Fazzinchi

Continuing the hugely welcome trend for UK broadcasters to show US-imports very soon after their Stateside debuts, Fringe, while not exactly creating a storm of excitement has delivered some enjoyable, watchable sci-fi drama.  Being spoiler-free on these shows is a genuine pleasure and one which will be sorely missed if the January re-starts for Lost, Battlestar and 24 don’t follow suit. However, Fringe is a tough show to review (more…)

Meeeerrlin… he drives the fastest milkcart in the west.

Nimueh, Nimueh, Nimueh, Nimueh, In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.

Apart from trying to crowbar the character’s names in popular songs, there’s also a lot of genuine enjoyment to be gleaned from BBC1’s latest stab at filling the “Doctor Who Slot”. Merlin has a kind of 21st century sheen to it that is remarkably similar to the revitalised Robin Hood, which, if you’re a fan of gritty realism, is (more…)

Children’s telly on weekdays is a mystery to me. I tuned in to my annual dose of CBBC this afternoon: the reason, of course, was not to be bombarded with a cerebral overload of “yoof tv” or whatever they call it these days. Heaven forbid. Voluntarily selecting a channel where the presenters seem to be in a drug-induced state of faux happiness while spouting inanities at glove puppets between programmes full of (more…)

[Even though it's a couple of days late, here's my Doctor Who review for Journey's End.  I'll add the pictures to the review later on (which won't matter for those RSS readers among you) but which brightens up my blog no end.  Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts?]

Hello dear reader(s). Well, how was it for you?  9.4 million people tuned in to Saturday night’s Doctor Who finale to be treated to sixty-five minutes of wonderful, sci-fi nonsense.  The abundance of newspaper articles across the whole gamut of broadsheets as well as the more typical tabloid fodder, plus guest appearances on TV shows and even features on the Six O’Clock news itself led to a kind of Who-Shot-JR (more…)

I Have in my Hand a Piece of Paper

With all the furore over the 100-day writer’s stirke in the US, one of the shows that apparently got hit pretty hard was Heroes. The shortened 11-episode series began here in the UK with the first two episodes “Four Months Later…” and “Lizards” getting their premiere on BBC2 and the frankly stunning BBC HD channel. Getting to enjoy the show so long after our American cousins got to see it (along with the illegal (more…)

Anyone for a Catfight?

So, what is that intangible “something” about Primeval that leads me to both love it and hate it at the same time? Series Two came to an end at the weekend with the 13th installment of dino-fun and I have to acknowledge that the second set of seven episodes were a distinct step up from the first six. For every positive that I find there is a niggly little piece of the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit….

• It is refreshing to see escapist drama on primetime Saturdays, following in the footsteps of Doctor Who’s recent (more…)