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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UK TV

Psychoville viral marketing takes a leaf out of Obsessed’s book

12 June 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Psychoville

Two of the League of Gentlemen – Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton – have a new show called Psychoville coming to BBC2 on Thursday. To promote it, they appear to have taken a leaf out of the lovely Ali Larter’s promotional playbook and come up with a viral marketing campaign similar to that used for Obsessed.

Simply go to the Psychoville web site, enter a few details and upload a friend’s embarrassing photograph, and they’ll receive a mysterious warning from Graham Norton of a virus that will infect their computer – and a black-gloved man will threaten to expose all their secrets unless they do what he says. You can see a demo version done on David Tennant below.

UK TV

Review: That Mitchell and Webb Look 3×1

12 June 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

That Mitchell and Webb Look

In the UK: Thursdays, 10pm, BBC2

They’re back. The ubiquitous Robert Webb and David Mitchell are back! Of course, being ubiquitous, it’s not like they seem to have gone away, of course, but here they are, back again, with a new series of That Mitchell and Webb Look, which is – equally, of course – based on their radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

When people say ubiquitous, they generally mean that in a bad way. But having Robert Webb and David Mitchell on just about every TV and radio programme on every TV channel imaginable – whether it’s talking about poetry, dancing on Comic Relief, acting on Peep Show, appearing on game show panels or featuring in ads – is actually a good thing. Because they are very, very funny.

Most of the time.

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What have you been watching this week (w/e 12 May)?

12 June 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

In between hay-fever induced sneezes, why not let your fellow readers know what’s worth watching on tele right now?

I’ve done a few reviews this week, including Property Snakes & Ladders and Mental – hopefully a That Mitchell and Webb Look review coming later today, which overall I enjoyed. Still got last night’s episodes of Royal Pains and Burn Notice to watch, of course, and The Daily Show‘s kind of ticking along, even if it isn’t doing anything too hard hitting at the moment.

The Apprentice final was on Sunday, of course – the best one won for once. What a miracle. What an awful, awful prize: running a digital signage business for doctors’ waiting rooms. That’ll be so much more exciting than running your own restaurant Yasmina, won’t it? Private Eye, incidentally, reveals (via the Sunday Mirror) that Debra cheated a couple of weeks ago by getting her parents to ring up the Shopping Channel and order the items she was trying to flog. Oh dear.

UPDATE: Forgot Nurse Jackie. That was okay. Nicely dark still, but still a bit bitty. Like her English best friend though.

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!

Friday’s Dollhouse reaping news

12 June 2009 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

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Review: Property Snakes & Ladders 1×1

11 June 2009 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Property Snakes and Ladders

In the UK: Tuesdays, 8pm, C4

Hard to believe it, I know, but Property Ladder and everyone’s favourite property developer, Sarah Beeny, have been with us for over eight years. With each series of the show, Beeny has regaled us with advice on how to make money from property, using the examples of regular people turned property developers to show us what to do – and more often what not to do.

Typically, the show would run as follows: Beeny turns up on the doorsteps of two developers. The developers tell Beeny what they intend to do. It’s just plain awful, stupid or wrong, so Beeny gives them some better ideas. They still do what they intended to do. They cock up significantly, spending masses more money than they needed to. Then they relent, do as Beeny suggested, and hey presto, all’s good with the world again. Then, at the end, despite the cock-ups and over-ambition, Beeny reveals that "thanks to a rising market", they still managed to make money.

Well, guess what. The rising market has gone. It has ceased to be.

So, you might ask, what’s the point of Property Ladder? Can it survive in this climate?

The short answer is no. However, the long answer is yes, but only if it gets a name change.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Property Snakes & Ladders.

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