must see TV is Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (Tuesday 9pm, BBC2). Most things with Fry are a guarantee of quality viewing and this is likely to be even more poignant than his tear-jerking turn on Who Do You Think You Are? Fry examines his own battle with chronic depression and shares his experiences with other sufferers, some of them celebrities. After this, his terrified fleeing from the production of Cell Mates in 1995 will doubtless be a lot easier to understand.

The first of two telvision milestones this week sees Doctors (Wednesday 2.05pm, BBC1) clock up 1000 episodes with an hour-long special. I have a real soft spot for this most curious of BBC shows - it’s like the bumble bee - shouldn’t really work, but somehow does in a creaky, cheap kind of way. But, it always has great gusto, and with an hour, there’ll be plenty of time for even more illnesses of the week.

ITV is definitely on the bounceback (weekend ratings were up considerably thanks to Ant and Dec, The X Factor and The Royal, and with Wire in the Blood (Wednesday 9pm, ITV1), some fantastic drama returns to bolster things further. It’s all too easy to dismiss Robson Green is a golden handcuffs kind of actor, but in these adaptations of Val McDermid’s novels, he absolutely shines as criminal psychologist Tony Hill. With Hermione Norris heading off to Spooks, her place has been filled by the always reliable Simone Lahbib as the new DCI, and it seems Tony’s services to CID are no longer required. Let’s see how long that lasts, shall we. Never short of compelling, and it’s not often I say that.

I spent a portion of my holiday relistening to the excellent That Mitchell and Webb Sound while lounging round the pool, so was much cheered to see the premiere of the TV incarnation. That Mitchell and Webb Look is a bit more hit and miss than the radio series, but the Peep Show boys are still deft masters of the comedy art. While there is some repetition that could lead to the odd cathphrase, hopefully this has a touch more about it to not descend into Little Britain ham fistedness after a couple of series.

Elsehwhere, Michael Sheen is going to have to watch himself if he doesn’t want to be considered the heavyweight thesp equivalent of Rory Bremner. In Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (Thursday 9pm, BBC1), this brilliant actor brings his interpretation to the role of the insane Roman emperor Nero in the first of this documentary/drama series. Now, Nero is not on a level with Tony Blair (no laughing at the back there) or even David Frost, but I’m yearning to see Sheen be noted for something other than turning in deft impressions of other people. He’s a bloody good actor, and I want to see him really let loose on bringing his art to an original creation. As for the piece itself, it’s all very lovely, but will it pull in the punters? Didn’t we have enough after Rome?

Friday brings the second milestone of the week as the evergreen Neighbours (Friday, 1.40pm, BBC1) celebrates a mammoth 5000 episodes. I’m not quite sure how that happpened. I mean, isn’t Kylie still in it? It’s still business as usual though as Paul Robinson is held hostage in a mineshaft by his evil son Cameron, who is masquerading as his twin, Robert. Or is it the other way round? Neighbours clearly hasn’t twigged that all Evil Twins need a goatee beard?

Rebus (Friday 9pm, ITV1) provides me with something of a quandary. In literary terms, I’m a Rebus junkie. I can’t get enough of Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh copper, and have diligently worked my way through them - in order. The previous run of Rebus tales with John Hannah were great adaptations of the books, but Hannah was not Rebus. He’s ex-SAS, alcoholic and, on the whole, a bit of a shit. Now Ken Stott, he’s just about as much the real deal as TV will allow Rebus to be - some of the stuff the DI gets up to in the books just woulodn’t be filmable. But the problem I have with Rebus now is that the adaptations are like Bond films - take the title, chuck the story out and go off piste. Shame. But Rebus is eminently watchable, even though the plot of Strip Jack, this week’s tale, bears little resemblance to the book of the same name, which is one of my favourites. As I keep telling myself, we’ve got a great Rebus now, everything else is window dressing.

And it’s good to be back… A big thanks to the fantastically knowledgable James for his brilliant job in my absence. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him around the corridors of TV Today towers again in the not too distant.

After two weeks of enfoced televisual celibacy, it was something of a shock for one’s first experience of the old goggle box for 14 whole days to be the Billy Mitchell-centric, tube set episode of EastEnders…

Need I say more?

If, like me, you were too busy watching the second episode of Spooks on BBC Three last night because you just. Couldn’t. Wait. to see it on BBC1 tonight, you’ll have missed the first edition in a new series of the jewel in ITV1’s cultural crown, The South Bank Show.

The good news is that, from today, you’ll be able to download a special podcast version of the show, carrying extended interviews with the week’s guests. Starting with last night’s subject, J G Ballard, we can also expect to see profiles of Robbie Coltrane, Victoria Wood, George Michael, Irvine Welsh, Nick Park, Damien Hirst, and Sue Townsend.

The ITV press office are keen to establish that this podcast isn’t a trial, although they’ll clearly be analysing its performance closely to see how well the podcasting model can be applied to other sections of its programming schedules. Like the channel’s previous foray into podcasting, its Tour de France coverage (which hit the iTunes Top Ten), the South Bank Show podcast is currently free from advertising — a step which, I would imagine, ITV would be reluctant to extend to its more mass-market products. When its full broadband service launches in 2007, expect to see a much more revenue-focussed attitude, with on-site adverts, ads in the video streams, and some subscription services.

As I write this, the first episode of the podcast hasn’t been made available yet. But it’s certainly a welcome move. The BBC’s open-ended podcast trial, which has been going on for ages now and thankfully shows no sign of ever ending, attracted some criticism from commercial quarters when it first launched. Without it, though, it’s questionable whether commercial broadcasters including Virgin Radio and Channel 4, which both offer a number of podcast services would ever have seen the light of day.

It’s all singers, Sellers and spooks this weekend, kicking off with the grand final of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (BBC1, Saturday 6:45pm and 9:15pm). And it promises to be a tense one, with David Ian’s lust object Siobhan and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s perennial favourite from the bottom two, Helena, up against possibly the show’s most technically accomplished finalist, Connie. As for us at TV Today towers, we can’t help but agree with Mountview themselves (see photo, right) on the back page of this week’s Stage.

For the winner, the West End beckons. For the runners-up, there’s always the recruitment ads…

Hopping over to ITV1 straight after, and there’s a new series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (7.45pm) to savour. Yes, it’s your typical L.E. show — pretty much Noel’s House Party with trademark ITV neon sets and mercifully Edmonds and Blobby-free — but, as the now-defunct Story of Light Entertainment showed us over the last eight weeks, variety done well is always entertaining. And right now, nobody does it better than two pint-sized Geordies.

A swift change of pace straight after, though, as Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln return in Afterlife (ITV1, Saturday 9pm). Stephen “Ghostwatch” Volk’s paranormal thriller series ended more strongly than it started in its first run last year. This second series sees a slight shift in format, with Lincoln’s psychologist, Robert, now a believer — but with a lot of questions left to answer.

Twenty-four hours later, and we move from ghosts and ghoulies to Spooks (BBC1, Sunday 9pm), which returns for its fifth series. The last series ended with Adam (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Harry (Peter Firth) caught in the crosshairs of a deranged sniper. While that story’s not completely over, this opening two-parter deals with a group of influential businessmen and politicians intent on staging a very British coup… Hermione Norris joins the team this year; as our departing guest blogger James pointed out, she’d better make sure she’s up-to-date on her life insurance premiums…

The second part of this double-header is showing on Monday night. But, for those who absolutely, positively can’t wait until then, it’s also showing on BBC3 straight after episode 1. I’m all for digital channels premiering new episodes a week ahead of time if they want, but to do so when there’s just a day in between episodes? That’s a bit much, isn’t it? Only the very desperate would feel they had to watch the second episode straight away… (guess what I’ll be doing at 10pm Sunday.)

Finally, just a quick nod back to Saturday night, and we make another of our occasional film recommendations. But The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (BBC2, Saturday 9.50pm) is well worth it, with a superb performance by Geoffrey Rush in the title role. It’s followed by Sellers himself in his best non-Strangelove film, Being There (BBC2 Saturday 11.50pm), where he stars as a man whose whole outlook on life has been formed from watching TV.

I don’t know where he got his characters from, I really don’t.

Next week, Mark Wright returns to his proper place as your friendly neighbourhood TV blogger and I’ll be back in the delivery room sorting the mail and watching him flinch every time someone says the name ‘Rupert Grint’. If he’s back from his holiday in time, I’m sure have some exciting things to say about Spooks, which returns to our screens this Sunday.

Having spoken about the show at length with Mark in the past, I know that, like me, he enjoys the hokiness of Spooks just as much as its political content, so I bet there’ll be more than enough of both to keep us entertained. I’ve already warned everyone around me to keep me spoiler-free, but I couldn’t help panicking when I read that the wonderful Nicola Walker is expecting a baby soon. I wish her all the best, but as a fan of hers I imagine this means she won’t be Spooking for much longer. I just pray they look after her character, the resourceful computer-brained Ruth. Keep her away from the deep-fat fryer and get her a comfy desk-job in MI6, please. Until she leaves, forgive me if I watch the screen from behind the sofa.

It must be odd working on The Grid, the dimly-lit, glass-doored office that’s the hub of Spooks. There can’t be many offices around the country where the workers aren’t plagued by collections for birthdays. Still, their local WH Smiths must do a roaring trade in ‘With deepest sympathy’ cards…

And with that, I’m off!

The BBC has just released a host of previously unseen clips from and about the early days of television under the terms of its Creative Archive licence. In addition, all the BBC’s clips released under the scheme are now available from a new website, bbc.co.uk/calc.

In a couple of months, we’ll be seeing the 70th anniversary of the BBC’s first regular TV broadcasting. Some of these clips throw an interesting light on those times. In the clip below, the BBC’s first announcers, Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Powell talk about their ground-breaking roles:

Back in 1938, the BBC conducted test transmissions with two competing technologies: Marconi’s system, which ultimately formed the basis of all television from that point onwards, and John Logie Baird’s, which looks remarkably ungainly, as seen in this documentary clip from the 1970s:

• View all Creative Archive content tagged with Television

It’s been rumoured for months, but today the BBC finally confirmed that Doctor Who is to get its second spin-off drama series. CBBC has commissioned Russell T Davies to create The Sarah Jane Adventures, featuring perennial favourite companion Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen.

The news comes a quarter of a century after Sladen’s first attempt at a Doctor Who spinoff. Christmas 1981 saw the debut of K9 and Company, which featured Sarah Jane teaming up with another cast-off companion, in the shape of the Doctor’s robot dog K9. And it was truly awful, thankfully never making it to series. Just about its only redeeming feature was the teaming up of Sladen and K9, which allowed them both to return in Doctor Who itself, in this year’s School Reunion.

This time round, SJ will team up with her 13-year-old neighbour, Maria, to be played by Yasmin Paige, whose most prominent role to date was as the title character in the pretty awful British children’s film, Tooth. K9 will star in the first, 60-minute special episode (which sees Sarah Jane and Maria combatting he fearsome Ms Wormwood, played by Samantha Bond), but won’t be in the full serie.

For series creator Russell T Davies, who is co-writing the series with Gareth Roberts, it’s a return to his roots: his first TV drama series, Dark Season and Century Falls, remain some of the BBC’s best ever children’s output. (Is it especially nerdy to point out that the latter series starred the late and much-missed Mary Wimbush, who also appeared in K9 and Company as Sarah Jane’s Aunt Lavinia? And that her character, Esme Harkness, shares a surname with Captain Jack, star of his own Who spin-off show, Torchwood?… Er, yes, I thought so. I’ll get me coat.) Both Dark Season [1991] and Century Falls [1993] were recently issued on DVD, and they’re well worth watching.

So, come next year we’ll not only have Doctor Who, aimed at a family audience, but Torchwood for grown-ups and The Sarah Jane Adventures for the ankle-biters. Although somehow I expect that there’ll be a significant proportion of the audience watching all three…

Some might say that user-generated content began way back in the 1960s when Blue Peter first started creating items around viewers’ letters. UGC (as the trendies like to abbreviate it - sorry, ‘abbrv.’) is a major part of children’s programming. Just think of all those shows you watched as a kid - Why Don’t You? and the oeuvre of Tony Hart. They still do it now with presenters holding up hastily-glued pictures of Kevin sitting next to Postman Pat to commemorate the passing of the lad’s 3rd birthday.

User-generated content stops being quite so overt when it comes to telly for grown-ups. We don’t send in our paintings, we email photographs to Springwatch, phone into Russell Brand on Big Brother’s Big Mouth or send videos to You’ve Been Framed of Uncle Arthur getting bitten by a swan. It’s one way of maintaining the idea of television as being somehow owned and shaped by its audience.

Where television comes unstuck is when it assumes that it can sit back and let the viewers do the work. You’ve Been Framed works because its central concept is schadenfreude — there but for the grace of God, and all that. Why Don’t You didn’t actually work — too many viewers sending half-arsed recipes for chocolate rice-crispies. There, they had a team who thought up all the ideas, but maintained the pretence that they’d come from the viewers. Early examples of viewer-inspired ideas included a film about a boy’s collection of worms (no, I’m not making this up) which is why, by the time Russell T. Davies was cutting his TV teeth on the show, it was scripted and had a running dramatic theme to pad the show out.

YourKindaTV isn’t a new light-ent vehicle for Michael Barrymore, even though it does sound like one. It’s an entire online channel dedicated to content produced by its viewers.

Let me just back-step a second. Why Don’t You was a 25-minute show that struggled to fill its time-slot with legitimate user-generated content. YourKindaTV is on all day.

When my mother used to say that I watched too much TV, I used to blithely claim that there was no such thing. Ah, the innocence of youth…