Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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Friday’s blobby news

28 August 2009 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The Daily News will return on Monday 7th September

Film

British TV

US TV

Random Acts

Random Acts of Ali Larter: Helping the poor in sub-Saharan Africa

27 August 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Did you know that Kenneth Cole’s not-for-profit Awearness project has partnered up with Feed projects to create a Feed Health Backpack? Well now you do, thanks to our Ali, who’s been to an awareness/Awearness raising event in Santa Monica.

If you buy one of the backpacks, another identical pack for Community Health Workers is filled by Millennium Villages – an organisation that provides solutions to improve lives and lift people out of extreme poverty throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. It will contain medical supplies, a training manual, mobile phone, and other necessary tools in the field, and help identify CHWs as they complete household visits, establishing their community presence as healthcare providers.

There. Don’t say this feature is entirely pointless and only here because I like pictures of Ali Larter. It serves a valuable community purpose. Oh yes it does.

Have you seen Ali Larter acting randomly? If so, let us know and we’ll tell everyone about it in "Random Acts of Ali Larter"

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – 123 – The Company of Friends

27 August 2009 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

As we all know, Paul McGann is technically the longest serving official Doctor Who. Although only having done one TV story, he graced the pages of books and comics and, of course, starred in the Big Finish audio plays for the best part of a decade.

During this time, the Eighth Doctor racked up a number of companions, including Bernice Summerfield and Fitz Kreiner in the books and Izzy Sinclair in the comics. He even, apparently, travelled with Mary Shelley for a while, if you believe an off-hand comment he made once. However, until now, we’ve never had actors playing these companions in any of the audio plays (okay, Benny I’ll give you, but she never appeared with the Eighth Doctor).

With a 4×25 minute play featuring the Eighth Doctor to write, it occurred to Big Finish that they could finally give these old companions voices, and flesh out the Eighth Doctor’s range of audio companions. So here comes The Company of Friends, featuring (as always) Lisa Bowerman as Benny, Matt di Angelo (off EastEnders) as Fitz, Jemima Rooper (Hex, Lost in Austen) as Izzy and Julie Cox (Dune, Children of Dune) as Mary Shelley.

What a fantastic opportunity. What a pity it’s mostly been wasted.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 123 – The Company of Friends”

Rick Berman explores 18 years of Trek

27 August 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Bit of Trekkie? Got three hours to spare? Then how about watching this interview with Rick Berman, one of the exec producers of ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:Voyager, ST:Enterprise and all the TNG movies.

In it, he gives a relatively no-holds-barred discussion of all the various things that happened on the shows, what he thinks were the high and low points, why various casting decisions were made and let’s slip that he spent most of the time begging Paramount to let Trek rest for a while to stop people getting bored of it.

If you want a list of the highlights, you can read them over at TrekWeb.

[via Qqabal]

Thursday’s companionable news

27 August 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton reunited for Big Finish plays
  • Frazer Hines to appear in Sixth Doctor stories for Big Finish

Film

British TV

  • Channel 4 unveils its Autumn season
  • Sky1 acquires Modern Family
  • BBC4 wants to adapt more works of fiction
  • C4 to overhaul its output after Big Brother cancellation
  • Shane Meadows to make a drama for C4
  • Sky unveils its Autumn line-up

US TV