Tag: television
-
The Olympics on TV in the UK
The 2012 London Olympics were perhaps the high point for UK viewers who wanted to watch the Olympic Games. For a home event, the BBC pulled out all the stops with coverage across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three (then still on broadcast). There was a vast array of other broadcasts too, with up…
-
Christmas Day Radio Times 2018
Happy Christmas everyone! You’re probably stuffing your face with discounted Celebrations and Quality Street, or hitting the web early to get all those online sales. There are probably a few arguments and the usual Christmas merriment. Some are already planning how soon they can return an unwanted gift – or at least re-gift it. But…
-
Radio is Fastest
If you wanted to know what was happening in Moscow as fast as possible last night, your best bet was the radio. I’ve mentioned before that when a big fixture goes to penalties, I always listen on the radio, because I get the news first. More regularly, if there’s a match that’s both being covered…
-
Bulletproof
Oh dear. Sky One’s big new glossy action drama is pretty awful. Before I explain why, I will admit that I’m not the target audience for this show. But nevertheless, this show is just all over the place. Bulletproof is trying to be a 2018-vintage action cop show set in London. Imagine The Sweeney or…
-
Programmes I Know I Should Have Seen But Haven’t – Stuck in Draft #6
Here’s a slightly enlarged piece I wrote back in 2015 or so, but never got around to finishing. So I’ve had a bit more of a bash at it, but still feel it makes the grade as part of my Stuck in Draft series. In David Lodge’s Changing Places, the English faculty play a game…
-
Daytime TV Killed the British Bank Holiday
What do the following film genres mean to you? War films James Bond Carry On films To me they all scream Bank Holiday TV. You may have had plans to go out somewhere, but an annoying drizzle meant that you’d rather stay at home and see what’s on the box. But in fact, that’d be…
-
Grand Tour
We’re several weeks into Amazon’s megabudget Top Gear remake, “Grand Tour,” and you can’t fail to have noticed it has arrived. There have been ads everywhere from the sides of buses to TV, and of course, all over the front page of the Amazon website. Even Amazon’s packaging covers their grinning faces right now. We’ve…
-
Radio Times – Boxing Day 2016
So you’ve made it through to Boxing Day. Assuming you’re not hitting the shops for the sales, or off to some sporting or outdoors activity, you’ll be settling in at home looking for more entertainment. Here are my choices and anti-choices for Boxing Day from the Radio Times. As ever, click the link below to…
-
The Music Industry As Depicted in TV Dramas
We may currently being experiencing peak TV, but even that doesn’t really explain the recent glut of TV series set around the music industry. A couple of weeks ago, Netflix’s new magnum opus was released – The Get Down from Baz Luhrmann. The series is rumoured to have cost a record amount, at least on…
-
Christmas TV… and Beyond
You may or may not have seen my Christmas Radio Times scans with my helpful annotations, but what did I actually watch over the period? Oddly, one of the most captivating programmes was All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride!. This was the BBC’s latest example of “Slow TV” and remarkably our family sat down and watched…
-
Current TV
No, not Al Gore’s ill-fated network, but what I’m enjoying on TV currently: Show Me A Hero – A drama series about housing policy in an upstate New York city doesn’t sound like it’s going to be compelling television, but it really is. It’s based on a non-fiction book and tells how some of Yonkers’…
-
Mozart in the Jungle
A mini-review of this new Amazon series, because I think it deserves it! First things first: there’s no doubt that this is a terrible title for a TV series. It’s supposed to shout something like “classical music in New York City” but I’m really not sure it does. I complain when titles are boring, but…