There has been a brace of new sketch shows on television recently, trying to capture some Little Britain glory. On digital main channels BBC3 and ITV2, we have It’s Adam and Shelly and Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show, respectively. Both are not good. Adam and Shelley do poor characters with…
I vaguely remember seeing an episode of Neverwhere when it was first shown on the BBC back in the mid-1990s. The unusual yet pretty face of Laura Fraser, with her big eyes and scruffy clothes, are all I can remember of the show – there wasn’t much in that episode…
I thought I had written about the unalloyed joy provided by Charlie Brooker before on this blog, but I have been remiss in my expressions of devotion to the vicious and poetic humour and intelligence of this misanthropic television critic. My knowledge of him started with his painfully funny pastiche…
I finally got round to watching the Jonathan Ross documentary on BBC4, In Search of Steve Ditko (I was away when it first aired, and am unable to tape Freeview channels unless at home) and it made me glad I pay my licence fee. Jonathan Ross is an important personality…
If there is one disadvantage to the internet, it is the knowing about all the cool stuff in advance that I know won’t be coming for a noticeable length of time. This time, the cool thing was Heroes – reading the comic blogosphere and news sites, I have known about…
No, I’m not dead. I’ve felt like it sometimes, but that’s just work for you. So, with a mix of serious work overload, fatigue and a few days off for a break, no blogging for some time now. This regular blogging mularkey is tough. Enough with the angsting, and get…
Even though it’s more television chat, I wanted to compare and contrast three comedy programmes from different terrestrial channels and their relevance to each other. Get A Grip, with Ben Elton, on ITV1; Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul, with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, on BBC1; and Peep Show,…
Lost Another instance of reading about it on blogs before it came to these shores, Lost was a big deal when it arrived on Channel 4, and it lived up to the hype. An intriguing and interesting setting, characters that had layers and you cared about, and a mystery to…
I thought I would write about some of the television series that have been entertaining me recently, even though they are way behind the times. But this was going to happen a lot, especially when the shows are coming over from the US and don't appear on free-to-air channels (in…
If it wasn’t for the fact that he is rich and happy, you’d almost feel sorry for Ricky Gervais. Having struck gold with The Office, where does he go with his difficult ‘second album’? That he and co-creator/writer/director Stephen Merchant didn’t rest on their laurels and made Extras can only…