Spectacular Snowy Scenes – I love Frozen Planet

Wednesday nights at 9pm has been must-see TV for the last few weeks. No I’m not talking about people designing new houses or deciding which has-been should be crowned the new ‘king-of-the-jungle’. This is a far simpler, yet at the same time infinitely more complex hour of television that has taken it’s viewers thousands of miles from our comfort zones and shown us scenery, creatures and worlds we could never imagine.

‘Frozen Planet’ has been yet another landmark documentary series from the BBC, whisking viewers to both the South and North Pole to witness life in the most extreme locations of our planet. Over the past six weeks, we have been treated to shots of Polar Bears, Seals, Killer Whales, Penguins, Reindeer, Boars and Snow Leopards and more in their natural habitat – all in High Definition.

With David Attenborough narrating (well who else?!) the show has done a sterling job of explaining the creatures lives in the poles as they fight to survive – whilst also remaining one of the most entertaining shows on the box. Unlike many other wildlife show, there’s no on-screen presenter and instead Attenborough acts as a narrator on the fascinating stories we see unfolding in front of us.

And we do get to see everything that happens, including a great deal of upsetting scenes. One moment it can be young playful Polar Bears, the next it’s Wolves attacking a herd of Boars in a fight  to the death. Some have criticised these scenes, claiming it’s wrong to show these sometimes brutal fights on screen. But I’d disagree with this, the show simply shows you the fight for survival at the poles, to edit any of it would be to ruin what the filmmakers are trying to achieve.

I think most people who have watched over the last few weeks would agree that one species of animal has been a highlight amongst others. I have fallen in love with the Penguins on this show. From their cheeky manner (the fist episode showed one Penguin stealing stones from another when his back was turned) to their phenomenal speed as they launch out of the water and on to land and to their remarkable struggle to stand, defiantly in face of extreme weather to defend their young. The Penguins involvement in the show has been fascinating.

Unlike many other wildlife shows, humans have also been a subject of ‘Frozen Planet’. Last week’s programme saw us follow the lives of the people in the Polar regions. The show documented their own fight for food – no going to Sainsbury’s for your eggs here, instead you’ll be abseiling down a cliff. We saw how they too interact with the animals there and interestingly how Penguins seem to actually ignore the human’s existence – domesticated already!

‘Frozen Planet’ is actually the third show in a series of wildlife shows co-produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel – starting with Blue Planet (2001) and Planet Earth (2006). One of the things I have loved about this trilogy has been the effort made in the filming -taking up to four years to film a series. To celebrate this, we get to see a 10 minute ‘behind the scenes’ of every episode. In some ways I find this even more fascinating than the wildlife itself – seeing just how close and to what lengths the production crew go to to get their shots. I for one would not like to spend 2 months alone in a flimsy shack in the arctic -regardless of how many penguins are outside the door!

There is now only one show left of ‘Frozen Planet’, focusing on Attenborough himself journeying to the ‘Frozen Planet’ to see the action for himself as well as natural wonders such as Glaciers. And I think that it has been scenes such as the Glaciers and ice-sculptures that have set this series apart for me. Blue Planet and Planet Earth gave us amazing animal shots, but Frozen Planet has a backdrop beyond anything else – absolutely breathtaking.

I’m proud of the BBC for this trilogy of programmes, they’re the sort of thing that other broadcasters often shy away from due to the extreme expense for often disappointing viewing figures. Luckily ‘Frozen Planet’ has been very popular, charting the highest wildlife ratings since 2001. But I do wonder, in the current financial climate, if the BBC will commit to such an investment again any time soon. For the sake of creative and original TV, I really hope they do.

The final ‘Frozen Planet’ is on this Wednesday at 9 on BBC One, if you missed the series it’s all on BBC iPlayer or you can watch a compilation episode which is planned to be screened over Christmas.

My Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, it will have been hard to avoid the fact that I spent all of last week up in Edinburgh to experience the Fringe Festival for the first time ever. Now I’m back and have had time to gather my thoughts on an amazong week, here’s what I thought of 2011’s festival.

The first thing to mention is the sheer scale of the festival itself. It’s the largest arts festival in the entire world and there truly is something for everyone. My group spent most of the time enjoying the comedy on offer, but there’s so much more including dance, theatre, music, children’s shows, sensory experiences and the downright weird. With almost 300 venues, the festival spans the whole city and there’s an amazing atmosphere on every street (and admittedly quite a lot of crude graffiti…)

Onto the shows then, the main part. On the whole, I was very impressed with the quality of them with really only one dud show out of the 30 I saw during the week. The prices also come in very competitively, averaging at around £7/£8 per show. That’s not bad for an hour long performance (many of which are available on 2 for 1 offers at certain times too). And if that’s still too much for you, there’s around 600 free shows ready to entice you over the festival.

The venues differ from show-to-show. Some performances were in grand halls as you are perhaps accustomed to, whereas others are in pubs or venues no bigger than my front room. This really adds to the special feeling of the Fringe, the idea of cramming as many people in as possible to experience as much entertainment as possible. There’s a very friendly and buoyant spirit to the whole production (even from those who have to work through the night to make it happen).

Although you’ll see several big names performing at the Fringe (the likes of Rich Hall, Dave Gorman, Al Murray, Richard Herring, Milton Jones, Sarah Millican, Stewart Lee and ‘Barry and Stuart’ all have shows this year) the Fringe is really more about discovering new acts. I hadn’t heard of the majority of performers I saw, but I really enjoyed their performance and appreciated the chance to see this talent which surely deserves to be nurtured and moved up to bigger places.

As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed all (but one) of the shows I saw, but I do of course have my highlights and here they are…

ShowStopper – As a fan of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’, I was thrilled to see so much improv at the festival. ShowStopper is and improvised musical of epic proportions. The audience give suggestions to story themes/titles/song styles at the start and then the ensemble cast of around 10 bring it to life in a hilarious fashion. One of the best improve shows I have ever seen, they really knew how to do it.

Axis of Awesome – Move over Flight of the Conchords, these Aussies know how to rock, parody style! You may have heard of them due their rather large YouTube following, but the live show was extremely funny and very much a headbanger. Great show.

Michael Winslow – This is the guy from Police Academy, Sgt Motor Mouth! His stand up is essentially full of sound effects, all entirely made by the mans voice. I could hardly believe my ears as Winslow dubbed an entire action clip of Star Wars with his own sound effects. Oh and don’t visit the toilet during the show, Winslow has a great mock for that!

Richard Herring – Richard Herring has been a well known comedian for a while, but never quite seems to reach the big time, which is a shame because he was arguably the best ‘traditional’ standup show I saw. With his twisted sense of humour and efforts to offend, he’s not for all, but is a very entertaining comedian and has a great Fringe show.

Idiots of Ants – Sketch was also very well represented at the Fringe, but I would say my favourite sketch group was Idiots of Ants. Their performance seemed to take into account their surroundings the best, involving the audience and making use of the fact this wasn’t TV and was live. Sketch comedy is hard to do live (look at how many takes the pros need on TV) and these guys seemed to pitch it just right. They should have their own TV sketch series (would beat so many others!)

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo – Not strictly part of the Fringe, but still worth doing. With the backdrop of the dazzlingly illuminated Edinburgh castle, the tattoo parades military bands as well as adding some humour and a fair bit of assailing. Oh and of course some pretty special fireworks at the end. It rained for the whole two-hours that I saw the Tattoo, yet I would still heartily recommend it to anyone, brilliant experience.

There are several others worthy of mention – Mitch Benn, WitTank, Thom Tuck, Jimeoin, Tiffany Stevenson, School of Night, Shakespeare for Breakfast, Dave Callan – all fantastic laughs.

I did get to see a bit of Edinburgh while I was there in between the many shows. The city is very different to most in the UK, very hilly and traditional with several interesting looking buildings. It’s traditionally Scottish and that was great to see (especially as I’d never even visited the country before). Make sure you visit the newly refurbished museum and the castle while there, both are fascinating experiences.

And that brings me to the end of this whistle stop guide. There’s so much more to Edinburgh than what I have mentioned and several more notable performers. I would recommend the festival to anyone, because it really is for anyone, more so than any other festival I know of. Such as fantastic mix, celebrating everything thats great about the world of arts and entertainment – what more could you ask for?

Long live the Fringe!

Formula One UK enters Pay TV market with BBC/Sky deal

After weeks of speculation, we finally know the outcome of how F1 will be broadcast in the UK for future years. It’s not back off to ITV, Channel 4 won’t be nabbing it, it’s not even leaving the BBC entirely. But it’s caused uproar amongst fans of the sport (myself included) as from next year you will need a subscription to Sky Sports to enjoy the full Formula One season.

A number of things about this are very bad, not least the fact that a basic Sky Sports subscription will set you back almost £40.00 per month – money that many people simply don’t have. When channels can charge this amount, it makes the humble BBC license fee (£12.13 per month) seem a drop in the ocean!

I fail to see why people should be forced to pay for a sport that for several years they have had free access to. Not only that, it’s a sport amongst the richest in the world. F1 doesn’t need any more money, why should we now have to fork out cash to continue seeing this ‘spectacle’ on our screens.

Now of course, I am missing out part of the deal which was announced earlier today. The sport isn’t entirely leaving Free-to-air TV, the BBC will still broadcast half of the races live. But what’s the point in that? I don’t really want to watch half a season of a sport, I want to see the entire picture.

We have been promised ‘extensive highlights’ by the BBC, but what exactly does that mean? Will it be more or less than the rather disappointing highlights package which currently airs after every race on BBC Three? And regardless, I think I speak for all sports fans when I say watching highlights after the event is never the same as seeing it unravel live.

Then there’s the deal itself. The BBC have apparently secured such gems as Monaco, Silverstone and the final round of the championship live for 2012. But how long will that last? Sky aren’t going to be happy if people choose not to subscribe to their service (after all, this deal is no doubt costing them millions). They will keep pushing the boundaries until the BBC is left with only the poorer races of Bahrain and Valencia. Don’t deny it, recent events have proved how sneaky a Murdoch company can be.

I also fear for the many thousands, even millions of casual fans. F1 viewership is at a 10 year high and that is in no small part down to the current BBC broadcast. The Beeb have put the sport everywhere, provided so much more access than their predecessors and really helped engage a whole new range of fans. But casual fans aren’t going to want to pay an upgrade fee and neither will they enjoy the disjointed-ness of live races some weeks and highlights the next. The sport will lose them, no doubt about it.

The BBC have made a terrible decision to end this contract early (they had exclusivity until 2013) and opt-into this 7 year ‘partnership’ with Sky. But lets not forget, their hands may have been tied. The corporation is trying to make massive savings at the moment and rumours suggest that they had to choose between full F1 coverage or Wimbledon (we all know the result of that one).

What I don’t like is how badly it’s been handled. Commentator Martin Brundle tweeted that he was only informed of the news last night and anchorman Jake Humphrey only heard the news this morning with the fans. These people are the ones who have made the show, they should have been involved in the negotiation process rather than letting some BBC execs make the decision with no input from the people that matter.

And the less said about Mr Ecclestone the better. Bernie said only a couple of weeks ago that F1 would not be going to subscription TV, yet here it is. And what’s more, it looks like he’s managed to talk the teams into the idea also, lessening any chance of a rebellion due to the Concorde Agreement.

There is however a possible glimmer of hope emerging from a meeting held earlier today. Martin Whitmarsh, team principle of McLaren has hinted at the BBC possibly still showing full race coverage for every Grand Prix, just delayed for half the season. This would, for me make a huge difference and could save me from a painful decision between the BBC and Sky.

We should also not lose sight of the fact that this isn’t the end for F1. It will still be shown on the BBC, just not as in-depth as we would like. Sky have also (whatever you think of them and their management) done wonders for sport, particularly football and I’m sure those that choose to watch with them will get a very detailed and all-encompassing service.

However it’s hard to ignore the fact that todays deal was entirely driven by money at the expense of the fans. You have to wonder how many more times sports can keep doing this and push their fans patience before they lose interest themselves.

BBC Television Centre – Memories of a landmark

We’ve known for a while that the BBC have been planning to sell, but now the building is finally on the market it feels an awful lot more real. In case you’re unsure, I don’t approve of the sale of the building. The BBC belongs in London and it belongs in that building. But the Beeb have made their decision and so I thought I’d write a bit about what that building meant to me.

I can’t remember when I first saw BBC TVC on the telly, it was probably in one of the many Children In Need or Comic Relief telethons which have been held there. The building looked special right from the first time I viewed it, that famous wall, the iconic white blobs the beacon BBC logo in the top left hand corner. That view symbolises for British TV what the Hollywood sign symbolises for films. It was a staple of those big night-long live shows that only the Beeb can properly pull off and as such has become such a well known landmark in our country.

As a person who has always been enthralled by the media, I always loved the whole look of TVC. It just seemed like the magic factory where the wonder of television came to life. Naturally I always wanted to visit, but I didn’t get the chance to go to White City until 2005.

It was to see a TV show, admittedly not the best one (Dick and Dom’s Ask The Family – I was more a fan of their Bungalow show, but sadly you couldn’t go and watch that!) and it was an extremely exciting moment. I’ll never forget when I first saw TVC. It was a truly inspiring moment to finally see that wall and that circular structure.

After we arrived we were whisked through the main entrance, under the giant wall of offices at the heart of TVC, past the fountain in the atrium, beyond that famous clock and on to the studios. We were to go into studio 6, fantastic! Several great shows have been filmed there – ‘Buzzcocks’, ‘Have I Got News For You’, Would I Lie To You’ – most of the panel shows!

On the way in, I remember our BBC guide getting slightly lost (yes, I know!) and leaving us in the Studio 6 canteen. The canteen, wow! This is where the stars ate, the producers, the script editors, heck even the director general himself must have dined here! This was part of the backstage and it was great

Eventually we were shown through to the actual studio, past the giant black curtains and to our seat in front of the set. This was my first TV show I’d ever seen filmed. Whatever age you are, it is a bit of a special moment, but it was made better by being within the magic factory itself, television centre!

After my visit, I become even more obsessed with the place, researching the building’s history – discovering how and why it was first built, what all the various parts of the building were, discovering that it’s actually in the shape of a giant questionmark (google it – it is!). I loved this building, this landmark and in 2006 I was lucky enough to visit again.

This time, I got the full tour as part of a school trip. We toured through the live weather studio, downstairs dressing rooms for the celebs in live shows. Experienced an entirely empty studio that had filmed ‘Friday Night With Jonathon Ross’ the night before. We spent an extended amount of time in the brand new news studios (that’s right, fully refurbished in 2006 and now being made redundant in 2011!!?) and I realised that one day I wanted to work in this building for the greatest broadcasting institution on the planet.

But sadly, that looks like a very unlikely prospect now. The Beeb may keep the building as part of a partnership, but it’s future as the  corporations flagship venue is over.

From 2013, BBC TV will be based ina brand new Salford facility called MediaCity that looks like this.

Wow, does it look dull. It’s just the same as all other ‘new’ buildings around, nothing special, nothing outstanding. BBC TVC has the looks, the history (Blue Peter garden, for example!), the location and the facilities that the BBC needs. They should not be moving.

Luckily, whatever happens, the main section of TVC (the ring and studio 1) gained listed status in 2008 and will remain and possibly be restored after the Beeb leave, but it will never be the same. For a corporation who still seem so obsessed with circles, I have no idea why they are leaving a circular building, a building saturated with history and one that it will be sad to see go.

Will the cuts cause society to break down?

Here in the UK, we’re facing pretty big cuts at the moment – not as bad as some will have you believe, but bad all the same. And with every cut comes a protest, mostly harmless, but every now and again they turn violent and a horror to behold. Everyone wants what matters to them – and we can’t have everything.  The question is, as the cuts worsen, is society slowly breaking down?

Quite a bold question and one that you hope the answer to is no. Surely losing a few services here and there won’t turn us back into apes. But I reference a show I watched last night – ‘The Street That Cut Everything’ on BBC1. If you didn’t see the show, the concept was that a street in Preston became completely independent of the council for 6 weeks. During that period they would replace the service the council normally provides, using the same amount of Council tax they would pay in that period.

The shows point was of course to show how much we rely on the council and the tough decisions they have to make on a daily basis, but it ended up simply showing the darker side of human nature and how deep down, we are all pretty selfish.

Now, obviously this was a 1 hour 40 minute programme showing edited ‘highlights’ of the 6 week experiment. Of course the BBC were going to edit the show in the most sensational way they could and get the arguments. After all,  no one wants to watch a couple of hours of people getting on and sleeping (unless it’s the Big Brother live feed).

But I was genuinely shocked by some of the comments made. One resident suggested evicting a neighbour due to her asking for benefits (which she normally got for being a job seeker). These aren’t people who have just met for a reality show, they have lived on the same street (in some cases) for years. And now they feel threatened they turn.

In fact the benefits battle went on for a while. In some cases I could see the other residents being annoyed at one family taking a large proportion of the money (in fact I agree when it came to providing University subsidy’s, but that’s another matter!), but most of these things were necessary. A 7 year old child being picked up from school, the same child having school dinners. These are things you can’t discriminate against.

Eventually the residents – very reluctantly – did agree to these benefits. But it didn’t end there, people were denied £1 to by a torch (which was needed due to the streetlights being turned off). Others attacked one another for not disposing of waste correctly. Yes it was annoying and incurred the street a fine, but there’s no need to cause so much aggro over it, simply move on and don’t make the same mistake again.

I suppose it also showed how important power is in our lives. We’re all very keen to rage against our ‘leaders’ but when they were taken away without a proper unified replacement, the results were devastating (ironically I suppose it’s a bit of a comment on the coalition!)

Now I missed the second half of the show, hopefully I’ll have a look on iPlayer tonight, but something tells me it didn’t end up happy families. People were planning to move by the end of episode one, change their entire lives after what their neighbours had said to them.

These people were admittedly under a lot of pressure. The show was a case of extremely heightened realism throughout -the tasks were so over-the-top that The Street residents must have seen Nick Robinson as a bald, speccy devil by the end of it all. It’s not every day that a load of rubbish is tipped in your front yard… unless Nick’s about!

But the point remains that several people were cracking under the pressure after a short amount of time. They’d decided that they were for themselves and didn’t care much for the wider community they were in. Some people took their own share of the council tax fund and abstained from the community as a whole. How long would it have taken before all had done that and society in that street would have effectively broken down?

I don’t believe that this will happen. I’ve said several times that this was a ‘for-TV’ production which was edited to look worse than it was. But nevertheless, those actions need to happen to be edited in. It’s scary how nasty and selfish people can be when they think they’ll lose what they need.

It’s often been said that society itself is a very delicate balance and can be tipped at anytime into oblivion. These are all extreme statements, but as we lose more of the things we took for granted, are we headed for an even bleaker future, created not by our Governments, but by ourselves.

I should write something lighter one day… 😀 !

Watch ‘The Street That Cut Everything’ here 

The Doctor is back – and darker than ever!

It’s been a bit of a wait since Christmas day (damn Easter being so late this year!) but finally it’s time for Series 6 of Doctor Who which starts tomorrow night (Saturday 23rd April) at 6.00PM.

And I have to say first of all, it’s a testament to Steven Moffat’s incredible writing last year that I am as excited about this series as I am. Before Moffat and Matt Smith took charge of the TARDIS last year, I had grown a bit bored of Who. The show wasn’t reaching the heights it once had, the stories seemed poorly thought out and rushed with little thought for the overall story.

That all changed last year when the universe became cracked in what was – in my opinion – easily the best series since the shows return in 2005.

But what does this years series hold?

The trailer for series 6 (which you can see below) has been knocking around the web for a few weeks now. What it shows is a much darker and hopefully scarier side to the show. Moffat himself has been telling anyone who will listen, that this years show will be far darker than previous years. It will also have a much more engrossing story arc which runs right from the first episode of this years run.

‘The impossible astronaut’ is the name of tomorrows opener (which Moffat describes as a belter). The whole Who team have crafted the opener as more of a finale. It’s a two-parter, set in America and looks visually stunning from what I have viewed so far. The fact that neither the Doctor or the assistant are changing this year (first time since 2005) should give us more time for a proper story as well. Oh, and a lead character WILL die. Can’t wait for this one!

The series trailer also hints at several more complex story lines. If you watch closely, you’ll notice that the old-style TARDIS from Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant’s era is there. Why would this make a comeback? Several theories have arisen as to what this could be. I believe it could be hinting at a possible rewind cycle for the Doctor, with Amy and Rory travelling back through the Doctor’s life (a bit like last years ‘The Big Bang’ but I of course could be miles off with this!

I’m also thinking that we could see a parallel universe introduced this year. The show has been split into two series of 7 and 6 eps. When asked about this, Moffat revealed that it was purely for storytelling techniques. Why not have one series in one universe and the other in a different one. It could explain many of the impossible things which are looking likely from the trailer.

This more complex storytelling is what I love and what I believe should always be in Who (it is after all, a show about a man who travels in time), but I do worry it could alienate the audience. Unlike other sci-fi shows, Doctor Who still has a massive mainstream audience and I fear a more involved story could ruin this. And the BBC haven’t helped by scheduling the show at 6.00 when people are either eating or getting their dinner. Come on Beeb, this is a prime-time show, give it a prime-time slot. Heck, even BBC America have.

But any doubts about the quality of the show have been thrown out after last years incredible series. I can’t wait for tomorrow. This show, for me, has replaced the gap that Lost left! I just hope I wont be disappointed!

Talent Show Britain

A few years ago it was decided by the television networks that we no longer wanted to watch true talent on a Saturday night. The big fun shows I grew up with such as the incomparable ‘Noel’s House Party’ have been deemed unprofitable and too old fashioned. Instead the TV execs have delved deeper into the archives and filled Saturday night with talent shows!

Now, we all enjoy a good talent show every once in a while, but the stations have become saturated with them. As soon as ‘Dancing on Ice’ finishes, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (which it hasn’t) begins. As soon as that’s over, were back to ‘X-Factor’. And the whole time this is going on, the BBC and sometimes 4 and 5 are also making the same rubbish.

And it’s not just on Saturday nights. This stuff is on all week and covering a variety of shows. We have X-Factor, BGT, Dancing on Ice, Strictly, Masterchef, The Restaurant, The Choir, The latest BBC dance contest, the latest BBC Musical/Andrew Lloyd Webber contest, Britain’s Next Top Model and Biggest Loser (although to be fair the last one is debatable as to it’s clarification as ‘talent contest’.

These shows cover a spectrum of topics, but the core of the show stays exactly the same. It’s always a group of budding and aspiring people in their field with an ounce of talent, with some complete idiots thrown in to make things entertaining. These subjects will then be put in front of a panel of judges who will mercilessly destroy their dreams before opening it up to the public, who are so enthralled that they can influence TV, that they phone premium phone lines to choose an eventual winner (although sometimes the evil producers don’t even allow that!) Now that is a tired format…

Even the judges are the same every time.  There’s always the tough, ruthless, emotionless git who will insult every contestant. Then there’s the lenient one who’s happy and carefree and happy to still be on TV. They’ll let everyone into the final if they can. And finally, there’s the ‘head-in-the -clouds’ bimbo type who are normally more busy filing their nails than watching the acts.

Sometimes the producers drop the last two of the formula and only have the ruthless one’s (a bit like Alan Sugar in ‘The Apprentice’). They think that there’s nothing we enjoy more than watching evil, heartless sod’s ruin the dreams of the young… ahhh. But one thing these people always have in common – which they don’t deserve to – is their notion that they’re better then everyone else.

And I suppose this brings me onto the question of: Why do we watch this crap?

I watched Britain’s Got Talent properly (as in a whole episode) for the first time on Saturday. The show seems (like all manufactured talent shows) to be filled with a selection of some ugly people who are surprisingly good, most that are decidedly average, some adorable children, a gluttony of dancing dogs and several random and painfully unfunny acts.

These are then judged by Michael McIntyre, Amanda Holden and David Hasselhoff, who have about one brain cell between them and no idea about what talent is. But I’ll admit, that these idiots can make it entertaining… for one episode.

I’m sorry, but I could not watch a whole series of that and I can’t understand why people do. It’s the same stuff every week!

Yet people do and the audience at the auditions are unbelievably sensational. They shout, scream, laugh and cry at every single second of the show. They’re so into their show that I’m starting to doubt my whole views on reality. Am I the stupid one? Have I got it all wrong, is this actually the purpose of life – to be the baying audience in the theatre of horror that is a modern talent show? Maybe these shows are actually fantastic.

Or maybe it just proves that thanks to dumbing down of audiences everywhere, TV execs can get away with anything these days. It’s all about the talent show these days. That’s something I just can’t understand.

I say ‘roll on some good quality TV’, maybe a drama. Oh, what’s that? Doctor Who’s back on Saturday? At last!

I’ll be previewing Who later this week!

Square Eyes: Big Brother – so it’s back!

…On Channel 5. Yes that’s right, after months of dragging it out in a more than pathetic attempt to relaunch the channel, Richard Desmond and Endemol have finally (pretty much) announced the return of Big Brother.

And about time too, it’s been away for ages, something like 6 months… wait! 6 MONTHS! That’s right, the ‘final’ ever series ended on Channel 4 in September and now 6 months on, it’s been given a five year lease of life. What an anti-climax that was!

I’ll admit here that I’ve always been a bit of a fan of Big Brother. I hate pretty much everyone on the show, the presenters and the producers – but it’s one of those shows which has always had the ability to suck me in like a fly to a light bulb. And I believe that even when it was axed it still had legs – in a way Channel 4 were almost still quitting whilst they were ahead (certainly if you look at their viewing figures). I was therefore fully expecting the show to one day rise up from the ashes and return to our screens – but this is too soon.

Channel 4 were right to stop the show when they did. It had become overkill, a shadow of what it once was. The show was stale and often dull – there was potential there, but it needed a break. It needs some time off our screen for new ideas to be formulated and a fresh look taken to the whole show. If that was to happen, I’m sure many would have welcomed it’s return to our screens in 3 or so years time.

But Channel 5 under the control of Media whore Desmond, can’t possibly wait a second longer. Like a spoilt child, it’s so excited about it’s latest purchase that it is currently desperately scrambling to get a Celebrity version ready in time for August… AUGUST, less than a year after the show finished ‘forever’. And as if that wasn’t quick enough, this will be followed IMMEDIATELY by a full ‘general public’ series which will be followed again in January by another Celeb edition…

I can only see this as a massive mistake. The re-launch needed time and effort – all this will have is a load of cash chucked at it and hope for the best. Believe it or not, that doesn’t often make good telly!

The BB House - disused in this photo, already under renovation in reality

Then there’s the fact it’s on the disaster zone that is Channel 5. Say what you want about Channel 4, they do at least have programme-making skills. Yet it’s sad to say that now, 14 years after it’s creation, I’m still to find anything I want to watch on Channel 5 (except The Mole which was an exceptional show in the late 90’s). The Channel is still confused about what it wants to do and the re-launch hasn’t helped, by taking the networks worst show (Live from Studio Five) and making it unbelievably worse (OK!TV). I know the new ‘Big Brother’ will be made by Endemol, but 5 will still have a big influence over it and in my opinion, that can only be a bad thing.

And that brings me nicely to Endemol – the big winners! The five year BB deal is rumoured to be worthe £200 million to Endemol, who must just be thrilled someone has brought it. It won’t end the independent production companies financial troubles, but ti will cushion them and I do believe this is good as Endemol can and do make some really innovative TV.

So hide away haters, another ‘Summer of Bruv’ (eurgh – dreadful tagline) is coming. I personally can’t see it becoming any bigger than BB was on C4 (although I’m sure Desmond’s media empire will try and change that), or for that matter any better. But I do look forward to the new series – more with intrigue than interest, as to what C5 will do with the show. If it’s not a cleverly thought out fresh start though, I think it could be back on the slippery slope to cancellation before it’s already begun!

Square Eyes #8 – A Wolf shaped waste of time and and uneventful returne

Two big sci-fi drama’s had rather important outings this week. The one from the UK, “Being Human” completed it’s third run and US show “The Event” returned to our screens after a very long hiatus. It’s a shame that both were massive disappointments.

I’ll start with “Being Human”. I’ve watched this supernatural drama about a Vampire, two Werewolfs and a Ghost who live together, since it’s very first episode in 2009 and was very much anticipating the finale.

After all, the plot had been building up for weeks. Right from the start there was a prophecy from purgatory that Mitchell would meet his end by a wolf shaped bullet… Oooh exciting! Then Herrick came back, the uber villain from the first series and quite frankly the only villain in the show that’s ever been any good. Fantastic. And then to top everything, Mitchell goes and gets arrested which will lead to the discovery of all the worlds vampires (remember, if he has a photo taken, it wont show up… he’s a vampire.

This is set to be a cracker.

But it wasn’t. If anything I found the episode a great big yawn-fest. The three things I was looking forward to were answered very unsatisfactorily within the first 1/2 hour.

Vampires weren’t discovered because Herrick busted Mitchell out of prison with far too much ease. I understand he killed some of them, but where were all the guards that had been standing there previously, guarding the MASS MURDERER they had spent weeks finding?

Then the ‘wolf-shaped bullet’ prophecy was answered. The girl who first mentioned it in purgatory, Lia (played by Lacey Tuner) revealed that she had actually made up the whole idea. Yes, the prophecy had self-fulfilled itself due to Mitchell’s actions, but that’s still a lame explanation.

And then we come to the thing that annoyed me the most. Herrick is a brilliant character. I’ve been waiting for his return for ages. He is the absolute epitomy of a villain and is a joy to watch. So imagine my annoyance when less than an hour after he made his proper return, he was killed by Mitchell. Riiight…

And this left me thinking what was the point of the last seven weeks?

But still, there was 15 minutes to go, maybe these 15 minutes would save the episode.

They didn’t. Instead, they decided – in the finale – to introduce some new villains who apparently make Herrick look like nothing. NO! I hate that idea. I hate bringing in new characters that have had nothing to do with the rest of the series, just for the finale. I don’t know what Toby Whithouse was thinking when he wrote this shocking episode.

There was a final shock left. Mitchell was eventually killed by a Werewolf, George (and I must say Russell Tovey’s performance throughout the episode was still as fantastic as ever), who staked his friend in the heart. I would almost applaud this shocking move if it wasn’t for the fact that I reckon Mitchell will be back next year. And that will probably be by some unexplained circumstance just dreamt up to give Aiden Turner more airtime.

So as you can guess, I was less than impressed by that finale, but at least “Being Human” had a great series up to that point, unlike Channel 4’s “The Event”.

Where to start with this one… Well, “The Event” is the story of aliens that have been living on Earth for years (and for ease of the story look just like us) and now they want to escape/invade/do something (I’m not too sure). And I guess that this will be the event.

This show started so well. After the first episode, I thought I may have found a replacement for my beloved “Lost”. But sadly as the series went on, nothing really happened (very ironic for a show called the event) and this caused viewing figures to fall and the show to go off on hiatus for several months.

Last night it returned, with the promise of amazing revelations and answers.

But sadly it failed to deliver anything substantial. We found out some stuff – The aliens are now bringing more people to Earth, one of the main characters is actually an alien and didn’t realise it, the aliens have been building a big dish thing. And to be fair, some things did happen – lots of the aliens escaped captivity, Zeljko Ivanek got shot a bit (as he does in everything he stars in) and there was an almost touching moment when Layla and her little sister (who had been kidnapped) were reunited.. ahhh.

But the problem is, none of this really had any substance. I was expecting some sort of game-changing revelation – and judging by how OTT the music was, so did the shows composer. I mean there were dramatic crescendo’s and people staring into the mid-distance every time anyone said anything no matter how unimportant it was. I’m sure the shows star Jason Ritter couldn’t have farted last night without a big trumpet finale.

I decided to give the show a chance last night after the lacklustre first ten episodes. My verdict – I’ll give it one more chance. Despite my scathing review, there’s still potential in this show, but it’s fast disappearing. I can only hope that something happens to improve it, but I don’t expect it too. Even Heroes never became this dire.

And so I’ve come to a conclusion. We need a good sci-fi show. “Being Human”, “The Event” and “Outcasts” have all failed me recently. I guess I’ll have to wait until “Doctor Who’s” return. Only just over a month to go…

 

UK Government pave the way for Murdoch’s Empire

The news came through today that the government is happy for Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corporation, to take full control of the subscription TV service Sky.

The debate has been going on for some time now, with inquiries being carried out with Ofcom and  Office of Fair Trading, but culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has now decided to give the takeover the green light.

What was he thinking.

By allowing News Corp to take the remaining 61% of BSkyB, he’s paved the way for the biggest media empire this country and the world have ever seen.

News Corp already own several newspapers bother here and across the pond such as The Sun, The Times and The Wall Street Journal. They own or have stakes in several websites such as MySpace and IGN. They also own the entirety of Fox and Fox News, notoriously the most biased ‘news’ TV station ever devised.

And now this alarmingly large network will take full control of the biggest commercial TV service in the UK with a further 10 million subscribers at it mercy.

The problem is that in this day and age, Media is the truly dominant power. It can single handedly win elections, start campaigns and sell you products you didn’t even want. The right word said on the right show, showing certain images in the news and not others – it’s not hard to get a massive group of people thinking the way you want them to.

The man behind the media - Rupert Murdoch

Now combine this in with films, newspapers, websites and TV (all of which Murdoch has at his disposal) and you have a massive amount of influence and thus power.

Is it any surprise that the Murdoch’s are all very close to world leaders? They’re the ones who helped them get there and you do have to wonder if this is why Mr Hunt was so keen to allow them to take control of Sky (this would never had happened if Vince had had his way!).

To try convince us that this deal will all be fine and free of political/social bias, News Corp have agreed to the partial sale of Sky News to a new company. News Corp will hold onto 39% of the network with other investors holding 61%. There will also be a ban on News Corp employees chairing the board of Sky News.

But this still misses the point that News Corp will still have the biggest share of the News network and if needs be can push the stories they want through, only this time they’ll have the backing of the entirety of BSkyB.

And of course there is also the fact that a combined BSkyB with News Corp will have disgustingly high revenues and profits. As Robert Peston has rightly put it, the company will “dwarf all rivals, even the BBC”. It will become harder and harder for smaller commercial networks to compete with the might of Sky and it’s companion products, giving Sky near enough a monopoly in the commercial TV stakes.

Of course this deal has not quite been finalised yet. Murdoch still needs to convince the current Sky shareholders to sell out. He has already tried this unsuccessfully in June 2010 when he offered a combined total of £7.3bn for the  company (700p per share). It’s speculated that his latest offer could be as high as £9.1bn (850p per share).

But other than cash, which isn’t much of a problem for Murdoch, News Corp has no barriers facing it’s acquisition of BSkyB and that’s a scary situation to be in…