Vyvyan, Rick, Neil and Mike, the infamous mentalists of the 1980′s hit TV show The Young Ones, are today making a comeback! Now, before you start thinking that the old blokes who played ‘em will be getting back into character and generally embarrassing the memory of the show, don’t worry yourself.
Thanks to a distribution deal between BBC Worldwide and iTunes, the show will be available to download – legally – through iTunes, which means you can watch it and keep it… and you never know, it might just win over a load of new, younger fans.
We all know that the most perilous job in the world is live telly. Forget North Sea fisherman and cleaning out live volcanoes with dynamite toothbrushes – live television is the pinnacle of danger. Of course, mostly, we only get a few fluffed lines or someone looking at the wrong camera… but when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong… and it’s hard not to laugh along. So, here’s a bunch of clips for your mirth (and don’t worry, these are superior to the tat you see on TV’s Naughtiest Bloopers). In reverse order…
It must be every writer’s nightmare. You dream of writing for Doctor Who all your life (well, from the age of seven anyway) and, after working hard and climbing the ladder of success, you finally achieve your long-held ambition. Even better than that, not only do you write those dreamt-of scripts but you turn out to be so good at it that they offer you the top job. Chief scriptwriter. Head honcho. Creator of Story Arcs. You settle in behind your desk, fingers poised lightly but confidently above the keyboard when suddenly there’s a knock at the door. Only because you’re a writer it’s a metaphorical door. Who is it? Only one of Hollywood’s most well-known names, offering you another job.
I do admire The Bill. I don’t watch it, but every time I see it on the EPG, it’s called something different (The Bill: Ring Of Fire, The Bill: Chicken Of Doom or something), and I guess this willingness to change and evolve is why it has lasted so long. You must have heard that it is now teaming up with a German series, SOKO Leipzig, for a special to be screened in November (full story here). Interesting. I thought I’d take a look at this German cop show. There’s a clip after the jump, and yes, it’s in German. No matter… it certainly looks grittier than The Bill and there’s no sign of any Gillian Taylforth equivalent. All looks good until men in drag sing badly.
Since Olly Reed shuffled off this mortal coil while bladdered in a bar in Cyprus, there has been very few to step into the yawning breach labelled, “Serially Drunk of Telly”. Rhys Ifans had a good go at it, but he’s unlikely to turn up on whatever replaces Parkinson.
Watching this now you cannot help but laugh, but the lasting feeling is pity that such a talent was so often reduced to such a state so very publicly.
Paul told us last week of a new character debuting in Series 3. News of the third series – subtitled Villains – continues to break in dribs and drabs with Digital Spy today carrying a few lines about Riches actor Ntare Mwine being signed up to play an artistic African with special abilities which will develop in a nine-episode arc. Meanwhile, over on NBC, some series 3 trailers have been released. Click through for some chilling early insight into what Heroes: Villains has in store for us this coming September.
I gave BBC One’s new drama series Bonekickers a bit of a kicking in its own right earlier today, but I know our esteemed editor Paul has been lucky enough (*cough*) to see the first three episodes in preview, and still thinks it’s pretty good. Not that I’m wimping out from my firmly-held belief that the first episode was a pile of steaming pants or anything, but I was keen to see what the rest of t’Interweb was saying about Army of God. I needn’t have worried. Click through for a selection of comments from all over the TV watching world, which (ballpark estimate) appear to be about 20-1 in favour of the pants option. Although I doubt this is quite what “Dolly” Parton meant when he asked if anyone had had “an underpants moment.”
“It’s too late… I’m regenerating.” Yes, these are the words that the nation is hanging on at the moment. But is the Doctor really ready to morph on up? I David Tennant really packing his bags? I have no idea, but here’s the clip where Doctor Tennant goes all wibbly and, in doing so, reduced millions of viewers to a weird jelly-like substance.
Click here for John’s review of the episode.
Click here for a round-up of the (already) massive amount of internet rumours about what really happens.
A lot of you are probably saying right now, “Who in blazes is Raymond Domenech?” Anyone who hasn’t been watching the football (don’t worry, it finishes next weekend) will not know that Raymond is the head coach of the French national team. Ten years ago France won the World Cup, and two years after that they won Euro 2000. They’re a good team, albeit an ageing team. Thierry Henry plays for them. Raymond Domenech isn’t particularly well-liked in France even though he managed to get them to the World Cup final two years ago. He’s got massive eyebrows, is quite taciturn and selects his team partly on star signs and astrological compatibility. He’s mad. No matter, the French team were one of the favourites for this excellent Euro 2008 tournament but they have failed miserably and are already out. After being beaten by the Italians the other night, Raymond had to face up to the cameras. With a whole nation mourning, it was Raymond’s big chance to apologise to the whole of France, fall on his sword or whatever managers do in that situation. He didn’t do any of the above. He did something so extraordinary that people are still talking about it now. Raymond Domenech, not well-like in France, unwittingly entered the TV hall of fame.
Never been a huge fan of cats myself, but you can’t blame anyone who blurts out an “awwww” or even an “ooooh” when they see this piece of footage. The clip is culled from a recent (I think it’s fairly recent) news item from America’s ABC news. It shows a kitten with six legs. Extraordinary stuff.
With Euro 2008 in full swing and my adpoted team, Italy, playing their first game tonight, I thought I’d have a bit of trawl through some of Europe’s finest TV moments. One of my chums is off to Italy for the first time for a holiday, and as research she’s been looking at things like this. We’ve already had weird programmes like Human Tetris already featured on this site, but now we have a woman being stripped by a digger on Italian TV. Honestly, how cool is that? Really. How cool is that?! When the skirt comes off I defy you not to think a) what the frigg is happening, and b) that’s bloody brilliant at the same time. Bravo, bravo, bravo!
This was on The Wall a few weeks back, but I didn’t see it (sadly, Im not one of the three that watches the programme). During the show there was this little gem – a near-perfect urnie extraction of the useless and annoying popular social networking internet site Facebook – made by some comedians who call themselves Idiots Of Ants. They show what could happen if Facebook met the real world…
Last week Mof posted a list of his favourite weird kids’ shows, and then Keris took up the baton with a post celebrating recent kids’ show triumphs. Never one to let a good bandwagon pass by, I thought I’d give it a go myself, this time concentrating on the programmes that kept me out of trouble as a youngster. Unlike those lucky so and sos who grew up in the late 70s/early 80s (and therefore had the likes of Bagpuss and Mr Benn to keep them entertained), the late 80s/early 90s don’t quite have the same nostalgia factor – but there were some gems, nonetheless.
I realise that this isn’t a headline you would normally see on TV Scoop, but I couldn’t resist posting this up. I saw the clip earlier in the week and thought it might be good for a bit of Friday afternoon fun. Well, not fun exactly, because after I’d watched it I was still agog and wincing wildly. Anyway, welcome to Mucizeker Gecesi, Turkey’s version of Britain’s Got Talent. In this clip a woman is using her very large breasts to squash aluminium cans, karate chop wood and pulverise a melon. I really cannot say much more than that. Do not try this at home, especially if you are a man.
I bet loads of you are fully singed-up members of the myface social networking revolution, and completely au fait with the potential of blogging, twittering and baggling (I made that last word up). What I’m trying to say is that the world is now a digital one daddio, and you’d better get with the programme or be left on the pile like a big old pair of pants. Or something. The latest in the web’s many social networking sites is Blinkbox, which fuses your myface-style friend base building with Youtube-flavoured video sharing. How does this work? Read on, read on.
For those unaware, Ian Wylie is the TV Editor of the Manchester Evening News. Part of his extensive output is an entertaining (if occasionally hyperbolic) blog about all things TV. He outdid himself this week with an extremely long and detailed report from a BBC Writersroom presentation by Ashes to Ashes creators Ashley Pharaoh and Matthew Graham, in which they discussed the hidden meanings of the first series, and their plans for the future. Click through for some highlights and a link to the original article.
Hands up who saw The Wall on BBC Three last night? OK, so not that many. I have to confess I saw a bit of it, and, surprisingly, for a wannabe cool, hip and try-hard funny show, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Alexa Chung even smiled a few times. Jonathan Ross was on it as well, and here’s a clip of him chatting about his dog licking his balls. Yep, there’s adult language ahoy-hoy here.
We’re in the midst of Desperate Housewives at the moment on Channel 4, and it’s going down a storm (or at least some of my female friends say it’s bang back on form). As ever, one of the beauties of being a mega-successful TV show is that you’re always open to a non-English language remake. And it’s happened with DH. Here’s a US news story, taking a wry look at Spain’s Amas De Casa Desperadas.
Here’s another one of those stories that demonstrate how to the ‘net and conventional TV merge. Or where the ‘net becomes conventional TV. I hear more and more about being able to watch stuff on the internet, and I think it’s a pretty good thing. No schedulers, no channel loyalty (has there ever been any loyalty to a particular channel? Hmmm, no I don’t think so) and autonomy with the viewer (to an extent). The latest internet TV premiere features an acclaimed British band who haven’t released an album for more than 11 years. Yep, Portishead are back and they’re on the interpipe.
If there was ever a time when new series of popular TV shows simply started when they were ready, rather than being subjected to sensational speculation, agonies of anticipation, and massive media manipulation, then that time is long past. Increasing numbers of channels and outlets have to vie for the viewers’ attention, to show what they hope will be irresistible tasters of what’s to come, and to give you ample time to build your schedule around the event or at least, set the video. Although we won’t know for certain for another few days, there are now compelling reasons to indicate that the date for the start of the 2008 series of Doctor Who has been set.
From:Coronation Street fans apply here