I don’t get Deal or No Deal. We know this already. It’s opening boxes at random. WTF? That’s a TV show?
But of all the bizarre things about Deal or No Deal, this is the most bizarre: Noel Edmonds has given himself RSI from picking up the phone to the banker.
The finale of House hasn’t aired on Five yet, although you can read my potted, spoiler-free review if you’d like. But bookmark this blog entry for the day it does. If you’re confused after you’ve seen it, writer and House creator David Shore has given an explanation for the events at the New Jersey Star Ledger and discusses some of the plans for the start of the next season. They sound promising.
Incidentally, did you know that pretending to use a cane while filming 22 episodes of a TV show each year can be quite painful? Hugh Laurie’s shoulder is more than a little bit sore now and they fixed Kerry Weaver’s hip on ER because it was hurting Laura Innes so much.
Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, a year ago (sort of, subject to blog migration, blog splitting, blog reunions, etc), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its first two posts: a preview of the still-popular Prison Break, the not-unpopular Supernatural and the still-unseen Global Frequency; and tedious cruft about The Omega Factor (which I’m still just about to write a review of, amazingly enough).
Since then, we’ve discovered that if you call a blog “The Medium is Not Enough” and write about Most Haunted, all sorts of people get the wrong idea; that if you blog almost every day for a year, you can get regular audiences of anything up to 16 people (and robots); and that the most popular blog posting I ever would write would be about whether Pot Noodle adverts are racist or not (the traffic has been phenomenal, honestly).
I’d like to say a great big thank you to Anna, Holyhoses Rob, Jason, Lisa, Marie, Matt, Rosby, Scott, Stu and everyone else who’s come here to provide literate and entertaining comment – it’s made the blog far more entertaining than it has any right to be, and camouflages the fact that without you all, I’d be that strange man in the corner at the party, talking to himself. Thank you all, and I’ll endeavour to keep you all at least moderately entertained for another year, I hope.
Disney, clearly looking to repeat the ‘success’ it’s had with plans to revamp Winnie the Pooh, has decided to develop a CGI film based around Peter Pan‘s Tinkerbell. Set in ‘Pixie Hollow’, we’ll get to meet all of Tink’s friends and fellow ‘pixies’ (I thought Tinkerbell was a fairy, not a pixie…).
They’ve got Brittany Murphy to do the voice. “To give Tinker Bell a voice for the first time in history is such an honor,” she says in a statement.
I’ll say no more. Sniff.
Paul Abbott is a talented guy. He’s written episodes of Cracker, created Touching Evil and Shameless and has more awards than ITV has viewers (give or take). Russell T Davies thinks he’s a God.
Legions of journalists have huge respect for Abbott for creating State of Play, the outstanding 2003 serial that introduced the world to the now much-admired Life on Mars pairing of John Simm and Philip Glenister. Although it portrayed journalists as a lying, shifty bunch, willing to obstruct the course of justice for a good story, we forgave it that slight flaw because we were the heroes who saved the day.
Its depiction of life at a newspaper was actually pretty authentic, except for the bit where Simm is allowed to lay out the page and compose his own headline at the end of the final episode, which would never happen – although he did mess it up, thus demonstrating why reporters don’t get to touch Quark, normally. The bit about who owned the copyright on the story because Simm was on a freelance contract actually makes those of us who are self-employed all giddy with delight (seriously. There was an article in the NUJ newsletter The Journalist about it by one of my old tutors, Humphrey Evans).
If you haven’t seen State of Play, pick up a copy of it on 
Amazon. You’ll be impressed to see Amelia Bullmore in a straight role and Marc Warren (from Hustle and Doctor Who‘s Love and Monsters) having a crap time of it as the slippery Dominic Foy.
Despite all the plaudits, a sequel has yet to materialise. Hollywood is all set to adapt the original. Last year’s South Bank Show profile of Abbott said filming on the sequel was to begin last June. But three years on, still nothing. The last we heard was in an interview with John Simm in the Daily Telegraph in January:
…and there is talk of a second series of the excellent State of Play. “The last time I saw Paul [Abbott], he was so caught up in writing Shameless that he’d only managed one or two episodes of the next State of Play. God, it would be great to work with him again.”
I hate to say this, but I don’t care about another series of Shameless. How much more is there to say on the subject? I want more State of Play!
What with Stephen Fry backing out of writing a Doctor Who episode, I have to say: “Writers: get your priorities straight. Give us what we want!”
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