BLOGS
Anne Robinson says TV is 'sexist and ageist'
- Posted at 2:11pm
- 01 September 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
Anne Robinson returns as the "ringmaster" of Watchdog (Thursday 10 September) after eight years away from the consumer series. The revamped show promises "a big Top Gear-type set" and a chance for audience members to address their grievances directly to representatives of the companies responsible.
But Robinson, now 64, has some grievances of her own. In 2004 the Weakest Link presenter admitted to having had a face lift and botox injections in an attempt to tackle the ageing process, and while she believes her CV has kept her competitive, she claims it is...
Autumn TV preview
- Posted at 11:15am
- 26 August 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
It's the new season - a season that takes us near to the end of one Doctor and shows us the start of a new Miss Marple. There's going to be tension in new Spooks and maybe even more in the new-look Strictly Come Dancing. Robbie Coltrane is back, starring in a new crime drama, while Gavin and Stacey say their last goodbyes.
Every channel is launching new dramas, new factual series plus new comedy and entertainment, and all are bringing back old favourites. See what you think as Radio Times shows you the...
X Factor judge says the pressure is too much
- Posted at 10:38am
- 18 August 2009
- by VincentGraff-RT
When Simon Cowell sat down to record the first audition for this year's X Factor, he looked rather glum, says fellow judge Louis Walsh. "It was in Glasgow. Simon wasn't himself, I don't know what was wrong with him. There was just no atmosphere." So what did Cowell, the undisputed king of TV talent, do later that day? "He went to the producers and changed the whole show."
Until now, X Factor participants have auditioned in a small room in front of a handful of people - the judges and the TV crew. In a...
Remaking the old Bill
- Posted at 5:55pm
- 28 July 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
The Bill has radically regenerated - and the gamble paid off for the first of its new, slicker, faster-paced and post-watershed episodes as a healthy 4.5 million viewers tuned in.
It's still The Bill at heart - the stories and the core of the long-running hit haven't been touched, but everything else was up for grabs.
Even the famous theme wasn't sacred: executive producer Johnathan Young says replacing it was a hard decision but that the team had also considered having no theme tune at all. Everything to do with the look and the feel...
Adam Curtis on his new film
- Posted at 5:50pm
- 28 July 2009
- by JackSeale-RT
Acclaimed documentary-maker Adam Curtis (The Century of the Self, The Power of Nightmares, The Trap) has made a new film, It Felt like a Kiss. Commissioned as part of an interactive theatre piece at the Manchester International Festival and billed as "starring Saddam Hussein, Lee Harvey Oswald, Doris Day, Enos the chimp and everyone above level seven in the CIA", it looks at America's rise to political and cultural superpower status, and how that confidence has since been undermined. Curtis describes it as "a lot more visceral, emotional and visual than my previous work."
Like Curtis's recent...
Chris Moyles slates 'boring' radio and BBC rules
- Posted at 1:42pm
- 14 July 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
In an interview with Radio Times, outspoken BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles has branded radio "boring" and slammed his employer's editorial policies.
"The BBC is in a very weird state," said Moyles. "They just don't want to upset anybody. Everything now needs to be signed, sealed and approved 18 times.
"We're not trying to change the world, but because radio is so dull, so boring and so formulaic, anyone different - me or Jonathan [Ross] - stands out.
"The BBC is throwing down the rules and regulations and then...
Doctor Who heads new BBC1 season
- Posted at 2:07pm
- 09 July 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars heads up the new season of dramas coming to BBC1 this autumn. Lindsay Duncan stars alongside David Tennant, as Adelaide, head of the Mars Base, and one of the Time Lord's sharpest and most strong-willed companions yet.
There's a return for MI5 drama Spooks and some dramatic new storylines in EastEnders, while Maxine Peake stars alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Sophie Okonedo in a second series of Criminal Justice, which exposes the workings of the British legal system.
Brand-new dramas include sci-fi...
Frankie Boyle on Mock the Week
- Posted at 5:55pm
- 08 July 2009
- by BenjiWilson-RT
We dared to quiz the mocker-in-chief. Some of his answers are printable…
It's the magnificent seventh series of Mock the Week. For the unlucky few who haven't seen it yet… It's basically five gay guys doing games that they've culled from the Mensa tests. And we all hate it. No, it's basically Whose Line Is It Anyway? meets Have I Got News for You.
Do you prepare gags in advance? Well, you know what the news stories are, but you don't know what people are going to say about them. But because it's quite a...
Barrowman unhappy with new Torchwood format
- Posted at 4:34pm
- 03 July 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
On Monday 6 July series three of alien-busting Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood comes to BBC1 and BBC HD. A five episode "miniseries" being shown across the week, Monday to Friday, Children of Earth is what creator Russell T Davies calls a "first contact story" - a story that begins with children across the globe coming to a complete halt to chant in unison, "We are coming. We are coming."
Sounds like a job for Torchwood. But with two members of the team - Owen and Tosh - killed off in the...
Channel 4 adds TV archive to 4oD
- Posted at 5:15pm
- 23 June 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
You will never go out again. Not even to work. Certainly not to the DVD store. From Friday 3 July, Channel 4 is opening its archives online: initially 4,000 hours of some of the finest British television ever made will be yours for the price of watching it on your computer.
All you've got to do is choose what to watch. It's going to get harder as Channel 4 keeps adding more and more material but Radio Times picks out the greatest, the most controversial and the funniest. All of this, every minute of every episode, will...
Andy Murray on Wimbledon - and those remarks about England
- Posted at 3:45pm
- 17 June 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
Such talent, such strength and such a fantastic chance at Wimbledon - yet still Andy Murray has his detractors. Maybe it's because the Scottish tennis star revealed he was supporting "anyone but England" in the 2006 World Cup.
"I made a joke about the England team, like I do with my friends," he explains in an exclusive interview for the new issue of Radio Times. "And they joke about Scottish football all the time! That's when I realised I couldn't afford to make jokes like that."
If he's decided to avoid that, he's also trying...
Parky calls for better British cop shows
- Posted at 1:10pm
- 16 June 2009
- by WilliamGallagher-RT
"The Wire is not about reassurance or redemption," says Michael Parkinson in the new issue of Radio Times. "Journalist David Simon spent time with Baltimore's police department and what he witnessed became two of the best television police series of all time - Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire."
The self-professed cop show fan wants to see British TV get it right: "Now Morse has gone, we need a substantial series based on a cop."
Our current crop of cops don't make the grade. "Will Ashes...
Top Gear: your female presenting team
- Posted at 3:15pm
- 15 June 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
Top Gear fans will be celebrating the return of the series to BBC2 this Sunday. The nation's favourite motoring show is beloved of lads and ladettes alike, yet it features an all-male presenting line-up. So what if Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were replaced by members of the opposite sex? Who would you put in the driving seats?
In a recent survey on RadioTimes.com, we asked you to name your ultimate female TG trio. 1,793 of you responded. So who did you choose?
To stand in for Clarkson...
Ashes to Ashes to get third series
- Posted at 3:52pm
- 08 June 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
Yes, Gene Hunt will be firing up the Quattro for one last time!
1980s-set time-shift police drama Ashes to Ashes, starring Philip Glenister as the no-nonsense copper, will return for a third and final series in 2010, and the producers are promising further fireworks - and are even hinting at a possible return for Sam Tyler (John Simm's character in the original series, Life on Mars).
Co-creator Ashley Pharoah said: "We are as excited as the viewers to see how Alex's (Keeley Hawes) journey ends and we promise the...
Piers Morgan on Britain's Got Talent
- Posted at 1:21pm
- 26 May 2009
- by PaulJones-RT
Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan - who described singer Susan Boyle as "our very own Rocky" - talked to RT about some of the key battles the phenomenon has thrown up.
The people v Britain's Got Talent
"People need to bear in mind that we are trying to produce good television… I think the whole debate about 'truth in television' has gone way too far. A show like ours… is all about entertainment, and in the end you have to have a sense of realism about that."
"But I do think...
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