November 2006 Archives

According to Broadcastnow.co.uk (subscription required), independent drama production company, Kudos, is up for a sale with a tasty price tag of £40 million knicker. This has probably been a long-time coming and it’s surprising the hugely successful outfit with a stylish track record hasn’t been snapped up by an uber-indie before now.

Of all the companies out there producing drama, Kudos, more than any other, always hits my viewing spot with its CV of shows, ranging from Spooks and Life on Mars, to Hustle and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. They are stylish, exciting, well directed, well acted and artfully scripted. My hope is for the sale is that co-managing directors Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett aren’t just looking to make a quick buck, but are seeking to ally themselves with a company that can provide greater resources to tackle even more challenging productions.

As for potential buyers, industry talk is pointing to Dutch company Eyeworks, which has interests in many world markets. The organisation’s chief interests are in the reality genre, but in September a press release was issued announcing Eyeworks’ taking a 50 percent stake in US production company 3Ball Productions. While 3Ball is still mainly involved in the reality game, if Kudos is bought by Eyeworks, then this could open up an exciting new outlet for Kudos to move into. Indeed, some episodes of the upcoming fourth series of Hustle have been shot in the US.

TV Today will watch developments here with interest…

All the hoopla surrounding Michael Grade vacating of the BBC Chairman’s desk to take a cab over to ITV is making the task of blogging on this business we call telly rather tricky. Let’s get some perspective people - clearly the biggest story of the week is eluding us all. Haven’t you heard?

Malandra Burrows is out of I’m a Celebrity!

Oh. Hang on.

To give everybody time to process what’s going on over at Broadcasting House, it might be time to cast our eyes across the Atlantic for change of scenery. We have so many cable channels in Blighty now that they all need to pick up shows here, there and everywhere to prop up the schedules. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to fill the airwaves with original home-grown fare, so schedulers are forced to go shopping across the pond. That’s no bad thing, but inevitably, as the demand for imported fare increases, the US TV schedules might start to look as over fished as stocks of Atlantic cod.

How many shows can ITV2/3/4, Living, Bravo and even Five proclaim to have taken America by storm, and just happens to be arriving in the UK on that very channel? More often than not, most of these shows rarely make a splash in the ratings, and we’re only taking the word of the UK broadcasters as to their popularity credentials.

For some frame of reference as to what is doing the business in a bums-on-seats kind of way, here is the US television top 10 for the w/c 20 November:

1. Desperate Housewives - ABC, Sunday, 9pm: 21.43m
2. CSI: Miami - CBS, Monday, 10pm: 18.54m
3. Grey’s Anatomy - ABC, Thursday, 9pm: 18.51m
4. NFL Post Game - Fox, Sunday, 7:25pm: 17.59m
5. NFL Post Game - Fox, Thursday, 7:21pm: 17.19m
6. CSI - CBS, Thursday, 9pm: 17.17m
7. NCIS - CBS, Tuesday, 8pm: 17m
8. Deal Or No Deal - NBC, Monday, 8pm: 16.97m
9. Criminal Minds - CBS, Wednesday, 9pm: 16.56m
10. Heroes - NBC, Monday, 9pm: 16.03m

Source: Neilsen Media Research

Now, Lost fans, don’t be worrying - the show is on season hiatus, hence its lack of showing in the list. In terms of the UK broadcasters, Five is clearly the winner here, with four of these big hitters among their overseas portfolio - the CSI powerhouse, NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy. Channel 4 might have played shrewdly in dumping Lost and keeping the top-rated Desperate Housewives, and BBC 2 will, on the basis off Heroes’ first showing in the top 10, have high hopes when the break-out hit of the year debuts in the UK in the New Year.

So, there’s nary a Prison Break, Invasion or Supernatural anywhere in sight. It doesn’t stop the shows being good, but it does stop me from believing a throaty announcer telling me just how popular their big new purchase is. Kojak, anybody?

Well, we didn’t see that one coming, did we? Michael Grade has succeeded in forcing the combined mouths of the media to spend the day in a cartoon O of surprise as the news of his defection to ITV begins to sink in. Talk about pulling a blinder, as they say…

But what does it really mean? If truth be told, not a great deal to the BBC. Yes, some people within the corporation might be feeling ever so slightly betrayed, and rightly so – it’s a difficult time for Auntie, but no more so than it has been in the past, and no more so than it will be in the future. Compared to the woes of say, the David Kelly affair, the process of a departing chairman and the selection of a new one should be a walk in the park. The thorny issue of a the licence fee negotiations shouldn’t really enter into the debate – it will be what it will be, whether Grade is in the building or not. Grade’s major work was in ensuring that there was a charter there to renew, everything else is just detail.

Of course, there will be speculation until the hammer falls whether Grade is jumping ship before the government announce that the BBC has effectively lost the battle and is awarded an inflation only (or worse, a lower than inflation) licence fee rise. Until then, that’s all it will be – speculation. Yes, the BBC is still losing a very valued and popular chairman, but Grade is not irreplaceable, and with the changes happening to the role with the advent of the BBC Trust, he would have gone next year anyway… Probably.

And for ITV, the news can only be good. Grade’s appointment as Executive Chairman will hold the circling vultures from the City off long enough to give him time to turn things around. And with Grade taking the Chairman’s position, succeeding the outgoing Sir Peter Burt, there is still the question of the much-talked about chief executive’s position, but Grade himself has told The Guardian:

“The nominations committee of the board will be dealing with that in due course. I don’t anticipate appointing a chief executive inside two years.”

Grade’s appointment to the executive chair does, of course, negate the need to appoint a new Chief Executive for the immediate future. However, it is understood that Grade’s deal with ITV is for around three years, after which a new chief executive will need to be installed. In the meantime, John Cresswell, who has been serving as acting chief exec since Charles Allen’s much publicised departure, will be staying on in the position of Chief Operating Officer.

Whenever a chief executive is appointed, it is expected that Grade’s position will become non-executive at this point. For now, ITV has a powerful figure in the office who understands the business of programme making, something that ITV has forgotten over the last few years. Whether his business acumen is enough to win through in other areas for the company remains to be seen.

It does seem somewhat fitting that in the company’s hour of need, part of the dynasty that contributed to making ITV great in the first place might just be the answer to its prayers…

Multiple news organisations have picked up on the results of an ICM survey for BBC News which looks into how online video is affecting people’s viewing habits. Unfortunately, they tend to go for the big numbers rather than looking at the bigger picture.

Sure, things aren’t helped by the BBC’s own headline, which screams Online video ‘eroding TV viewing’. Well, yes, it may be eroding TV viewing habits, but currently it’s doing so at roughly the same rate as the glaciers did to the Cairngorms — very slowly and selectively.

Looking at the headline figures, and you see (thanks to the BBC’s helpful pie charts, reproduced to the right) that 43% of people who watch online video say that they watch less TV as a direct result. A slender majority say it hasn’t affected their conventional viewing, while a small number — just 3% — say that their online viewing has meant that they watch more TV, not less.

That 43% does look pretty big, and pretty worrying. But hold on — that pie chart comprises only the people who currently watch online video once a week or more frequently. And that comes to just 9% of all respondents to the ICM survey. Which means that just 3.8% of the viewing audience is watching less TV as a direct resulting of watching online video.

That’s a lot less than the headlines would have you believe. And, while that 9% of people who regularly watch online video is going to grow, so will the opportunities for conventional, broadcast television to use the nascent medium for audience building.

In the US, the major networks have online viewing strategies in place, whether via their own sites or selling episodes via stores such as Apple’s iTunes. One of NBC’s biggest hits, their remake of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom The Office was on the brink of cancellation before it was made available on iTunes — after which, audience figures for the on-air exploits of Stave Carrell and company went up.

Right now, support for online viewing in the UK is strictly limited, although all the major terrestrial channels are on the way. Five has a downloadable rental service (although they call the process ‘buying’, you’re only allowed to keep a copy for 14 days, so it’s a rental in all but name). Channel 4 will have its ambitious on-demand service, 4OD available on PCs shortly (a related service is already available in some cable areas). And at some point, the BBC will actually get around to releasing its iPlayer instead of just endlessly talking about it at new media conferences. So far, there hasn’t been a move to start selling episodes via iTunes — which means that Mac junkies such as myself have fewer options than people burdened with running Windows — but that doesn’t mean to say the idea hasn’t been mooted.

Will any of these advances mean that online viewing habits increase conventional, living room-style TV viewing? There’s a good chance they will, if NBC’s experience is anything to go by. But even if they don’t, if they just mean that people start watching more TV shows on a computer screen, is that necessarily a bad thing, if they’re watching the same shows, from the same bradcasters, that they were before?

Jackanory
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 4:30pm BBC1 (also CBBC)
At last, the quintessential series of my youth returns. Except, where once we would have been satisfied with an actor sitting on a makeshift set, with just a few line drawings to accompany their reading, now we have John Session (and, next week, Ben Kingsley) immersed in 3D CGI worlds as they narrate stories which are then acted out. It’s an odd mix, and doesn’t really excite the audience as to the magic of storytelling in the same way as the original series — if anything, it’s a not-altogether-sucessful mash-up of Jackanory with its spin off show, Jackanory Playhouse. The new special effects mean that it’ll be far from a weekly event, too, which is a shame.

Random Quest
Monday 9.00pm BBC4
As part of BBC4’s ongoing science fiction season, we have this understated new drama, based on a short story by John Wyndham. Samuel West stars as Colin, a research physicist who is knocked unconscious during an experiment and awakes to find himself in a parallel universe. While that plot may have been used by virtually every science-fiction show of recent years, Random Quest predates them all. Still, even with able support from Shaun Parks and Kate Ashfield, it never quite shakes the sense of déjà vu that sci-fi fans may experience.

Tsunami: The Aftermath
Tuesday 9.00pm BBC2
A drama set around the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was never going to be easy to do — some may question whether such catastrophic loss of life is a suitable subject for entertainment at all. There was also the matter of whether it was right to film in locations that had been directly affected, and the decision to pay local extras far less than Western supporting artists (for more background, read Mark’s post from June this year, and the comments below it).

Rather than taking an antiseptic dramadoc approach, writer Abi Morgan’s script revolves around a number of archetypes, each of whose stories are based upon masses of research. All qualms aside, this is an amazing piece of drama whose effects will stay with you.

EastEnders and Coronation Street
Monday to Friday, BBC1/ITV1
Some big storylines featuring the top soaps’ key actors this week. In Albert Square, Pauline Fowler is in hospital after the fire at number 45, but the big news is that it’s YAIBW week —, yes, it’s Yet Another Ian Beale Wedding. Which, if all his previous ones are anything to go by, mean that tears won’t be far behind.

Up in Weatherfield, Wendi Peters get the chance to step beyond the faux comedy of Cilla Battersby-Brown’s usual persona, when her character gets some shocking health news. And as is usual in the world of soap, she doesn’t confide in her husband, Les, straight away — which, naturally, thrusts him into the arms of best friend Yana.

Best storyline of the week, though, sees the departure of Bradley Walsh from Corrie, as Danny Baldwin reaches breaking point after discovering the betrayal of his wife and son. Walsh’s final scenes are not easy watching, especially if you’re afraid of heights. Who would have believed when a cocky game show host and comedian turned up on the cobbles, that he’d leave such a huge hole when he finally left? One can only hope that, after Friday’s climactic scenes, Danny will be able to return one day…

Picture: Toni Collette as Kathy Graham, Samrit Machielsen as Than and Tim Roth as Nick Fraser in Tsunami: The Aftermath. Photo: Kudos Film and Television

We’re in that mid-season lull at the moment, where there’s very little new or exciting to feel thrilled about in the weekend schedules. If you’re into Strictly Come Dancing and/or The X Factor, your quota of Saturday telly will be used up. However, should you feel in the need for drama…

Robin Hood
Saturday 7.10pm BBC1
It may have got a second series, but the first still has five episodes left. And seriously, it’s a bit of harmless fun for an early Saturday evening — although quite why the series isn’t named after Marian, the far more complex character in the series, one can only guess. Maybe it would confuse people expecting a remake of Tony Robinson’s Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. Which would, quite frankly, not be a bad idea at all.

Casualty
Saturday 8.45pm BBC1
My, but it’s been a while since we recommended this. And, truth be told, it’s not all that this week — if only because there’s no Jacqueline Pearce after her début in last week’s episode. Getting Servalan in as the bureaucrat responsible for shutting down the Holby E.D. was a masterstroke. Still, the threat of closure has managed to reproduce some of the show’s initial political spark that’s been missing for far too long.

Madonna: Confessions Live from London
Sunday 10.00pm Channel 4
Highlights from Madge’s last arena tour, with tracks from her latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, as well as hits from her 25-year career.

Torchwood
Sunday 10.00pm BBC3
This week, Tosh (what an unfortunate — if apt — name) gains the ability to read people’s minds. Can you read mine, Tosh? “Buffy… Season 3… ‘Earshot’… watch that instead, it’s much better…”

The South Bank Show (pictured)
Sunday 10.45pm ITV1
An excellent profile of Oscar-winning animator Nick Park and Aadrman Animations studios. Expect some discussion about whether plasticine-based stop-motion animation can survive the onslaught of CGI movies. Also, expect lots of plugging of Aardman’s latest feature film Flushed Away — er, made completely with CGI.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about the news that Robin Hood has secured a second series. On the one hand, the show hasn’t lived up to the, frankly unnecessary, hype (and nor could it), falling flatter than John Barrowman’s appearance on Buzzcocks last night. On the other, it has secured decent(ish) ratings in a very difficult, competitive slot, and it’s heartening to see the Beeb sticking with a show.

With luck, there’ll be some caveats placed on Dominic Minghella and Tiger Aspect, with the bottom line being: make it better!

Here are TV Today’s handy tips from the armchair (the easiest place from which to be a critic) on what needs to change:

1) Robin. Oops, getting your lead character this wrong is a schoolboy error. The fact Jonas Armstrong’s casting was likely to have gone through many levels of vetting does boggle the mind somewhat. Did nobody notice the almost total lack of presence he has in the part? To be fair, it’s not his fault – The Ghost Squad more than adequately proved he’s got the acting chops. The character as written is a lame-arsed idiot, shackled by the ridiculous insistence on no contractions in his dialogue. So, for series two, get the lad down the gym and let him eat some pies to bulk him up, and just lose the hey nonny nonny.

2) Just get over it and let Robin and Marion do the Sherwood Shuffle.

3) Drop the social referencing to modern political situations. It isn’t big, and it isn’t clever. The adults won’t abandon you if they go. They enjoy some silly adventure silliness as much as the kids.

4) More action. This is supposed to be an adventure series, and so far, there ain’t been much of that. Don’t be afraid to ramp it up and get the sword clashing a bit more.

5) Little John. Again, drop the contractions, and give him a bit of character. He’s supposed to be a genial giant whose friendship with Robin is strong and reliable, not a gruff old misery guts who scratches his beard with a mumbled “This I do not like,” every five minutes.

6) Above all, don’t be afraid of the Robin Hood legend. If you’re making Robin Hood, make it. Don’t try to turn it into something it isn’t.

Aside from that, if they get everybody to just concentrate on saying the lines, shooting the arrows and not bumping into the trees, then it will be fine.

The BBC have announced that they have purchased the UK rights to NBC’s Heroes, a complex tale of ordinary people who start developing comic book-like superpowers.

The series features some familiar faces from genre film and TV — Final Destination’s Ali Larter; Masi Oka, who has a recurring role as Franklyn in Scrubs; and Greg Grunberg, who was a regular in Alias, and also popped up in the pilot episode of Lost as, er, the pilot.

The series will air sometime in the New Year on BBC2 — round about the same time that US viewers will get a glimpse of the latest new character, to be played by Christopher Eccleston. Everybody in the US is being particularly tight-lipped about what character he’ll be playing — although UK viewer Rob Buckley has reckoned he’s worked it out (don’t click the link if you don’t want to read a spoiler). [UPDATED with correct link — thanks, Rob!]

For more on Heroes, visit the official NBC site (watching out, again, for spoilers). And there’s a preview trailer below.

Just as Swap Shop gears up for a retrospective anniversary show this Christmas, it seems fitting that early in the New Year, Tiswas will get the same treatment over on ITV.

Chris Tarrant will helm a 90-minute Audience With… style show that will reunite him with the personnel that made the Saturday morning antidote to Noel and friends on t’other side a 70s TV classic. Expected to take part on the show will be co-presenter Sally James, Lenny Henry and the legendary Phantom Flan Flinger.

I know we’ve had this debate before, but I have to admit I was never really a Tiswas kid. I think I was way too much of a goody-goody to truly “get it”, although I must admit to always hoping that Sally James might replace Maggie Philbin on Swap Shop. Now that would have made my Saturday morning complete. I don’t know what it was, in the same way that I preferred the reassuring presence of Peter Purves and Lesley Judd on Blue Peter to the more Bohemian leanings of Magpie. Maybe I developed some highly skewed sense of snobbery at an early age… I think as an adult I’d probably go for Tiswas - it has a delicious sense of fun that appeals to my rapidly approaching middle-age brain.

But what of Spit the Dog? No reptrospective edition of Tiswas would be complete without the presence of Bob Carolgees and his deliciously expectorating canine friend. But, the original Spit was sold at auction in 2004 for a quite staggering £5000, so one would hope that Mr C has a new Spit puppet to bring to the party. It’s either that, or he’ll have to rely on the unique talents of the lesser-known Cough the Cat.

Ah, the days when television was a much simpler place…

To help compile the show, Chris Tarrant has made an appeal to members of the public to come forward with any episodes or clips of Tiswas they have may have recorded at the time. After Central TV succeeded ATV as producers of Tiswas, over 350 episodes of the series were junked from the archives. If you think you can help, contact Chris Tarrant’s production company, CTTV, directly.

Oh ITV, after I said nice things about you yesterday, you just had to spoil it, didn’t you?

Ghost Hunting with Girls Aloud. 12 December, ITV2.

The side of me that likes lowest common denominator television was hoping this was a new fantasy drama featuring the UK’s premier girl band driving around in their tour bus with a large talking dog, solving crimes. Alas, it’s a reality show from the Most Haunted stable, hosted by Yvette Fielding as the girls spend the night in a haunted house looking for ghosts and ghoulies.

Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

On a day when all I want to do is go home, crawl under the duvet with a bucket of hot chocolate and watch The Box of Delights, some Christmas cheer arrived at TV Today towers today in the form of a first look sample DVD of clips from Auntie Beeb’s adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. And it’s lovely.

Matt Lucas as Toad. Mark Gatiss as Rat. Lee Ingleby as Mole. Bob Hoskins as Badger. Adapted by Lee (Billy Elliot) Hall. That’s a damn good pedigree, and from the selection of clips we’ve seen, this should hit the spot nicely. It’s colourful, bouncy and has cosy Christmas Eveness written all over it, especially down to the particularly chilly looking winter sequences. Brrrr!

Most of all, The Wind in the Willows should nicely establish Matt Lucas as a top-notch character actor who is so much more than Little Britain. He comes across in the brief clips here as so exuberant and joyous, that it’s impossible to place him in Andy Pipkin’s ubiquitous wheelchair. Of course, there’s never been much doubt about Lucas’s impressive credentials, either before and during Little Britain. As for the expected Little Britain Christmas special, lads, this is a chance to restore the faith and brilliance of the first two series.

Over the next few weeks, the major channels will start to show a bit more leg of their Christmas schedules, and TV Today will keep you updated with out hot tips for Christmas viewing pleasure.

So the RTS Craft and Design awards, whose nominations we brought you last month, have been announced. And despite being nominated in multiple categories, the craftsmen and women of Doctor Who missed out on any gongs.

All, that is, apart from Neill Gorton — who, with his Chesham-based Millennium FX team, were up for three awards. In the end, he won (with Vanessa White) for his work on The Catherine Tate Christmas Show, and for BBC Three’s Bodies. According to the RTS:

The jury commented that multi-character sketch comedy often presents as big a challenge for the designer as it does for the performers. Tonight’s winner has allowed the same actress to portray a teenage school girl, a grandmother and an ageing gay man together with a wide range of characters in between.

In addition, the team won the special award for Design & Craft Innovation, for which their entire oeuvre was considered — including, of course, his work for the good Doctor:

Doctor Who is a relentless machine, as a show it eats people’s creativity - in the last three years we have pushed this team to their limits and they have never let us down. The Doctor Who producers tell us that they are delighted that this talented, hardworking genius of a team are being recognised tonight.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Gorton and the team deserve their accolade — when I described him in the nominations post as “the hardest working man in make-up”, it was with good cause. Yet it seems that, for the time being at least, the phenomenal work of the production design, costume and make-up teams, led by Ed Thomas, Louise Page and Sheelagh Wells respectively, have yet to receive the awards recognition they deserve. To my mind, even when the TV scripts have not necessarily been as strong as they could be, the episodes never fail to be visually stunning. It can’t be easy to do that on a limited budget, and with a new time period every week.

That’s not to denigrate any of the winners, of course (and you can find the full, deserving list at the RTS website).

“The Board believes that whereas there is obvious appeal to NTL in gaining control of ITV’s substantial and successful business, from ITV’s perspective there is little, if any, strategic logic for ITV to combine with NTL,”

So says the statement from ITV that would seem to bring, for the time being at least, the notion of an NTL merger with the company to a close.

It’s all been very bizarre, though, and ITV are quite right to reject the proposed merger. Whatever the problems currently being experienced by ITV, the company, or at least the channel, is still a national treasure, if a somewhat faded one in the current climate. By that merit alone, ITV should be given the space to sort its issues out and emerge as a major player in broadcasting once again.

As its stands, with the Chief Exec’s chair yet be filled, ITV is still in a vulnerable position, and that’s a situation that needs to change. Soon. The company needs a big brother figure, somebody that will bring stability and reassurance at the top, but also with the power to send a warning to the circling sharks to back off.

With that position still vacant, ITV feels like a little kid playing in the sandpit, victim to the bullying whims of the bigger kids who have the cash to flash, with no one to run to when its nose gets bloodied.

Still, it’s been quite amusing to see a couple of those bigger kids getting into their own scrap, which might have saved ITV this time from being swallowed up. BSkyB’s purchase of 17.9 percent of ITV’s shares has fear written all over it. An ITV/NTL merger could be a serious threat to Rupert Murdoch’s position, and Ofcom is acting correctly in investigating whether Sky’s stake in ITV alters any of the broadcasting licenses the company holds (which makes a nice change). What makes this situation even more interesting is NTL majority shareholder Richard Branson pointing the finger and stamping his feet over Sky pretty much scuppering the NTL merger with ITV. Sometimes life just isn’t fair is it, Richard? This is a bitch fight that could run and run.

All fair play to ITV, though. For once, the company has come out a winner, showing strength in rejecting the bid on the basis that NTL undervalued the company. Quite right too.

Here’s a surprise (not) — 98% of the 450 people involved in the closed trial of HD broadcasts on digital terrestrial (aka Freeview) boxes think that Freeview should carry HD services. In fact, they expect it.

My first thought — okay, my first proper thought, after “what were the other 2% thinking?” — is that they’ll have a long wait. As we’ve said before, there just isn’t the capacity to run HD broadcasts on Freeview at the moment. And, while there may well be additional capacity once the analogue signal is switched off in 2012, there’s still no guarantee that any of that spare spectrum will be available for any form of broadcasting, let alone HD.

Still, this report will add ammunition to any organisations lobbying for at least some of the post-2012 spectrum to be handed back to the broadcasters. And to be honest, it really should. While the Government may have their eyes on a spectrum sale as a lucrative way of raising cash (as with the 3G phone spectrum auction a few years back), the BBC is currently having to foot a substantial bill for part of the switchover process. Financial assistance for the elderly and those on benefits to help with converting from analogue to digital will be coming out of the BBC’s licence fee settlement; a bill mentioned in last week’s Queen Speech will provide the Corporation with access to benefits records so that they can manage the payments more effectively.

And yet, despite this assistance having to come from the licence fee, the Treasury have been briefing that the BBC should expect a below-inflation increase for the next four years, instead of the above-inflation deal that the Corporation has been asking for. If we, the broadcasting audience, has to pay for the switchover through the licence fee, then we ought to at least get the benefits through reuse of the freed spectrum — without having to pay for it all over again.

Well, okay, not their entire back catalogue; just their seemingly endless reruns of Friends. Via TV Squad comes this deconstruction of the sitcom’s entire ten-year run, by Nobody’s Watching:

Square Eyes starts with a public viewing warning today. Tittybangbang 2 (Monday 10.30pm, BBC3). Just say no.

Instead, take a look at Disappearing Britain (Monday 9pm, Five) for a thoroughly engaging three-part documentary series in the same vein as Who Do You Think You Are? and The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon. Sarah Lancashire takes a trip to Blackpool to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather who used to holiday in his week off from a job as a mill worker in Oldham. As somebody who regularly holidayed in Blackpool as a child, this brings back fond memories, but is also startling to see how much a way of life has eroded entirely over the course of the 20th century.

The Science Fiction Britannia season continues with a repeat of The Kneale Tapes (Monday 11.35pm, BBC4), a timely tribute to sci-fi legend Nigel Kneale, who died last month. Kneale is most famous for creating Professor Quatermass, seen in various incarnations on TV and played by such luminaries as Andre Morrell and John Mills. His approach to sci-fi was always economical and had a touch of reality about it, and he was quite famously sniffy about the likes of Star Trek and Doctor Who. He once described Who as the kind of idea he’d think up in the bath and then forget about. It’s a shame this is a repeat, and let’s hope that the good professor will return to TV screens one day as a better tribute to a great TV writer.

After last week’s storming opener, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (Tuesday 9pm, C4) comes back to home shores as Gordon heads off to Lancashire’s The Fenwick Arms. It’s a familiar story, but here the restaurant owner’s are quite happy to ignore much of Gordon’s always sensible, if merciless advice.

As a sharp contrast to Ramsay, TV docusoap pioneer Paul Watson (his experience stretches right back to the influential The Family in 1974) returns with Rain in My Heart (Tuesday 9pm, BBC2). This is heavy stuff, and should in no way be associated what we call Reality TV. The piece follows four subjects undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kent and how years of alcohol abuse has affected and continues to affect them.

If you want to know how Robert Powell became famous, look no further than The Cult of Doomwatch (Tuesday 8.30pm, BBC4), continuing this cute little series. Powell played scientist Toby Wren in the first season of this cult eco-thriller from the creators of the Cybermen, Kit Pedler and Gerry Davies. As you’ll see from the episode that precedes the documentary at 7pm, Doomwatch hasn’t worn particularly well, but it’s fun nonetheless. Powell with a plastic rat attached to his leg in a moment of jeopardy is a highlight…

In Coronation Street (Wednesday 7.30pm, ITV1) illicit lovers Jamie and Frankie Baldwin (she’s his stepmother, eww!) are found out when Danny Baldwin returns home early and finds them doing the Weatherfield tango. Oops! You can tell its nearly Christmas, can’t you?

James May goes off-piste from Top Gear and teams up with Oz Clarke in Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure (Wednesday 8pm, BBC2). It does what it says on the bottle, as Oz and James head out on a Sideways styled adventure and Clarke attempts to educate his beer-swilling mate in the subtleties of fine wine. Good fun, although I wish somebody would cut May’s hair and de-stripe his wardrobe.

And for sports fans, join me in an exercise of inevitable futility as England embark on getting well and truly thrashed as the battle for The Ashes commences (Tuesday 11pm, Sky Sports 1). Oh well…

Thursday of course means it’s appointment TV in the form of The State Within (9pm, BBC1). Like much of my favourite TV, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on as there are so many storylines whizzing around the dialogue blender, but that should never be an obstacle. It seems the ratings for this excellent thriller have gone off the boil a touch, which is a shame as this very stylish, very sexy series deserves to be seen, and the advent of an already commissioned second season might be on shaky ground.

And then to the Catherine Tate question – has she lost her sparkle, or is the flame-haired comedy goddess as good as she ever was? The perceived wisdom on The Catherine Tate Show (Thursday 9pm, BBC2) is that it has suffered the third series curse, but I disagree. Truth be told, the consistency was never there in the first place, but that’s always the pitfall of character based sketch comedy. You’re never going to have a 100 per cent hit rate. Last week’s episode had me chortling out loud more than previous weeks, and if there’s one area where Ms Tate always scores, it’s in characterisation. With any of her characters, you can never see the join, and that still makes her a joy to watch, even if the comedy has lost its shine.

Jam and Jerusalem (Friday 9.30pm, BBC1). Um… It’s a new Jennifer Saunders comedy. It has Dawn French in it. And Joanna Lumley. And it looks quite good. No, really. However much anybody loves Ab Fab, it was always a difficult relationship, but this looks like Saunders is heading into welcome new territory. Sue Johnston (always fantastic) stars as Sal, a local GP’s nurse who, following the death of her husband, finds herself relying on the support of the Women’s Guild. It’s populated by a cast of eccentrics, led by Maggie Steed’s Eileen. It certainly has great pedigree all round, and might just have the legs to solve your Friday night viewing woes until C4 sees fit to plug Ugly Betty into the schedules.

I’m actually growing quite fond of Robin Hood, now I’m over its failings and realising that this is what we are going to get, certainly for the remainder of this first series. Yes, Jonas Armstrong needs ejecting from Sherwood as soon as humanly possible if it goes to a second series, but on the whole, the show has become quite an entertaining alternative to the light entertainment fare propping up the Saturday night schedules. This week, could things go acorn-shaped for the band of un-merry men as they team up with a rival band of outlaws? What do you think?

There is very much a musical theme creeping in this Saturday evening, starting with How Music Works with Howard Goodall (Saturday 8.25pm, C4). This is a nicely energetic look into how music is capable of giving us all a lift and getting into our psyche’s, all in the company f the genial Howard Goodall, composer of TV theme tunes ranging from Blackadder to Red Dwarf. It’s very clear an concise, and here the knowledgable Mr Goodall looks at how melody gets into our very soul.

Following directly is James Bond’s Greatest Hits (Saturday 9.25pm, C4). Of course, the world is going 007 mad for the billionth time (and quite right too), and this neat little documentary showcases how the famous theme tunes are just as inseperable from the tuxedos, martinis, girls and gadgets. It features interviews with the writers and crooners who have brought the themes to life, but cusiously, doesn’t go into detail on why Chris Cornell’s ditty for Casino Royale is so bloody dreadful. For the record, Live and Let Die is the one to beat…

In light of the recent Rebus adaptations with Ken Stott that walked a middling line of quality, it might be interesting to go back and check out the first TV Inspector Rebus (Saturday 9pm UKTV Drama) in a repeat run of the John Hannah version. The difference between the two incarnations is quite startling. hannah is too slight to play Rebus, but strangely captures the psychologically questionable side of the character in a way that Ken Stott was only just finding as the last run ended. When you realise that Hannah was practically forced to play the character at gunpoint (ITV would only greenlight the series from the actor’s own production company if he agreed to take the part himself) then it’s amazing he did the job as well as he did. Good stuff, if not brilliant.

Planey Earth (Sunday 9pm, BBC1) is as brilliantly breathtaking as the first series, but there has been a sense of deja vu about some of the material shown in the alst couple of weeks - last week’s elephants trudging through the dust had a very familiar ring about it. But when TV this good comes along, it simply has to be revelled in and celebrated. And David Attenborough has a voice that’s as a familiar and soothing as a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night. Bliss!

As it’s undeniably Bond weekend, The Real Casino Royale (Sunday 9pm, BBC1) should get everybody further in the mood for the new improved secret agent (including his skimpy blue trunks). Andrew Graham-Dixon goes in search of the inspirations that led Ian Fleming to pen that first, fateful James Bond novel. I imagine that’ll be a casino then…

The rest of Sunday sees a battle of the US dramas on the multi-channel battlefield. Lost (Sunday 10pm) makes it much-heralded debut on Sky One, to much gnashing of teeth from the C4 fans who are not yet cabled up. This double-bill of delicious twisty-turny fun reveals that The Others are not as mysterious as we first thought, and they all attend a book club. Which is nice. Previewing a new season of Lost is pointless on the whole, as it will just scream off in all sorts of directions, generally obeying laws that are not bound by this earth. It’s best to just hang on and hope for the best.

If you missed the Lost boat, your second option for some fine US drama this weekend is provided by the really rather excellent Entourage (Sunday 10pm, ITV2), well into the stride of its second season run. As Vince gets his multi-million deal for the Aquaman movie, surely Ari (the magnificent Jeremy Piven) will no doubt ruin it soemwhere along the way. If you’ve lost interest during the early portion of this season, turn around and come back, the boys have pulled it back in timely fashion.

Today sees the fortieth anniversary of one of the BBC’s most well-known TV dramas, Cathy Come Home. Written by Jeremy Sandford and directed by Ken Loach, it is often credited with leading to the creation of homeless charity Shelter — although, as noted on the Guardian’s new TV blog, in reality it coincided with the nascent charity’s launch, and certainly helped foster an unprecedented level of awareness that meant the charity grew in size and stature much more quickly.

In another of our occasional digs through the Television Today archives, we bring you the original review of Cathy Come Home, written by one Michael Billington (who is now theatre critic of the Guardian):

Powerful and sombre piece

BY MICHAEL BILLINGTON

The barrier that separates television drama from documentary has been slowly crumbling for a long time now. After last night’s BBC1 Wednesday play, Cathy Come Home by Jeremy Sandford, it should have more or less caved in completely. The play dealt with the problem of a homeless family, and although the characters were fictitious, everything that happened to them had been observed by the author at first hand. All told, it made a powerful, sombre piece of television but it left me wondering whether this type of factual drama was the best way of getting to the heart of social problems.

The basic story line was fairly simple. Cathy (Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks) fell in love, got married and took a flat. As they were earning about £35 a week between them, life held few economic problems. But Cathy became pregnant, Reg had an accident and was forced to live off his sickness benefit and, financially, the pressure was on. The couple tried living with in-laws but that didn’t work; were evicted from a tumbledown flat after the death of the owner; saw the caravan they had bought razed to the ground; and ended up with Cathy in a hostel and Reg in digs. Under the weight of all this, the marriage broke up, the children were taken away by the state and Cathy returned disconsolately home.

Quite obviously, Mr. Sandford feels deeply angry both about the arrangements we make for homeless couples and for the fact they exist at all. “They’re casualties of the Welfare State,” says someone. “They’re pushed around like so much human litter.” On the evidence offered, I take this to be true and I deplore it as much as Mr. Sandford does, but what weakened his attack on the system as a whole was his apparent unwillingness to admit that his central couple were also to blame for their condition. This lack of objectivity is perfectly acceptable in a dramatist but less so in someone framing an indictment of part of the social set-up.

Still, the play did force one to take notice of an urgent human problem and it was also directed by Kenneth Loach with an admirable mixture of technical elan and feeling for the subject. Slum squalor, for instance, was shown for what it really is without being turned into something visually picturesque.

The direction also showed a simple concern for people: there was one particularly haunting shot of the face of an old man dissolving into tears on being told that he was to be sent to a home. At the same time, the desire for realism was carried a bit too far, with the soundtrack often achieving authenticity at the expense of audibility. As for the cast, one can only pay them the high compliment of saying that one accepted them as ordinary, everyday people rather than paid-up Equity members.

Cathy Come Home remains one of the most famous of all the BBC’s political dramas of the 1960s (covered in a recent BBC Four documentary, which I talked about — and repeated the erroneous Shelter claim — in this blog article from August).

And what of today’s political dramas? If we ignore the action-adventure heroics of Spooks or The State Within, we’re pretty much left with clumsy war metaphors in Robin Hood and a storyline in Casualty…

In one of those meaningless surveys conducted by FMCG companies in a brazen (if successful) attempts to get their brands into the media, Caroline Aherne’s The Royle Family have come out top as Britain’s best loved TV family.

The survey, commissioned by Dr Oetker pizza of all people, places the Royles above the Trotters, the Simpsons and the Osbournes. But wait! Before you can say, “Clearly, eating Dr Oetker pizzas deprives you of all concept of televisual history”, also making the Top 25 list include The Carringtons from Dynasty (somewhat bizarrely beaten by Californian neighbours The Colbys), the Cranes (Frasier), Six Feet Under’s Fishers and The Addams Family.

The full list reads:

1. The Royle Family (The Royle Family)
2. The Trotters (Only Fools and Horses)
3. The Simpsons (The Simpsons)
4. The Osbournes (The Osbournes)
5. The Cranes (Frasier)
6. The Addams Family (The Addams Family)
7. The Waltons (The Waltons)
8. The Dingles (Emmerdale)
9. The Mitchells (Eastenders)
10. The Fishers (Six Feet Under)
11. The Boswells (Bread)
12. The Ewings (Dallas)
13. The Battersbys (Coronation Street)
14. The Cunninghams (Happy Days)
15. The Slaters (Eastenders)
16. The Huxtables (The Cosby Show)
17. The Connors (Roseanne)
18. The Cohens (The O.C.)
19. The Kennedys (Neighbours)
20. The Ramseys (Neighbours)
21. The Robinsons (Neighbours)
22. The Colbys (Dynasty/ The Colbys)
23. The Bristows (Alias)
24. The Sullivans (The Sullivans)
25. The Carringtons (Dynasty)

Surely, the most curious — certainly the most dysfunctional — family in the list is the Bristows, from J.J. Abrams’ spy series Alias. There aren’t many families where the daughter finds out that, while she thinks she’s working alongside her dad for a top-secret division of the CIA, they’re actually both working for the enemy — and the mother she thinks is dead is actually a Russian spy. But still, it’s a more interesting life than the bloomin’ Ramseys at No. 20 — especially since they pretty much all left in the first few years of the soap, although cousin Madge did stay on for a bit longer.

I can’t help feeling there are several families missing from the list, though. Who would you like to see on there? The Tylers (Rose, Jackie, Pete and — by extension — Mickey Smith) from Doctor Who? The Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie? The Monsoons from Absolutely Fabulous?

TV Todayers, it’s over to you!

Ant and Dec may be the mainstays of ITV’s light entertainment roster, but it seems that the broadcaster’s reliance on the cheeky Geordies has led it into an incredible ‘aim-at-foot-then-shoot’ fiasco. It seems that plans for a return of latex satire show Spitting Image will have to be shelved because of the celebrity duo’s inclusion in last June’s Best Ever Sptting Image.

According to Broadcast, the rights to the Spitting Image brand have been retained by Roger Law, who with Peter Fluck created the show’s unique look. Unfortunately, while he agreed to June’s retrospective, he did not agree to the creation of the new Ant and Dec puppets who presented it.

Former Spitting Image producer John Lloyd told Broadcast:

When [ITV entertainment chief] Paul Jackson came into the role I said to him we might persuade Roger into the fold if the money was right.

It may well have happened if ITV Productions hadn’t gone ahead with the new puppets, directly against Roger’s wishes. As a result, it has blown away the possibility of a new series. Whoever made that decision should be fired.

A case of “I Made A Celebrity… Now I’m Out Of Here”?

It’s quite a sad day to see the end of the long-standing sponsorship deal between Coronation Street and Cadbury. TV Today has mixed feelings about sponsorship for TV programmes, but sometimes it can work given the right partnership between product and programme. The teaming of the nation’s favourite chocolate with the nation’s favourite soap was a marriage made in heaven, and from a viewer point of view, the idents became part of the Corrie furniture.

This is a real blow to ITV, with the deal worth a reported £10 million a year. The chances of finding that value of deal with a partner that fits in the same, unobtrusive manner are slim. According to the Daily Star, on-line bookmakers Paddy Power is offering odds of 4-1 on Unilever as the favourites to step in and take over the slot. There will be no shortage of takers for what is undeniably a coveted slot, but how appropriate the product is the key to how any deal will work.

The word is that Cadbury has recently developed reservations over some of the recent storylines creeping into Coronation Street. This is also combined with a reported desire to develop the Cadbury product in more upmarket directions and that the Coronation Street audience no longer delivers the required demographic. On this point, I’m tempted to retort: “How very dare you!”

This poses the wider question of just how far has Corrie developed in the 10 years since Cadbury inked the original two year deal. Have storylines with serial killer onslaughts on the Street, teenage pregnancies, gay kisses, almost incest and erm… Bradley Walsh, given the company pause to reconsider their position?

I would like to think the Corrie fathful is the same as it always was, providing a much wider demographic of ages and backgrounds than the majority of other soaps. Having said that, just as soaps have to develop organically to sustain and grow, so too must the needs of successful companies. Perhaps it is a case of a partnership coming to a natural end? Or, was the enforced hiatus on the idents following Cadbury’s summer salmonella scare the straw that broke the chocolate camel’s back?

But this news has put me in mind of a question I was asked back in my days as a Coronation Street tour guide. Shortly after the sponsorship commenced, featuring Aardman Animation’s fantastic chocolate Weatherfield model, I was standing on the exterior Street set. A visitor to the site was looking up at the roofs of the houses, clearly in some confusion. He wandered up to and asked, quite sweetly:

“Excuse me… can you tell me how they get all that chocolate on the houses?”

It’s always bemusing when double acts are nominated for an award as one, and this year’s list of nominees for The British Comedy Awards is no exception.

The category for Best TV Comedy Actor is, if you’ll pardon the expression, a joke. David Mitchell and Robert Webb receive one nomination between them, as if they are one bizarre gestalt being, while Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant receive a nod apiece. Why so? Surely, Gervais and Merchant are as much of a double-act as Mitchell and Webb, possibly more so. Yes, Merchant is more than just Ricky Gervais, but his solo efforts aren’t as high profile or as numerous as some of the solo projects taken on by Mitchell and Webb.

It just seems a silly distinction tainted by a lack of imagination in being unable to separate performers who are well known for sketch-based comedy. The same thing happened with Matt Lucas and David Walliams in previous years, and in both cases, each performer is clearly more than the sum of their partnerships. Mitchell and Webb are a great partnership, and so are Gervais and Merchant, but why not judge them on their individual merits? Same principal for Alan Carr and (SHOUTING MODE ON) JUSTIN LEE COLLINS! (SHOUTING MODE OFF) and Ant and Dec… Actually, that one’s okay, they are in fact the same being.

And while I’m warming to my theme, why can’t Charlotte Church be judged on her merits and just not be nominated for Best Female Comedy Newcomer. She might be a newcomer, but it certainly isn’t to comedy and she’s about as funny as watching your team lose on penalties. That nod will, I safely predict, be given to the divinely fabulous Miranda Hart. She was great in the lukewarm Hyperdrive, but her cameo in the first episode of Lead Balloon was sublime. Speaking of which, where on earth is Lead Balloon? Next year, one would hope…

As for the Best International Comedy Programme category I am, frankly, shocked and appalled at the absence of My Name is Earl. The best laugh out loud comedy anywhere in the world right now, and this is an alarming oversight. However, I have just realised what a contradiction I am in the things I favour by the presence of Curb Your Enthusiasm in this list. I hate CYE (cue sharp intakes of breath). I really have never “got it”. Yet, and sharp-eyed readers may start the finger pointing now, as I adore Lead Balloon. Both shows are arguably cut from the same comedy cloth, but I find Larry David’s show impenetrable and its position as a sacred cow in the world of laughter unfathomable (yet I’m partial to a drop of Seinfeld every now and then.)

Well, as they say, there’s no accounting for taste… The British Comedy Awards will be broadcast on ITV1 on 13th December.

Monday 13 November

Spooks (9pm BBC1)

Rub your hands together with glee – it’s a Spooks finale, and this one looks like a doozy. Adam (rapidly turning loony) and Ros are under threat when activists threaten to flood London following the government’s revelations that its environmental policies are a sham. A new series has been commissioned (of course it has, it’s Spooks and it’s the best thing on the box), but we don’t know who gets out alive. Terrific stuff, don’t be away too long.

I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (9pm ITV1)

Big Brother aside, this is the giant of the reality genre, and still shows no signs of losing its appeal. There’s a mixed bag of the great and the good in there this year, but as long they don’t mess with the format too much, it’ll be a hoot. I’m betting David Gest crashes and burns before the week is out…

Tripping Over (10pm Five)

Look, it’s on Five, but don’t hold that against it, this drama has good pedigree, not least of all because it’s created by Cold Feet/Life Begins supreme Mike Bullen. Three episodes in, and it might be too late to pick up the thread of this globetrotting series, but give it a chance. Please?

Tuesday 14 November

A Child Against All Odds (9pm, BBC1)

Thought provoking new documentary series from Robert Winston that attempts to guide us through the ethical minefield that is fertility treatment. Winston’s avuncular presence can be quite reassuring as this first episode follows three couples with varying dilemmas about treatment, but be prepared for some heavy material along the way.

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (9pm C4)

Always worth a look, nobody does this kind of thing better than Gordon Ramsay. Thoroughly entertaining, you’ll find yourself watching through your hands as Gordon heads to the Costa del Sol to take on a stubborn restaurant owner.

Wednesday 15 November

Coronation Street (7.30pm ITV1)

Corrie is rather blissful at the moment as the downward slope to Christmas starts to pick the speed up. The Danny-Frankie-Jamie love triangle is being well played, and tonight, Danny has the notion of whisking Frankie away to get married in Spain. What will Jamie say… or do for that matter? Who would have thought that Bradley Walsh would have become such a part of the Corrie furniture?

Thursday 16 November

The State Within (9pm BBC1)

If this week’s departure of Spooks has left you bereft, don’t despair – help is on hand in the form of Jason Isaacs’ suave British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Mark Brydon. Three episodes in and this is turning into unmissable stuff. Brydon has a new nemesis this week in the form of Colonel Macyntyre, and he finds himself clashing with the FBI when some British mercenaries are arrested.

Strictly Confidential (9pm ITV1)

Suranne Jones, late of Coronation Street, steps ou