Month: August 2011

  • Radio Times 29 August 2011

    As a Bank Holiday treat, here’s what’s on telly today. As ever, it’s best viewed large.

  • Strike Back: Project Dawn

    I know, I know. You’ve been missing Ultimate Force. It ended its run in 2006, with Ross Kemp moving onto bigger things as he took on gangs for Sky One. In the meantime, if you wanted a military action adventure series set around the world, then you were left short. Well Sky One is here…

  • The Skin I Live In

    As the ads and trailers finally came to an end, the BBFC slide appeared on screen: “La Piel Que Habito – The Skin I Live In.” “So is this film in Spanish?” asked the man behind me very loudly. I tried not to laugh out loud. “Yes,” said the lady I presume was his wife,…

  • Disappointing Tone in Discussion on Libya Reporting

    I like Steve Hewlett on Radio 4’s Media Show, but I’ve just been catching up with this week’s edition and was really unhappy with the centrepiece discussion about Sky News v BBC News last weekend as the rebels (if that’s what we’re calling them) entered Green Square. Make no mistake, Sky News undoubtedly scooped BBC…

  • Channel 4 and List Programmes… Back Again

    Back in April, I noted that I thought it was foolish that Jay Hunt had said that Channel 4 would no longer be making list programmes. I pointed out that in 2007, Kevin Lygo had said the same thing. And that subsequently, Channel 4 had continued to make list programmes. Memories are terribly short in…

  • London Riots

    Enough has really been said already about the looting and rioting that took place last week, without me needing to wade in with any more “insight”. That said… I’m very disturbed by all the talk of “shutting down” social media if such events arise in the future. Do we also close down the Royal Mail…

  • London Surrey Cycle Classic 2011

    I spent a fair amount of yesterday morning in Richmond Park watching this “London Prepares” dry-run of the 2012 Olympic Cycle Race pass out into Surrey, and then back again later on. Eventual winner, Mark Cavendish is in this photo – wearing the green helmet and sunglasses. More photos here.

  • Why Local Television Plans Are Doomed

    Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, has just released details on the latest part of his plan to start very local television services in the UK. I talked a little about this earlier in the year. Allow me to expand a little more. As you may or may not be aware, local TV is something of…

  • It’s Not Rioting – It’s Looting

    I’ve been a bit disappointed in the coverage we’ve had so far about the events of Sunday evening. What became very clear from following reports on news media and the internet is that this was organised criminality. I was returning to Enfield Town station from a lovely day out cycling when I saw reports of…

  • Some Good Recent Radio

    I sometimes find This American Life a little irritating. It’s hard to quite put my finger on why I find it this way, but I do. That said, it’s mostly excellent and well worth subscribing to their podcast. A couple of weeks ago they broadcast When Patents Attack – a thorough look at the patent…

  • Internet Listening and RAJAR

    I thought I’d expand a little on one aspect of RAJAR that has been reported on a bit, and has been seen by some as surprising. I touched on the internet listening numbers a little in my summary piece on this quarter’s RAJAR figures. I said: One oddity in the figures is the apparent fall…

  • RAJAR – Q2 2011

    Another quarter flies by, and the new radio listening figures are published. The first thing to say is the overall listening is up. More people than ever before are listening to the radio every week – 91.7% of the population spending 1.076 billion hours tuned into the radio. One number that always attracts attention is…