Digital TV Blog

Everyone who watches Big Brother is a drooling, brainless shuffling dimwit; that’s the premise of the new horror-thriller series Dead Set, showing all this week on E4. A zombie plague has gripped the country, and the only survivors are thought to be the cast and the crew of the Big Brother house, the usual bunch of nicely dressed, vain, pretentious, egocentric toss pitches (one character doesn’t believe that toes have bones).

Jamie Winstone (pictured) leads the cast, as TV runner Kelly, who survives the initial zombie onslaught, and then desperately tries to warn the housemates of the threat outside – of course, being Big Brother housemates, they all think it’s a wind up or some sort of task set by the production team.

Delivered from the pen of Nathan Barley and Screenwipe writer Charlie Brooker, Dead Set could have easily been a none-too-subtle satirical send up on the nature of reality TV (which is sort of is) but its more of a straight-up zombie action-packed brain-fest, or as Brooker himself says “ashamedly populist zombie-horror thriller” – there’s fake blood and plenty of it, and the gory bits are queasingly realistic.

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Television presenter Philip Schofield has denied that he “ambushed” reality TV star Kerry Katona during an interview on ITV1’s This Morning.

The presenter explained that he and co-host Fern Britton had not meant to cause offence in the live television interview when they referred to Katona’s slurred speech and erratic behaviour.

Speaking on the Chris Moyles Show on Radio 1, Schofield said that the star was “obviously very, very angry with us” for asking about her health, but said that the questions had not been planned; rather, they were prompted by her unusual behaviour.

He went on to explain that since Katona had arrived at the studio late, the production team had had no time to assess her condition.

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Arthur Armstrong is tipped to become the new presenter of Countdown, after reports that he has verbally accepted the job. The comedian and actor, best known for his Pimms adverts and his role in The Armstrong and Miller Show, is in the process of signing the papers. Clearly expecting written confirmation, Channel 4 has planned a celebratory dinner with Armstrong this week.

Countdown sources last night confirmed that Armstrong had been approached by Channel 4 asking him to be the quiz show’s new presenter, and that he had been “sifting through the contract”.

A friend of Armstrong said: “Alexander was delighted to be offered the job and can’t wait to get started. He is a big fan of the show wants to make his mark on it. The hope is he will bring in a whole new audience to the much-loved show.”

Assuming that Armstrong does accept the role, he will be the youngest presenter in the show’s 26-year history as Channel 4 seeks to capture a new, younger audience. His appointment will end months of speculation over who would replace Des O’Connor who, along with maths guru Carol Vorderman, quit the show earlier this year. Jeff Stelling, host of Sky Sport’s Soccer Saturday football results show, had also been linked with the role. Back in 2005, following the death of Richard Whiteley, Stelling had been considered for the job of presenter but Des Lynam was chosen instead. The search for a replacement for Carol Vorderman, who was controversially sacked from the programme over the summer, is still on.

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She wowed Sir Paul McCartney with a particularly rousing edition of the Home and Away theme tune and won over the judges by singing a bold medley that combined Special AKA’s “Free Nelson Mandela” with Rihanna’s “Umbrella” last week. Now, just eight days after comedian Peter Kay’s alter-ego, aka the overweight Northern Irish transsexual Geraldine McQueen, performed “The Winner’s Song” on her spoof talent show Britain’s Got The Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice, the single has shot to number two in the UK Charts missing the top spot by just a few thousand sales, which was claimed by the pop-punk star Pink for the third week running.

The Peter Kay’s joke record, co-written by former Take That singer Gary Barlow, marked a stunning victory over shimmering produced pop, beating the real winner of The X-Factor in last night’s singles chart. The single pokes fun at the rags-to-riches imagery evoked by talent shows with the lyrics: “I started with nothing / Now I have something / I proved them all they were wrong”.

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Disney Channel UK has signed an agreement to make children’s programmes such as Hannah Montana, Phineas and Ferb, and Mickey Mouse Club House available on BT Vision’s broadband and digital TV platforms.

The multi-year agreement, which comes into play this Friday, will see Freeview and on-demand content from Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney made available on BT Vision.

“BT Vision’s offer opens up a whole new potential audience for Disney Channel and we’re delighted to be working with them. Our mission is to use new technologies to offer choice and flexibility in accessing our content,” said Michael Cairns, the general manager of Disney Channels UK and Ireland.

Viewers will be able to pay to watch individual shows or subscribe to BT Vision’s Kids’ Pack for £6 per month. The subscription service offers children’s programming without the adverts. Parents are also able to set a security pin for accessing all on-demand viewing.

Earlier this month Channel 5 struck a deal to make its programmes, including Neighbours and Fifth Gear, available for catch-up viewing on BT Vision’s TV service.

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The US cable television company Discovery Communications is to launch a new free-to-air channel in the UK on Freeview early next year.

The factual broadcaster said that its advertising-funded channel would aim at a broad family audience, drawing on its vast library of factual, entertainment and lifestyle programming and adding to its suite of channels already shown on Britain’s pay-TV platforms.

Discovery is thought to have paid about £10m a year to secure the Freeview channel, after successfully bidding for a slot on the SDN multiplex controlled by ITV. The new channel has not yet been given a name.

The new channel will be the first free-to-air channel launched by Discovery Communications, which in the past has been reluctant to move away from the pay TV market, and offers online videos only as downloads. However, the group sees Freeview as a way of entering the mainstream TV market in Britain. Ofcom figures show that the Freeview platform is in 16.7 million homes.

“The UK now has the most competitive and diverse TV market in the world and the launch of a Freeview channel is an important element in expanding consumer reach,” said Dan Brooke, managing director of Discovery Networks UK.

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The news and content producer ITN has joined the broadband TV and radio broadcasting platform, Livestation in a deal which the website’s CEO has called “perfect”.

ITN’s broadband and mobile content supplier ITN On will broadcast the latest national and international news as a well as showbiz and sports content through Livestation on a dedicated 24-hour channel – the only one of its kind in the UK.

In a press release, Livestation’s chief executive Matteo Berlucchi expressed his delight at the new partnership:

“ITN On is a perfect partner for Livestation, with its continually updated news summaries and top sports, entertainment and business news,” he said.

“It’s an ideal addition for the growing choice of news perspectives offered via Livestation. We’ve particularly enjoyed working in partnership with the team at ITN On to make this happen and are confident that Livestation viewers will value our latest addition.”

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Football fans in certain UK regions will now be able to watch the 2010 World Cup in high-definition on Freeview, as Ofcom announced that Channel 4, ITV and the BBC would all be launching HD channels next year.

The communications watchdog today revealed that it will reserve capacity for ITV, Channel 4, and S4C (Channel 4’s Welsh language equivalent) to launch high-definition services on digital terrestrial television (DTT). Until now, the BBC, which owns and operates Mux B as BBC Free to View, was the only designated HDTV broadcaster. The first three channels are expected to launch in “late autumn” next year, with a fourth expected to launch by 2010.

Freeview HD channels will be available in the Granada region next year, followed by Wales, Scotland and the West Country in 2010. Central, Yorkshire, Anglia and Meridian will receive the services by 2011 and London, Tyne Tees and Ulster by 2012. The 17 million viewers with access to the new HD channels will require a set-top box compatible with two new technology standards, MPEG4 and DVB-T2, to watch them.

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Eminent historian David Starkey has slated the raunchy BBC period drama set during the reign of Henry VIII, The Tudors, describing the series as “gratuitously awful”.

Starkey, speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, said that the BBC should be ashamed of the series featuring a svelte, sex-obsessed Jonathan Rhys Myers as Henry VIII, which was riddled with errors and inaccuracy.

Characters wear Elizabethan clothing and even ride in “hackney cabs” which could have been taken “lock, stock and barrel” from a “Jane Austen leftover”.

“The Tudors is terrible history with no point,” Starkey said. “It’s wrong for no purpose. I’ve got no problem with getting history wrong for a purpose - Shakespeare often got things wrong for a reason. But it’s the randomised arrogance of ignorance of The Tudors. Shame on the BBC for producing it”.

Starkey went on to say it was a disgrace that the BBC had “squandered” public money on the series, which had been massively “dumbed down” for American audiences.

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Crimewatch, Question Time and The Weakest Link are to move their production teams out of London under plans to make half of all BBC programmes away from the capital by 2016.

In a speech last night, director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett announced major new plans for BBC programming, which she described as “a radical shift in the whole set up of broadcasting.”

The move, in which the BBC will boost its spending from £300m to about £500m in today’s terms, is designed to better reflect the diversity of BBC viewers and help shed the perception that the corporation is interested primarily in the metropolis. Approval ratings for the corporation are significantly lower the further people live from London. Bennett said the shift would change “the voices we hear, the local faces and lives we see reflected on our screens”.

“Our intention is nothing less than changing the very DNA of the BBC to bring the production of programmes closer to the audience we serve. That means permanently increasing the production and commissioning of programmes outside London”.

Subject to final funding approval, the BBC ‘out of London’ plan aims to build seven “centres of excellence” for production at existing BBC sites in Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, London, Bristol, Salford and Birmingham.

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