BLOGS
UKTV History broadcasting hours
- Posted at 1:45pm
- 30 August 2008
- by DoctorDigital-RT
Q Why does UKTV History end at 6:00pm on Freeview?
Bernard Hope, Sunderland
A Before last October, when some Freeview channels changed, UKTV History broadcast all day, and UKTV Bright Ideas finished at 6:00pm. But when new Freeview channel Dave launched, it took UKTV History's slot, UKTV History took UKTV Bright Ideas' limited slot, and UKTV Bright Ideas ceased to be. So why does any channel have to stop at 6:00pm? On Freeview, apparently separate channels can share the same airspace, broadcasting at different times. The bandwidth that carries UKTV History during the day now carries Virgin 1 from 6:00pm.
**
Do you have a question for Doctor...
Early Freeview boxes become obsolete
- Posted at 12:02pm
- 30 August 2008
- by DoctorDigital-RT
- 4 comments
Q Could you explain why thousands of set-top boxes are apparently no longer able to receive digital signals?
Brian Collins, Yeovil
A A number of Freeview boxes did stop working recently. Over to a Freeview spokesperson for the details: "It's a consequence of technology evolving. In 2002, when Freeview launched, there were around 30 TV channels. Since then, DMOL , the company that manages technical changes to the Freeview platform, has made enhancements to the infrastructure, and Freeview now offers up to 48 TV channels plus digital radio and red button features.
"As a result, some early digital boxes (made before the "digital tick" was introduced)...
Mutual Friends
- Posted at 12:25pm
- 29 August 2008
- by AlisonGraham-RT
- 11 comments
I've spoken to quite a few people, friends and colleagues, about Mutual Friends (BBC1, 9:00pm, Tuesdays). Not that there's anything particularly odd about this, as of course we talk about telly most of the time. But what has marked out my Mutual Friends conversations is that none of them has been instigated by me. Rather, people have sought me out to ask if a) I'd watched it and b) whether I'd enjoyed it before letting me in on their thoughts.
For the record, I think Mutual Friends is a strange mixture - it's not quite a drama, but then it's not quite a comedy either and in...
The Olympics bus parade
- Posted at 11:34am
- 29 August 2008
- by AlisonGraham-RT
- 19 comments
I knew I'd seen enough when I fell off the sofa. But that's the trouble when you're rigid with horror - your muscles just won't react as you see the floor looming up to meet you.
Once I'd dusted myself off, I returned to the Olympics 2008: Closing Ceremony (24 August, BBC1). The ceremony wasn't awful - not the Chinese part anyway, which was mellifluous, colourful, wonderfully choreographed and just generally gorgeous. Who could fail not to be captured by the brilliance of that tower, with its tumbling acrobats? No, it was the British bit, our eight precious minutes in front of a global television audience of billions, that...
Big Brother: week 12
- Posted at 5:11pm
- 28 August 2008
- by PaulJones-RT
- 6 comments
Darnell, Darnell, Darnell. What were you thinking? You were my favourite housemate for a long time. And then, after you started flying off the handle at every little thing, you were still one of my favourite housemates. And then, even when you went power mad as head of house, I found ways to defend you. But now…well, now you've really blown it, dude.
You've blown any chance you had of winning that 100 grand you've become so obsessed with, but most of all you've lost the chance for the thing you really, really crave - respect.
Darnell, man! Your theme tune should be Just...
See the new Strictly hopefuls
- Posted at 3:50pm
- 28 August 2008
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
- 5 comments
Strictly Come Dancing is back, it's bigger and it's longer: the new sixth series is to get an extended run and will feature 16 celebrities. See them all right now as they film Strictly's famous sparkling title sequence.
"The show is bigger than ever with 16 contestants," says host Bruce Forsyth. "It's going to need stamina as well as style to become this year's champion. I've got a sixth sense about the sixth series: the winner will be a man...or a woman!"
The women in this year's series include S Club 7's Rachel Stevens, who has landed herself the ever-modest Vincent Simone as her dance teacher. Model...
Life Lessons
- Posted at 1:20pm
- 28 August 2008
- by AndrewCollins-RT
For me it was Mr Gilbert and Mrs Elderkin, who taught English at Weston Favell Upper School and who, between them, helped demystify the works of Hardy, Shakespeare and Dickens. But I mean no disrespect to either when I say that the Hollywood studios would hastily reject their tutelage of the future Radio Times film editor as a Hollywood pitch.
To cut it as a mentor figure in the movies you have to be uncompromising, or reclusive, or wild, or enigmatic, or - in the very specific case of Ryan Gosling's eighth-grade teacher in the excellent Half Nelson - hooked on crack.
Gosling's Mr...
TV at the movies survey
- Posted at 9:13pm
- 24 August 2008
- by HelenHackworthy-RT
- 19 comments
With Sex and the City and The X-Files recently having enjoyed big-screen outings, we asked you which TV series you think has made the best transition to the cinema, and which other show you'd most like to see follow it.
Over 2,200 of you gave us your opinion during August, voting Star Trek as the greatest TV-to-movie success.
The new series of Doctor Who was the show you said you'd most like to see at a cinema near you - and following the release of our survey results, the show's new executive producer Stephen Moffat said he would not be averse to a big-screen version.
Freeview channel number changes
- Posted at 11:15am
- 23 August 2008
- by DoctorDigital-RT
- 5 comments
Q RT lists More4 as Freeview channel 14, when in fact it's Freeview 13; and E4 as Freeview 29 (rather than 14). I don't know how many other channels are given the wrong Freeview number…
Pilar Lizana, via email
A With apologies to readers who have seen this query answered in Radio Times before: the channel numbers on our listings pages are correct! But sometimes, if a channel's Freeview number changes (as Channel 4's digital channels did last year), your digibox might not register it and will keep displaying the old numbers.
To put it right you need to retune your box. How to do this varies...
The Best...sketch comedians
- Posted at 3:25pm
- 22 August 2008
- by RhodriMarsden-RT
- 3 comments
Anyone who watches comedy programmes with an unhealthy regularity will know that the sketch-show format is frighteningly unreliable. Even the ones that you mark down as your favourites end up coasting - as soon as the comedians figure out that if they can make 20 per cent of it thigh-slapping stuff, they can get away with padding out the rest with familiar catchphrases, shaggy dog stories and the ubiquitous and horrible musical pastiche stuck at the end.
As a result, half-hour skit shows seem to have lost their way, superseded by other comedy formats on the rise - darker sitcoms with no laughter track, comedy characters given...
The X Factor
- Posted at 12:39pm
- 22 August 2008
- by AlisonGraham-RT
- 3 comments
In Radio Times magazine I recently foreswore The X Factor on the grounds that if I took just one hit, I would be hooked. You know what I'm going to say next.
Largely because I couldn't be bothered to switch channels after a particularly bracing You've Been Framed, which featured many delicious and painful-looking mishaps involving skateboarders (always my favourites), I drifted into The X Factor, girded by a nice bottle of prosecco.
Of course, that's it. I might as well be chained to the immersion heater every Saturday night from now until Christmas, because I'm not going anywhere. The tears, the sob...
Big Brother: week 11
- Posted at 5:30pm
- 21 August 2008
- by PaulJones-RT
- 15 comments
Nicole is upset. She doesn't want to be known as just Rex's girlfriend. She wants to be part of the group, friends with the other housemates. Yes. The people she refers to as "they". People like Sara and Mo, for whom she can't spare a cigarette. People like blind Mikey, who is unable to follow simple dance steps even when she gives him explicit instructions like "do this, then go like this".
Nicole and Rex have a lot in common. Neither ever spares a moment's thought for anyone but themselves. They both think they are owed respect but they treat other people like dirt. They're...
Change of gear
- Posted at 5:00pm
- 21 August 2008
- by SloanFreer-RT
Is it possible for the Hollywood mainstream to take a mature approach to portraying sexual identity issues? Sloan Freer weighs up the evidence.
Playing a pre-op, male-to-female transsexual may not be an obvious career choice for Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman. But in road movie Transamerica (Wednesday Film4) she proved her versatility with a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe.
Like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert before it, writer/director Duncan Tucker's colourful indie film married acerbic comedy with a poignant exploration of complex sexual identity issues. It was a winning combination that clearly illustrated the continuing disparity between...
Curtain down
- Posted at 5:00pm
- 21 August 2008
- by AlisonGraham-RT
- 13 comments
It's my favourite ever scene in the wonderful Channel 4 comedy series Peep Show, and it involves flatmates Mark and Jeremy's increasingly desperate boredom as they sit through a performance at the theatre:
Jeremy (yearning to escape): "When do we get to go out?"
Mark (equally restless): "As far as I can make out we get to go out for a bit in an hour, then we have to come back for two hours."
Jeremy: "You're kidding! I think I'll die."
Mark: "If this was on television, nobody would be watching."
Jeremy: "Oh God, why aren't we watching television?"
For me, that exchange...
Olympics trickery
- Posted at 2:21pm
- 15 August 2008
- by DavidButcher-RT
- 6 comments
Watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony (8 August BBC1), it was hard not to be overawed. It was so spectacular, on such an epic scale and so precisely drilled, you couldn't help thinking, "Crikey, London will never match this in 2012."
Then, a few days later, came the letdown. It turned out great chunks of it were faked. The most breathtaking part of the ceremony had been when the giant-sized footprints formed by fireworks marched across the city towards the Bird's Nest stadium. What a genius idea! What a spectacle! Except it emerged that Chinese TV had recorded that bit earlier, with a touch of CGI for...
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