Radio Times

A good cliffhanger should reward you for a year's devoted viewing and leave you salivating for a few months in anticipation of its outcome. Here is a top-five run-through of the TV moments that have kept us on the edge of our seats.

5) Dallas: A House Divided (1980)

When scheming oil supremo JR Ewing was shot full of holes, Dallas producers set the standard for end-of-season climaxes. Suspects included rival Cliff Barnes - played with all the menace of an indignant Daffy Duck - and permanently soused wife Sue Ellen. Turns out it was Bing Crosby's daughter...

1 comment

Read more...

Over the last half-century, science fiction has provided us with a plethora of well-worn themes and ideas. Some speak to life's big questions - religion, mortality, humanity - some reflect the concerns of the era that produced them, and others are just lovely, silly fun. Paul Jones chooses a few of his favourites.

Aliens

• Aliens do not understand the human concept of "love", yet they are fascinated by it - especially the voluptuous female ones.

• There is something fundamentally inferior about alien DNA: they are obsessed with combining it with human DNA.

• The powerful energy...

22 comments

Read more...

As contentious issues go, this must be right up there with "Marmite is lovely", "David Dickinson is naturally orange" and "I can assure you, that was my winning lottery ticket".

Most people would pick that most iconic of Doctor Who monsters, the Daleks. But they would be wrong. (Told you it was going to be contentious.)

Trundling around on castors, banging on about ruling the universe while noticeably never managing to do so, pronouncing things in syllables - "Doc-tor!", "Ex-ter-min-ate!", "My, what a pre-tty em-broi-dered kit-ten!" - as if swotting for their GCSE English. Opposable thumbs? These...

9 comments

Read more...

Despite salvaging some pride in the recent one-day internationals, England's Test side had a horrible winter of discontent. But did this national catastrophe dampen the spirits of our British commentators? No, sir. They soldiered on impartially, offering non-partisan and carefully weighed assessments of the action on the field...

I'm joking, of course. Geoffrey Boycott greeted each England error with the wail of a ravenous man whose Yorkshire puddings had been burnt to a cinder; Jonathan Agnew mumbled "oh dear, oh dear" into his chocolate cake; over on Sky Sports, Ian Botham called for some kind of military coup...

2 comments

Read more...

You more groovy RT-ers out there may be familiar with the concept of the "mash-up": some clever DJ chappie welds together two or more tracks from seemingly incompatible styles to create something that shouldn't work but does, brilliantly. Witness the splicing of rave-granny Madonna's Ray of Light with the Sex Pistols to produce the immaculately titled Ray of Gob - genius.

Simon Pegg has now introduced the idea of the movie mash-up, saying of his latest film, Hot Fuzz, that it's "as if Tony Scott was to guest-helm an episode of Heartbeat". It's not the first movie to...

1 comment

Read more...

Football, as we all think we know, is about opinion. Yet when someone has the temerity to express an opinion they're bumptious, pretentious and getting above their humble station.

This brings us to BBC Radio Five Live's Alan Green, the man who has single-handedly transformed football radio commentary. Once upon a time, back when BBC Radio 2 found itself accidentally anointed as the voice of football, commentaries were delivered in the honeyed but opinion-free tones of dear Bryon Butler or Peter Jones.

Today, Alan Green, blessed with national radio's sternest Ulster accent since Gerry Adams, has more opinions...

8 comments

Read more...

Whovians and enthusiasts of classic TV were over the Moon when Doctor Who regenerated in 2005. The Tardis came with the territory, of course, as did the companions and the monsters, but there was something missing…

That elusive piece of the jigsaw was found under the cosmic coffee table of the recent series-three finale, in the person of the Doctor's archenemy, the Master.

For where there is good, light and harmony, there is always evil, darkness and discord. And while in the programme's 44-year history there have been hordes of power-crazed species we can safely classify as evil,...

2 comments

Read more...

TV's always had a difficult relationship with teenagers. They're too easily made the butt of unkind jokes (Adrian Mole), exploited as glossy sex objects (Hollyoaks), or stereotyped as precocious young fogeys (Dawson's Creek).

But those years are such an intense, confusing, amusing time - it should be possible to make a rollicking good show out of them. E4's Skins, a comedy drama about a bunch of Bristol 17-year-olds, is that show.

Skins was billed as being written by rookie writers, which sparked fears that it would be a juvenile mess - and the carnal riot in the original...

Read more...

Most people - unless they're dedicated medical folk or ineffective managers looking for a steady job - are anxious to stay away from hospitals. There's something about those long corridors with their unmistakeable clinical reek,and that strange grey lino that makes your shoes squeak, which sends you running for the exit.

Probably the only hospital in the world I'd gladly visit, therefore, is the Princeton-Plainsboro. And that would be for one reason: to enter the orbit of god-like diagnostician Gregory House.

Hugh Laurie is a revelation as the doctor whose bedside manner leaves a lot to be...

2 comments

Read more...

I don't know who first had the idea "What TV really needs is a time-travelling cop show!", but millions of discerning viewers are certainly glad they did.

The TV crime-drama landscape is increasingly marred by scriptwriters competing to come up with the goriest case possible to challenge their two-dimensional characters. Against this background, Life on Mars is a breath of fresh air. It has an endearing quirkiness that the creators of its American counterparts - those slick, big-budget, over-produced behemoths - can only dream of.

With its knowing nods to cop shows of the past, Life on...

2 comments

Read more...

Talk about being spoilt for choice. Trying to choose the best Simpsons character is rather like being punted on a gondola past a parade of very sexy people, colourful iced cakes, several pots of cash, holiday vouchers, a dolphin that talks, David Bowie's house keys and an arrest warrant for Noel Edmonds, and being asked to pick just one. Where does one even start?

Let's take it methodically.

First, the main characters are out. Logistically, they have to be. How on earth, for instance, could you choose between Bart and Homer? They're so very different, yet equally...

13 comments

Read more...

If the words Battlestar Galactica merely conjure up recollections of a Star Wars rip-off from the 1970s with acting hammy enough to make a vegetarian gag, then shame on you.

Because you're obviously missing out on its blistering 21st-century offspring, where every whiff of cheese has been eradicated and fantasy-land's default techno-babble has been ditched in favour of language more common to 21st-century news bulletins.

The landscape we navigate in this "re-imagining" is one of power struggles, assassinations and deeply flawed heroes. It's science fiction, but not as we know it.

Taking the lead among the...

Read more...

You'd be right to be wary of the unscripted nightmare that is the live radio phone-in. Presenter and listener alike are thrust into a scenario in which confused members of the public offer their ill-thought-out opinions on immigration, petrol prices or the "nanny state".

Or perhaps, later at night, you might hear bored, lonely callers lacing an otherwise inconsequential chat with precise details of their ailments - of which there are many.

They are no-win gambles, unlucky dips that quickly become a test of endurance: how long can you stay tuned in before sheer embarrassment forces...

Read more...

The news has changed. Gone are the days of received pronunciation and stuffy presentation; these days the news has more in common with an entertainment magazine show.

The war in Iraq sits in the headlines alongside Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's wedding ceremony. A story about the one-year anniversary of the introduction of 24-hour licensing laws is presented from a virtual pub by a newsreader sat on a virtual bar stool. And in this case where the laws have had very little effect on anything whatsoever, presenting virtual news.

There is very little point in bemoaning this...

Read more...