The Office
Saturday, December 27, 2003 by Ian Sparham · Comments Off
I’m a bit wary of commenting on The Office, as it seems to be one of those programmes where only people who liked it from day one feel they are entitled to critique it. Read more
World Idol
Thursday, December 25, 2003 by Steve Williams · Comments Off
For many years, ITV has – in the shows of Chris Tarrant, Clive James and the rest – gained much mileage from the mocking of foreign television. Read more
The Million Pound Property Experiment
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by Graham Kibble-White · Comments Off
Making TV programmes is a bit like property developing. You spot an emerging trend, jump in to exploit it, and by the time your plans come to fruition you find everyone else is at it, the market’s overcrowded and the value of your stock is on the slide. Read more
The Christmas Show
Friday, December 5, 2003 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
To paraphrase Michael Grade, there’s little better than the smell of a TV schedule becoming saturated with the spirit of Christmas. Read more
Weir’s Way
Tuesday, December 2, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
You’re stuck on a night-shift and your only companion is a two inch television monitor. Strangely enough, the lure of G-String Divas on five is minimal, as is a signed repeat of A Life of Grime. Read more
EastEnders
Monday, December 1, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
Is EastEnders on the cusp of a return to greatness or riding on the crest of a wave of mediocrity? Make your own mind up. However, what cannot be denied is that the writers have, at the present time, a golden opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of the aforementioned mediocrity. Read more
All New Top of the Pops
Friday, November 28, 2003 by Steve Williams · Comments Off
You wouldn’t get BBC News deciding not to cover a train crash because they’d had too many of those stories recently. And Match of the Day would never decide that all this football was getting boring, so they’d put a film on instead of the Cup Final. Read more
French Leave
Thursday, November 20, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
And with that, they were gone. The departure of the Burton Race family from our screens will leave a poignant gap in the schedules. Derided by the critics, this show has managed to turn their petty words into straw with contemptuous ease. Read more
Room 101
Monday, November 17, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
Just like pop, Room 101 has finally managed to eat itself. For too long, the show has teetered on the brink of mediocrity, threatening to sink forever into that particular abyss. Read more
Robot Wars
Sunday, November 9, 2003 by John Phillips · Comments Off
“They tried to stop us!” yells Craig Charles as he walks out onto his balcony. “They tried to stop the destruction!” Read more
Home and Away
Friday, November 7, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
Here’s a blast from the past for all you Summer Bay fanatics. The last time I watched this show that scheming bitch (but utter fox) Alison Paterson was at the centre of all things mean and moody. Roo and Bobby were at loggerheads and Donald Fisher was still to attain the moniker of Flathead. Read more
Days that Shook the World
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
It’s the opening sentence in the commentary and already we’re immediately historically inaccurate. And as each minute passes, the inaccuracies rain down with astonishing rapidity. Whilst a degree of objectivity is only to be expected, outright falsehoods and blatant misreading of the truth are not. Read more
Countdown
Monday, November 3, 2003 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It’s a pity Channel 4 seem to have forgotten that the best way to get shot of a listless, ageing programme is to dispatch it, cleanly and coldly, with one swift blow. Read more
EastEnders
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
When I last reviewed this august institution, my negative – though, as I saw it, constructive – criticisms resulted in me receiving a barrage of hate mail from irate acolytes of this show. Read more
The Big Read
Friday, October 24, 2003 by Cameron Borland · Comments Off
With predictable bitchiness, I noted that a columnist in my local rag, The Herald, opined that he “hated the public’s opinion in these programmes”. Clearly, our opinion counts for nothing. Read more
BBC News Special: Concorde – The Final Flight
Friday, October 24, 2003 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
Growing up, virtually the only time our street would come out from behind its front doors and mingle together was when Concorde flew past. Living reasonably close to that gateway to the continent, East Midlands Airport, this tended to happen several times a year. Read more
The Politics Show
Sunday, October 19, 2003 by Ian Jones · Comments Off
It’s been nine months since Jeremy Vine inherited the Sunday lunchtime small screen political joust from John Humphrys. Read more
Time Shift: The Kneale Tapes
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 by Jack Kibble-White · Comments Off
One of the greatest feats in documentary-making is to track down a seemingly unknown, perhaps anonymous member of the public from a piece of archive footage and show them as they are today. Read more
When Michael Portillo Became a Single Mum
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 by Chris Orton · Comments Off
Whereas not so long ago it was the docusoap that reigned supreme in the television schedules, now it seems to be a new sub-genre, featuring people who find themselves in an environment they are unaccustomed to. Read more
Election ’74
Friday, October 3, 2003 by Steve Williams · Comments Off
More repeats on digital TV, then. But BBC Parliament’s real-time replays of General Election results coverage have been absolutely inspired programming. Read more