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Sherlogopolis
Posted in: We made this
Well, we had some time on our hands… And someone had to do it, right?
PICK OF THE DAY
Posted in: From CREAMGUIDE...
TOTP2
23.35, BBC2
A new series, presumably because the repeats have done pretty well in this slot. Don’t get too excited, though, there’s only three episodes, but they’re all sixties specials. As even the smallest child knows, however, the number of existing Pops clips from the decade could almost be counted on one hand, but apparently we’re also being promised clips from other shows as well. So it could be just a rehash of Sounds of the Sixties, but maybe there’ll be some oddities in it as well.
PICK OF THE DAY
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How The Brits Rocked America – Go West
21.00, BBC4
The first of a three part history of how British acts slayed the States, or otherwise, over the years, starting off with the original British Invasion back in the sixties when people like John Ravenscroft could get jobs on US radio simply for coming from somewhere within about a hundred miles of the Mersey.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Top of the Pops
19.30, 00.25, BBC4
We’ll be glad when this episode’s over, not because it’s a Noel edition as they’re usually the most fun, but because it includes a performance by Gary Glitter, and every single discussion about these repeats, regardless of what the original topic is, collapses into dull droning in about five seconds while people say you shouldn’t airbrush history, which is rubbish because the wiped episodes and the Pops production team of the time cherrypicking what records they played means it’s hardly a proper historical document, and it’s being served up as light entertainment not social history, you can’t force people to sit through Gary Glitter if they don’t want to see him. They could just as easily not show the episode at bloody all. Anyway, there was a clip of this performance on the documentary the other week and after the incident with Jonathan King last year apparently they’ve said they shouldn’t be editing stuff out (although that seems rather strange as surely it’ll mean they couldn’t edit any repeat of anything for any reason), so presumably it’ll be quietly shoved out during the extended showing and everyone can shut up.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Domesday Reloaded – How Britain Has Changed
21.00, BBC Radio 4
The 1986 BBC Domesday Project is, as we’ve mentioned before, a treasure trove of hilarity, with Britain’s kids being invited to write whatever they liked about whatever they liked, coming up with all kinds of bollocks that’s of absolutely no value as a historical resource but is very funny. Here’s another look at how they did it, plus a catch-up with some of the contributors to find out what’s changed 25 years on. There isn’t a market on Monday or Thursday now, we don’t think.
PICK OF THE DAY
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The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
23.20, BBC2
More festive stuff here. In fact these managed to get a million viewers on BBC4 when they were first shown, which we reckon is highly credible at a time when the main channels are churning out the hits, so it’s worth giving them another outing in their traditional telly home, every day until Thursday.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Helen’s Polar Challenge
16.30, BBC1
So much for Blue Peter now being a weekly show as here’s yet another spin-off, and it’s a nine-part series to boot! As the title suggests, it’s about the latest of Helen’s demented challenges where she’s currently traipsing to the South Pole, as ever breaking loads of records on the way and doing it all with her indefatigable humour, and indeed we think she’s going to reach her final destination around about the time this show will be going out. This series will follow her all the way and let’s hope it gets a re-edit for primetime as well.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Ben Elton – Laughing At The 80s
23.40, Channel 4
Another repeat from Christmas, and in exactly the same atrocious slot it was then as well. We’d say it was an amiable way to pass the time but in this slot a better option would be to go to bed. Nevertheless, if you can get over the fact that according to this every single significant comedy show of the eighties involved one B Elton, it’s entertaining, and the bit where him and Rik look at the actual script for the Young Ones pilot is quite exciting.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Word Up! Black American Pop at the BBC
23.35, BBC4
This repeat is worth a look if you missed it a few months ago, there’s not very much to surprise you but it’s all top notch stuff, mostly off Top of the Pops but also a highly entertaining performance by Prince Charles and The City Beat from a programme we don’t recognise but had clearly just bought a Quantel such is the frequency of the visual effects. Not that they need to look more interesting, mind, such are their outfits and the keyboard player’s showmanship.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Room 101
20.30, BBC1
Back, back, back, which is all to the good because it’s a sturdy old format, although in the later years under Merton it was pretty useless, booking rubbish guests like Phil Collins and Ronan Keating and just turning into a dull chat show. The good news is that Frank Skinner’s now in charge, and he’s always excellent, though it’s also be revamped so there are three guests a week. We’re not sure how it’s going to work out, but with Frank in charge, and Danny Baker among the guests tonight, it should make for entertaining viewing. The Bake, incidentally, initially refused to come on when he was invited as he hates panel games, only for them to invite him to come on and say that. There’s no answer to that.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Top of the Pops
19.30, 01.00, BBC4
We very much enjoyed all the Pops stuff last Friday, although the way it worked out meant we got Daddy Cool twice in ten minutes. Nice to see Kid Jensen make his bow – from our perspective, it was show two at the time – as his slick and agreeable manner fitted in nicely given how they were darting through the hits. Back to a more sedentary pace this week with Doddery Diddy, and we’re billing the repeats again because we’re back on the varying lengths so the primetime outings will be edited.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Britain in Bed
21.00, BBC3
Watch out everyone, we’re billing a BBC3 programme, and one that’s part of its sex season to boot. It’s a look at how attitudes to sex have changed over the past five decades, which we’re sure has been done several times but there might be some interesting clippage. “It’s not an experience which I can see catching on, but neither is it one which I regret!”
PICK OF THE DAY
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The Story of Musicals
21.00, BBC4
Last part of this, which looks at musicals going pop, using as its starting point the arrival of Jase and Pip in Joseph’s Coat (we remember the review of the latter in Ver Hits, marvelling that “Phil sings just like he speaks!”) and then looks at the likes of We Will Rock You and Mamma Mia, the success of which we can’t really understand because we want to hear ABBA songs sung by Agnetha and Frida, not Sally Ann Triplett.
PICK OF THE DAY
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When Ali Came To Britain
22.35, ITV1
Harry Carpenter used to say that Ali was the ultimate sportsman because you could take him anywhere on the planet and people would know who he was. He was particularly popular in the UK, of course, making regular visits, and this documentary is chatting to some of the people who met, hopefully including those Geordie chancers who managed to convince him to visit a grotty youth club in South Shields under the guise of “promoting boys’ boxing”. And for the rest of the week, because he’s seventy, Des Lynam’s introducing some of his most famous bouts on ITV4.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Sings Musicals
22.00, BBC4
No chance of shoehorning Nightshift by The Commodores in this, you’d have thought, but here’s an eclectic compilation of songs from and inspired by the shows, from Elephants Gerald to Captain Sensible yet again getting away with a massive swear word in the middle which nobody noticed.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Monty Python – Almost The Truth
20.00, Sky Arts 1
Two years ago BBC2 celebrated the Pythons’ fortieth anniversary by showing an hour long documentary, but all the footage and interviews they assembled for that show was actually enough to turn it into a six part series, which is what we’re getting over the next few weeks. The huge benefit of this, of course, is that they can actually spend time talking about the series rather than darting through it in five seconds to get to the films, and indeed this instalment is mostly about The Frost Report, Do Not Adjust Your Set and the other pre-Python projects.
PICK OF THE DAY
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REM at the BBC
21.30, BBC4
Last week’s Mastermind Marathon made up for the fact it isn’t on at all this week, thanks to more excellent scheduling, while with four wiped episodes of Pops in 1977, we’re still getting The Sky At Night once a month. So instead, here’s a celebration of a consistently good-sounding group, as Dave Lee Travis would say, and we’re quite sad they’ve called it a day if only for all the good work Mike Mills has done for glasses in rock. How’s Simon Parkin supposed to know what it’s about?
PICK OF THE DAY
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Blue Peter
17.45, CBBC
So here’s the big news, Blue Peter has moved channel! Although it’s very, very important that this isn’t seen as a demotion, and it’s not really because hardly any kids bother with the kids shows on BBC1 now and the top shows on the CBBC Channel all get far higher ratings, so there are logical reasons as to why they’ve shifted it, and it’s at a better time too. Less encouraging is the fact it’s now only once a week though apparently it’ll be on every single week of the year and there are going to be regular specials as well. They’ve certainly pushed the boat out for the first rescheduled show, in any case, with Matt Smith popping in, although obviously Helen won’t be as she’s at the South Pole doing her latest demented challenge. As ever we wish her luck, and as ever we really, really hope she doesn’t die.
PICK OF THE DAY
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The Unforgettable Leslie Crowther
19.30, ITV1
Les has been rather forgotten in recent years, which is a bit of a shame as he was always a likeable presence on our screens and was apparently a thoroughly lovely man off camera. He was also responsible for two iconic light entertainment shows later in his career, both of which arrived on our screens to much derision – it’s easy to forget what a demented format Stars In Their Eyes seemed when it first appeared, while The Price Is Right was so overwhelming on first sight they had to take it off for a few weeks to calm it down. It was Les that made both shows palatable in the end so it’s about time we paid tribute to him.
PICK OF THE DAY
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Dickens on Film
22.00, BBC4
We were a bit unsure about The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff over Christmas as though entertaining it didn’t seem as funny as it could have been, and probably would have been better on Christmas Night where you could have had fun spotting all the celebrity cameos and not worried so much about the underpowered script. Still, the fact we all knew immediately what it was parodying is testament to how successfully Dickens’ work has been adapted on our screens over the years, and here’s a look at most of them.
