You’d have thought that there was nowhere for Kidnapped to go but up. You’d wrong. Despite being exiled to a Saturday night slot to eke out the rest of its remaining 13 episodes, it’s now been pulled from the schedules completely because its ratings were so poor. Ouch.
Studio 60 will go on. Probably.
The Media Guardian appears to have been watching Fox News or something. Following that particular ‘news’ outlet’s call that Studio 60‘s death was imminent, with cast members telling their family that it was all but cancelled, the Media Guardian has followed suit. Strangely though, it cites the one-week change of time slot for Friday Night Lights as the main reason for the call, despite the fact FNL only replaced a Studio 60 re-run.
It might have a point if NBC hadn’t just come out and ordered three more scripts and declared that the show was already profitable. I think Studio 60 probably has a little more life left in it and a probable time-slot change in its future. But its death is by no means imminent, I suspect.
News
National Television Awards results
The British viewing public have voted and Doctor Who has cleaned up three prizes at the National Television Awards: it won most popular drama, most popular actress for Billie Piper and most popular actor for David Tennant.
If you think that’s a reflection on the excellent taste of the viewing public, just remember they voted Big Brother housemate Nikki Grahame the winner of the new category, “TV contender”. She can only be a contender if you vote for her, you fools!
Jackie Chan and Jet Li together at last
Jackie Chan and Jet Li are to team up for a movie that sounds suspiciously like Monkey.
News
Sad news: William Franklyn and Nigel Kneale have died
Two pieces of very sad news. William Franklyn, best known for a hell of a lot of things, actually, but principally as secret agent Peter Dallas in Top Secret and as the voice of Schweppes, has died. He was 81. Over his 50-year acting career, he played numerous roles in shows such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Avengers and French and Saunders. He also took over from Peter Jones as the voice of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the BBC Radio 4 serial.
Nigel Kneale, one of the best writers television has ever had, died on Sunday, aged 84. Apart from the Quatermass series and an adaptation of 1984 that caused national furore, he was also responsible for a number of spectacular one-off plays such as The Stone Tape and The Road. Virtually all genre writers today owe him a great debt. He’ll be sorely missed.