http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/ Views from the armchair about what's good - and what isn't - on the box en Copyright 2008 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:49:27 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss AN MP has had a right royal go about Jeremy Kyle, the man who Frankie Boyle is certain just rounds up a store full of Netto shoppers for each series of his Jeremy Kyle show. Accorinding to the previously unheard of Kerry McCarthy, Jeremy Kyle's show is "a modern day freak show" in which people "aired their dirty linen in public." http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/mps_in_the_glasshouses_really.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/mps_in_the_glasshouses_really.html News BBC Parliament Jeremy Kyle Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:49:27 +0000 I HAVE to admit, my Saturday nights now revolve around Strictly Come Dancing and the X-Factor. I'm blaming the credit crunch, too. I've never particularly enjoyed Strictly. I don't particularly think much of Bruce Forsyth as a presenter, and the idea of ballroom dancing as entertainment appears to have passed me by. As for the X-Factor, it's normally round about now that I become interested once again - once the rubbish make-up-the-numbers-because-they-have-a-sob-story contestants have been binned off. Both programmes are excellent at what they do, both are very different in many ways but strangely, both are suffering the same affliction, at the same time. Both have judges who are suddenly trying to steal the show. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/i_have_to_admit_my.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/i_have_to_admit_my.html Reality TV Strictly Come Dancing x factor Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:59:59 +0000 Not a headline you're likely to ever read in the Daily Mail but I do think the BBC is due some praise this week. It's come in for a hard time lately, and rightly so, even if a lot of the criticism came from factions within its own empire. But its coverage of Rememberance Sunday and Armistice Day was, without doubt, superb. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/praise_for_the_bbc.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/praise_for_the_bbc.html review Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:42:41 +0000 YOU have to hand it to Simon Cowell, he's got contacts. How many other people could land Mariah Carey to not only appear on his talent show, but also coach the participants and then sit through the actual show as said contestants, one by one, pretty much destroyed her songs? But Mariah Carey's appearance on the The X-Factor perhaps won't be remembered the way Simon Cowell hopes. Am I the only person who found Mariah Carey a little, well, odd? http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/mariah_carey_a_tad_odd.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/mariah_carey_a_tad_odd.html review Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:13:52 +0000 Millions of words have been written about it, hundreds of thousands of sentences have been uttered in anger on air about it, and hundreds of radio hours have been turned over to it. Now it's even got a name. Depending on where you get your news, it is either Manuel-gate or Sachs-gate, if you're into your broadsheet. But, nine days on from the Mail on Sunday's "revelations" about a radio show broadcast at least a week previously, here's a question for you: What was all the fuss about? http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/millions_of_words_have_been.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/millions_of_words_have_been.html Russell Brand Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:37:49 +0000 What is it that we do in the face of financial adversity? If you're on YouTube, the answer is simple: You laugh in its face. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/its_true_top_5_reasons_why_the.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/11/its_true_top_5_reasons_why_the.html Random online videos credit crunch funny video Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:09:32 +0000 AFTER the poor run that was season six, I wasn't expecting too much from the seventh series of Spooks. But, two episodes in, it's obvious to see that it's back on form. And, in hindsight, perhaps the tinkering which wrecked series six will prove to be the thing that keeps Spooks going for many series to come. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/spooks_better_than_ever.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/spooks_better_than_ever.html review Spooks Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:52:07 +0000 Without wanting to sound like a Brian Sewell type character for TV's adland, I have a question: Is the new Hovis advert really an advert? By that, I mean, does it make you want to buy their bread? http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/hovis_advert_a_pretty_waste_of.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/hovis_advert_a_pretty_waste_of.html Hovis Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:52:55 +0000 Newswatch, it's basically a Points of View for BBC News, presented by some chap called Raymond Snoddy, a self-proclaimed media pundit. In it, he bascially serves up the complaints of BBC News viewers to someone senior from the BBC, who generally rebuffs them, points out that they are there to report news, and that not everyone will always be happy with what they broadcast. Unlike Points of View, there's no humour to be had at some of the things which prompt viewers to write in. Newswatch takes itself far to seriously. I suspect it's supposed to make viewers think that their views are listened to. The fact that very rarely does the BBC agree with viewers is neither here nor there, it would seem. Hell, what would the viewers know, after all?]]> http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/leave_robert_peston_alone_turn.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/10/leave_robert_peston_alone_turn.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:07:14 +0000 THERE are some characters in soaps I couldn't care less about, some I actually wouldn't mind seeing meet a sticky, painful end. Tess Bateman, the clinical nurse manager (yes, it's a real job apparently) in Casualty is one such person. Miserable, self-righteous, pompous, cold - she's been something of a pet hate figure of mine for quite a while. In fact, she's one of the reasons I stopped watching Casualty during its last series (yes, it still runs in series sequence, it's off air for at least a fortnight between each season). Her and the increasingly boring staff v management and consultant/important doctor sleeping with nurse stoylines. But the two-part opener to series 25 (25!) was little short of spectacular. Which is the least you'd expect from Casualty. A reality TV crew following the cast managed to get involved in an exploision in a block of flats - with paramedics about nine floors up - then film paramedics running over the girl who'd caused the explosion and who, in the meantime, had fallen out with Tess when being treated for burns. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/casualty_gets_the_kiss_of_life.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/casualty_gets_the_kiss_of_life.html review Casualty Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:25:49 +0000 There's a lot wrong with Fox News, the Murdoch news channel which is blasted into UK homes via the ol' Sky box. Yes it's biased, massively in favour of the Republicans. Yes, it's dumbed down in a way even the brains behind BBC Breakfast News would find offensive. And yes, it doesn't understand the irony when it announces it is the news channel which is "fair and balanced." But, by God, it's compulsive viewing when there's a storm on. In the UK, when there's a severe flood on, Sky News might go over to its "news wall" more often for an update than usual. At Fox News, with Hurricane Ike pounding Texas (natural born Fox News territory if ever there was such a place) they went to their, wait for it: Extreme Weather Center [sic]. Oh yes, this is news injected with dangerous hormones to the factor of 10. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/fox_news_v_hurricane_ike_its_g.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/fox_news_v_hurricane_ike_its_g.html Funny telly clips Fox News Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:18 +0000 ... Mock The Week (Thursday, BBC 2, 9pm). It's one thing for us to enjoy it, it's quite another to see six comedians enjoying the work of a seventh, quite so much. Yet that was just what happened when Stewart Francis appeared this week. He had Frankie Boyle in stitches, Russell Howard doubled over with amusement and host Dara O'Briain smiling for longer than the obligatory moment he gives most people. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/just_in_case_you_missed.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/just_in_case_you_missed.html Funny telly clips comedy Mock The week Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:45:59 +0000 Normal service resumes on this blog next Monday - an enforced break from the goggle box is to blame - but I couldn't let the remarks from Setanta, pass without comment. Oh yes, Setanta. The most hated satellite channel going. Setanta Sports, the supposed rival to Sky Sports which appears to be nipping around buying as much sport as possible and then making us pay to view it. At the weekend, it declared: "Setanta is the best thing to happen to TV sport for years." Really. That's what it said. Which is no doubt what the estimated 10 million who normally watch an England game will be thinking when they either had to make do with Five Live commentary or slink down the pub to watch the match on Setanta. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/setanta_time_for_a_substitutio.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/setanta_time_for_a_substitutio.html review football Setanta Sky Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:18:56 +0000 Hollyoaks suddenly has a rival for its title of "best Sunday morning, watch while in bed, TV programme." Having battled and beaten Something For The Weekend over on BBC 2, a surprise enemy is now in play: X-Factor. Whereas Hollyoaks has glamour and beauty to bring you back into the world after a heavy night out, X-Factor instantly makes you feel better about yourself as the great deluded line up to be humiliated by Simon Cowell and co. Given that the prize of winning X-Factor is a bit hit-and-miss - for every Leona Lewis and a Shayne Ward there's a soon-forgotten winner too - it seems quite frightening that so many people can turn up to audition in the seeming belief they have a god-given right to be stars, even though God appears to have been less than generous when it came to giving them talent. http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/08/xfactor_so_many_deluded_people.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/08/xfactor_so_many_deluded_people.html Funny telly clips x_factor Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:20:13 +0000 Having groaned at the number of times the word "Olympics" appeared on the BBC's schedules last week, something stranged happen on Saturday morning. Having got up at 6am to drive to a wedding on the south coast, I'd parked up at Oxford services some time around 10am, and invested my overdraft in a breakfast (tasty, surprisingly) before sitting down in front of a telly. Since when did service stations have tellies? http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/08/the_olympics_theyre_really_rat.html http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/08/the_olympics_theyre_really_rat.html review olympics Sport Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:01:20 +0000