For years now the accepted wisdom from broadcasters has been that live TV is becoming less and less important as viewers timeshift everything on devices like the Sky + box to watch later at their own convenience (and obviously skip all those ads). However over the last year or so a new trend has been developing which just might save live TV, and it is all down to Twitter and our innate need to share.

Last night's Ask The Chancellors debate on Channel Four was a hugely compelling viewing experience with the three parties' financial gurus talking tough on the economy, taxes and debt restructuring. Yet if you recorded it and watched the programme hours later you missed out on half of the reason why it was so exciting. For during the hour it was broadcast Twitter was ablaze with tweets about how the individuals were faring, what they were wearing, how they answered the questions and what the experts (and opinion polls) were saying. The debate was so popular on Twitter that the hash tag askthechancellors started trending much to the bemusement of the micro blogging tool's hardcore US following.

And the Chancellors debate is just the beginning. The leader debates are sure to be a really exciting brawl on Twitter as die hard hacks champion their men in a bid to influence floating voters.

It isn't just politics that is central to the new TV/Twitter alliance - there's sport too. Wednesday sees perhaps the most eagerly awaited football match of 2010 as Arsenal take on Barcelona in the Champions League quarter final. Once again this is likely to be fascinating on Twitter with many neutrals offering really intelligent and objective insights on the game. TechDigest's sister website TV Scoop is also teaming up with football site Whoateallthepies.tv to host a live chat around the game using some very innovative new software from Telegent Systems. There are prizes for the best commenters. The new Telegent service will also enable users to take part in quizzes and polls and even integrate their Facebook page with the TV service via Facebook Connect.

The key question is whether systems like Twitter and Telegent, along with experiments from UK broadcasters including the BBC, start impacting on mainstream TV programming? Live events like X Factor are one thing, however if people start tweeting through Coronation Street, Eastenders or Casualty it could signal a real shift away from recorded TV back to live viewing. And what about all those US imports too? There's very real evidence that users are tweeting through programmes like Mad Men and Glee.

Ultimately I guess viewers won't be tweeting or chatting using their laptops. Instead their TVs will have a built in chat stream so they can keep an eye on comments while watching the programmes. And it could be more than text chat too. If you want to see the reaction of you friends to a game then you'll soon be able to communicate with them via Skype video calls on your set. Some TV makers, like Samsung, have even started offering apps for their TV sets and there are many people working on a killer integration of chat, video and live TV.

So it looks like live TV could well become a key trend for 2010. Advertisers must be rubbing their hands with delight. No more ad skipping and a whole new way to connect with audiences.

By Ashley Norris

I love Hollyoaks. It's my after work guilty pleasure. But I've noticed recently just how many of its storylines revolve around sex. Now, I'm no prude, but come on! Everyone it that village is at it. Is Hollyoaks taking the casual sex story too far?

I had a couple of reasons for watching Derren Brown last night. My friend Rob was on the show and I wanted to see what silly things he'd get up to. I'm also looking to find reasons why Derren Brown is not a wizard. He's so unbelievably spooky and the "how does he do it?" drama of his shows never fails to entertain. Find out what he got my friend to do and what the rest of the show was like after the jump.

Related: TV Review - Derren Brown: Something Wicked This Way Comes | TV Review - Derren Brown: Trick or Treat

Cliff for Big Brother? Oh, who knows. I mean, honestly. Presumably he doesn't need the money, but then again neither does Whitney Houston, and she's been tipped too. The rumours have begun and it would be remiss of us not to report them, however improbable. (Fans may be interested to know that Summer Holiday was partly filmed in Elstree, where the Big Brother house is, so it'd be very much a homecoming for him) ...Would you like to see Cliff taking his Summer (January) Holiday on the upcoming series of Celebrity Big Brother?

Despite reports here, and here that the Lib Dem MP has signed up for next year's BB, the latest is, I'm afraid, a denial.

I'm quite disappointed about this news, it'd have been good to see how he held up. Surely he didn't have much to lose - his dignity disappeared some time ago. He should take a leaf out of Michael Barrymore and Les Dennis's book and give us, the potentially voting public, something entertaining to watch. To learn to love. Because, for all his tabloid ubiquity, former "Mr Cheeky" Lembit remains a bit of a spud-faced mystery.

Chantelle's in the so-called 'news' today for a couple of large reasons, and although it's true that we have really no expectations of her left, since the Preson fiasco, we're cheered by the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye these days. But the smile on her face makes us think of something else, too... has our Chanters started to resemble Pantomime cheeky chappy and funnyman-of-the-past Brian Conley? Just me?

We've had a few spoof reality shows over the past few years. Comic Relief Fame Academy springs to mind, as do the Big Brother sketches on Peter Serafinowitz's sketch show, and now there's that zombie thing Charlie Brooker's doing for E4, set in the Big Brother house (which we hope will be better than Nathan Barley. Ooh, meow!) But the spoofs tend not to be great, largely because these shows are such a farce already. So will this Peter Kay thing be, you know... ANY GOOD?

Reality TV can be a bit of a modern freak-show, where we get a chance to point and laugh at the funny people who didn't get the breaks we did in life. At its worst it's over-the-top, exploitative, patronising and unedifying. But all that might be set to change...

Now, call me old-fashioned but I think that's a bit disingenuous. I mean, he's not getting paid, strictly, for being a chef, is he? Who came top? Courtney Cox, because she plays a chef in Friends? I heard Beyonce was the world's highest earning blonde. Anyway, Ramsay makes £4million a year, apparently. In an interesting twist, he also happens to be the world's third highest earning Ramsay, after Madge and Jack but before Charlene.

Although A Boy Called Alex originally aired on the 24th, I missed it. What else I was doing, I'm not sure, but I was thrilled that More 4 replayed the film again last night at 10:35. Did you see it? I hope you saw it, because it is a brilliant, inspiring little film that will instantly make you appreciate your life, and your lungs, just a little more.

A Boy Called Alex is about, well, a boy called Alex who is an incredibly talented musician and is 16-years-old. Alex is a music scholar at the prestigious all boy school, Eton, and has taken on the extremely difficult task of conducting Bach's Magnificat. As if this piece wasn't difficult enough to conduct, he has an orchestra filled with 62 of Eton's finest musicians. (Mind you, that's 62 teenage boys.) The catch? Alex was born with cystic fibrosis, which is a genetically-inherited disease which is slowly destroying his digestive system and his lungs.

When I first glanced at my emails yesterday, I thought that this was just another one of those nob-enhancement projects that my poor old inbox is bombarded with every single day of the week. Then I saw the email was from Channel 4 and I knew that all was well. Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory (was a S**T title for a series) starts in March and, title aside, it looks quite interesting.

The four-part series follows Willie Harcourt-Cooze (I beg your pardon) – a man on a mission to produce the best chocolate in the world. For my money, he's got some way to go if he wants to beat the chocolate Hob Nob, but this guy wants to produce ethically-beautiful chocolate and make it fine from bean to bar. Read on for more...

Alex Roumbas from Dollymix and ShinyShiny reviews Kylie Minogue's documentary White Diamond...

White Diamond, a supposedly revealing documentary about Kylie's return to form following successful treatment for breast cancer, is part adoring homage, part meandering DVD extra. It never really succeeds in telling us anything about Kylie we didn't already know, but it's clear that Ms. Minogue definitely likes it that way.

Originally designed as, in fact, a tour DVD extra, the heaps of footage collected by Kylie's best friend and "gay husband" William Baker were eventually made into a feature length documentary. As a piece of filmmaking it's pretty bloated - lingering, worshipful, slo-mo shots and a lot of dancers in their underwear - but with some judicious editing could have been an engaging featurette about life backstage.

Instead this rather long and meandering documentary is sweet, but not particularly revealing, nor intimate.

Richard and Judy, that institution of chat, have announced that they are to quit their Channel 4 show when their contract runs out next year. I'm not actually that surprised – since they moved over to C4, their crowns of King and Queen of Daytime TV have slowly slipped over the years.

Why? People feared for This Morning when the golden couple left, but the inspired pairing of Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton have, arguably, done a better job. The Grey Fox is as smooth as Richard, but shows a bit less keeness to be 'with it' and hip, while Fern is just Fern – broadcasting gold. Then there's the rise of Paul O'Grady. His C4 show pulls in greater viewing figures, as well as showing that he's a natural in the format. So the the TV landscape has changed, Richard and Judy's perceived dominance in daytime TV was actually built on a sand platform, and they can shuffle off to present one-off book club thingies (that became more newsworthy and interesting than their show itself). So farewell Richard and Judy, we'll miss you... but not that much.

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing Britz (Channel 4, Wednesday, 9pm). It's the first of a two-parter which looks at the lives of a young brother and sister who are both British-born Muslims. That in itself isn't all that thrilling, however, they both choose incredibly different paths from each other, and that is where the drama starts.

The brother, Sohail, is a go-getting type who is university educated and desperate to immerse himself into British culture. This sees him recruited by MI5 and given the task of tracking down a terrorist cell in his native Bradford. His sister, Nasima, is a medical student who becomes increasingly alienated and angered by Britain’s foreign policy after witnessing at first hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbours and peers. These feature-length episodes close in on the events of two distinct perspectives and should provoke decent debate.

It's time for me to trawl through the listings once more in an attempt to avoid you accidentally watching guff on the gogglebox! Feel free to share your weekend picks in the comments! Have a cracking weekend y'all!

Friday - Comedy Showcase: The Eejits, Channel 4, 10.30pm

Whilst everyone goes all dippy about The Armstrong and Miller Show (BBC One, 9.30pm), those in the know are getting all excited about The Eejits. Why? The Eejits is brought to us by the funny one behind Father Ted... the genius that is Arthur Mathews. Anyone who enjoyed Hippies, or who has read Mathews incredible Well Remembered Days will be panting with excitement at the prospect of an Irish pub band by the name of E-Z Feelin who are hoping to hit the big-time when a former U2 roadie gives them some of the stars' old equipment. Expect preposterous turns of fortune, silliness and superbly smart gags. Pick of the weekend.

Read over for the rest of the weekend's shows...

Paul O'Grady has stated that he would quit his show if he found out that his viewers had been conned out of money. The king of the mid afternoon talk show claims that presenters of shows that have been found guilty of the scandalous practice should leave the programme... and to be honest, I think he has a point.

Recently Ant and Dec's shows Saturday Night Takeaway and Gameshow Marathon were revealed to have conned money from viewers, while Richard and Judy's show was named and shamed earlier this year. O'Grady declared that if it were him he would quit, telling The Sun: "If it was my show, I'd probably leave. If you were running a pub and your name was over the door and someone was selling drugs in there then you'd be liable. If your name is connected to a show but you don't know what's going on with it, you need to take more notice. I think it's good this stuff has been exposed. If it wasn't for the viewers we wouldn't be here, and if they're being ripped off then it needs to stop." Fair play to the lad!

Broadcast, the television and radio industry resource, has revealed its winners in this year’s Creative Report with TV Scoop favourite Life on Mars crowned as the most creative show in 2007. The poll, which celebrates the best in British television, covers 16 genres and is based on performance at major industry award ceremonies over the past tear, saw the buddy-cop show total 30 points, beating Planet Earth into second place with 28 points.

Interestingly Granada soap Coronation Street came in third, helping the production company win its category with 76 points. Other shows from its impressive stable included The Street, Longford, The Royle Family: The Queen of Sheba and Granada Reports: Morecambe Bay. Talkback Thames took silver in this group, based on well-received offerings such as The Apprentice, The X Factor and Green Wing.

I've got to level with you here. 9 times out of 10, Gordon Ramsay makes me want to kick the screen off my TV. He's so knowingly loathsome that I often wonder if he is only able to reach arousal by screaming obscenities in people's ears (that line of thinking led me to thinking about setting up a brothel full of deaf prostitutes...). That said, I can't help my liking of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Channel 4, Tuesday, 9pm) which starts a new series next week.

Ramsay, when faced with an ailing business, manages to mix some heart in with his usual chest beating nonsense, and Tuesday, we find the craggiest face on TV at a Brighton oyster joint call Ruby Tates. Naturally, Ruby Tates is... to put it bluntly... pissing pennies. As you'd expect, we find idle staff, awful food and an owner in denial. Ramsay manages to avoid his constant stream of scorn to become something close to nice. That in itself is worth tuning in for surely?