UK TV

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

Wogan’s back with a chat show

1 December 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Media Guardian is reporting that Terry Wogan is going to get his own chat show on BBC1. WTF? I know that Doctor Who did well in the ratings, the Parkinson comeback was a success and there’s been a whole series of nostalgia hits on ITV, thanks to the ITV50 celebrations, but whose bright idea was this? Don’t people remember what a disaster it was? This is a re-commission too far.

Wogan’s a good DJ, but he throws such low-ball questions that his interviews are the dullest things in the world to watch. They’re not the total horror that a Chris Evans or a Frank Skinner interview are, but this is not a good idea. Stop it now, BBC!

The F-Word theme tune and others

21 November 2005 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Since a load of people seem to come to my blog to find out the theme tunes to popular TV programs and adverts, I thought I’d post an entry with the most common ones:

  • The F-Word (Gordon Ramsay’s food show): The F-Word by Babybird
    iTunes: The F-Word
  • The Orange ad with the couple dancing: 1/1 from Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno
    iTunes: 1/1; Amazon.co.uk: Ambient 1: Music for Airports
  • T-Mobile: Ooh la la from Supernature by Goldfrapp
    iTunes: Ooh la la; Amazon.co.uk: Supernature
  • House, MD: in the UK, no one special; in the US, an instrumental version of Teardrop, from Mezzanine by Massive Attack
    iTunes: Teardrop; Amazon.co.uk: Mezzanine

Hope that’s helpful!

Review: OFI Sunday – Chris Evans’ idea is back

21 November 2005 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Wow. Chris Evans has resurrected his idea again. How many times are TV commissioners going to give him money for it? He used it with TFI Friday on Channel 4. Then there was that thing on Five with Chris Moyles and Christian O’Connell. Now it’s back again as OFI Sunday on ITV1 – yes, he’s even recycling letters now.

I watched half an hour of it. That was 15 minutes more than I wanted to, but Sarah wanted to give it a chance. It was truly awful. It was TFI, but stupider, less funny and without any redeemable qualities that I could see. Future episodes will at least be redeemed by not containing cringingly painful interviews with Billie Piper, but that’s probably going to be the only thing in their favour.

OFI Sunday should cement ITV’s reputation as the originator of awful television, anyway, but I can’t see it lasting more than a few weeks, given ITV’s typical ruthlessness with failing shows.

Don’t watch it, whatever you do.

A remake of The Prisoner? Surely not…

18 November 2005 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The Media Guardian is reporting that Granada (aka ITV aka land of rubbish TV) is to remake The Prisoner. Given the current array of talent working for British TV, and in particular Granada, why do I know already that it’s going to be appalling, shallow, insipid and have nothing to say for itself other than “we really need some ratings”. I’m curious to know where they’re going to shoot it, now Portmeirion has been crossed off the location list. Somewhere around Manchester perhaps, Granada?

I’ve been duped by ITV4

13 November 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Fooled by all that pre-launch guff, I naively believed that ITV4 was in fact going to have the programmes and American imports it claimed. I’ve just checked the listings and discovered something incredible. None of that is true. In fact…
ITV4 is exactly the same as Bravo. But more than that, it’s Bravo circa 1996.
Here’s what I mean:

  1. Sunday: 3.15am UFO; 6pm Strange Report; 7pm Space 1999
  2. Monday: 6pm Man in a Suitcase; 7pm Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
  3. Tuesday: 6pm Return of the Saint; 7pm The Champions
  4. Wednesday: 6pm Department S; 7pm The Saint
  5. Thursday: 6pm The Adventurer; 7pm The Persuaders
  6. Friday: 6.30pm The Protectors; 7pm Jason King

That’s practically the entire ITC output of the 60s and 70s there. They’re short of Danger Man, The Avengers and The Prisoner, but hell, they’ve got The Champions so I don’t care. I’d watch The Persuaders for the theme tune, but it’s never been the same since I stopped watching the dubbed French version: Tony Curtis sounded so much better en fran?ɬ�ais.
To cap it all, they have First Wave, Andromeda and Alien Nation, as well as Alex Cox of Sid and Nancy and Repo Man fame essentially repeating his Moviedrome gig from the late 80s.
ITV4? Why not just call it “The Cult TV channel” and get it over with? If they ever broke Street Hawk out of the mothballs, I’d watch nothing else.