Radio Times

Ah, summer. British men baring their bellies, oppressive heat on public transport and flash floods. But no amount of sandbags at the door can stop the onslaught of Big Brother and all its bast*rd offspring as they arrive to pay an unwanted three-month visit. Yes, it's the time of year when the press vents its spleen about previously unknown people saying vaguely racist things; there's nothing that suits the season better than finding a fresh bikini-clad pariah. In fact, the only person who must be looking forward to the new series is Gordon Brown - at least he'll get a break from red-top vilification.

This year, the producers...

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Joss Whedon gave the world Buffy and Angel - and viewers took them to their hearts. He also gave the world Firefly - and viewers didn't care so much.

It's hard to see where Whedon went wrong in creating a series based around two former soldiers, who fought on the losing side of a bitter war, now trying to eke out an existence in a harsh universe. The writers told tight, exciting stories. The cast made light work of drawling cowboy dialogue that, though it used far more words than by rights a sentence ought to, sounded somehow ineffably casual and laid-back.

Other sci-fi...

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Whenever Sex and the City comes under attack for being silly and shallow, there's a female columnist ready to leap to its defence and list its feminist credentials. But the whole point of SATC is its shameless fascination with the things that make so many women tick - fashion, relationships and gossip - delivered with brilliant comic irony. SATC fans don't need a lecture in female morality and the evils of consumerism. Virtually every joke in the show points up the absurdity of lusting after designer shoes or dating totally inappropriate men. But in doing so it's also mischievously hinting "who cares?".

The alleged raison...

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You've heard of Wags. Now meet the Bags. The Beauties and Geeks in this show are a curious species who coexist in an alternate CCTV-laden universe to compete for a pot of dollars.

Each intellectually challenged beauty is paired with a gormless geek to complete weekly tasks that play to each other's strengths and weaknesses. One couple is turfed out of the house each week; one duo wins at the end.

Sounds simple enough. But if the assembled Bags were on an Everest climb to improvement they would be at least five weeks away from base camp. Thankfully they have a whole series to change, so...

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I called it on River Song, you can't say I didn't. True, writer Steven Moffat thought of it, wrote the script, and in part one pointed us very firmly toward a type of tragedy the show has never done before. But I guessed.

I reached this conclusion after a cascade of deducing, which you were probably doing too, especially if you happened to have studied the extended trailer that ran on Eurovision night and has zoomed around YouTube since.

But even if you'd worked out what would happen to her, there was still plenty to keep you guessing in Forest of the Dead. You suspected Rose...

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They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the movies it's parody rather than imitation that counts. You know your film has entered the wider public consciousness when someone is prepared to invest manpower and money in taking the Michael out of it.

For me, timing is everything, and not just in terms of the jokes. The self-explanatory Superhero Movie, now in cinemas, parodies Spider-Man, an ongoing franchise, as well as other comic-book staples, and strikes me as opportunistic.

Team America: World Police, an exquisitely executed and scurrilous send-up of the string-puppet likes of Thunderbirds from the...

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RT's Paul Jones shares his initial thoughts on the new BB housemates…

23-year-old mother Alexandra gives herself 10 out of 10 for looks but tells us "I am not an It Girl". No, love, we know, you're from Croydon. Alexandra's worst habit is picking her spots. Her name means "great leader", apparently (not "great picker of spots"), and that's what Alexandra expects to be in the house. She says she's not very pleasant to live with, though, which will be exactly why they chose her to be on Big Brother.

Dale, 21, from Liverpool, is a part-time DJ. Who isn't a part-time DJ these days? He's...

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Trips to Marrakesh, hot-air balloon rides and teas at the Ritz have detracted somewhat from Sir Alan's claim that The Apprentice is "the job interview from hell". But this week it was exactly that. The candidates faced gruelling one-to-ones with four of Sir Alan's business colleagues - each with their own special powers. They were introduced, respectively, as "no-nonsense", "ruthless", "a stickler for detail" and "a woman".

The Final Five (for Battlestar Galactica fans, that's candidates, not Cylons) were apparently in for a severe "probing", so no wonder Lee was worried about the fate of his rear end.

In the past, Lee's "arse" has been...

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I always get the feeling that Heroes is watched by people - and by people I mean 13-year-olds - who think it's great drama. But of course, 13-year-olds wouldn't know great drama if it knocked on their doors and introduced itself.

Heroes (Thursdays, 9:00pm, BBC2) is tosh. Effortlessly dull tosh at that, packed with ludicrous portent and mind-bendingly dreary characters. The whole thing is so uninvolving it's impossible to care who's doing what, and why. Save the world/don't save the world. Am I bothered?

The first series was bad, but the second is even worse, grinding along week after week, spewing out interminable nonsense and...

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