Year: 2005

Review: OFI Sunday – Chris Evans’ idea is back

21 November 2005 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Wow. Chris Evans has resurrected his idea again. How many times are TV commissioners going to give him money for it? He used it with TFI Friday on Channel 4. Then there was that thing on Five with Chris Moyles and Christian O’Connell. Now it’s back again as OFI Sunday on ITV1 – yes, he’s even recycling letters now.

I watched half an hour of it. That was 15 minutes more than I wanted to, but Sarah wanted to give it a chance. It was truly awful. It was TFI, but stupider, less funny and without any redeemable qualities that I could see. Future episodes will at least be redeemed by not containing cringingly painful interviews with Billie Piper, but that’s probably going to be the only thing in their favour.

OFI Sunday should cement ITV’s reputation as the originator of awful television, anyway, but I can’t see it lasting more than a few weeks, given ITV’s typical ruthlessness with failing shows.

Don’t watch it, whatever you do.

A remake of The Prisoner? Surely not…

18 November 2005 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The Media Guardian is reporting that Granada (aka ITV aka land of rubbish TV) is to remake The Prisoner. Given the current array of talent working for British TV, and in particular Granada, why do I know already that it’s going to be appalling, shallow, insipid and have nothing to say for itself other than “we really need some ratings”. I’m curious to know where they’re going to shoot it, now Portmeirion has been crossed off the location list. Somewhere around Manchester perhaps, Granada?

Night Stalker cancelled

15 November 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s not a big surprise but Night Stalker has been cancelled. It wasn’t a great show and it’s initial episode was so bad, it is a surprise that anyone watched at all. But it had been picking up and was almost bearable at times. I’d have watched it in preference to Invasion any day, yet Invasion has been picked up for a whole season.

This week’s episode will be replaced by Primetime Live. They could have waited, couldn’t they? It was a two-parter! Now how are we going to find out what happened? Buy the DVD?

The NFT audience

14 November 2005 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I went to the NFT to watch Ace in the Hole on Friday. What can I say? A movie about a cynical reporter – how could I resist, even if it did had the most implausible scissor-wound in movie history? But there’s something I want to share with you.

The NFT audience is filled with some strange people. Sure, it’s mostly packed with perfectly innocent cinephiles. But there was a different kind of person there as well…

The chattering classes were there. I’m talking about:

  • People who bring thermoses of tea and picnic blankets with them when they go to see Sense and Sensibility.
  • People who think The English Patient was a good film, that Ralph Fiennes’ character wasn’t a boorish moron and that talk about “the super-sternal notch” on a woman’s neck is romantic.
  • People who act like English teachers (to paraphrase Nick Hancock) who take their classes on school trips to see Macbeth and then go “Ha” and slap their thighs when the gravedigger says something funny.

During this particular movie, said chattering classes laughed uproariously at every single joke, no matter how slight. I’m not talking about regular laughs, either. These were odd. “Ha, ha, ha, ha!” I’m not being onomatopoeic here. You could hear every letter. And for people who object to “youths” talking during movies, they weren’t half a bunch of gasbags.

They irritated me something chronic and ruined a perfectly good cinema experience. Is there some way to get them banned? Surely there must be.