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 who haven’t got access to Sky aren’t going to be too happy with our next piece of news….
We’re really sorry to tell all those fans that Glee’ is set to move to Sky.
The first two series of the US musical TV show have been aired on E4 but Sky has now poached the rights to the third season after a fierce battle between the two networks.
Sky have agreed to pay a reported £12 million for the rights, which works out at nearly £500,000 an episode.
While it is not yet known what will happen in the third series of ‘Glee’ – which stars Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Jane Lynch and Dianna Agron – it was recently revealed Matthew will perform one of his own songs in the season two finale.
The actor – who plays teacher Will Schuester in the musical TV show – is set to sing ‘Still Got Tonight’, the single from his debut self-titled album, in the New York-themed episode.
The ballad, which was co-written by former ‘American Idol’ winner Kris Allen, will be played by Matthew alone on an empty theatre stage.
He said: “It was going to be just a big dance piece with me doing this big dance number. But they said, ‘We want you to sing it and make it a big moment.’ “
Skins co-creator Jamie Brittain has quit the show after ratings fell by nearly a half.
The future of the E4 drama is said to be in doubt now that the screenwriter – who in 2007 helped launched the controversial show which follows the trials and tribulations of different groups of adolescents – has stepped aside to make way for new talent.
Confirming his departure, Jamie said: “I’ve just said everything I want to say. It’s time for new writers to come forward and portray their truth about teenagers.”
However, the writer has insisted he still has faith in the show, saying its sixth series – which was commissioned at the same time as the fifth and will be screened next year – will be “amazing”.
Jamie also claimed he will still be involved with the programme, which this year ended with just over 600,000 viewers compared to series four’s combined E4 and E4+1 figure of 1.1 million.
He wrote on his twitter page: “Thanks for all the lovely messages. It’s true, I am leaving Skins. Sad to go, but don’t worry, it’s in very good hands.
“Not abandoning it. it’s just time for me to go. Don’t worry, it’ll be great.”
Fans have voiced concerns that the latest series, starring Dakota Blue Richards as Franky, Alexander Arnold as Rich, and Laya Lewis as Liv, did not live up to past storylines.
A source said: “It doesn’t look like there’s much life in Skins any more.”
Dizzee Rascal is being targeted to star in his own sitcom.
Damon Beesley and Iain Morris – who created E4 teen comedy series ‘The Inbetweeners’ – have held a string of meetings with the ‘Bonkers’ hitmaker, as they believe his life would make the perfect framework for a new show, with the rapper said to be keen to play himself.
A source told The Sun newspaper: “Damon and Iain like the idea of making a funny show about a rapper.
“Urban artists are usually portrayed in negative or bleak circumstances but they want to do something different.
“Dizzee is a big personality with loads of charisma and the writers think he would be the ideal subject for the show. It’s just a question of whether or not he has the acting ability to pull it off.”
Dizzee – real name Dylan Mills – has made no secret of his ambitions to move into acting and has previously said he would love to be the first black James Bond.
After topping a poll which asked who should be the first black star to portray the iconic British spy, Dizzee said: “I beat Will Smith and Jay Z. The people voted for me so I’m up for it.
“There would be a lot more swag and there would be probably be a lot more swearing and a lot more f***ing. Apart from that, I’d leave everything else the same. I might have to drive a Bugatti too. Bond has good cars.”
It’s the show that’s taking over people’s Facebook and Twitter status’. That’s right we’re talking about E4′s Tool Academy. If you’re not someone who’s watched this programme then we have to say you’re missing out. Yes it’s silly, yes it shows guys, and the girls who stick by them, in a bad light, but it’s hilarious. Even more so is the fact that the presenter is the biggest “tool” of the lot of them.
So what exactly is Tool Academy? To put it simply it’s the British version of a similar US reality show, which sees a group of lads, or “shitty boyfriends” as their girlfriends call them, tricked into attending a school, which helps them deal with their anger, laddish ways, flirting and overall behaviour. Why the girls decide to stay with them and show off this fact on national TV is beyond us, but it seems they are glutton for punishment.
Each guy has a nickname. There’s Temper Tool, Twinkle Tool and Randy Tool to name a few, and each one lives up to his name. Especially Randy Tool, who in the first episode, which took place last week, got a bit naughty with a girl he met in a bar.
In this week’s lie detector test, he failed to participate telling his loved one he had “nothing to hide.” Next week however, all is revealed. Then there’s Temper Tool who threw a hissy fit last week, continued to this week and then walked out dragging his “gal” with him.
Each week the couples take part in challenges and therapy sessions, which are again hilarious, and result in one member, who hasn’t showed improvement, being evicted by a presenter, which is the biggest tool of them all.
And the price for making a fool of themselves on TV? The last one standing gets £25,000, presumably they’ll spend this on a lads holiday or head down the betting shop, much to the chagrin of their girlfriends, who will whinge before forgiving them.
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.
Finally – finally! – Gilmore Girls is to be shown on a channel people actually watch. Originally tucked away on the Hallmark Channel (um, where?), E4 will begin showing the first series this very morning. The pilot episode is on at 8.50am and repeated at 11.35am and new episodes will be shown each weekday morning.
I’ve found Reaper to be an easy-to-watch, relatively entertaining show, but one that didn’t quite live up to its early promise. But signs were that in this, the season finale, questions would be answered and it would all come together satisfyingly. Did it?
Well … no. See up until now we’d thought that Sam’s parents sold the soul of their first born child to the devil in order to cure his father of an illness. Believing they couldn’t (or wouldn’t, I forget) have kids, the fools thought they were safe. But recently, we’ve learned – via a demon – that, in fact, Sam may actually be the son of Satan. Which would kind of explain a lot.
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!
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.
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.
Hollywood seems to love the graphic horror genre known as ‘gore porn’ or more succinctly, ‘gorn’ at the moment. With endless movies featuring gruesome torture and murder (see the Saw movies – or if you have any sense – don’t) littering cinemas, Christopher Moltisanti is clearly on to a winner with his new mafia/ slasher flick Cleaver. Having been his pet project for a while now, Tony’s protégé finally got to unveil his work at the film’s premiere.
Carmela was upset with what she saw onscreen: a chubby mob boss with a taste for white bathrobes and ordering his crew from his basement. Mmm – sound like Tony? Her mood worsened when the cinematic Tony, as played by Daniel Baldwin in the absence of Sir Ben Kingsley, got it on with his minion’s fiancé. Was this scene a direct reference to Tony and Adriana? Carmela certainly thought so, and her suspicions were further aroused when the boss was killed by his subordinate, depicting what she labelled Chris’s ‘revenge fantasy.’
In my younger years, Sunday evenings were all about packing your bag for school the next day and having a bath. Now thankfully with no school bag to pack and without my parents to nag me to wash behind my ears, Sunday evenings have come to adopt an entirely new meaning: that of great TV. Dexter on FX, Weeds on Sky One and last night came the cherry on top – the first of the final nine episodes of The Sopranos on E4.
Last night’s instalment took us back to 2004 and the season five finale when a meeting between Tony and Johnny Sack was interrupted by the Feds. Oblivious to the police assault, Johnny Sack was arrested but Tony made a run for it, discarding his gun in the snow in the process. This fateful fire-arm was found by a local teenage boy who back in the present day has blabbed to police authorities on the gun’s origins. With some potential dirt on Tony, the Essex County authorities came knocking rather loudly on his door before cuffing him and taking him back to the station. But where were the FBI and will this long-forgotten act be enough to take down the great Tony Soprano?
Skins: Series 6 promises high drama 
From:Set The Video: NASA: Triumph and Tragedy, BBC Two, Wednesday, 24 June, 9pm