Month: April 2007

Thursday news

12 April 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Books

Film

  • Barbarella is back
  • Brendan Fraser is back for The Mummy 3, but Rachel Weisz isn’t
  • Iron Man‘s suit revealed
  • Get Smart will be how smart? At least the cone of silence is back

British TV

US TV

  • Lewis Black gets a court show parody to accompany The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
  • Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Owen Wilson’s failed superhero pilot hits YouTube. Sounds an awful lot like Northstar in premise, mind.
  • Universal is planning a Simpsons ride in Florida
  • Jay Mohr gets the chance to escape from Ghost Whisperer with his own pilot
  • Katee Sackhoff gets a time-travelling TV movie
  • David Beckham gets a Prison Break tattoo
  • The producers of 24 have sent the South Park team a suitcase nuke

Mid-week news special

11 April 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Film

British TV

  • Cracking final episode of Life on Mars, wasn’t it? How’s Ashes to Ashes going to work then? Oh. I see. [spoilers]

US TV

UK TV

Review: Doctor Who – 3×2 – The Shakespeare Code

10 April 2007 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

The Shakespeare Code

So I finally made my way through The Shakespeare Code after missing it on Saturday and then finding my PVR hadn’t bothered to record it (that’s Bastard the PVR for you).

Not bad, was it? Definitely in the upper echelons of new Who. But I’m struggling to find things to say about it other than the usual. You see it all felt a bit mechanical. I don’t why. I liked it. It wasn’t full of cringe-inducing awfulness. There were some very nice touches to it, and some good characterisation and dialogue for everyone involved. Some of the make-up was a bit rubbish and Freema had a few duff moments, I suppose, but that’s the upper limit of my severe criticisms of the piece. Not very severe, were they?

But there was nothing to lift it to the level of Girl in the Fireplace or The Impossible Planet. It was just good, not excellent. But for the life of me, I can’t work out what was wrong with it. Was it the hint of “Will be used in schools in future as course material” quality to it? Was it the way the baddies were stopped with just a not very good, Charmed-esque rhyme? Was it the ever so slightly wrong-looking Elizabethan backdrops? I don’t know.

How very very strange. Anyone got more of a clue than me?

Hmm, did I just open myself up to something there?

David Baddiel turns intellectual again

10 April 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

A chance to be in the audience, too.

The Book Quiz is a new BBC4 panel game about literature in which two teams of book-loving guests face questions on all things literary, from classic works to the contemporary works we’re all reading and talking about.

This will be an informed, entertaining panel game aimed at the tv audience who already enjoy programmes such as QI, Late Review and Have I Got News For You.

Hosted by David Baddiel, the guest panellists include Joan Bakewell, Simon Hoggart, Daisy Goodwin, Toby Young, Val McDermid and India Knight.

If you would enjoy this stimulating and lively quiz, then apply now!

The show will record at The ITV London Studios, SE1 9LT near Waterloo Station, London on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd April. The studio doors will open at 2pm & 6pm on the Saturday and 1pm, 3.30pm & 6.30pm on the Sunday. Minimum age limit is 16 years old.

You can apply for tickets by calling 020 8684 3333 or apply online at http://www.sroaudiences.com where you’ll find details of all the shows for which we are booking. Tickets for all of our shows are FREE.

Well, he is one of the few stand-ups around with a doctorate in Victorian literature…