Archive for November, 2008

Robert Kilroy-Silk has become the first contestant to be voted off I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

The controversial MEP for the East Midlands and former talk show host was ejected from the show after just 12 days in the jungle, following a public vote.

Kilroy-Silk was also unpopular with fellow celebrities. During his stay, former Star Trek actor George Takai described him as a “real villain”, whilst Timmy Mallet wound up his fellow contestants by ridiculing Kilroy-Silk on camera as he endured a Bushtucker Trial.

There will be mixed feelings amongst fellow MEPs regarding Kilroy-Silk’s return, many of whom were furious that he had taken part in the show in the first place, saying he should have spent his time more productively seeing to the needs of his constituents. At the time of his acceptance onto the show, MEPs had been planning discussions of issues such as the EU’s response to the G20 summit in Washington, reform of the CAP and the deteriorating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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The BBC plans to air documentaries on a weekly basis, after the 10 O’Clock news on Tuesdays.
The documentary series will not have a brand name or theme of its own; rather each programme will have its own title and message. A documentary about the survivors of the Marchioness cruise boat disaster on the River Thames which looks at the concept of ’survivors’ guilt’ has already been commissioned.

Jay Hunt, controller of BBC1, said that she wanted to find a “distinct home for outstanding documentaries”. She said that she wanted the programmes to have a ’storytelling’ focus and promised a greater variety of ‘refreshing’ factual output on the channel.

After much speculation that the veteran science show Tomorrow’s World would come back to TV screens, Hunt confirmed that a new science magazine show would be launched in the summer, but that it would take on a different title and format to Tomorrow’s World. “I want to bring science back to a general slot on the channel… from next summer a brand new magazine show will come back to BBC1,” she said.

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The screen version of Charlie Brooker’s Guardian column (Screen Burn) is back on BBC4 now, and the last couple of episodes have been top notch stuff. What do you mean, you haven’t been watching? OK, so it’s on stupidly late (10:30pm) and is tucked away in the arse end of the BBC4 schedule and is only broadcast on Tuesdays, the worst day of the week.

Still, in this day and age of EPGs, iPlayers and recordable digiboxes, this sort of thing is less of a problem, right?

Especially when you’re going to miss the real-time broadcast anyway because you’re stuck at Basingstoke train station after having missed your connection due to your first train being late (thanks a million South West Trains).

Anyway, moving on…

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Former Big Brother star Jade Goody is to be the focus of an eponymous documentary series for Living TV.

Jade follows a successful first documentary entitled Living with Jade Goody, which aired in September, showing Jade’s participation in a fitness boot-camp and her second perfume launch. The new series of 60 minute episodes will see the reality TV star undergoing treatment for cervical cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital, at home with her two sons Bobby and Freddy, and in rehearsals for a new pantomime. The number of episodes broadcast will depend on the state of Goody’s health said a spokesperson for Living TV. The first episode will be broadcast on 11th December.

Talking of her battle with cancer, Goody said, “I’m absolutely determined to beat this disease. I have two gorgeous boys and I need to live for them. I don’t want to stop living my life, so in lots of ways viewers will see that its business as usual in the Goody household, and that usually means chaos.”

Claudia Rosencrantz, director of television at Virgin Media, which runs the channel, said, “Living and Jade have a long relationship of trust and our viewers care deeply about her.
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Channel 5 has commissioned three fast-turnaround documentaries focusing on ITV reality and talent shows, in a bid to appeal to more tabloid readers.

The hour-long programmes will look at the reality show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, the programme’s presenters Ant and Dec, and The X Factor judge Cheryl Cole. They will be broadcast before Christmas in the 10 pm slot.

The new fast-turnaround documentaries follow a programme about Madonna’s divorce, as well as a documentary about the recent Ross and Brand ‘Manuelgate’ fiasco called Russell and Ross: What the F*** Was All That About? The hour-long broadcast pulled in a total of 1.1 million viewers and featured an interview with Georgina Baillie, the burlesque dancer at the centre of the media scandal.

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It was a national talking-point, drawing comment from the highest ranks of government and the media, but John Sergeant’s early exit from Strictly Come Dancing failed to win the Saturday night ratings battle against ITV’s X-Factor, which peaked at 12.2 million viewers over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the former political correspondent’s final waltz on Saturday night attracted an average of 10.2 million viewers – the best viewing figures of the year for the celebrity talent contest, but still not enough to overcome ITV’s X-Factor dominance.

The 64-year-old’s weekly bumbling performances on Strictly drew ever harsher criticism from the show’s judges, earning him the title of the “dancing pig”, but delighted the viewing public, who consistently voted him back onto the show, despite finishing bottom of the judge’s leaderboard three weeks in a row. However, Sergeant announced his resignation from the show last week, saying there was a “real danger” he might actually win.
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Top of the Pops is to return to our screens for two one-off shows over the Christmas period, despite earlier assurances from the BBC that the music show would not be brought back.

The Top of the Pops Christmas Special and New Year Special will be presented by Radio1 DJs Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates.

Cotton said, “I am beyond excited at the thought of a return to the mighty TOTP studios for these one-off shows. Reggie and I feel truly honoured to be able to introduce this year’s number one - both shows are going to be huge.”

The BBC had previously rejected calls to bring the long-running show, which was axed in 2006, into this year’s Christmas schedule. However, yesterday the corporation announced a Top of the Pops comeback with not just one but two shows over the festive period.

The news was welcomed by Jimmy Saville, who presented the show when it first went on air in 1964. “Let’s try it for Christmas, see how it works…,” he said. “When it started in 1964 it was a good programme.”
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Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling has been confirmed as the next host of Countdown, Channel 4 announced today. He will be joined by maths whizz Rachel Riley, a 22-year-old Oxford graduate who will take over Carol Vorderman’s role.

Stelling is best known for his knowledge of match day statistics on the Sky Sports programme Soccer Saturday, and has been named Sports Presenter of the Year for three years running. His appointment ends months of speculation as to a replacement for the Countdown host Des O’Connor, who announced his resignation in July.

“I am delighted to be hosting Countdown and follow in the footsteps of such great broadcasters as Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam and Des O’Connor,” he said.
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John Sergeant has spectacularly decided to quit the BBC talent show Strictly Come Dancing, saying there is a “real danger” he might actually win.

Sergeant, 64 and the oldest contestant on the show, sparked mixed reactions from the audience and judges. Despite consistently finishing bottom of the judges’ rankings after a series of lamentable performances, the public kept voting the so-called “dancing pig” back into the show.
He said that he had decided to call it a day because his continued popularity with the general public was beginning to “irritate and annoy people”.

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Graham Linehan’s offbeat sitcom about the (very) small IT department of the fictional Reynholm Industries returns to Channel 4 this Friday for a third series. Much of the humour of The IT Crowd is derived from the social ineptitude of Moss (Richard Ayoade, below, left with the monitor) and Roy (Chris O’Dowd, below right, with the copy of Mustard), the two “standard nerds” who do all of the actual work and the technical ineptitude of their supervisor Jen (Katherine Parkinson, below, middle) a Head of IT who doesn’t know the first thing about computers.

Attempts by Jen to ingratiate her charges with the rest of the company and secure them dates with real life 3D humans fail miserably, as do their attempts to bring their manager’s knowledge of modern day IT up to speed – Roy jokingly tells Jen that Googling ‘Google’ will ‘break the Internet’ – she mistakenly believes him, to her eventual embarrassment during a head office meeting.

Despite being considered outcasts and social misfits by the rest of the company despite their dependence on them to keep the computers humming, the feeling is mutual; Moss and Roy have set up looped recordings of basic suggestions such as “Are you sure it’s plugged in?” and “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” on their answer phone, which seems to do the trick most of the time…

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