Month: June 2006

  • Logic in Adverts

    I know it really shouldn’t annoy, but some of the internal logic of some current ads defies belief. For example there’s a PC World ad at the moment featuring a young woman being shown around a branch by an exuberant salesman who’s explaining some of their great summer deals. First she’s shown an external hard…

  • The Truth With Jokes

    A couple of years or so ago, I read Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them which took aim at the conservative right wing broadcast media. In many respects this is just too easy to do, but then they stay on the air, and millions of Americans listen and watch them. This…

  • Burger King Celebrating England

    I’m sure that no businesses in England at the moment would be concocting clever plans to make many out of England’s [relative] success in the World Cup at the moment. You know what I mean, selling Ikea chairs at 1p, offering 2-for-1 on pizzas on England match days at Pizza Hut or offering 10% off…

  • Battle of the Genealogy Shows

    I notice that ITV has commissioned it’s own version of the BBC2 (and now BBC1) hit genealogy programme, Who Do You Think You Are? The BBC version is produced by Wall to Wall Television. So who has ITV got to put together it’s show, provisionally titled Get A Proper Job? Wall to Wall Television is…

  • Tour De France 2006

    I know we’re still in the midst of the trials and tribulations that are watching England progress through a major football tournament, but things just get busier. As well as Wimbledon starting today, next weekend sees the return of my sporting highlight of the summer – the Tour de France. When ITV4 started last autumn,…

  • Portugal 1 – Holland 0

    I know I should be talking about England 1 Ecuador 0, but I got fed up of listening to the loons on 606 to bother with that (and I include Alan Green amongst their number). But I’ve just witnessed a match that saw more cards than…, than…, Clinton’s! So who exactly are Portugal going to…

  • Street-Porter Nonsense

    I know that it’s practically the job description for newspaper columnists to spout complete nonsense, but Janet Street-Porter really annoyed me in today’s Independent On Sunday. (I’d link to the article, but the brief intro you can get on the Indie’s website doesn’t include it. Brilliantly, The Indie charges a pound for a single article…

  • ITN Report on Aaron Spelling

    Is this a sign of things to come? I was watching the early evening ITV News from ITN and they’d put together a report on Aaron Spelling, the TV producer extraordinaire who made so many hits in the 70s and 80s. They came to Starsky & Hutch, but the clip they showed had obviously come…

  • Which Match

    Last night the BBC chose to show Brazil v Japan rather than the simultaneous Australia v Croatia. This was pretty disappointing because even though Japan took an unlikely early lead, it was obvious that Japan needed to rely on the other result and then score a hatful against Brazil to get through. I was watching…

  • Documentaries v World Cup Football

    The one thing that’s really annoying me during the current World Cup finals on ITV and BBC1 is that other channels are still launching some good quality programming in the middle of the tournament – programming that I’m going to miss because I’m watching the football. A few examples. On Monday, Channel 4 launched a…

  • Northern Rock

    A very unfortunate ad from the Northern Rock building society at the foot of the front page of The Guardian’s sports section today. Five months is how long Owen looks like he’s going to be out for. [UPDATE] Northern Rock are pulling the ads.

  • Football on ITV

    I really hate those England games that ITV shows. They’re just painful to watch. Not because of all the ad breaks. Not because Steve Rider’s just dull. And not because those sponsorship breakers are just unfunny. No. The real problem is that ITV gives its big games to that dynamic commentary duo of Clive Tyldesley…