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Every week day, I let you know what’s happening in the world of television from around the world

Studio 60 will go on. Probably.

1 November 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Media Guardian appears to have been watching Fox News or something. Following that particular ‘news’ outlet’s call that Studio 60‘s death was imminent, with cast members telling their family that it was all but cancelled, the Media Guardian has followed suit. Strangely though, it cites the one-week change of time slot for Friday Night Lights as the main reason for the call, despite the fact FNL only replaced a Studio 60 re-run.

It might have a point if NBC hadn’t just come out and ordered three more scripts and declared that the show was already profitable. I think Studio 60 probably has a little more life left in it and a probable time-slot change in its future. But its death is by no means imminent, I suspect.

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National Television Awards results

1 November 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

David Tennant

The British viewing public have voted and Doctor Who has cleaned up three prizes at the National Television Awards: it won most popular drama, most popular actress for Billie Piper and most popular actor for David Tennant.

If you think that’s a reflection on the excellent taste of the viewing public, just remember they voted Big Brother housemate Nikki Grahame the winner of the new category, “TV contender”. She can only be a contender if you vote for her, you fools!

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Sad news: William Franklyn and Nigel Kneale have died

1 November 2006 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

William FranklynTwo pieces of very sad news. William Franklyn, best known for a hell of a lot of things, actually, but principally as secret agent Peter Dallas in Top Secret and as the voice of Schweppes, has died. He was 81. Over his 50-year acting career, he played numerous roles in shows such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Avengers and French and Saunders. He also took over from Peter Jones as the voice of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the BBC Radio 4 serial.

Nigel KnealeNigel Kneale, one of the best writers television has ever had, died on Sunday, aged 84. Apart from the Quatermass series and an adaptation of 1984 that caused national furore, he was also responsible for a number of spectacular one-off plays such as The Stone Tape and The Road. Virtually all genre writers today owe him a great debt. He’ll be sorely missed.

Science Fiction Britannia

31 October 2006 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Science Fiction Britannia



There’s a great big sci-fi season coming to BBC4 in early November. As well as interviews with Iain M Banks and Terry Pratchett, there’s a dramatisation of John Wyndham’s Random Quest, a three-part documentary on UK sci-fi writers and all sorts of goodies from the archives (allegedly).

There’s also going to be a series called The Cult Of… that focuses on cult British sci-fi series: Blake’s 7, Adam Adamant, Doomwatch, Star Cops, The Survivors and Tripods. I can understand all those obsessions except Tripods – Star Cops and Doomwatch were brilliant, Blake’s 7 had its moments as did The Survivors, and Adam Adamant was fun. But Tripods? Lines from the books such as “And then they went into a village and stole some bread” turned into an entire episode? Dismal. Have you noticed that loving Doctor Who is no longer considered a cult pursuit by the Beeb, though? Interesting.

To coincide with the season, BBC4 will be opening up (from today) a web site called My Science Fiction Life, where you can deposit your memories of sci-fi shows and books, some of which might be used in a “new TV programme”. They don’t mention whether that’ll be The Cult Of… or not.