Digital TV Blog

…but fail to decapitate Big Brother

Much has been made of the return of The Tudors – the hit US-funded historical drama based upon the reign of Henry VIII of England – to BBC2 after a moderately successful first series which, whilst wildly inaccurate historically speaking, put bums of living room seats to the tune of 2.2 million.

The mutli-part period piece, featuring Gormenghast and Velvet Goldmine star Jonathan Rhys Meyers (right) as King Enry Imself, has been heavily promoted by the Beeb, who used Marilyn Manson’s 1996 hit The Beautiful People to advertise the show, perhaps conscious of Rhys Meyer’s screen pairing with former Manson squeeze Rose McGowan, who played Ann-Margret in the 2005 Elvis mini series.

Last Friday saw around 2.3 million of the British viewing peasantry to flock to their screens; the new series deals with tumultuous events surrounding Henry VIII’s attempts to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled so that he can slip the ring on the finger of Anne Boleyn.

Despite all the regal fanfare, the impact of The Tudors failed to dent Big Brother over on Channel 4, which pulled in an altogether more majestic 3.6 million punters, who witnessed the booting out of Luke Marsden, AKA the chap who allegedly got the nasty on with fellow evictee Rebecca ‘Bex’ Shiner.

Henry and the gang even failed to fend off a repeat of Agatha Christie’s Poirot over on ITV1 which, scooped a respectable 3.2 million.

Margaret! Margaret!

A new drama about Margaret Thatcher’s final days in office is being filmed for BBC2. The drama, stars Rome’s Lindsay Duncan as Margaret Thatcher, James Fox as foreign policy advisor Charles Powell and Robert Hardy as deputy prime-minister Willie Whitelaw. Amazingly, her husband Denis is portrayed by none other than Ian McDiarmid, the actor most famous for his role as the Emperor in the Star Wars films. In an echo of Lindsay’s Rome character Servilia, the drama will examine the men “who loved her and those who betrayed her”, and chronicles her last days as Prime Minister, according to the BBC.

Margaret will be produced by Great Meadow Productions, the company begind the controversial BBC4 drama, The Long Way to Finchley which looked at Thatcher’s early days and was almost taken off air for fear that it would upset the ailing former prime minister too much. The new drama is set in the early 90’s, at a time when Thatcher was slowly losing her firm grip on her party and was forced to resign. The BBC has described it as “intimate portrayal of a woman on the brink of ruin”. Robert Cooper, co-founder Great Meadow Productions, says Margaret is a “darker examination” of the Iron Lady’s last months as Prime Minister. “It is a compelling look into what 11 years in power did to her,” he said.

The drama boasts a host of well-respected British actors, such as Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean) as Kenneth Clark; John Sessions (The Good Shepherd) as former foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe; Doctors‘ Michael Cochrane as MP Alan Clark; Michael Maloney, who starred alondside Judi Dench in the movie Notes on a Scandal, as Thatcher’s successor John Major and Rosemary Leach (My Family) playing the Queen. The production, written by Hancock and Joan’s Richard Cottan, started filming in London last week.

in spite of poor financial management

The BBC Trust has approved a 48% rise in the budget allocation for the BBC website, to £110 million. The increase comes after a review by the corporation’s regulator found that BBC websites cost over 50% more than had been budgeted for last year, due to misallocation of funds and “poor financial management.”

The BBC had planned to spend £74 million on its websites last year, but ended up spending a whopping £110 million because it did not properly account for the cost of maintaining its large collection of sites, which include online local, national and international news, as well as sports commentary pages and weather. £13.8 million of spending for IT support for the websites was misallocated, while staffing costs were £11.1 million higher than had been planned for.

The overspending displayed a “lack of financial accountability” in BBC institutions which resulted in a “serious breach,” according to the trust.

In response to the report, the BBC has said that it will adopt a “cautious approach to new investments” this year. However, in addition to the corporation’s current online services, it wants £39 million extra cash next year for local video news services and educational websites for primary school children, taking the BBC online budget to over £150 million. The iPlayer catch-up service comes under a separate budget.

In a statement the BBC management said that the poor budgeting was “regrettable and we recognise the need to address this.” It is currently drafting a timetable to apply for fresh investment.

Doctor Who and Dot Cotton top downloads

The BBC iPlayer service on Virgin Media saw more than 10m viewers make use of its service in June, according to the first batch of figures released by the quad play company. The June figures are significantly up from the 1.4 million views of BBC content via Virgin when the service was launched in May.

Virgin Media, the first Digital TV platform to give the BBC iPlayer catch-up service its own stand alone menu, managed to attract half as many viewings as the iPlayer website did in June.

Pressing the ‘red button’ on remotes whilst watching a BBC channel on Virgin Media TV brings up the iPlayer menu, without the user having to directly access the internet. Among the top viewings were repeats of EastEnders, Doctor Who and the frankly disturbing kids show In the Night Garden.

Malcolm Wall, the chief executive of content at Virgin Media, said that the figures underlined the “continued success of our on-demand offering,” a sentiment echoed by Rahul Chakkara, the BBC controller for TV platforms, who said: “The initial success on Virgin Media underlines the multiplatform appeal of the BBC iPlayer proposition.”

The iPlayer, which is available to all UK viewers who have an internet connection, has been running fully since Christmas and pulls in an average of 1.5 million users each week.

The BBC get a big Hug

Erik Huggers has been chosen as the BBC’s director of future media and technology, replacing Ashley Highfield, it was announced today. He will start his new job on August 1^st.

A Dutch national, Mr Huggers joined the corporation last year as group controller of future media and technology, after switching from Microsoft where he had worked in a number of business roles for nine years. Since he started at the BBC he has been widely tipped for the role of department director. He will be responsible for all new media output over the internet, mobile platforms and interactive TV, and will as well as the development and performance of the BBC’s iPlayer broadband catch-up service.

Mr Huggers said he will help the corporation “respond to audience demands in providing exciting and innovative new ways of delivering the BBC’s content across a range of media”.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson said that Mr Huggers had shown “great commitment” in promoting the iPlayer. “I look forward to him bringing his drive and determination to this new role, helping ensure the BBC is fit for the digital future,” he said.

Because of criticism centering around weak management within the department, the BBC is also likely to recruit a head of editorial strategy who will work alongside Mr Huggers.

BT give live footy away for free

BT is offering customers free access to Setanta Sports 1 when they sign up for one of its BT Vision packages, in an attempt to win back ground from its competitors in the battle for the broadband market.

Customers will be given Setanta free when they take out a BT Vision bronze, silver or gold package starting at £14 a month – half the cost of Sky’s equivalent. Each package includes the Freeview channels, a digital video recorder and TV Replay, and customers can opt into a number of viewing packs, depending on which package they chooser. These include Kids, Music, Standard Sport and Picture Box, BT Vision’s movie service.

With the addition of Setanta Sports 1, customers can tune into 46 live Barclays Premier League matches, as well as live action from the Scottish Premier League and every round of the FA Cup. Football fans will also have access to ‘near-live’ footage of 242 Premier League matches. The world’s major sporting tournaments will also be broadcast, including the home nations World Cup qualifiers, live US PGA Tour Golf and World Championship Boxing.

Scottish football fans are also in for a treat, as BT Vision announced yesterday that it had signed a deal with Setanta to show 28 on-demand games in addition to the 60 live matches already available to subscribers.

Analysts say that customers are more wary of signing up to pay-TV subscription packages in the light of the current credit crunch. In a press release, BT Vision said “we offer customers the chance to save money by giving them the choice of when they pay and what they pay for.”

In a challenge to rivals Sky and Virgin Media, BT Vision’s Chief Executive Dan Marks said “Our compelling offer… proves you don’t have to pay sky-high prices to watch top-flight football, and our packages offer so much more value than [rival] TV packages on Sky or Virgin… We now have more to watch than any other on-demand TV service in the country”.

Voice of an Angel reprises chat show role

The third series of the Charlotte Church Show got off to a cracking start last night as 2.2 million viewers tuned in for another fest of cheeky Welshness from the expectant mum. Last night’s show, whose guests included Catherine Tate and David Mitchell, was watched by 2.2 million viewers and attracted a 12% share between 10pm and 10.45pm, according to unofficial overnight statistics.

Highlights of this series include a section called “Lady to Ladette”, where Charlotte takes a load of posh girls for a night on the tiles in Cardiff instructing them in matters of dress, drink and dancing. “Obviously I don’t encourage binge drinking…” she wrote less than convincingly in her press release.

Charlotte will also get a chance to show off her talent as she performs various numbers each week.

“I was really worried about having the singing in there,” she said. “I thought that to have a funny, lively, chaotic show and then get all serious and sing at the end would be a bit strange. But actually now I think it’s a really nice end to the show.”

The show begins with a “theme tune” which is performed in a different style each week. In the verse, Charlotte sings about current events and gossip. Tenner says Mark Ronson is involved.

Like last time, Charlotte takes to the streets performing candid camera style pranks, sometimes even going incognito. “It worked so well when we did it during the last series that we’re going to do one each week this time,” Charlotte said in an interview for Channel 4. “So I did one just recently at a wedding. I was talking to the best man during his speech. The bride knew about it, because I’m not about to ruin a bride’s wedding day by secretly filming without permission. But only the bride and the best man knew. It was the groom’s brother who was best man. This guy was brilliant - he did everything I told him to. It was bad. Really bad. But so funny.”

Next week’s guests include violinist Nigel Kennedy, who will be performing with Charlotte, and Katie Price.

The Charlotte Church Show will air on Thursdays at 10pm, Channel 4.

“And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee…”

Following up on his reputation-making debut, “Reservoir Dogs,” Quentin Tarantino has a field day in this overblown Oscar-winning crime comedy is set in the seedy LA underworld, and in three interweaving storylines, told in a circuitous, fractured manner, follows Los Angeles mobsters, hitmen, petty thieves, and a mysterious glowing briefcase.

The first story kicks off with Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnifield (Samuel L. Jackson), two hitmen working for “big boss” Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). After doing in a Yuppie drug dealer, Travolta as a courtesy takes Marcellus’ towering wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for a meal at an 1950’s style diner in a bizarre sequence which makes up the biggest set piece of the film. The scene ends in a drugs fest that sees Vega saving Mia’s life. Meanwhile professional boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) has been instructed by Marcellus to take a fall, but didn’t, and is now on the run for his life along with his naive girlfriend Fabienne. The final storyline follows a pair of lovers, ludicrously inexperienced in the world of crime, (Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth) as they plan to hold up a diner.

Like the double and triple-crossing characters that inhabit the bizarre and unpredictable LA underworld, the film’s plot is jerky and non-linear, darting precariously if self-consciously between its various interlocking storylines of people for whom one day is never the same as the next. The films lurches between unscrupulous comedy banter and horrific mass-murder, often combining both at once. Many key events in the film revolve around averting a crisis or getting out of a sticky situation only to end up in an even stickier one, such as when Butch, on the run from Marcellus, goes back to his flat to find his watch, toasts a pop-tart, only to find Vega on his heels. The film is a treat for buffs, constantly making references to pop-culture and Hollywood history.

Screenplay is bold and confident with each character wallowing in his own words. Characters are brought to life by their disctinctive dialogue, from Jules’ Biblical wrath to Mia who learnt to sound like a moll by imitating soap stars. Performances are at times breathtaking, particularly Jackson’s all-absorbing stage presence which sky-rocketed his career. Brilliantly written and wickedly funny, Pulp Fiction is definitely the one to watch this week.

Sunday 13 July 10:20pm - 12:45am BBC2

ITV to resurrect national current affairs format

ITV’s regional current affairs programmes across England are to be replaced by a single brand similar to the BBC’s regional broadcast Inside Out. The show is to be called Here and Now, the title of a former BBC current affairs programme broadcast in the nineties.

Here and Now will be shown over all the ITV regions in England but will address local issues and be fronted by a regional presenter. The original BBC programme, which was taken off air several years ago, was presented by Sue Lawley and addressed regional issues from around the UK.

However, ITV regions director Michael Jermey has dismissed suggestions that the programme has borrowed ideas from the BBC, insisting that the name was chosen purely because it “says what it is”.

“We are producing something very distinctive. It is going to be a very up-to-date programme based in the locality. It will be a new version of what people already like about regional programming. It will be lively and accessible and I hope it has impact.”

ITV is currently in the process of cutting its regions from 17 to nine, saving the corporation about £40m a year. This has been made easier by Ofcom’s decision to allow ITV to broadcast just half-an-hour’s worth of non-news regional content a week in England. Many ITV staff face losing their jobs.

“We face the inevitable prospect - under whatever map Ofcom approves - of many redundancies across the group,” said Jermey.

There is talk of creating regional news hubs, in which news studios would be located outside their regional areas.

“The ‘hubbing’ of studios in some places could allow us to leave some expensive buildings and make good use of existing studios,” Jermey wrote.

A comprehensive region-by-region report is planned for September detailing how ITV aims to create “the best possible service for viewers within the constraints of the budget.”

The BBC and Channel 4 have both held talks with ITV, seeking to establish ways to help plug the gap in regional programming.

Trouble in the Jackson family

Soap opera EastEnders will tackle the issue of child sex abuse in what could potentially be a controversial storyline, the BBC has announced.

The plot will involve Bianca Jackson’s 15 year old stepdaughter Whitney, played by Shona McGarty - pictured right - and her stepfather Tony who has not yet appeared on screen.

Full details of the storyline have not yet been released but commentators think that it will kick off when Tony is released from prison and appears in Albert Square.

A spokeswoman for EastEnders said the programme was working closely with the children’s charity the NSPCC to portray accurately the devastating effect of child abuse. “EastEnders is a contemporary drama which aims to tackle and reflect real life issues together with raising awareness of the sensitivities that sometimes accompany them,” she said. “EastEnders has successfully drawn attention in the past to a number of sensitive issues including domestic violence, rape and HIV.”

The NSPCC’s director of communications, John Grounds, said that programmes like EastEnders help raise awareness of the horrors of sexual abuse, which usually happens behind closed doors. “The NSPCC’s work with the BBC on the forthcoming EastEnders storyline is aimed at ensuring the portrayal of child abuse accurately reflects the damage it can do to the victim, their family and the wider community,” he said. “This is vital in persuading people to take action to stop it and encouraging children to speak out.”

The soap has been criticised in recent months by Ofcom for airing controversial storylines before the 9pm watershed. The regulator ruled that a story aired in February portraying a gang attack in the Queen Vic and a girl who went into premature labour, had shown “sustained violence, intimidation and menace”.