Just in case you missed it, the Beeb has been running this trailer for Ashes to Ashes, the sequel to Life on Mars. Could be good. Might not be. Make up your own mind!
Year: 2008
UK TV
Review: Torchwood 2×2 – Sleeper
My wife: Torchwood’s a bit rubbish, isn’t it?
Me: Yes
My wife: Can we keep watching it?From a conversation with my wife this morning
Oh dear. And it was going so well. Pretty well, anyway. Okay, it was a little nonsensical at first and the acting could have been outshone by any of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creations from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. But it was fun, well-directed, reasonably intelligent and raised some interesting ideas.
For half an hour.
Then it turned into an old episode of UFO.
Events
Thursday’s controversial usage of mercury news
Doctor Who
- Burn Gorman glad US ‘gets’ Torchwood
Film
- Get Smart international trailer
- Christopher Plummer on Heath Ledger and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Wilkinson to star with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity
Theatre
- New London Theatre for sale
Events
- Paley Television Festival to reunite Buffy cast
British TV
- MTV Flux to close
- Miss Marple retires
- Five US beating Sky One in the ratings
- Fearne Cotton lands US presenting gig
- Gavin and Stacey star in Hey Hey We’re The Monks pilot (tickets available)
US TV
- Marvel to insert images and references to Lost in comics
- Eli Stone likely to get into hot water over autism and science
- Psych goes Spanish
Wednesday’s brief news
Film
- Enterprise under construction (explanation)
British TV
- BBC to make half its programming outside London [free registration required]
- Which is handy since regional programmes made up 25% less programming in 2006 than in 2005 [free registration required]
- Catweazle to be remade?
- BBC3 relaunched
US TV
- Fox and the CW drop dozens of projects because of the strike
Technology reviews
Review: Sony Bravia 26″ and EyeTV 3.0
The New Year brings with it many things, and technology updates – once the Christmas bills have been paid off – is one of them. As it happens, I’ve updated two things: my TV and Bastard, my PVR. I haven’t updated to Sky+ because while I’m just about okay with paying £99 for a new box, I draw the line at paying £60 to have some bloke turn up with it and plug it into an aerial socket.
Anyway, I, in common with a sizeable percentage of SE London, judging by
- the number of nice people down at the recycling centre bringing in old TVs and giant cardboard boxes marked “Sony Bravia”
- the number of not-so-nice people who have left old TVs and giant cardboard boxes marked “Sony Bravia” lining most of the pavements in the neighbourhood
have bought a Sony Bravia. The reasons for this are threefold. Firstly, my clapped out 28“ Matsui CRT widescreen TV that I bought in 1999 was starting to do an odd thing to the picture. Mathematicians call it an affine transformation, Mac users call it the ”Dock Genie“ effect – everyone else, particularly in SE London, just calls it ”f*cked“.
Secondly, Sainsbury’s have been selling 26” Sony Bravias for £349. They don’t deliver, so that saves them from WEEE – the gits – but it does make it all a bit cheaper. Everyone else appears to have been going for 40“, but we wanted something smaller than before and less power hungry, so 26” works out well.
Thirdly, the adverts have claymation bunnies in them.