TV

Doctor Who [new]
4x17 The End of Time Part One [Christmas special]
Well, that was a little disappointing. For every moment of brilliance -- the Doctor/Wilf scene in the cafe, the Master in numerous humourous outfits at the climax -- there were several of utterly fan-centric public-excluding science-fiction/fantasy-overloaded groaningness -- the Master's technobabble-stuffed resurrection, the unusually slow pace, the po-faced narration.
It was an episode of two halves, then... just two halves that occurred concurrently, flicking back and forth between the two. Fingers crossed Part Two can pull off a better goodbye for the Tenth Doctor.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gavin & Stacey
3x05 Episode 5
Here's a new way to create a Christmas special: just show an ordinary episode of the series. It's a very good one mind.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
5x05 (24/12/09 edition)
Gina Yashere's been living and working in the States... and you can tell. It's her pacing, repetition, the way she addresses the audiences -- stylistically it feels slightly more American stand-up than British stand-up. At least she was quite funny, though I preferred Ed Byrne's and Adam Hills' routines.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
7x04 Geography (extended repeat)
Why have they suddenly reintroduced QI XL halfway through this series? Not that I'm complaining really, but it is a tad odd. Though, once again, they're not bothering to put it on iPlayer. Sometimes the BBC really let themselves down.
[Watch the shorter version (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
Christmas Special 2009
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

TV REVIEW Doctor Who "The End Of Time" Part One by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Like most reviews around the web this afternoon, it's packed with praise... though does note some of the flaws, if not all the ones I regarded as such.

TV

Is anything not a special or finale?

Have I Got News For You
38x09 (18/12/09 edition; uncut repeat) [season finale]
Also, Christmas special.
[Watch the short edition (again) on iPlayer.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
1x07 Best Of [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
23x13 Where Are They Now? [season finale]
Very little new material, but the best bits of this series were good, and outtakes are always nice. Well, these ones were.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
3x08 Absent Father Christmas [Christmas special]
Goodbye, Not Going Out. At least it went with a funny episode.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Victoria Wood's Midlife Christmas
Apt title, which is nice. Very funny also. And, unlike most comedy shows, every last word was written by Victoria Wood herself. Super.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Victoria Wood: Seen On TV
Feature-length documentary shown earlier this week as part of Victoria Wood Night on BBC Two. Interesting and, courtesy of lots of classic clips, very funny.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

...No.

Articles

Press Notes by Marcus
(from Doctor Who News Page)

[Russell T] Davies has caused controversy by voicing his concerns about the future of the BBC, should The Conservative Party win the 2010 General Election. Davies told The Mirror he fears the BBC will be dismantled by the Tories and is convinced that a move to freeze the licence fee by the Conservatives will be the beginning of the end for the corporation. "They'll dismantle it slowly. It'll get smaller and smaller until it just supports Radio 4 and some news. I'll come back and fight them at the barricades. I feel a bit like Alan Bennett, who said his favourite things about Britain were the BBC and the NHS." Davies's remarks were picked up by many UK papers, but not it seems in Conservative Central office. When journalist Ian Dale rang their press office for a statement he was told they wouldn't comment on it, because "Mr Davies is a backbench MP and, as such, his opinion isn't necessarily party policy".

Articles

Swedish Christmas straw goat burnt
(from BBC News)
"A giant straw goat - the traditional Scandinavian yuletide symbol - erected each Christmas in a Swedish town has been burned to the ground yet again."

TV

The Funny Side of...
Episode 6 Christmas
'Funny' in quite a loose way, unfortunately.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

James May's Toy Stories
1x05 Lego
1x04 Scalextric
Welcome daily repeat run for this series (bookended by new episodes) as I missed it first time round. Why they're repeating it so thoroughly out of order, though, is anyone's guess.
[Watch Lego and Scalextric (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
2x12 The Fires of Idirsholas
2x13 The Last Dragonlord [season finale]
[Watch The Fires of Idirsholas and The Last Dragonlord (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
7x13 Christmas [special]
Said so.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x04 (23/10/08 edition) [2nd watch]
22x01 (2/10/08 edition) [2nd watch]
Today's Christmas-present-wrapping repeat-viewing provided by Dave.

Articles

The Joke’s On Who 2 by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
"By some systems of counting Planet Of The Dead could be considered Doctor Who’s 200th story (if you count Shada, for example, and The Trial Of A Time Lord as four separate stories)"
Well this is a thorough "oops" moment for a sci-fi mag -- the exact opposite is true (you have to not count it & count them as one to make it #200). Interesting list otherwise though. (Part 1 is here, incidentally.)

TV

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
17x15 (18/12/09 edition) [season finale; 1st half]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gavin & Stacey
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
5x03 (18/12/09 edition)
5x04 (19/12/09 edition)
[Watch episode 3 and episode 4 (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
2x11 The Witch's Quickening
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
8x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Cameron 'has story for Avatar sequels' by Simon Reynolds
and
Cameron: 'Avatar follow-up not prequel' by Hugh Armitage
(from Digital Spy)
"I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now"
Oh.