Archive for February, 2009

In a venture that some may view as a fascinating social experiment, others as hot air, Sky Arts is to screen sculptor Antony Gormley’s new project, in which a different group of 100 people stand on Trafalgar Square’s empty fourth plinth for an hour at a time, 24 hours a day this summer.

Gormley, best known as the creator of Gateshead’s Angel of the North, said he wanted areas of Britain exactly represented in his living artwork, which is called One & Other and begins on 6th July. The project’s 2,400 participants will be chosen at random from those who apply via a computer programme that ensures they will represent the population density of parts of the UK.

The ‘action’ will be broadcast on Sky Arts in a series of live programmes, as well as in a weekly highlights show filmed from the plinth. A special website, www.oneandother.co.uk, will allow viewers to follow the project at any time of day through a 24-hour webcam, and give them the opportunity to vote for their favourite moments.

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BBC business editor Robert Peston was honoured at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards last night for his historic run of scoops on the banking crisis.

Peston was named TV journalist of the year, and also beat ITV News Africa correspondent Martin Geissler and Sky News’s Emma Hurd to receive the coveted television journalist of the year prize.

Judges said he “owned the story of the credit crunch and its impact on the whole economy” and “produced probably the most sustained run of scoops and exclusives in the history of broadcast news in the UK”.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that a large part of the nation hung on the winner’s words every night; he personally revived appointment-to-view,” they added.

The BBC News channel was also awarded scoop of the year for its story on the HBOS/Lloyds TSB merger, broken by Peston on 17 September last year and confirmed later the same day. The RTS judges hailed the scoop an “extraordinary exclusive which heralded the extraordinary changes in the British banking system”.

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Dev Patel, star of the Oscar-winning British film Slumdog Millionaire is to be a contestant on the real Who Wants to be a Millionaire in order to raise money for charity.

The 18-year-old actor will appear alongside Slumdog’s director Danny Boyle on the ITV1 quiz show. He will compete for the top prize of £1 million to raise money for the Railway Children charity, which helps street children all over the world. The programme would be hosted by Chris Tarrent.

In the film, Patel plays an orphan from the Mumbai slums, who wins the top prize on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The film won eight Oscars, including gongs for best adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, best original score and best song.

It is hoped that Patel’s co-star Frieda Pinto will be at the end of the line in the “phone a friend” option, as her character was in the film.

“Danny and Dev are keen to keep on giving back to the street kids, and have been talking to Railway Children about appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?,” a source told The Sun.

A spokeswoman for production company Celador, which makes Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Said, “We were approached by Railway Children about doing the special — and we think it would be fantastic. Danny and Dev would play together, as with all our celebrity specials, but filming depends on their availability.”

Wendy Richard, who played Pauline Fowler in EastEnders for over 20 years, has died. She was 65 and had been suffering from cancer.

Ms Richard died in the Harley Street Clinic in London with her husband, John Burns, by her side.

Her television and film career spanned five decades, since she first appeared in the series Stranger on the Shore in 1961. She went on to play Joyce Harker in the BBC’s 1960s soap opera, The Newcomers, and became a household name as the buxom Miss Brahms in the 1970’s sitcom Are You Being Served?

Her most famous role, however, was that of the redoubtable matriarch Pauline Fowler from EastEnders’ first episode in 1985 to her character’s death in 2006. Ms Richard reputedly asked to be written out of the plot when she believed the script writers were planning for her character to remarry - a step she didn’t wish to take.

Indeed, she was not averse to refusing scripts if she did not like their content. A conservative supporter, Ms Richard refused to rant about Margaret Thatcher on-screen, accusing the EastEnders producers of foisting their own political views on her character.

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Jade Goody has said that she is “not embarrassed or ashamed” that her battle with cancer will be filmed for a reality television show.

The 27-year-old married her husband, Jack Tweedy, in a lavish ceremony on Sunday. Among the star-studded congregation were Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, the singer Antony Costa and TV presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. Following a lavish reception at which the pop trio Sugarbabes are said to have performed, Goody and Tweed spent their wedding night together, “courtesy of Jack Straw”. The pair were married by Bishop Jonathan Blake of the independent Open Episcopal Church.

For the ceremony, Goody wore a cream and ivory Manuel Mota silk dress with high neck, V-back and full skirt box pleating, which even contained a hidden pocket for her medicine.

Goody’s publicist Max Clifford described the ceremony afterwards as a “dream wedding” that was “full of laughter and tears”.

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ITV is to run a day of themed programming on Mothering Sunday on its digital channel ITV3, with shows and advertising targeted at women.

The channel will broadcast costume dramas such as an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and the children’s classic Pollyanna, starring Amanda Burton, throughout the day, as well as light-hearted documentaries including ‘The Story of the Costume Drama’ and ‘Abba: The Mamma Mia Story’.

As a means of encouraging viewer interaction, ITV will invite viewers to take part in an online vote to decide which film to screen in their 9pm primetime slot. Contenders include Shakespeare in Love, Pride and Prejudice and Shirley Valentine.

Advertising breaks, likewise, will target women with typical day time commercials for things like household goods, anti-wrinkle cream and ready meals.

If successful, ITV plan to air more themes programming days around calendar event and, given the dire state of the broadcaster’s finances at the moment, it looks like a wise strategy.

Mothers’ Day this year is Sunday 22nd March.

She has been hailed the greatest University Challenge contestant ever, scoring more points on the show than her three teammates put together. Indeed, her incredible knowledge prompted the normally aloof host of the BBC2 quiz show, Jeremy Paxman, to exclaim “My God, you’re laughing because they are so easy!”, whilst a fellow contestant has likened her to an “intellectual blitzkrieg”.

Last night’s final went according to the pre-ordained script and Gail Trimble, the 26-year-old captain of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, secured her place in the record books, leading her team to victory with a score of 275 points to Manchester University’s 190 points - the Oxford team’s closest score in the contest. Poet Wendy Cope presented the team with the winners’ trophy.

It is the second time that Corpus Christi has won the contest, having also taken the trophy in 2005. Founded in the 16th century it is one of the smallest colleges in Oxford with fewer than 400 students.

In each of the Corpus Christi’s five matches the team have been well ahead of their opponents. In their quarter-final victory against Exeter they scored 350 points when their opponents could manage only 15, the lowest score on the show since 1972.

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ITV is considering putting its digital television business, SDN, up for sale as it looks to raise extra funds as the broadcaster faces a slump in advertising revenues and further pressure on its pension fund.

ITV’s executive chairman, Michael Grade, is due to present what is thought to be a radical rescue plan on 4th March, when the broadcaster will announce its results. Grade and ITV’s chief operating officer, John Cresswell, have a week to put the finishing touches to their proposals before taking them to the ITV board.

SDN rents capacity to Five, the QVC shopping channel and Discovery. Apart from the broadcaster’s core channels, many within ITV view it as its most saleable asset, with the potential to raise over £200 million. Friends Reunited, the website designed to reunite old school friends, has also been proposed for sale, though this would raise only £50 million, far less than the £175 million ITV paid for it.

ITV has had a troubled involvement with digital television. ITV Digital, which was designed to be a pay-TV rival to Sky, collapsed in 2002 costing ITV £1 billion. ITV bought STN, which operates ITV Digital’s successor, Freeview, for £134 million in April 2005.

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Jade Goody has said that she is “thrilled” at the news that hubby-to-be Jack Tweed will be allowed to spend his wedding night with her this Sunday, after the government stepped in to waive his curfew.

Goody said in a statement that the decision by the Ministry of Justice to allow the pair to spend the whole of their wedding day together would mean the “dream finish” to the festivities.

Jack Tweed, 21, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail last September after attacking a teenager with a golf club, was given early release in January, on the condition that he be tagged and return to his mother’s home by 7pm each evening.

But this morning the Ministry of Justice decided that, as an “exceptional” case, Tweed would be allowed to stay with Goody until 3pm on the day following their wedding.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said, “It is crucial that offenders are treated equally within the rules regardless of the publicity surrounding their case, but I was satisfied that it was reasonable to allow this.”

In a statement issued through Goody’s publicist, Max Clifford, the couple said: “We are absolutely thrilled. It will be the dream finish to her dream day, and it makes so much difference. Our heartfelt thanks from Jade and from Jack for allowing him to stay the evening in these very special circumstances.”

Goody, who was told by doctors on Friday that her cancer is terminal, has sold broadcasting rights to her wedding thought to be worth £1 million in order to raise money to provide for her sons, Bobby and Freddie.

Setanta Sports have just announced that they have secured coverage of Barclays Premiership games from the Premier League for games for a further three seasons until 2013.

Setanta managed to successfully bid for the ‘D Package’ of games for the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. This entitles Setanta to broadcast 23 games a season primarily to be shown at 5:30pm on a Saturday from August 2010 (the start of the 2010-11 season).

Setanta maintains their current Premier League package for the remainder of the 2008-09 season and throughout the 2009-10 season, which starts this August and entitles Setanta to broadcast 46 games a season.

Coverage rights to Barclays Premier League fixtures remains at the core of the Setanta Sports Pack, available now on every Digital TV platform in Britain. Along with coverage of Premiership matches, the Setanta Sports Pack also includes FA Cup games, home nations World Cup Qualifiers and England home friendlies. Along with this is live coverage of the Scottish Premier League, and the UEFA Cup from next season, and as well as top class football coverage there’s the best in international boxing, Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket, US PGA golf, UFC matches and from next year onwards, Guinness Premiership rugby.

This news echoes last month’s announcement that Sky had secured broadcast rights for Premier League games until 2013.