Fazzinchi

The World Against Me

The second series of Jack Dee’s BBC2 comedy, Lead Balloon, is now well underway and thankfully, after a pretty shaky start, it’s right back on track. There’s something refreshing about portraying what is essentially Jack Dee’s on-stage persona in a domestic situation where he can be even more grumpy and put-upon than usual and, most effectively of all, play off the people around him. In the latest installment, “Points”, anti-hero Rick has been penalised with points on his (more…)

Cheerleader saved…. Check!

And so, Heroes has concluded for UK viewers on the Sci-Fi channel but before you can say “My name is Hiro Nakamura” it starts all over again on BBC2 next Wednesday. If you haven’t seen it, you really should and, with a bit of luck, the BBC’ll show it show it in proper widescreen, so that Claire (above) doesn’t look like her amazing power is being unflatteringly stretched out to Oompa Loompa- like proportions.  The final episode, “How To Stop An Exploding Man”, brought (more…)

Andrew Marr Oversees Our Modern History

I am not a frequent watcher of history programming, in fact, I struggle to recall the last time I sat down to watch any factual history programme. So, it was just a coincidence that I sat down on Monday evening and, while flicking through the EPG, I saw that Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain was about to start on BBC2. I can safely say I learned more about the history of Britain from watching this than I have from any other source. This first of five parts took us on an intriguing (more…)

Staying In Is The New Going Out

It’s been a quiet few days here at Fazzinchi Towers, so apologies for the lack of updates.  I have about five posts that I’ve started but have yet to finish, plus the tenth and final installment of the Series One Retrospective for “Bad Wolf/Parting Of The Ways” and, inevitably, the review of “Daleks In Manhatten” that will be shown tonight.  Plenty in the pipeline then.  Meanwhile, The Other Viewer and I had one of those lazy Friday nights on the sofa yesterday and there was a fair amount (more…)

Tasty, Tasty, Very, Very Tasty

The most recent series of Masterchef Goes Large has been a surprising success in the ratings, especially when it was nearing the final that was finally broadcast last Thursday. For you delectation the winning dishes cooked up by the eventual victor, Steve, are snapped above. Long gone is the Loyd Grossman style that I recall having an unfeasably dark studio with guest critics who popped on to the set to sample the culinary concoctions of the participants. Here we have a (more…)

Show Me The Money

The Money Programme is not one of my usual Friday night stops on my channel hopping extravaganza.  However, last week I got caught up in the “Wow” that was their documentary, Coming To Your Screen: Windows Vista, where we were treated to an insider’s view of the workings of Microsoft UK as they prepared themselves for the release of their latest and greatest operating system.  Not so much a warts-and-all expose, more of a tepid air-brushing of life in a real office that left (more…)