Tuesday 28 October 2008

TV

Argumental
1x01 (27/10/08 edition)
It seems Dave do original programming now, and this is an unsurprising choice for them: it's a panel show, the sort of programme Dave shows on never-ending loops (along with Top Gear, of course). Luckily it's a brilliant one, more than deserving of being on a real channel. This edition includes a particularly good joke about The X-Factor that receives an entirely warranted standing ovation. Make sure to catch it if you can.

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
15x08 (24/10/08 edition)
Daniel Craig! Hurrah! Despite his occasional flaws (fawning; poor jokes), I like Jonathan Ross.

Spooks
6x09 Isolated
The sheer volume of slow-mo used this season makes me wonder if every script ran under. This episode is one of the worst.

Films

My Quantum of Solace Film Season #3:
Hitman (2007)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
This may or may not be the "unrated edition" -- the file says it is -- but I can't find any details on what the differences are, so I don't imagine they can be significant.

My Quantum of Solace Film Season #4:
St Trinian's (2007)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapter 7 (pages 154-180)
Chapter 8 (pages 181-189)

Magazines

Radio Times 1-7 November 2008
Investigations into who the Stig really is (Top Gear's back, you see), among other things. Well obviously -- there's a whole magazine to fill -- but I've forgotten it all. Ho hum.

SFX #176
Doctor Who is 45 (in four weeks), so SFX have celebrated with a great big feature in this ten-covered issue. Highlights include Russell T Davies having a natter about The Next Doctor (and giving away nothing new) and Stephen Fry -- "the Greatest Living Englishman" -- talking about the joy of An Unearthly Child's first broadcast. Elsewhere this issue, there's some other interesting stuff, but I've forgotten it all. Ho hum.

Articles

Battlefield - DVD by Steve Roberts
(from Doctor Who Restoration Team Website)
Two discs! Hurrah! "For the story's DVD debut, we decided to follow the successful Curse of Fenric model, presenting the story-as-transmitted on one disc and a movie-format extended edit with revised video effects and 5.1 audio on a second disc." The extras don't look as numerous as Fenric's, suggesting the second disc was added solely for the movie edit, but there's nothing to complain about in what's included.
Incidentally, this release completes Season 26 on DVD -- how long til we get a box set? Davros-style (i.e. repackaging releases with new extras) or Bred For War-style (i.e. just repackaging releases)? As I own them all already, I seriously hope for the latter.

See also the Jonathan Ross / Russell Brand / Andrew Sachs palava.

the Jonathan Ross / Russell Brand / Andrew Sachs palava

Ofcom to launch BBC Brand inquiry
(from BBC News)

This story's been dominating the news today, for no good reason really. ITV are taking extra delight in lambasting the BBC -- as they always do -- especially on their always-dreadful sensationalist news programmes (God Alastair Stewart's dreadful, isn't he?) Interestingly, a lot of the focus -- from ITV's perspective -- seems to fall on Jonathan Ross, even though it seems it was Russell Brand who did most of it. What's the betting ITV are just trying to force Wossy out of the BBC so they can sign him themselves?

I also hold no stock by the thousands of complaints made, most of them after the story became big news. None of these people listened to the show originally; none of them are its intended audience. If it hadn't been picked up by the media in this way they would never have known, they would never have cared, they would never have complained. Really, what right do they have to do it now? If Brand were fired, he would be replaced by someone targeted at a similar audience demographic... and all these people who forced his removal wouldn't listen to the new guy and still wouldn't care.

Incidentally, I sincerely hope Andrew Sachs -- clearly the wronged party, and deserving of an apology -- is in no way involved in all this fuss, and that it's a lot of people being misguidedly incensed on his behalf. Should he wind up backing the complainers, suing Brand/Ross, or generally overreacting in any other way, he'll quickly lose my sympathy.