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

News

Need a Doctor Who fix but can’t wait until April 15?

1 April 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Tardisodes

Two weeks until the new series of Doctor Who: let the compulsions commence. How will everyone cope until then? Well, the first of the TARDISodes is now available, you lucky people. This one you can view for free online, but the normal ones cost 10-15p. No DT in this one, but both he and Billie will appear in the later ones.

This one seemed quite short. Wonder if that’s the normal length or as much as the Beeb are willing to give away for free for now.

Jess gets her own series. Good news? Bad news? I don’t know

21 March 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

I’m not sure whether my heart should be warmed or chilled by the news that Jess the cat from Postman Pat is to get her own show.

On the surface, “Ah! How sweet! Cats!”

Underneath, the terrible fact it’s going to be computer-generated.

In the wake of the terrible Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin debacle, can we assume there’s some new international school of soul-removal that children’s TV executives are being sent to?

Am I now a “BBC4 viewer”?

20 March 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

It’s a question I’m grappling with on two fronts.

Front one: I’ve an invite to a BBC4 audience focus group, in which BBC4 viewers can comment on the network and be paid £50 for the experience. I’m grappling with the ethics of that one: can I, a media journalist, not only influence the content of a channel but be paid for it?. I suspect, despite the allure of £50 (there’s very little I won’t do for £50), that I’ll have to duck that one.

Front two: A new BBC4 game show is on the way, according to The Stage. Hosted by Julian Fellowes, Never Mind the Full Stops is all about the exciting world of punctuation, bad grammar and misspellings. Hmm. Must avoid severe temptation to mock pedantic middle-class gameshow hosted by a man called Julian.

However, I’d quite like to watch it. When I wear my sub-editing hat, these are exactly the kinds of issues I have to watch out for (hey, I’m off to the Royal College of Nursing next week to ensure all manners of naughtiness don’t sneak into their magazines). A nice show with pointers like this is just up my street.

So does that make me a BBC4 viewer? Am I becoming one of ‘them’? What a worrying idea.