31,633,091 Reasons To Be Cheerful

I sat down to watch some of the Sport Relief telethon on Friday night. I say “some” because clearly the Other Viewer and I had to turn over at 9pm to watch the latest installment of Lost. The BBC telethon is an established TV event with the format becoming largely predictable: guest hosts, a few famous folk doing skits, some pop acts on to publicise their latest single, some heartbreaking reports of people so very much more worse off that you or I can imagine being, and Annie Lennox inevitably popping up at some point. It still surprises me though, that the Comic Relief nights (and its little sporty cousin) always seem to be more slickly produced affairs than the BBC’s own Children In Need charity. I blame the CiN cutaways to local TV,

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Tags: Annie Lennox, Children in Need, David-Beckham, James Cordon, Sport-Relief

Eveybody’s Talking At Me

Appointment television is a phrase used to describe those rare instances when it feels like everyone you know pushes aside their usual activities and tunes in to watch an event of some cultural significance. Last night was one such time when the typically under viewed and under-appreciated political chat show, Question Time, managed to triple its audience figures to a whopping 7.8 million, accounting for about 50% of total viewership at the time. The reason, which everyone continues to talk about

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Tags: BNP, Dimbleby, Nick Griffin, Question Time

Is There Anybody Out There?

Have you been watching “Live from Studio Five“, the new tea-time magazine programme on Five? Me neither, and judging by the ratings and criticism section on its Wikipedia entry linked above, no-one else either. However, yesterday while I was idly channel hopping while reading Twitter updates on my phone, I stumbled over Melinda Messenger, Ian Wright (Wright Wright) and Kate from the Apprentice sat behind a desk and talking about the pop culture issues of the day. For reasons unclear, I left them chattering while I tweeted. What a strange world we inhabit. On the surface it seems like there is a genuinely entertaining programme struggling to get out but it’s almost impossible to define what that might be.

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Tags: Five, Ian Wright, Kate Walsh, Live From Studio Five, Melinda Messenger

Fearne on the Summit of Kilimanjaro

Well, the kick-off to Comic Relief last night (via the Red Nose Climb and The Apprentice special) was a great start.  I genuinely didn’t think that Fearne was going to make it up the mountain, but hats off to her (and the other eight celebs)  for persevering and getting to the top.  The cutaways to the malaria issues in Africa would have hit hard to even the most hardened cynics among us.  Telethons are always hit and miss affairs, but the Beeb really seem to pull out all the stops for this charity (more so than for Children in Need).  Follow the link above and give generously.

Tags: 2009, Comic-Relief, Kilimanjaro, Red-Nose-Day

It’s Not Often That My Reviews of New Series Only Last One Word

Beard….!

Tags: Beard, Factual, Jonathan-Ross

Ice, Ice Baby

Just before our vacation, we were frantically trying to free up some space on our Sky Planner and we decided to give the Top Gear: Polar Special the 10-minute test. The test was a clear success as we happily sat down for an hour and enjoyed the antics of the trio of presenters. Jeremy Clarkson and James May joined forces in a Toyota Hilux 4×4 to race to the North Pole against Richard Hammond who was on a dog sled. The mention of the Toyota is important because it is

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Tags: Factual, James-May, Jeremy-Clarkson, North-Pole, Richard-Hammond, Top-Gear