April 2008 Archives

Much comment in the media this week about the £500,000 relaunch of BBC News - much of it based around two comments made on the BBC Editors' blog that the white screen with the fancy globe could give someone some sort of fit.

What I find remarkable isn't so much the fact that the BBC has relaunched its services, and promised better cross-platform working in a new-media newsroom, but the fact that the result has made it seem so cheap.

Perhaps it tells us something about the importance the internet now plays in local elections when Have I Got News For You turns to YouTube to find funny clips.

SAT in front of my computer last Saturday night, I was all set to muse about the possible need to knock Have I Got News For You on the head.

In theory, Jack Dee as as presenter, and the excellent Labour rebel Bob Marshall-Andrews as one of the guests should have made for an excellent edition - even more so the extended version aired on a Saturday night.

Wrong! Jack Dee didn't see interested, Bob Marshall-Andrews didn't seem to want to rebel, and not even the wit of Ian Hislop and instant humour of Paul Merton could get the programme going.

Was it, I thought at the end, time for the programme to move on? In hindsight, and with the benefit of Friday night's episode with Julian Clary, the obvious answer is no. Perhaps, in hindsight, the 40 minute version was just a little bit too windy.

Just a gentle word to Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor.

You're very good at your job. It's excellent that you did so very well breaking a big news story in Northern Rock.

But do you really need an advert all of your own on News 24 announcing how great it was to break that story?

For the first time in quite a while, I'm looking forward to several programmes on telly this week. One thing is for sure, the Sky+ will be rather busy ensuring the new arrivals this week are safely recorded for future viewing.

Here are my picks of the week:

FOR the first time in I don't know how long, ITV 1 had my individed attention from about 7.30pm until 10pm last night - a Saturday night.

The return of Britain's Got Talent (now running weekly rather than on consecutive nights) played a large part in that admittedly. As I said yesterday, it's possibly the one talent show where anyone with a bit of a trick has a chance to shine.

That was proved with last night's mix of real talent - the freestyle dancing dog, the bullied 13-year-old male chorister who had the audience in tears - along with the utterly appalling acts - the London lad who thought he could sing Whitney Houston, and the dreadful cricus freak show - which when combined, may for compulsive TV.

It doesn't seem like 12 months since Britain's Got Talent (ITV 1, 7.45pm) was last on our screens.

That's partly because it wasn't a year ago - the new series starts tonight, the last series started in June last year.

But let's not let small facts like that get in the way of the fact that perhaps the only truly watchable talent show is back on the box.

Watching Mihir Bose on the BBC News bulletins is fascinating. I was going to write at length about him and the uncanny similarity between his spoken sentence structure and that of Yoda from Star Wars.

But just as I was gearing up to write, I was told to stop. By my girlfriend.

It's been written down the side of buses. It's been heard on radio and TV adverts across the BBC. And it's a voice which shatters the glass of the Queen Vic.

Yes, tonight, Bianca Jackson comes face-to-face with estranged husband Ricky Butcher and, we are assured, we'll once again hear the immortal phrase: "Rickaaaaaaay."

But, quick headlines apart, do soap comebacks ever work?

There are probably many reasons why the return of Ricky Butcher to Eastenders is good news.

He is a good actor. The soap does need a few more realistic characters (though the fact Bianca is returning may kick that into touch). And it needs to have a plot which doesn't involve a character with the surname Slater.