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

A for… effort?

3 March 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

BBC4 is four years old today. Or maybe it was four yesterday. So happy birthday or belated happy birthday to BBC4 then.

Anyway, I noticed a trailer on 4 for the new version of A for Andromeda yesterday and was impressed to see that they were good enough to get Susan Hampshire in. Hampshire played Andromeda in the follow-up to the original series – The Andromeda Breakthrough – when Julie Christie turned down the chance, and it’s nice to see 4 showing that kind of respect to the original work. Classy, really. Well done.

UPDATE: Bollocks. It wasn’t Susan Hampshire. It was Jane Asher. It’s more A for Artichoke Hearts and Angel Cakes then. Oh well.

Good news for West Wing fans

1 March 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

According to the bible itself, a whole gaggle of former West Wing cast members are going to make it back for the final few episodes of the series. Rob Lowe (Sam), Emily Procter (Ainsley), Mary-Louise Parker (Amy Gardner), Gary Cole (Vice President Bob Russell), Tim Matheson (former Vice President John Hoynes), Marlee Matlin (Joey Lucas), Anna Deavere Smith (Nancy) and Annabeth Gish (Elizabeth Bartlet) are all scheduled to appear in the final five episodes, with Lowe starring in the final two episodes. Who wants a bet that he’s going to replace Leo as the Democrats’ vice presidential nomination? Maybe he’s even married off to Ainsley. Quite a coup to manage to extract Procter from CSI: Miami‘s gruelling filming schedule, though, so clearly she’s going to be quite important in the scheme of things.

Of equal note is the fact that Timothy Busfield (Danny), who will also be appearing in the final few episodes of the show, is to appear along with Bradley Whitford (Josh) in Aaron Sorkin’s new project Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.