The sixth series of Skins will feature “moral ambiguity, high drama and comedy.”
The E4 teen drama – which begins filming today (21.07.11) – will be written by a team of young British writers and teen contributors including Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless), Jack Lothian (Ashes to Ashes), Skins novelist Jess Brittain and new young writer Laura Hunter.
Camilla Campbell, Channel 4 Head of Drama, said: “I am delighted that the sixth series of Skins is now underway. Having set up this new set of characters in the previous series, we can now go into more depth as to where their stories take us.
“With moral ambiguity, high drama, as well as a strong dose of comedy, Skins six will not disappoint.”
John Griffin, executive producer, added: “We’re hugely excited about the fantastic mix of writers we have for Skins this year, some of whom are first time screen writers.
“They’ve spent the past few months developing exciting and challenging stories for our characters and as filming gets underway we’re all very excited to see them realised onto to the screen.”
Directors for the series include Jack Clough and Oscar-nominated Ian Barns, while Skins is being produced by Toby Welsh and Neil Duncan with Charlie Pattinson, George Faber and Bryan Elsley joining John as executive producers.
Gleeks rejoiced as the second series hit E4 last night.
The thing with Glee is that you either love it or you hate it. I’m with loving it, although my alpha male other half is the latter, which seems to form the demographic for the musical tv series.
Yesterday was once again a dose of all round and happy fun, and unlike many shows, which tend to take a nose dive after the first series, this one bought all the fun, and of course new character Shannon Beiste, the unfortunate new football coach. And it looks as though the series is set to get better.
According to reports the Glee gang will be recreating one of the greatest music videos of all time. They are paying tribute to Michael Jackson for their upcoming Super Bowl Sunday show next month.
Decked out as zombies, the cast got into thrilling characters filming their version of the famous video on a giant football field in Los Angeles. Swaying to the sounds of a marching band, the boys and girls replicated the moves made famous in the 1980′s film clip.
The show will follow the 45th annual Super Bowl game on February 6 this year, and will also feature Katie Couric who will guest-star as herself, and Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
I love being able to catch up on TV shows an hour later after they’ve aired. If I’ve got in later than planned and don’t want to miss the start of a show then it’s brilliant. But really, do we need so many +1 channels? Especially when some of them seem to show repeats throughout the evening? It’s getting a little bit over the top now. What’s next? Channel -1?
Working from home has its benefits. One of them being getting to watch trashy American dramas throughout the day. E4 is laden with awful teen soaps that after you’ve watched one episode, you’re sucked right in and lunch revolves around watching Gilmore Girls. Sad, I know. But when the new series of One Tree Hill started last night, I couldn’t help but watch it. Too tempting. Even if it was much worse than I’d have hoped.
After the E4 special last week, I really wasn’t looking forward to the start of 90210. It didn’t look… real. And the two hour (two!) episode didn’t disappoint. Instead, it devastated and depressed and almost sent me to sleep. There’s two hours of my life I won’t get back. If you didn’t watch and you’re wondering what you missed, I wouldn’t worry too much.
I’m finding E4’s advertising campaign for their new crop of reality shows a little odd. The line-up includes ‘Beauty and the Geek’ where ‘hot’ women transform nerdy men into studs (Mondays 10pm), the Paris Hilton/ Nicole Richie nonsense that is ‘The Simple Life’ (also Mondays, 11pm) along with tomorrow night’s premiere of ‘Age of Love’ where women in their 20s battle those in their 40s for the affections of Aussie tennis star Mark Philippoussis (pictured right.) The promotions bill the shows as ‘no brainers’ with two perma-tanned and cheesy presenters talking about switching your brain off and indulging in trashy TV, and though I’m sure no grey matter is required to view any of the three programmes, it seems to insult and undermine its target audience.
I know that E4 have performed well with their tongue-in-cheek campaigns, but by telling viewers that only stupid people would watch such fare seems more of a deterrent than an honest and appealing invitation. No-one, however dense, wants to be called stupid and with little warmth shown for the shows it neglects the cheeky brashness of former E4 successes. If the adverts conceded that we have brains but sometimes might like a little silly distraction, that would be much better, but instead they effectively condemn their own products.
We’ve had to wait months to know what all the fuss was about, but now that we’ve seen the final scene from The Sopranos (aired last night on E4), finally we Brits can enter the debate on the seminal show’s ending. Or interesting lack there of. In an interview in new book The Sopranos: The Complete Book, creator David Chase, who recently won two Emmy awards for producing and writing the HBO drama, has spoken of the creative decisions behind that ending.
“There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code. Everything that pertains to that episode was in that episode,” claims Chase. “And it was in the episode before that and the one before that and seasons before this one and so on. There had been indications of what the end is like. If people want to sit there figuring this stuff out, I think that’s just great. Most of them, most of us, should have done this kind of thing in high school English class and didn’t.”
The End. Finished. Over. Last night, the 86th and final episode of The Sopranos had its premiere on UK television and now we Brits can finally appreciate the controversy that surrounded the show’s last scene when broadcast in the US. But before we get to that, let’s take a look at how creator David Chase decided to spend our final minutes with Tony Soprano.
Waking at the safe house he had fled to, Tony and his crew adapted to life without green vegetables and with a new recruit in the form of a stray cat. Tony met with Agent Harris, informing him of the bank used by the two Arabs he was interested in, hoping that the FBI worker would reciprocate with news of Phil Leotardo’s location. Harris didn’t oblige on this occasion, but this odd relationship was clearly a source of optimism for a beleaguered Tony.
What is there to say? After years of following Tony and his two families, Sunday night will mark the end of an era as the superlative mob drama comes to an end. E4 have been counting down the days in a dramatic advertising campaign, with every new reminder only adding to my excitement and suspense. Who will be left standing after the two mafia clans have gone head-to-head? Does Tony really deserve our sympathy as he finds his empire, family and existence under threat from the vengeful Phil Leotardo? And will we ever see a show this consistently brilliant ever again?
The end scene (which I have endeavoured to learn nothing of these past few months) caused controversy when it aired in the US back in June. Some considered it a beautifully crafted moment while others felt unsatisfied and confused. Creator and mastermind behind the show, David Chase defended the scene: “There’s nothing more in TV that I could say or would want to say” and it will be for us here in the UK to make of it what we will. The episode is billed as slightly longer than normal (10.30-11.50pm) and so we will have to savour our last minutes of Sopranos glory. Enjoy.
And then there was one. Last night was the penultimate episode of HBO drama The Sopranos and it was a masterclass in suspense. Since we were first introduced to Tony and his crew back in 1999, his New Jersey family of mobsters have suffered a fragile and tempestuous relationship with the New York based Lupertazzi clan. Under Johnny Sack things were relatively smooth running as the two bosses worked together to protect mutual interests, but since the aggressive and uncompromisng Phil Leotardo succeeded Sack, the bond has become weaker and weaker, leading to this final showdown between the two camps.
We all knew it could happen. The dangerous world Tony inhabits combined with the ineasy union with the New York family has made this ‘war’ feel like the most natural climax to what has been a thrilling show. And yet, inevitable though it might be, never at any moment during last night’s episode entitled ‘The Blue Comet’ did the action feel predictable, stale or dull. In contrast, as Tony rallied his troops and Phil spat out orders to ‘decapitate and do business with whatever’s left’, The Sopranos effortlessly cranked it up a gear, producing one of the best hours of TV I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying for quite some time.
Another new American import debuts on small screens here in the UK this weekend, namely E4’s The Class. The channel has been cheerily advertising the reunion sitcom for a while now (see trailer below), trying to compare it to its perennially popular station stable mate Friends. Both revolve around a group of white, late 20somethings and their madcap antics, with The Class even coming courtesy of David Crane, a creator of Friends. But how much further the similarities stretch might never be fully realised as The Class was cancelled after only season in the US.
Set in Philadelphia, the comedy stars more Brits trying to crack America in ex-Eastender Sean Maguire and Doc Martin’s Lucy Punch and starts with the former high school chums coming together for one of their number’s engagement party, only for things to go horribly wrong. The Class received a mixed critical reception in its homeland where it was Emmy nominated and picked up a People’s Choice Award for favourite new TV comedy. Six o’clock seems like an odd timeslot to launch a new sitcom but for those that miss Chandler, Monica, Ross and co. maybe The Class will be a pleasant diversion until the Friends repeats start at 7.55pm.
As a naturally sleepy person, staying up til 11.30pm on a Sunday night is quite the effort, but when it comes to The Sopranos I’m prepared to spend my Monday yawning a lot. For the first few episodes of this, the second part of the sixth and final season, I was quite disappointed. The show seemed uncharacteristically laboured and desperate to undermine each of Tony’s significant relationships (maybe to build to an unpredictable ending), but in the past few episodes it’s decided to get its groove back.
After the Grim Reaper decided to make a shock appearance claiming Chris last week, came another will-he-won’t-he-die scenario, this time with Tony’s son, the troubled and depressed A.J. The gloomy fella had been so lost since his fiancée Blanca ditched him, and that combined with his disillusionment with his new chums, led him to jump into the family’s swimming pool with a plastic bag over his head and a cinder block attached to his foot. Fortunately, he had misjudged the length of rope, and it was long enough for him to struggle above the surface and remove the bag. Unable to move with the weight of the cinder block, A.J. cried for help until Tony returned home to dive into the water and save his son. Phew!
Now that we have our two leading characters (Jack, the anti-hero and the ‘quirky’ woman) confirmed in our formula to create a TV show, we need to work on the programmes set-up, and one detail springs to mind – the voice-over. A huge number of current US shows seem to favour the inclusion of a narrator, with the technique able to serve a number of purposes.
You want insight into a complicated and hard-to-relate-to character? I give you Dexter Morgan (Dexter). You’ve got a number of plot strands and need them to be neatly brought together? How’s about Mohinder Suresh (Heroes) or Mary Alice Young (Desperate Housewives)? And what of the more conventional sitcoms that invite us to root for our silly hero, like JD (Scrubs) or Earl Hickey (My Name is Earl)?
You might think that after five and a half seasons of bloody violence that The Sopranos’ ability to shock would have dimmed. You would be very wrong, with last night’s episode proof positive that when it comes to leaving your jaw flapping in the wind, the New Jersey mobsters do it best.
The episode started innocently enough, Tony and Chris met with Phil discussing the business of dumping asbestos. So far, so normal. On the journey home from the conference, Tony raged his annoyance with Phil, though Chris tried to encourage Tony’s former “smelling the roses” positive outlook. The two drove on, though Chris, driving, was noticeably high on drugs and distracted by the music on his car stereo. Okay – maybe slightly curious, but still far from earth-shattering. And then it all changed.
Here at TV Scoop, we have established our first element of what makes a modern day TV show – the anti-hero called Jack. But now we have our leading man, we need to find a woman for him to play off, maybe indulge in some carefully constructed sexual tension with. Yes, here we introduce the second ingredient in our entertainment casserole – the ‘quirky’ woman.
Before I progress, I would like to point out that the name you see at the bottom of this post, confirming the identity of me, the author, isn’t one of those mysterious unisex efforts, nope – the name Katie pretty much guarantees a uterus, plucked eyebrows and an ill-fitting bra (cos apparently 70% of us ladies are wearing one.) I am of the female variety and so when I lay into this most annoying of girly stereotypes, it is not through any bitterness towards my sex, but simply the trite way in which we are often represented onscreen.
With the return of The Sopranos on E4 and the Emmy wins for the show on Sunday night – all eyes are on the stars that play the mobsters. And it was after some serious examination of actor Michael Imperioli’s mug that I realised that Tony’s nephew Christopher Moltisanti bears an uncanny resemblance to Stereophonic’s front man Kelly Jones. Both share a heavy brow, a mop of dark hair and an intense stare. The only difference is that one is a small, Welsh guy that duets with Tom Jones while the other is an Italian American Capo that kills people with Tony Soprano. Just don’t them too muddled up – unless you want to get whacked.
We’re now three episodes into the second part of the sixth and final season of The Sopranos and it seems like every new instalment wants to isolate Tony from his mob family as much as possible. In Soprano Home Movies Tony got in a scuffle with Bobby Bacala, last week his relationship with Chris hit an all-time low and in last night’s chapter matters between himself and Paulie Walnuts became dangerously fraught. Can we expect to see him and Sil fall out next, I wonder?
I had been more anxious than usual to catch up with Tony and the boys this week after the Radio Times reviewer condemned the episode as “one of the worst ever.” Could this be true? Worse than Tony’s painful journey through his subconscious when on the brink of dying from his gun shot wound? I was surprised to hear such a critical analysis, especially now that we are hitting the final stretch, and though I think the reviewer was overly harsh, I can see where they were coming from.
So after all the hype, last night saw the Primetime Emmys dished out for the 59th time. Some of the results were expected, some less so while all eyes were on Ryan Seacrest in his first time hosting the event. The theatre-in-the-round stage proved unpopular, but here at TV Scoop we give you the inside scoop on the events: who embarrassed themselves, who made it all look effortlessly easy and who wants to join Desperate Housewives? It’s all in our speeches round-up.
Host Ryan Seacrest used his opening speech to mock his own role as MC: “There are over 6,000 people here tonight. All of them talented, all of them looking incredible, all of them passed on hosting this year” while also making time to include TV hot property Hayden Panetierre (Claire Bennet in Heroes): “Congratulations on turning 18. My gift to you – seating you as far away as possible from Jeremy Piven.”
Ryan Seacrest might have gotten the nod to present this year’s Emmy Awards, but he’ll have a tough job ahead of him after the success of talk-show host Conan O’Brien’s stint last year. One particular highlight was the introduction, with the now popular use of the host integrated in some of the prominently nominated shows. In Conan’s case, he opened the infamous hatch in Lost, visited Steve Carell and co. at The Office, clashed with Jack Bauer in 24, was treated to an examination from House, hid in the closet (with Tom Cruise) in South Park and aroused suspicions on Dateline.
Will Seacrest adopt this approach, and if so can we expect to see him stopping time with Hiro in Heroes, hanging out at the Bada Bing club with Tony Soprano or having a makeover in Ugly Betty come Sunday night/ Monday morning? To get us in the Emmys spirit – enjoy Conan’s past prologue to the ceremony.
Although this movie came out in 1999 and received huge critical acclaim, I didn’t get around to watching it until almost four years later, principally because I actively dislike the kind of floppy-haired mild-mannered hesitant twits that Hugh Grant always seems to play. I don’t know the guy, but it’s easy to develop the sense that that’s really him, since so many of the parts he takes seem to be the same character.
I have to admit though, when I finally did get to see it, all the plaudits were well deserved. The film is warm, funny (often hilariously so) and moving, it’s written by Richard Curtis and it has Julia Roberts in it. What more do you want? So if, like me, you’ve been avoiding it just because of Grant, don’t. And if you’ve seen it before do yourself a favour. Autumn is almost here. Stoke up the fire, crack open a bottle of wine, take the phone off the hook and watch it again.
Skins: Series 6 promises high drama 
Although this movie came out in 1999 and received huge critical acclaim, I didn’t get around to watching it until almost four years later, principally because I actively dislike the kind of floppy-haired mild-mannered hesitant twits that Hugh Grant always seems to play. I don’t know the guy, but it’s easy to develop the sense that that’s really him, since so many of the parts he takes seem to be the same character.
From:Set The Video: NASA: Triumph and Tragedy, BBC Two, Wednesday, 24 June, 9pm