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TV & Radio Category

Television and radio programme reviews, trailers, highlights, twilights and cinema news. Also the neglected gems from years past.

ITV fail: broadcaster confuses Ainsley Harriott with Lenny Henry

ainsley henry

 

This week we learnt that TV chef Ainsley Harriott is also Lenny Henry. Who knew? ITV did. As Henry received his knighthood from Her Majesty, the broadcaster showed footage of the one-man double-act’s career:

Of course, the two men are not the same man.

Whoops! A spokesperson for ITV News went on the record:

“ITV News apologises for the error broadcast in the lunchtime news package today regarding Sir Lenny Henry’s knighthood at the palace. This was the result of an error in the production process in a piece intended to celebrate Sir Lenny’s significant achievements in British entertainment.”

Before praising he man’s cooking and big smile.

Posted: 6th, December 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment (1)


Creepy Christmas songs: Angels of Love

An incredibly creepy Christian kids song for Christmas. Linda Blair is away:

 

Posted: 6th, December 2015 | In: Music, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Christmas TV repeats story repeats in tabloids

TV repeats tabloidThe Daily Mirror reports that 811 shows broadcast over the Christmas period on the four main TV channels have been broadcast before.

The Mirror, which, like the Express and Mail, has broadcast adaptations of this story for the last 20 years, is dismayed by the news.

Says one tabloid insider: “Every year we have to report the same story as news but with a new headline. This year it’s “‘Tis the season for repeats”, whereas last years we reported “The season for repeats”, before that it was “‘Twas the season for repeats” and next year we have already written “‘Twill be the season for repeats”. These TV bosses just shove out Mary Poppins. It’s not fair.”

Before adding: “See you next year.”

 

 

 

 

 

Posted: 4th, December 2015 | In: Reviews, Tabloids, TV & Radio | Comment


The Dog with Musical Ears (video)

This dog that sing and dance with his ears. Wow!

Posted: 2nd, December 2015 | In: TV & Radio | Comment


Marilyn Monroe dead ringer for stone cold Scotland

Like comparing Marilyn Monroe to Kincardineshire

 

Subtitle screw up of the day:

Sky News subtitles were running over an item on dress size changes over the past 20 years. The item was a day late lift on a Daily Mail story. The claim is a 10 dress size today would have been a 14 a couple of decades ago.

A gushing Sky commentator repeats the Mail’s headline which compared Kim Kardashian to the ultimate blonde bombshell which was converted by Sky’s superfast text translator as:

Like comparing Marilyn Monroe to Kincardineshire

Works for me… both attractive and dead

Posted: 10th, November 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Al Molinaro: star of Happy Days and The Odd Couple has died

happy days al dies

Al Molinaro, the actor who played Al Delvecchio, owner of Arnold’s Drive-In on the hit TV show Happy Days has died. You might know him as Murray from The Odd Couple.

Spotter: The Hollywood Reporter

Posted: 1st, November 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Gif Of The Day: Wonder Woman ‘The Bermuda Triangle Crisis’

Wonder Woman, “The Bermuda Triangle Crisis”

Wonder Woman, “The Bermuda Triangle Crisis”

Gif Of The Day: Wonder Woman ‘The Bermuda Triangle Crisis’ – 1977

Posted: 28th, October 2015 | In: Gifs, TV & Radio | Comment


Back To The Future Day: Keith Lemon and ITV2 waterboard nostalgia

It’s Marty McFly / Back To The Future Day when we all get to wear self-tying shoelaces, ride on hoverboards and watch TV’s suicide note on ITV2:

 

Keith Lemon Marty Mcfly

 

And you still wonder if the BBC is worth the licence fee..?

As @NellKane10 puts it: “ITV2 waterboarding nostalgia.”

 

Spotter: Tom Jamieson

Posted: 21st, October 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Nadiya Hussain: making a meal of the GBBO bitter chocolate mosque

nads

 

Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has been turned into a mould for all Britishers to pour their prejudices into.

Remona Aly, The Guardian: “Nadiya Hussain has won so much more than the Great British Bake Off”

A modelling contract? A glass cake stand? A peerage?

Nadiya has managed to defuse the negative, politicised and stereotypical discourse surrounding Muslims in one beat of a whisk. Such is her resonance that even David Cameron – whose Tory party conference speech lists pet hates that can be construed as Muslim-related, including another dig at madrasas and his declaration that “this passive tolerance has turned us into a less integrated country” – backed her to win.

The elite who turn everything into a moral education for the masses. Cameron was mad for Brain Belo to win Big Brother. Show him a darker complexion on The Chase and Dave bangs the drum. “Go-gogo, Ali from Bury,” he yells. “Make Britain proud!”

While Nadiya is the most popular GBBO baker to date, with the charming anaesthetist Tamal Ray a close second, their combined appeal meant that this year’s finale was bound to break previous records… In addition to GBBO’s winning set-up of the brilliantly witty Mel and Sue, poker-faced Paul Hollywood and traditionalist Mary Berry…  its inclusivity factor has been reflected in the competitors, with Nadiya having the extra edge of being a non-stereotypical British winner – as an Asian Muslim woman in a hijab, she both represents and transcends all her identities.

 

Poor old Ian. The white bloke is the only person on camera not included in Remona’s tribute to inclusiveness.

White bloke Simon Kelner (Independent), says Nadiya Hussain “serves up the perfect rebuttal to Theresa May’s xenophobic rhetoric.”

No. She did not push the cake in May’s mush.

Julia Hartley-Brewer, Telegraph:

Nadiya does not represent Muslims, or British Muslims, or Asian women or even just women. She is simply an individual who represents no one but herself, in exactly the same way that if her fellow contestant Ian Cumming, a white middle-class man, had won the show, it wouldn’t have said anything meaningful about white middle-class men either.

Gaby Hinsliff, also Guardian:

How dare the BBC portray this cheery mix of ethnicities and sexualities and backgrounds inexplicably not at one another’s throats, and thus make it look as if multiculturalism might not be so bad after all? There was admittedly something a bit contrived about Hussain’s final showstopper, the wedding cake she’d apparently always wanted (they’re not traditional in Bangladesh, where she and her husband married). Even the dimmest viewer couldn’t miss the symbolism of an old-fashioned iced lemon drizzle accompanied by a red, white and blue sari.

Er…

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown:

Muslims who are burning with anger or, at the least, disillusioned with life in Britain should learn from Nadiya. I know I have.

 

Ally Ross, the Sun:

MILLIONS of nut-cakes tuned in to the Bake Off final last night not entirely sure who’d win — but utterly convinced they knew who wouldn’t. We had a Muslim mum of three, Nadiya, looking quietly determined. A gay Asian NHS worker, Tamal, looking stupidly relaxed. And a bloke called Ian, looking utterly screwed.

Turn up without a box tick to your name, some viewers reckon, and you can bake an exact replica of the Taj Mahal using shortbread fingers and meringue nests and it still won’t be enough to win this most PC of BBC shows.

The Bake Off monster has got so big, the show is no longer just a cake-making contest.

It’s full-scale ideological warfare and another chance to argue about political-correctness in the BBC. To have the stomach for that, you also need to give an unhealthy toss about Flora’s cocoa carousel or Alvin’s plum tart…

 

 

BBC execs no doubt did a multi-cultural jig of politically-correct joy — long before she sealed it with a patriotic red, white and blue wedding cake. Tearful, victorious Nadiya was the best contestant. She deserved to win.

I’m simply glad it’s over. Now we can enjoy the less PC delights of the new Apprentice line-up. That includes: Ah. A Kosovan refugee, a Nigerian businesswoman and a former intern for a Liberal Democrat MEP.

 

Amanda Platell writes in Mail:

Poor Flora wasn’t PC enough for Beeb

When this series of The Great British Bake Off began, the BBC was proud it was the most inclusive, multi-cultural line-up ever.

Did you notice?

Now we’re down to the final three, it’s certainly a PC triumph. We are left with Muslim mum Nadiya Hussain, gay doctor Tamal Ray, and New Man Ian Cumming. Poor Flora Shedden never stood a chance. She was far too middle class — and was booted off this week after her chocolate carousel was deemed sub-standard. Perhaps if she’d made a chocolate mosque, she’d have stood a better chance.

The judges are Paul Hollywood (white; non-Jewish male), Mary Berry (white; non-Hindu female), Sue Perkins (white; gay; non-Satanist) and Mel Giedroyc (white; non-Buddhist; not a former refugee reading Gender Studies at Sussex University). We could go through the crew, whose names appear at the show’s end. Or look harder at Platell (white; immigrant). Or we could wonder if a chocolate mosque answered the brief to create a “stunning and delicious 3D centrepiece made from chocolate and biscuit”. No word was made of the need to create a place of worship from chocolate. No contestant did.

That’s not to say that something controversial, like a chocolate version of the Human Centipede, a dole queue or Jeremy Clarkson’s fist would not have given the middle-of-the-road show an edge. A chocolate mosque sounds a little dull.

A few days later, Platell adds:

…while I’m thrilled for Nadiya, I do also fear for her now she and her family have been catapulted into the seductive, cynical world of celebrity.

Stewart Lee has also seen how the winner of the twee TV show is being packaged as moral lesson for us all. He writes:

It was on 3 October that the Daily Mail content provider Amanda Platell introduced the notion of a chocolate mosque into the collective subconscious. But still, more than a week later, Platell’s enormous chocolate mosque continues to loom over my imagination like an enormous chocolate mosque, an image so absurd that it becomes a viable metaphor for its own self.

In case the news-blip passed you by, Platell made minor chocolate ripples by suggesting in print that a middle-class woman called Flora Shedden, and her chocolate carousel, were booted off the BBC’s Bake Off cake contest in favour of Muslim mum Nadiya Hussain, gay doctor Tamal Ray and “new man” Ian Cumming, because she wasn’t “politically correct” enough. Perhaps, wrote Platell, “if she’d made a chocolate mosque she’d have stood a better chance”.

…An obvious subtext to Platell’s story is that the other contestants were favoured, irrespective of the quality of their cake work, because they fulfilled some kind of politically correct quota, such as “Muslim mum” and “gay doctor”. But the idea that this could be a deciding factor is undermined by the presence of the third victor, Ian Cumming, for whom the best denigrating epithet that the increasingly desperate Platell can find is “new man”, a phrase last used pejoratively by a woman wearing legwarmers in the early 1980s.

And here’s food for more opinion writers: will Nadiya make a cake for gay weddings? A source tells the Sun:

 “Since the final aired she has had a flood of requests from brides-to-be. A few she has already accepted and there is enough demand for her to consider making wedding cakes professionally. It’s something she could work on in her evenings. She is still a full-time mum, after all.”

 

 

First one to order a gay wedding cake wins.

Posted: 12th, October 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Eamonn Holmes subjects Jeremy Corbyn to one of the worst interviews of all time (video)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was interviewed by Eamonn Holmes on Sky News Sunrise. It was painfully enjoyable viewing. It gets worse and worse and worse… From 7 mins 40, Holmes causes wincing…
 

Posted: 2nd, October 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Watch The Simpsons intro in the style of a 1990s VHS video

Spotter: Flashbak

Posted: 26th, September 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


WATCH: Dennis Skinner MP loses it on BBC News – walks off with microphone

Labour MP Dennis Skinner loses it on BBC News, then casually wanders off with his mic on.

It is, says  “wonderful lunchtime viewing”.

 

Posted: 14th, September 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Ofcom reports: 2% say too little sex on TV

sex-on-tv lots

 

The figures do not lie. The OFCOM MEDIA TRACKER 2014 (16th May to 20th June and 1st to 31st August and 1st to 30th November 2014) says that 2% of viewers think there is too little sex on the telly.

And that includes the nature shows.

sex on TV

 

Your heart goes out to them.

 

Posted: 9th, September 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


China TV news lolz: mistakes Fleshlight sex toy for rare edible mushroom

lolz

 

News from 2012 with Jeremy Ko:

I translated the video myself and added it in using FCP. It is as accurate as I can understand from it. Besides the obscure name of the villages, it is mostly accurate. Downloaded the video from Tudou. Xi’an Up Close 《西安零距离》, an investigative journalism programme which airs on Xi’an TV, has become a national laughing stock after airing a report on June 17 on a “mystery mushroom” which was discovered by villagers in a rural part of the city…

Why does everything about the last line sound like a euphemism?

Spotter: BB

 

Posted: 5th, September 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Who was the best Hannibal Lecter: watch Cox, Hopkins and Mikkelsen go head to head

lecter

 

Matthew Morettini let’s us compare and contrast three screen manifestations of Hannibal Lecter with this neat video

I always preferred the 1985 Manhunter, with Brian Cox as the terrifying Lecter. Anthony Hopkins reworked the character in Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs before Mads Mikkelsen appeared as the psychopath in the TV series Hannibal.

Take a look at the video. Which one do you prefer?

 

Posted: 4th, September 2015 | In: Books, Film, TV & Radio | Comment


Watch: murderer told on TV that victim’s body has been found

 Stephen McDaniel

 

In 2011 Lauren Giddings had been reported missing. The TV news crew interviewed her classmate and neighbour, Stephen McDaniel.

He was keen to talk.

Look out for the part when he’s told the body has been found:

 

 

 

Stephen McDaniel confessed to killing Lauren Giddings.

He is serving a life sentence for her murder.

Posted: 4th, September 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Merry Christmas: it’s Deadline Day EVE On Sky Sports

It’s the final day of the transfer season. And on Sky Sports they’re calling it Deadline Day Eve.

 

Merry Christmas, readers!

 

For all Footy stuff follow Pies.

 

Posted: 1st, September 2015 | In: Sports, TV & Radio | Comment


Jimmy Kimmel no longer only man alive not to have seen Miley Cyrus’ breasts

1404051256535371693

 

In readiness to shock to deadline on the corporate VMA awards, host Miley Cyrus appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live with most of her breasts exposed.

Kimmel was thought by many to be one of the three remaining human being not to have seen Cyrus’s breasts. Miley is now actively seeking an audience with the Pope and Lord Lucan, preferably both at once to save time before she can move on to stage 2 of Operation Primary Sexual Characteristics and show us her massive beefy knob.

 

1404047499497014050

 

Kimmel was keen to know if Miley’s dad had appraised his daughter’s naked chest.

“My dad’s cool, because I’m sure he’d maybe rather me not have my tits out all the time,” said Cyrus. “But he’d rather me have my tits out and be a good person than have a shirt on and be a bitch.”

Those are a pretty limited set of life choices in the Cyrus household.

“You know what I’ve learned? It’s not the tit—are you allowed to say ‘tit’ on your show?”added Cyrus.
“Humans aren’t afraid of the human breast. It’s the nipple that’s the issue…Like, I’m showing my boobs and no one has a problem, but the nipples are covered, so somehow that’s OK. So America’s actually fine with tits. It’s nipples they don’t like.”

Which is great news for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Posted: 27th, August 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


TV Blooper: West Ham says QPR’s Charlie Austin has ‘no ligaments in his right dick’

Why aren’t West Ham United bidding for QPR’s Charlie Austin?

 

More here.

 

Posted: 20th, August 2015 | In: Sports, TV & Radio | Comment


EastEnders: June Brown is deaf and blind but you should see Dot Cotton

dot cotton blind

 

The dystopian hell of BBC TV’s EastEnders isn’t all a middle-class liberal’s merlot-induced dream about the lower classes – it’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary. The Sun catches up with one of the show’s stars, rheumy-eyed Dot Branning, who tells readers that her health could be better.

“DOT: I’M GOING DEAF AND BLIND”

In the soap’s competition to be every more miserable, you have to now expect a welter of rival headlines:

“ALFIE: I’m going deaf, dumb and blind”

“PHIL: I’m going deaf, dumb, blind and ate my own tongue”

“SONIA: I’m dead”

But this story is not about Dot. It’s not a plot driver. The story is about a woman called June Brown, the 88-year-old actress, who whilst at a Barbara Windsor stage show “struggled to hear her pal despite sitting in the front row”.

And when Barbara, 78, brought her on stage, she asked: “Are you talking to me Babs? Tell me, because I’m deaf you see and it’s very hard for me to hear so I don’t know what you’re talking about. What did you say to me?”

She then told the audience at London’s BFI: “Sorry, I would like you all to shout because I can’t hear, you see. I am ever so sorry. I am straining here.”

Meanwhile, in the far more real world of EastEnders, things have gotten worse for Dot. A “source” explains:

“It’s important for her that people know this isn’t an issue at work. The only reason she is off screen at the moment is because Dot is in prison.”

“She’ll be back at work imminently and is chomping at the bit to return.”

Maybe. But did we mention her teeth?

 

Posted: 18th, August 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Listen to Okilly Dokilly: the Ned Flanders trubite band have a song out

ned flanders tribute band

 

To Phoenix, Arizona, where Okilly Dokilly – the world’s first and only Ned Flanders tribute band – are talking to James McCann. They play ‘Nedal’ music. It being what The Simpson’s character would have wanted.

As their Facebook bio notes: “most of our songs are direct Ned quotes.”

Lead Singer Head Ned On How They Got Started

“Myself and our drummer (Bled Ned) were in line at a grocery store, entertaining ourselves by coming up with really cutesy names for really hardcore, brutal bands. The name Okilly Dokilly came up and was very funny to us. We ran with it. I contacted a few friends (Red Ned, Thread Ned and Stead Ned), and here we are. Most of us have played in other bands around our hometown. This is definitely the heaviest sounding project any of us Neds have done.”

 

The Sound

“Not as fast as Bartcore, and a little cleaner than Krusty Punk. Not as heavy as ‘Homer J.ent’ – Nedal is a happy medium in the Simpscene.”

 

 

Are You All Left Handed?

“I am,”says Head Ned. “The other Neds aren’t so lucky. It made writing All That Is Left pretty fun,” he continues. “It’s our homage to the Leftorium, and the bridge is entirely left handed puns.”

 

The Dream

In reality, this is all just an over-the-top attempt at getting Matt Groening’s autograph, even if it comes on a cease and desist letter.

 

And now for the demo tape:

Posted: 14th, August 2015 | In: Key Posts, Music, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Celebrity Big Brother: Danniella Westbrook is ‘incredibly incoherent’

Danniella-Westbrook
Danniella Westbrook’s Celebrity Big Brother comeback is off. The Sun says a CBB “shrink” (actually the show’s psychologist) talked with the 41-year-old former EastEnders actress and reformed cocaine addict who became known to millions as the “girl with no nose” and decided it would be best to cancel.

But the real shocker is that CBB was prepared to pay the former star £200,000 to be on the telly. We don’t know what the actress was paid to appear on I’m Famous – and Frightened with former TV chef Rustie Lee. ‘Handy’ Andy Kane from Changing Rooms, Jade Goody’s boyfriend and Madge from Neighbours but we’d guess it was shy of £200,000. And surely it was alway a risk to hire Westbrook who quit I’m a Celebrity when she found a rat in her hammock.

 

Danniella-Westbrook naked sexy

 

Westbrook’s hopes to rival Katie Price in the hardback bestseller lists are dashed. 

A nameless “source” arrives to tell us what legend Danniella is:

 “The producers were desperate to get Danniella on the show because, let’s face it, she’d make great TV. She was invited to meet them and alarm bells started ringing straight away. She was incredibly incoherent.”

That’s what happens when you work too long on EastEnders. You end up talking in a BBC Cockney patois. Trains of thought are interrupted by massive pauses. You reply to questions by barking ‘Sort it aht!’. You are routinely out-thought and out-acted by a dog.

It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Danniella. TV careers have been built on less.

1751492SB008_TwoWeeks

Image 1 of 14

LONDON - JANUARY 30: Actress Danniella Westbrook poses for photographers as she arrives at the premiere of Two Weeks Notice on January 30, 2003 in London. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Posted: 13th, August 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Katie Hopkins’ death appears in the TV schedules

katie-hopkins-dead

 

Katie Hopkins is having an operation on her brain. The Sun’s vile-to-deadline columnist gives the newspaper an “exclusive” in much the same way a baby gives their parent an exclusive look at their filled nappy. But let’s not knock Katie because this is serious.

I’m having a brain op… I could die

EXCLUSIVE: Katie Hopkins reveals she’s ‘full of fear’ over epilepsy surgery

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 1st, August 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


The Battle for the BBC: the celebrity form letter and other Greek gifts

bbc letter

 

Media loves little more than talking about media. No surprise, then, that a letter in praise of the BBC signed by such entertainment bigwigs as JK Rowling and Chris Evans should ride high on the news cycle. But what did the Press make of it?

The Guardian:

JK Rowling and Chris Evans have joined a host of A-list names to have signed an open letter to the prime minister calling on him to protect the BBC from cuts to its service

If your names on the list, you’re in. Imagine the upset as celebs not on the BBC register realise they rank below Adil Ray, Mark Rylance and Reggie Yates.

The full text of the letter:

The battle for the BBC

Dear prime minister,

We have seen that the government has pledged to modernise the licence fee, return funding that had been diverted to pay for broadband roll-out, and increase the licence fee in line with inflation in return for the BBC taking on the costs of licence fees for the over-75s.

The government and the BBC are now entering the charter review. We are writing to place on record at the very start of the process our concern that nothing should be done to diminish the BBC or turn it into a narrowly focused market-failure broadcaster.

In our view, a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain.

The BBC is a very precious institution. Like all organisations, it has its faults but it is overwhelmingly a creative force for good.

Britain’s creative economy is growing and enjoying unprecedented success. The BBC is at the heart of this as the global showcase for our creative industries. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad.

During the course of the charter, we will continue to make the case for a strong BBC at the centre of British life and will be vocal in making the case for the BBC as it approaches its centenary.

Advertisement

Yours sincerely

Clara Amfo
David Attenborough
Clare Balding
Melvyn Bragg
Brian Cox
Daniel Craig
Richard Curtis
Judi Dench
Chris Evans
Stephen Fry
Nick Grimshaw
Miranda Hart
Lenny Henry
Gary Lineker
Michael McIntyre
Steven Moffatt
Trevor Nelson
Annie Nightingale
Graham Norton
Jamie Oliver
Michael Palin
Adil Ray
JK Rowling
Mark Rylance
Simon Schama
David Walliams
Rachel Weisz
Claudia Winkleman
Reggie Yates

Over in the Times, the story is how so many names got together to write a letter:

BBC organised celebrities’ protest letter

Well, of course someone must have. Sat in the BBC canteen, one of them must have kickstarted the project and drafted the thing. Given the lack of wow!, fist bumps and seagull droppings we’d says the root was either Schama or Adil Ray*, the latter chiefly because we don’t know who they are and they could only benefit from the exposure.

The Times says that’s wrong.

The letter was presented as an independent protest against plans to reform the BBC, but The Times can reveal that executives at the highest level helped to co-ordinate it while the corporation officially denied all knowledge.

Annie Nightingale, BBC Radio 1’s longest-serving presenter and one of the letter’s 29 signatories, said she had been invited to be a signatory by Ben Cooper, the controller of Radio 1. She had not seen the text of the letter before its publication.

And then this:

Mr Cohen is friends with two Hollywood stars who signed the letter, Daniel Craig and his wife, the actress Rachel Weisz. They attended his 2012 wedding, where Weisz was a bridesmaid. Neither the actors nor the BBC would comment on whether Mr Cohen had helped to persuade the couple to sign.

Is that a big deal? And, in any case, when Hollywood stars tell the unwashed how great the BBC is, does anyone listen? Yeah, weak politicians do, the ones who view the arts as mirrors to their own sensitive souls, shiny things to pick up and drop when an easy photo opportunity is needed.

But better than reading the grandstanding talent and listening for the politicos reactions are the readers comments papers chose to feature. The Guardian, which is pretty much the BBC’s in-house news sheet, heads its readers’ letters page:

Friends of the BBC will oppose the government’s vicious attacks

Tories, and their friends among the circling vultures of the commercial sector, assume that in doing popular programmes the BBC has been muscling in on natural commercial territory. But they are getting their history back-to-front. The BBC got there first – by several decades. It would be more accurate to say that commercial broadcasters have been muscling in on the BBC’s natural territory. Perhaps the government needs an expert panel to investigate whether they should be scaled back?
Professor David Hendy
University of Sussex

Compare and contrast that to the top reader comment in the Times, the paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Sky TV:

John Prince
What a sad reflection on the Beeb! They try to play dirty by organising their grubby little letter, then lack the testicular fortitude to admit their involvement.

The FOI request will get nowhere – emails inexplicably deleted, so sorry.
Spike 
All the luvvie rats trying to save the ship how quaint, a few will go to the bottom. I must admit though the list of people who signed are actually talented there are some exceptions but not many..
John black 
I have a sickening feeling that the BBC problem will turn into another Greece. We all know it is wrong, however it will drag it on and on until the public get taken again.

* Ray created Citizen Khan, the dire – and I mean turd-stinking bad – BBC sitcom.

Posted: 16th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment


Celebrity Big Brother: watch Farrah Abraham in the comfort of a rubber mold of her body parts

TV works in seasons. Summer means Celebrity Big Brother. And that means a visit to Blighty for Farah Arbaham, famous for a sex tape and all the things that go with it: rehab, regret, ‘Made in Hollywood’ jugs and a rubber mould modelled on her primary sexual characteristics avilable to anyone in need of a novelty washing up glove or moneybox as Full-On Farrah Vibrating Pussy and Ass.

 

farrah abraham sex doll

 

But things didn’t quite go to plan for Farrah. The chance to stick your penis or head inside a fake rubby anus shaped like hers (with ‘love tunnels’ heated to a ‘lifelike’ temperatute buy two ‘warming wands’) was not her ticket to fortune.

 

farrah abraham big brother sex

 

 

In January told InTouch where she says the release of her sex tape was a huge mistake and if she could take it back, she would.

It made it hard to have friends and a private life and to trust family, who I feel use me for money. If I went back in time, I would not have done it. The sex tape ruined my life.

Despite warnings from family who feared selling the X-rated tape would send a terrible message to her 4-year-old daughter, Sophia, Farrah did it anyway — and says she quickly realized it was a bad idea. “Knowing my sex tape was out there for everyone in the world to see … was overwhelming,” she says. “I wanted to hide my face and not go out or pick up my phone.”

One other reason it was bad idea was that those porn tapes don’t pay as well as the marketing states. The headline story was that sex movies are so rare that Farrah’s backdoor romp earned her $1.5 millionFOX411 said Abraham actually earned around $10,000.

Farrah is now much changed:

“Therapy helped me understand I can’t continue experiencing life [the way I had been], that I’m more special than sex tapes. Hearing others tell me my worth is [all based on] my body. … I’m stronger than that.”

Or as the Sun puts it:

The former star of MTV shows Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant has cashed in once again thanks to CBB bosses, who hope she’ll make the series more X-rated than ever.

F0or a fee, she might…

 

Posted: 12th, July 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment