Radio Times

Mikey v Rex

I don't know if you ever saw the classic 70s kung fu series, er, Kung Fu, but newly bald Mikey, in his billowy gold robes, clutching his cane, really reminds me of blind Shaolin monk Master Po.

And indeed, head of house Mikey is inspiring respect and teaching discipline as did the Shaolin master. To ensure the housemates don't fall asleep on the job, he uses a subtle blend of water torture and shouting. So he's the last person you want to give a megaphone to.

Ever since Mikey got hold of the loudhailer provided for the...

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Call me shallow but I love The Tudors, not for the mucky bits, of which there are many, but for the jewellery. There's a crown Queen Anne wears that I really, really want. It's a pearl-laden thing of beauty; of course I have no particular use for a crown, but the sheer joy of ownership would be immense.

And I was in raptures as the unfortunate Catherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy), who has done little except look glum in a series of big hats, was ordered by Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to return the royal jewels. Ooooh, they were gorgeous. I'd never really...

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In 2006, Boston neurologist Dr Martin Samuels concluded that it is possible be "scared to death". He cited "certain and very specific circumstances", such as a catastrophic event or even an amusement-park ride, which result in a "lightning bolt" of chemicals being sent to the brain.

In Film4's FrightFest season, designed to coincide with the annual film festival co-curated by RT's Alan Jones, there's no shortage of material to charge up this potentially fatal jolt. For most people, though, this adrenaline surge has no ill-effects: "The heart goes back to normal and we walk away."

But one person's abject terror is another person's cheap schlock - sometimes even...

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Q Currently in Wales, BBC2 splits its programming on weekday evenings. Analogue carries the national programmes while digital carries programmes commissioned by BBC Wales. With the digital switchover due to start in Wales in 2009, will we still have a choice of viewing, or will we have to put up with Welsh-made programmes whether we want them or not?
Dick Thompson, via email

A After switchover there will indeed be a single BBC2 Wales service, which will continue to carry regional programming, although how much is as yet unknown. BB C Wales says the new amalgamated digital service will be "the very best of both network and BBC...

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Here's a confession: I have no intention of going to see Mamma Mia!, even though it's still packing them in around the country. My deep-seated fear of this feelgood musical can be expressed in a radio ad for the film, in which one satisfied customer outside a cinema exclaims, "I sang and danced all the way through."

Singing along to the hits of Abba is one thing, but dancing? In the aisles? Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer patrons, even appreciative ones, to remain in their seats.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against dancing in the cinema, as long as it's up on the...

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I try to remain aloof from New Tricks (Mondays BBC1), mainly because that infuriatingly jaunty theme tune with its in-built chortle drives me mad. It has lazy lyrics ("It's all right, it's OK/Listen to what I say") and you can just imagine Dennis Waterman (he sings it, of course) clicking his fingers during the recording.

But I know when I'm beaten. New Tricks is a tank, a great big turreted panzer of a television series that gets you in its sights then pins you up against a wall. It's a beast that brings in audiences of more than eight million every week - even its...

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Romance 3/5

Rex's girlfriend Nicole is the new face in hell, and the way he's been pining after her up until now, you'd think it would have been a happy reunion. But no. As Mikey said, "I don't honestly know what would make Rex happy."

Since Nicole arrived, Rex has gone from soppy hand-holding across the divide, and an obsession with what Nicole is thinking, to directing paranoid abuse at her. Yep, that's one romance that is definitely on the rocks. Meanwhile, though, another is blossoming. Well, sort of…

Earlier in the week Darnell experienced "an embarrassing moment, followed by a series of more embarrassing moments" when he...

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Every once in a while the RT Bonekickers Re-enactment Society takes a little break. We have to, for the sake of our sanity. There are only so many times we can run around the office, pretending it's a secret tunnel, while breaking off to exchange choice bits of dialogue. (Sadly, health and safety regulations currently forbid us from pursuing our devotion to its logical conclusion - carelessly setting fire to precious artefacts).

I'm president of the society, so I get to choose said dialogue, and my favourite line so far (and, let's face it, there's an embarrassment of riches, as the scripts are as ripe as a...

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I'm sure no-one was seriously expecting Bonekickers to be about real archaeology. Personally, I quite like dusty shards of ancient pottery, though even I can see there are not too many thrills to be had from digging up ceramic fragments. But was it too much to hope for some adventure, excitement, suspense - even a little complex characterisation? Or is quality drama now as rare as an unexcavated Egyptian tomb?

The series got off to a very poor start with a group of chain-mail-clad extras clanking about in woodland in semi-darkness. If you've never seen this sequence before, then you've never seen a television drama about the...

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The X-Files ran for nine series and, in Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, gave us one of TV's most celebrated partnerships. But in a show rich with well-drawn characters, who else really stood out?

In terms of keeping viewers awake at night, you'd have to go some way to beat Eugene Victor Tooms. Tooms was a killer who would lunge from the smallest of hiding places to tear the livers from his unsuspecting victims with his bare hands. Actor Doug Hutchison endowed this unlikely, bendy-limbed mutant with creepy believability, right up to the moment he was turned into bloody strips by being sucked into...

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Q What's so good about Blu-Ray? Should I be buying Blu-Ray discs instead of DVDs now?
Helen Martin, Sheffield

A Blu-Ray is better than DVD. But all the technical details come down to this: Blu-Ray discs can hold more data than DVDs - typically up to six times as much. And that extra room means Blu-Ray can carry high-definition releases, such as the HD version of Torchwood. So Blu-Ray will always be the better buy for picture quality.

But it's also more expensive. Prices are falling, but a Blu-Ray player still costs about £190, while you can pick up a DVD player for £40. (But a Blu-Ray player...

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Q What exactly does "widescreen" mean? Are widescreen TV broadcasts only available via digital transmission? When we look at TV sets in the shops the "aspect ratios" seem wrong, with news journalists sporting Arnold Schwarzenegger-width shoulders, and incredibly fat faces!
Mitch, via email

A The only way to see a true widescreen picture (sometimes referred to as a 16:9) is via a digital set-top box, so invariably when you view programmes in analogue on a widescreen TV the picture will look distorted. Very often, electrical goods shops' picture source may be digital, but it's then "piped" across their full range of TVs, thus becoming an analogue signal...

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Although the award-winning American medical sitcom Scrubs is due to return for an eighth season, pin-up star Zach Braff has already started to feather his nest in the movies, writing, directing and starring in offbeat homecoming comedy drama Garden State.

Whether he'll make the transition really count remains to be seen.

There is always fun to be had scrolling down to the bottom of a successful movie actor's CV, wherein lurk those appearances in single episodes of The Love Boat, Charles in Charge, even Red Shoe Diaries.

Movie careers generally begin in television, playing walk-on parts listed only by first name. But the...

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In this climate of economic downturn and volatile stock markets, you wouldn't blame beleaguered PM Gordon Brown for looking back on the boom years of the 1990s with a certain amount of nostalgia. The Labour Party in government on a landslide majority, Tony Blair's Chancellor earning plaudits for giving the Bank of England the power to set interest rates, the Conservatives nose-diving towards political obscurity. Ah, heady days.

But if Gordon Brown were to have a night off from his troubles and enjoy a movie he could make a choice between Sex and the City and The X-Files. Watch TV and he could wave a foam finger...

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I've never thought The Archers does love very well. Or rather, it tends to approach love in a kind of Henry James, Portrait of a Lady-type way: very delicately, with lacy hankies and barely a hint of ankle. It's never really been able to capture rip-roaring, wallpaper-stripping, bedhead-thumping, proper love.

It tried with Ruth and Sam, but I never, for one moment, believed all of that panting in the cowshed. No, that was never love, even though Ruth succumbed to the horrors of the A40 Oxford ring road to spend a mucky weekend with Sam.

But she turned back when she heard her dullard husband...

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