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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Sequel to Deal or No Deal is a load of balls

12 March 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Just in case opening boxes at random seems too sophisticated:

GOLDEN BALLS with JASPER CARROTT

GOLDEN BALLS is an exciting new game of luck, intuition and barefaced bluff, hosted by the one and only Jasper Carrott. The tension and game play of Poker meets the jeopardy of ‘Deal or No Deal’.

100 Golden Balls – each worth a different cash amount. A possible half a million pounds up for grabs. But only if the players can avoid the dreaded Killer Balls that have the power to turn thousands into pennies in seconds.

This is a truly compelling new game show that will have you hooked from the first viewing. One definitely not to be missed.

If you would like to join us at for this exciting new show, then apply now!

The show will take place on weekdays at BBC TV Centre, White City, London during March and April at 4.15pm and 7pm. The minimum age is 18 years. Group bookings and repeat visits are welcome.

Booking is now open and we shall be accepting telephone bookings and online applications via our site at http://www.sroaudiences.com where you’ll find full details of all the shows for which we are currently booking.

You may also apply for your tickets by simply pressing ‘reply’ and complete the following details:

Full name:

Postcode:

Number of tickets required:

Preferred date (6th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 28th, 29th, 30th March and 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th April):

Prefered time (4.15pm, 7.00pm):

Monday morning news

12 March 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Have a good one?

Doctor Who

  • John Barrowman will be meeting horses this month and signing Torchwood audio books in April
  • Russell T Davies talks to the Telegraph about his work, the fourth series and leaving Doctor Who (maybe), among other things

Film

  • Simpsons and Futurama movie talk from Matt Groening
  • A Captain Marvel film is being written by John August
  • Dougray Scott will co-star in Luc Besson’s adaptation of the HItman video game
  • Casting for the new St Trinian’s movie includes Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Russell Brand

British TV

  • Skins will be back, unfortunately
  • There’s going to be a special Inspector Morse weekend on ITV3, as well as a concert at the Albert Hall, to celebrate the show’s 20th birthday.

US TV

  • Another UK format crosses the Atlantic: BBC3’s “give teenagers a baby to look after” show Baby Borrowers is to become a comedy for NBC.
  • Jenna Elfman does for authors what Tom Cruise did for sportsmen with new Darren Star show Literary Superstar
  • Kristin meets Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes
  • Windows users can watch Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver’s new show, The Riches, online at AOL TV before it airs.
  • Potentially big, Watchmen-esque spoiler for Heroes
  • Oliver Platt joins the cast of the US version of The Thick of It. Plus more casting news
  • Dexter stuff, including second season spoilers

Thank crunchy

9 March 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who's coming back with a bang

It’s Friday!

Doctor Who

  • David Tennant promotes Red Nose Day sweets

Film

  • Goran Visnjic may be the villain in the next Bond film. Meanwhile, the Daily Express reckons there’s going to be less Craigy nudity next round
  • Sex and the City movie back on?
  • Shooting on Anthony Minghella’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency begins in May
  • Three Men Seeking Monsters might get adapted with John, Doug and Dan Heder
  • Star Trek XI is going to be a ‘re-imagining’, not a prequel
  • 2010 for Toy Story 3
  • Rorschach from The Watchmen hiding in 300 trailer?
  • Jeff Bridges will be Obidiah Stane in the Iron Man movie
  • Eddie Murphy to star in a remake of Fantasy Island?

British TV

  • John Inman has died
  • ‘Allo, ‘Allo is coming back for a one-off special. Allegedly
  • It’s got Sting. It’s got Hywel Bennet. It’s got Daniel Day Lewis. It must be Artemis ’81, out on DVD on April 23rd
  • The Thick of It is out on DVD April 2nd
  • Five’s suspended its premium rate phone numbers, as well

US TV

  • Future events in Jericho discussed
  • A great big article on Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
  • A Prison Break star is in the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off with a former co-waiter
  • So much pilot-casting, including Jeffrey Tambor, Kal Penn, Mia Maestro, Adam Goldberg, Michelle Trachtenberg and Hector Elizondo
  • Kristin talks to Dexter‘s cast and crew
  • Former Heroes stars get pilots
  • Grande Heroes spoilers

One more day to go news

8 March 2007 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

It’s Thursday. Not long now.

Doctor Who

Film

Comics

British TV

US TV

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles – The Beautiful People

7 March 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Companion Chronicles - The Beautiful PeopleWe’re now at the last and least explicable of The Companion Chronicles range, with Lalla Ward (aka Romana II) the final companion to fill the dimensionally transcendental Jackanory armchair. With the previous entries, there’s been a semi-reasonable excuse for the story’s existence – the actor who played the companion’s Doctor being dead and therefore no tasteful or faithful way to have a play featuring the companion alongside her Doctor. Here, we have a simple disagreement between the actor (Tom Baker) and Big Finish that’s resulted in Tombo not appearing in any Big Finish plays, leaving the companions to fend for themselves.

This would still be a good enough reason for the play if Tombo’s companions had had no other opportunities to appear in stories. But of the surviving fourth Doctor companions, Sarah Jane has had two series of Sarah Jane Smith adventures and now has her own TV show; Leela, Romanas I & II and K9 have had three series of Gallifrey to mess about with; Tegan and Nyssa have both had fifth Doctor stories; and the less said about Adric the better. They’ve all been well-mined for dramatic nuggets.

So I think it’s pretty clear that the Big Finish luvvies really just wanted another excuse to work with lovely, lovely Lalla again.

Putting that to one side though, in the form of The Beautiful People, we do have a perfectly acceptable piece of season 17 hokum to while the hour away, and a reasonable enough conclusion to the series.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles – The Beautiful People”