It's only Monday, but it's already a great week for Hugh Laurie. The dense and stylish US hospital drama House has finally overtaken rubbishy insulting con-trick Lost and is now The Most Popular TV show in the World - really, it's in the Guinness Book of Records and everything. Dedication, that's what you need. In other, not unrelated news, Hugh Laurie has had a bump-up and is now on £225K an episode - making him one of the highest paid actors on telly. We think he's worth it. Clip of Hugh in less acerbic days over the jump...

Are female TV news presenters so entirely bored and underwhelmed by their duties reading the stuff that they’re trying to hit the headlines themselves? So you might think after Fiona Bruce and Emily Maitlis created headlines after vamping it up with their suggestive short skirts and lewd leg-crossing and now, not to be outdone, Sky News presenter Julie Etchingham has caused her own mini-story. Soon to swap Sky for a spot next to Sir Trevor McDonald on the returning News at Ten, Julie's onscreen aside to the camera during a speech by Conservative Party leader David Cameron has had the station apologising.

Discussing his party’s new policy to control immigration, Cameron said: "Let me outline the action that a Conservative government would take. As we have seen, some of the increase in population size results from natural change - birth rates, death rates. Here our policy should be obvious... " Etchingham promptly finished his sentence for him, musing “extermination.” This comment has already prompted a response from Sky News, who were quick to issue the following apology: "A comment was made in the studio during David Cameron's speech that was broadcast in error. The comment was not intended for broadcast. The off-the-cuff remark was regrettable.” Not to worry too much though Sky News, she’ll soon be ITV’s problem.

[via Broadcast Now]

Inside the Actors Studio might not be a big show here in the UK, what with it being hidden away on the Performance channel, but in the USA the programme that features a one-on-one chat with an actor about their ‘craft’ has been a artsy favourite since 1994. The show’s host, James Lipton (famously spoofed by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live), who along with being a writer and poet is dean emeritus of New York City’s Actors Studio Drama School, might look like a genial old fella, but now in his autobiography, Inside Inside, the 81-year-old has come clean about his less than savoury past as a pimp for French prostitutes.

He says "This was when I was very, very young, living in Paris, penniless, unable to get any kind of working permit... I had a friend who worked in what is called the Milieu, which is that world and she suggested to me one night, `Look, you'll be my meck... We would translate it perhaps... as pimp. "We were earning our living together, this young woman and I, we made a rather good living, I must say. I had to accompany my clientele to the Rue Pigalle, which is where these things occurred. And then I'd take them up to the room and I had to remain there because they were very nervous, they were young Americans for the most part... and they didn't speak French." Excuses, excuses.

[via Contact Music]

Here at Scoop towers we all felt a bit sicky and had to go have a lie down when Jodie Marsh announced her hunt for a husband through a reality TV show. Props for originality, but heavy scorn and loud tutting for concocting such a cheap publicity stunt. Jodie has since married fellow glamour model and arch-rival Jordan’s ex, Matt Peacock, after meeting on the show, Totally Jodie Marsh: Who’ll Take Her Up The Aisle? And now claims to see the error of her ways.

Talking on Wedding TV’s Celebrity Brides Unveiled (that ratings winner), Jodie confessed: "It's this weird feeling, cos looking back on it I hated the TV show. I hated doing everything on camera. It wasn’t normal, it was vile. But at the same time, I wouldn’t have met Matt, so in way I’m grateful to it, cos I got the most amazing husband in the world." I suspect this is the moment when we’re supposed to give the couple our seal of approval and pat them both on the back, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Why does she deserve any credit for learning what we all knew and would she be so ‘open’ if she hadn’t found some poor sucker to marry her? I give it six months.

[via Digital Spy]

The second of Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" yarns to be transferred to the silver screen, and the sequel to Patriot Games, required the services of three of Hollywood's finest screenwriters to shoe-horn the bulging plot into 141 minutes of pure cinematic joy. Simply put, there isn't a boring scene in the entire movie.

Amazingly only Oscar nominated for its sound (both soundtrack and effects), Harrison Ford is on top form as he reprises his role as CIA agent Jack Ryan (here promoted to Deputy Director) and is ably supported by Willem Dafoe and Anne Archer.

After the rather low-key affair that was the National Movie Awards, it's good to get back to what is often a genuinely interesting and entertaining evening, with the National Television Awards. The long-list came out way back in the summer, but now voting has gone live for the shortlists.

Well, you know that we TVScoopers aren't short of an opinion or two, so if you pop over the cut you'll see all the nominated shows, presenters and actors and who we're backing to win. Yes, we might just be supporting Life On Mars...

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)?

Virgin 1 launched last night with a debut that is being described as ‘solid, if unspectacular’. Its big name show, the Eddie Izzard/Minnie Driver starrer The Riches earned 323,000 viewers in its 10pm slot with a multi-channel share of 2.5%. Over the course of the programme, the numbers dipped, but the hit US comedy/drama scored some extra viewers with the time-shifted channel Virgin +1. The Riches had some stiff competition from Eastenders on BBC3 and Prison Break on Sky One, yet still fared better than the opening show Criminal Minds at 9pm with just over 250,000 viewers.

I was one of those 323,000 that tuned in for The Riches, and though it was darker and grittier than I had come to believe it would be, the chemistry between the leads was strong, the premise was novel with seemingly infinite possibilities and the characters were engaging and sympathetic. The issue of class on American TV is often skirted over and rarely examined in ugly close-up, and this show, like My Name is Earl could be a diverting exercise in examining another type of lifestyle. I’ll be tuning in again and hope that unlike other new US imports such as Dirt, that The Riches can sustain its early promise.

[via Broadcast Now]

For 31 years, Jackanory offered us great yarns told by familiar faces and was as much a must-see as Magic Roundabout. In later years, it transferred to CBeebies and later became Jackanory Junior, but it has always been one of those lovely familiar programmes that is just as much fun for grown-ups to watch along with their kids as it is for the kids to watch by themselves. So whether or not you have kids of your own, or you just didn't grow up yourself, you'll be pleased to hear that Jackanory Junior is coming back next year as part of the Beeb's digital brand for younger viewers.

With a great line-up of famous people to do the reading for us, the show also has a touch of the 21st century about it with some added animations to spur the imagination. Even though the new show has that modern edge, the Beeb reckon they've managed to retain the charm and appeal of the original. Just like always with Jackanory, we'll have to "wait until tomorrow" to find out whether that's true. Click through to find out who will be doing the reading.

Where to start with a season review of Dexter? The impressive writing? The fantastic acting? The brilliant location work? I could go on and on. Dexter should be the blueprint for all other debuting shows. It devoted the pilot episode to a meticulous and thorough introduction of our central character, giving only scant details on the supporting cast and it was this commitment to the audience's understanding and familiarity of Dexter Morgan that guaranteed our undivided attention for all subsequent plotting.

Once we had come to appreciate the complexities of his serial-killing (he only offs those who 'deserve it' - a move that in itself defies most of television's moral conventions), he could push the boundaries of what we could accept. I practically willed him to murder girlfriend Rita's nasty ex-husband Paul. Imagine that, a nice girl like me. That's the magic of Dexter.

Director Robert Altman and screenwriter Michael Tolkin, both of whom were Oscar-nominated for The Player, manage to create a film that works as a simple detective story but on another level is a pitch-perfect satire on the entire movie industry which will appeal to film buffs for both the accurate skewering of much of Hollywood's superinflated opinion of itself and for the number of cameos they manage to cram into 145 minutes.

Have fun too, trying to recognise the real movies hidden behind the spoof pitches that star Tim Robbins has to field. With excellent support from Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward and Whoopi Goldberg to name but three, this movie will appeal to anyone looking for a good yarn with a few laughs thrown in.

Having sat glued to my television from 10pm to 11pm every Sunday night for the past eleven weeks I have come to love Dexter. The darkly comic, macabre drama is the Tesco of TV - it has everything you could ever want. But alas no - for this Sunday's episode is to be the last in the current series. I've known this day was coming for a while and yet still as the hours tick away, my emotions continue to taunt me (much like the Ice Truck Killer does Dexter - ho ho.) I'm looking forward to the promised epic finale and the big reveal, but conversely I can't bear the idea that it will end and abandon me. What will I do without it?

Of course, I'm exaggerating for comic emphasis, my life isn't so woefully bleak and empty that I rely on an hour's entertainment to give it meaning. It's just that I hadn't expected to like it as much as I do. It feels like a whirlwind romance, much like love at first sight. I didn't know such an overwhelming attraction could be fashioned so early in one's viewing - now I know better. Dexter is my new TV crush and I hate preparing to say goodbye.

Spoilt for choice this week with a plethora of excellent movies to choose from. I've plumped for a bit of fluff, not only to prove that I'm not an out-and-out sci-fi/western/horror/kevin spacey (yes there's one of his available for the picking too, as usual) freak but also to give my feminine side an airing. Oooer missus.

Strictly Ballroom is one of a crop of excellent Ozzie movies in a similar mould (Muriel's Wedding followed two years later, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert also comes to mind), but for many it sits on top of the pile. Written and directed by Baz Luhrmann this film could so easily be formulaic, with its rebel ballroom dancer and its novice dancer who blossoms under his tutelage, but it is so engaging and laugh-a-minute funny you can't help but be sucked in.

I might be a bit late, but it is still International Talk Like A Pirate Day somewhere in the world (it's only 3pm in Toronto!) so here we go with the top five pirates on TV, me hearties! Now normally here on the good ship Jolly Scooper we like to do things by tens (especially lashes you scurvy mongrels so pay attention when I'm talking to ye!) but when I say "TV pirates," I'm not talkin' footage of the Pittsburgh Pirates, or dramatisations of the Pirates of Penzance. I don't mean those black-hearted Space Pirates (the ones from the 1969 Doctor Who story, or the Orions from the original Star Trek series) either so don't be takin' the mick or I'll keelhaul the lot of ye by Garrrrd!

So, to see the kind of TV pirate I'm a-meanin' walk the plank with me across the cut and I'll show you me buried treasure, Jim lad.

Good news for those who thought they might have to rely on an expensive subscription service (like Sky) to get their eyes on HD programming. A report from media regulator Ofcom concluded yesterday that "BBC HD" - Auntie's proposed high definition TV channel - won't have any significant negative market impact.

It's not all good news though. BBC Trust have been conducting their own assessment and are questioning the value of BBC HD for licence fee payers, owing to the limited late-night programming that would be the only thing on offer via the digital terrestrial TV service Freeview in advance of the launch of Freesat.

I got all excited when I saw adverts for the Eddie Izzard/ Minnie Driver comedy The Riches on telly t’other day. What I had forgotten was that the show will only be available on Virgin 1 – meaning folks with Sky subscriptions (like me) won’t get a look-in. Boo hiss. Virgin 1, the new general entertainment channel from Virgin Media TV will launch on October 1 and is already promising lots of sweet-smelling goodies to all those lucky folks who can receive it.

As well as The Riches, Virgin 1 will also screen The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the Star Trek franchise, Crime Invasion: Britain's New Underworld and The Great British Penis: Penis Envy. While some of these might sound more appealing than others, the channel will hope to compete with rival Sky One as the numero uno of non-terrestrial TV. Let the gloves come off!

[via Broadcast Now]

Sometimes love is a waiting game. You either wait to snare the heart of your affections, or, in some cases, you've already found love and you want to hang onto your virginity until you're wed. Some people just have to wait because they have frightening faces. No matter. We're looking at those who are waiting for some of that pure sex because last night, I watched Engaged and Underage (TMF, Monday 10.30pm).

Basically, this MTV produced show is a reality series following a young couple during the last weeks of their pre-nuptials. I (it's not out of the realms of my imagination to assume that I was the sole viewer for this show) got to follow David and Lauren; a pair of Christian virgins saving themselves for marriage. However, huge rain clouds of problems hang over this couple.