UK TV

An archive of blog entries about UK TV programmes and production.

UK TV

Review: Personal Services Required 1×1

3 July 2008 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

 

In the UK: Channel 4, 9pm, Wednesdays

Fact: "One in three families use some form of domestic help". This sounds like one of those statistics like "93% of people in Middlesbrough wear Etruscan snoods" that is obviously made up but because it involves some numbers, people blank it out and go "Really? Well fancy that."

One in three families? Across the whole country? Are we including paper boys in this or something?

Anyway, whatever the number, some people have to hire domestic help. How do you go about doing this? In the real world, the obvious answer is to use some form of domestic agency, like you might find in Yellow Pages, that carefully vets all its employees, ensures they have decent qualifications, no criminal record problems, experience and a personality that doesn’t make you want to hire Freddie Krueger instead.

But this isn’t the real world (or even The Real World): this is Channel 4. More importantly, this is Channel 4 post-Wife Swap. What we want is conflict and if that involves introducing some employers who have the management style of Hitler to some potential employees with the skills of Frank Spencer and the attitude to life of a Big Brother contestant, so be it.

Continue reading “Review: Personal Services Required 1×1”

For Marie: The Adventure Game Vortex

3 July 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Any article on The Adventure Game would be incomplete without mentioning the Vortex. But video footage is rare – otherwise The Adventure Game wouldn’t be a ‘Lost Gem’ – so there wasn’t a clip available at the time I wrote the article. But I did promise Marie I’d try to find one for her.

Anyway, I managed it. Yey me.

Here’s David Yip and Madeleine Smith braving the Vortex, while the ‘mole’, Lesley Judd, shows her true colours and tries to evaporate them. It’s from the second series so there’s no green cheese roll to help them – and David Yip has unwisely given back the ham sandwich he was offered before entering the Vortex room…

Thursday’s complaints and spin-offs news

3 July 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

Art

Theatre

British TV

  • Jerry Springer opponent bankrupt and wants Beeb to pay
  • Barristers complain about Criminal Justice
  • Top Gear criticised for drink-driving at the North Pole

French TV

US TV

The Welsh in old kids’ shows

2 July 2008 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the Welsh didn’t get much of a look-in on British TV until quite recently. For the most part, they were often the butt of comedy or segregated into cartoons, where they didn’t fare much better. Rarely even did the part of the Welsh character go to a Welsh actor: invariably it went to someone English who couldn’t do a proper Welsh accent.

To see what I mean, here are a few classic cartoons featuring the Welsh:

1) The Willo The Wisp episode The Dragon

2) The Ivor the Engine episode The Egg

3) And the Chorlton and the Wheelies episode Happiness is Hatched

You’ll notice that:

  1. There are no Welsh people doing the voices, only English actors doing bad Welsh accents
  2. In two of the episodes they’re over-excitable and evil. In the other, they have no respect for the natural world
  3. There’s a dragon in each one (although one’s not Welsh)

Just thought I’d mention it. Honestly, though, it’s really only an excuse for some old kids shows, seeing as it’s shaping up into nostalgia week, this week.

Morris Minors: The Time, The Place

2 July 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Time to launch another new blog god-related feature. This one will show off some of the lesser known work of satirist Chris Morris, who’s best known for The Day Today, Brass Eye and Jam. 

Naturally enough, I’m calling it Morris Minors.

Anyway, the first entry is a bit of stunt work by the man himself, in which he turned up in the audience of daytime debate show The Time The Place and pretended to be an expert on sex and Roman history. He starts of sensible, he ends up silly, just to see at what point he’ll be rumbled.