BLOGS
Doctor Who: Waters of Mars to air in November
- Posted at 2:14pm
- 30 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 10 comments
The latest Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, will be shown on BBC1 at 7:00pm on Sunday 15 November, a BBC source announced today.
The story is one of three remaining episodes starring David Tennant as the Time Lord before the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, takes over in 2010. Tennant's two-part swan song, The End of Time, will air over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.
Meanwhile, incoming executive producer Steven Moffat has been talking up new signing Matt Smith. He called him "the best" and claims that, despite being the youngster actor ever to play the role, Smith, 27, is...
BBC shuts down Red Button interactive channels
- Posted at 2:38pm
- 28 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 2 comments
From Tuesday 27 October, the BBC will be switching off two of the three interactive Freeview streams that deliver its Red Button content. Freeview viewers will still be able to see sport, music and entertainment on the remaining interactive stream.
The upcoming launch of HD channels on Freeview requires existing standard definition channels to be rearranged in order to free up bandwidth, and the two Red Button streams are casualties of this.
Viewers accessing Red Button content will no longer see the BBC News Multiscreen and for other content, such as sport and music, there will be less repeats, with content played...
Barbara Windsor to quit EastEnders
- Posted at 1:20pm
- 28 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 3 comments
Barbara Windsor is set to call time on one of TV's best-known pub landladies, Peggy Mitchell, when she leaves EastEnders next year.
Peggy has been Queen of the Vic for most of Barbara's 15-year stint in Albert Square, ruling the pub and the Mitchell family with a fist of iron and a heart of gold - and joining the ranks of Britain's favourite television matriarchs in the process.
Windsor was awarded an MBE in 2000 and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards in May this year.
The 72-year-old said of her departure: "EastEnders has been wonderful to me...
Gordon Ramsay on his year in the wilderness
- Posted at 1:59pm
- 27 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 9 comments
"I'll be back!" claims a battered cyborg version of Gordon Ramsay on the cover of the latest edition of Radio Times. And inside, the beleaguered TV chef defends himself against the volley of scandal and criticism he's been hit with in recent months.
Over the last year, Ramsay has faced potential bankruptcy and investigation by the Inland Revenue, accusations of infidelity and, not least, criticisms about his food…
The fact that Ramsay supplies his restaurants with some pre-prepared ingredients from a centralised kitchen has led to accusations that he is serving "ready meals". But he insists customers are not being shortchanged: "Guys, get...
Strictly Come Dancing: week six
- Posted at 12:15pm
- 26 October 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
- 10 comments
"Not to suck up," said Brian, "but Alesha, you look gorgeous this evening." She also had good, interesting things to say this time, including her summary of Brian and Ali's rather beautiful performance. Is Alesha improving or are we getting used to her?
This week was more like it. It isn't it yet, but it's more like it. After last week's rather flat edition, Strictly Come Dancing stepped back up a notch with great moments and a couple of fine dances. Unfortunately they were mostly from the professionals.
There is something intangible about a great dance: it isn't enough to be technically...
The X Factor: week ten
- Posted at 10:40am
- 26 October 2009
- by JackSeale-RT
- 11 comments
Big band week is never X Factor's best. It's old and cheesy, you can't hear anything above the sound of 46 farting trumpets, and young novices doing Rat Pack songs has the creepy, false atmosphere of a children's beauty pageant.
Even Sunday's guests were distressingly chintzy. We had Michael Bublé, the poor man's Harry Connick Jr (the real one was on Strictly Come Dancing), and there was a special treat for anyone who hates music and despises humanity: the black, sucking vortex that is Westlife, reciting their new single with robotic precision.
Back to the contestants, and hardly any emerged from the Sinatra mausoleum unscathed....
The Best…Fawlty Towers moments
- Posted at 4:50pm
- 23 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 3 comments
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fawlty Towers, BBC Worldwide is featuring a host of hilarious clips from the show - and making both series available to download from iTunes. Here at RadioTimes.com, we've picked out our four favourite Fawlty Towers moments:
4. "Basil. There's a kipper sticking out of your jumper."
Delivering a guest's breakfast to his room, Basil fails to notice that the man is dead. Things go downhill from there…
3. "Don't mention the war!"
A concussed...
Why I Love...The Thick of It
- Posted at 4:05pm
- 20 October 2009
- by TomCole-RT
Armando Iannucci once explained the brilliance of Yes Minister: "[It was] more than a sitcom, it was a crash course in contemporary political studies - it opened the lid on the way the government really operated." The same could easily be said about his own political tour de force, The Thick of It, a manic exposition of the chaos and intrigue that are all part of modern day-to-day existence in Whitehall.
The Thick of It picks up where the political satires of the 1980s and 90s left off, to explore the relationships between ministers, their departments and party media chiefs, all of whom are predictably...
Defying Gravity
- Posted at 12:27pm
- 20 October 2009
- by AlisonGraham-RT
- 39 comments
Sometimes, I'll come across an overwrought drama where I can be fairly sure that the dialogue was written by an infinite number of ants with a giant marker pen.
They roam and doodle, writing whorls of pap that, eventually, someone will shape into pages and form into a script for a science-fiction series. Like Heroes, and, starting on Wednesday this week on BBC2, Defying Gravity.
Defying Gravity is epically awful. It's an international co-production between Canadian, German, American and British (the BBC) broadcasters. I wonder if they are all blaming each other…
I suppose it has at least...
BBC announces roll-out of Freeview HD
- Posted at 11:02am
- 20 October 2009
- by DoctorDigital-RT
- 8 comments
The BBC has confirmed the schedule for upgrading its digital TV network, which will see HD channels become available via Freeview.
The upgrade programme, which runs alongside the BBC's main digital switchover project, will start by launching Freeview HD services in the North West of England from December this year.
Digital switchover frees up bandwidth, providing air space for the new HD channels. The HD upgrade will therefore follow digital switchover in each region. Most regions that have already switched over are set to be upgraded to HD before the end of 2010. To find out when your area becomes fully digital visit 8 comments
The X Factor: week nine
- Posted at 12:55pm
- 19 October 2009
- by JackSeale-RT
- 10 comments
Intrigue, bombast and golden comedy this week, well beyond anything a regular singing contest could offer. It started with the judges: in the absence of Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue upped her game, going through two entire live shows without once saying something that made sense. Simon Cowell played a ruder, smugger, pantomime version of himself.
Simon made Cheryl Cole cry, referred to himself as "Mr Cowell", and contributed to some excellent Previews of Doom - those clips shown just before the contestant goes on, wildly overstating what's at stake. "This could be great, or it could be a DISASTER"; "If she doesn't hit that...
Strictly Come Dancing: week five
- Posted at 12:45pm
- 19 October 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
- 1 comment
I could be on Strictly Come Dancing. No, really, I've thought about this a lot. I figure that if I just work harder, stop taking holidays and maybe pretend to launch a kid in a helium balloon somewhere, I could become famous enough to be on the show by 2017.
You can't start preparing too early. So while I've been away in Spain - I seem to tell you everything; you've just got that kind of face - my dreams were choreographed. Such dreams. Such routines. I was going to wow Bruno by breaking out of the dance floor and scooping up one of the...
Joan Collins Does Glamour
- Posted at 4:59pm
- 15 October 2009
- by DavidButcher-RT
- 7 comments
When Joan Collins first met her victims in ITV1's one-off makeover show Joan Does Glamour (13 October), there was a moment when she worried they might not recognise her. But honestly, how could they not?
Her Joan Collinsness shines from every powdered pore, it radiates from every thread of her big cream trouser suits and swirly silk blouses. She's spent decades ensuring she looks more and more glowingly like herself. Now she has decided she wants the rest of Britain looking like her, too.
Hence the makeover show, where she set out to bring "the lost art of glamour" back to Britain. "People have become...
Louis Walsh to miss X Factor for Gately funeral
- Posted at 4:07pm
- 15 October 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
- 7 comments
Following the tragic death of former Boyzone member Stephen Gately last Saturday, X Factor judge Louis Walsh has announced he will miss both editions of the show this weekend to attend the funeral.
Walsh put together and managed Boyzone and was very close to Gately, whose death came as the reformed band were working with Walsh on a comeback album.
An official spokesperson for The X Factor said: "Due to recent tragic events, Louis Walsh will not be appearing on either the Saturday or Sunday live The X Factor shows this weekend as he is attending Stephen Gately's funeral. Louis has been in...
The week in soapland
- Posted at 12:03pm
- 15 October 2009
- by GarethMcLean-RT
Coronation Street
The problem with issuing an ultimatum is that you have to be prepared for whoever you threaten to jump the other way, so to speak. Carla might like to consider this.
After she threatens to reveal Tony Gordon's murderous ways to Maria unless he skips Weatherfield, Tony is so reluctant to capitulate that he plans instead to have Carla killed by the ever-obliging Jimmy. Just as baby Liam is being blessed, too. Welcome to the world, little man!
Elsewhere, Luke plots to scarper with Rosie's fortune - highlighting the problem of a fool and their money. And it's Molly's birthday. No prizes for guessing what Kevin wants...
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