News

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

News

Survivors may be back

10 July 2006 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

SurvivorsRemember Survivors? No? It was kind of a dark version of The Good Life, in which everyone in the world bar a couple of ‘lucky’ survivors is wiped out by accidental germ warfare, leaving those behind to eke out an existence for themselves by growing their own vegetables.

It degenerated after a while, but was a good show and it had one of the most chilling title sequences ever (you’ll need RealPlayer to watch it).

It turns out the BBC is considering reviving it, according to the Media Guardian (free registration required). Interesting choice for the next revival: I’d have gone with Blake’s 7 because the whole “terrorists or freedom fighters?” thing would work quite well right now, but I suspect Survivors would cost a whole lot less to remake. The question is, does self-sufficiency still resonate the way it did during the 70s?

Rory Bremner working on a kids’ version of Brecht

6 July 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Sometimes celebrities throw curve balls at you. Take Derren Brown, everyone’s favourite magician and fan of The Master from Doctor Who. We’re used to weirdness from him, but when he started speaking fluent German last season, I was staggered. Turns out he read German and Law at Bristol Uni. Impressive, huh?

This week, David Walliams took that a step further by swimming the Channel, raising nearly a half million pounds in the process, which was pretty awe-inspiring.

Now it’s Rory Bremner’s turn. He’s decided he’s going to translate a play by Bertolt Brecht so that it can be performed for kids at the Young Vic as part of their Big Brecht Fest (he came up with that particular pun himself).

Turns out as well that he’s a dab hand at this kind of thing. A King’s College language graduate, he’s already translated French and German texts for the opera: in 1999 he worked on Weill’s Silver Lake, and in 2001 Bizet’s Carmen, both for performances at Wilton’s Music Hall in London.

So they’re rich, successful and talented. Curse them all!

New companion talks

5 July 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

I’m still not saying her name for those that really don’t want to be spoiled, even if Anna has changed her mind, but there’s an interview with the new Doctor Who companion in Doctor Who Magazine this issue, a snippet of which is available on the BBC’s site. Worryingly for Marie and others, the following incident is related during the interview:

And the night before that audition, he’d left a little note under my door at the hotel.

No mention of what was on the note.

News

David Walliams makes it across the Channel

5 July 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

David WalliamsI can’t swim. Well, that’s not entirely true. I just can’t swim well. My body has the consistency of lead, unfortunately. Well, actually, only my legs do: my torso floats just fine, it’s my legs that gravitate to the bottom of the pool, no matter what I do (they’re fine in salt water though), while the rest of me just wonders where they’re going. So I swim along as best I can with the equivalent of a couple of weights tied to my feet. Not fun.

Which is why I greet this particular bit of news with a mixture of envy as well as astonishment. David Walliams, star of Little Britain, has swum across the Channel in just 10.5 hours, raising £432,000. Amazing. Whichever way you look a it, that’s a wonderful and outstanding thing to do and we should all give him hearty congratulations. Or even more sponsorship money.

But I wish I could do that, too.