Election Fever!

Anyone missing the Election? No? OK it’s just me then. For the weeks leading up to and most of the time since the election, our TV screens have been full of things like Nick Robinson’s face. So let’s look back at the 2010 General Election from a TV perspective:


ELECTION SPECIAL

PRE-ELECTION

The first TV debate was brought to us by ITV with Alistair Stewart as the host. An hour and a half was spent with the three leaders stood in what looked like a dodgy 1970’s game show setting. The novelty of the debate soon wore off when we realised no one in the audience was allowed to make any noise or expressive movement – and also that we weren’t going to see a fight (be honest, that’s what you tuned in for). Alistair Stewart spent the evening barking names, “Mr Clegg, Mr Clegg!” followed by “Mr Cameron, Mr Cameron!” etc which would make an ideal dance remix for 'da clubs'. All we really learnt from the evening was that Nick Clegg could look down a lens of a camera and remember people’s names very well.

Sky News broadcast the second TV debate and the host was Adam “Don’t tell me what I think” Boulton*. The set looked like the view of the British Airways parking lot during the volcanic ash cloud and Boulton was randomly sat behind a desk and didn’t really do a whole lot. It could’ve been worse though, we could’ve had Kay Burley. The audience would then not have been in dead silence, as we’d hear cries of, “Sky News is rubbish! Watch the BBC!” (Sky News have really not had the best Election – here’s the YouTube link)
*And if you haven’t seen the ‘almost live punch up’ between Adam “Don’t tell me what I think” Boulton and Alastair Campbell here’s another YouTube link.

Ahhh, Gillian Duffy. The OAP who was on her way to get a loaf of bread one lovely afternoon in Rochdale. She decided to ask Gordon Brown a question and then hours later she was the most famous person to come out of Rochdale in, well, ever. Gordon had left his Sky News (yes them again) live microphone on and we heard him describe Gillian as a bigoted woman. But the big question was, who put Gordon with Gillian, “was it Sue?” he asked. It appears so. I even spotted a Facebook page which read “Don’t you hate it when Sue puts you with that bigoted woman” – which I promptly joined. All of life’s woes are Sue’s fault and not #nickcleggsfault.

The final debate came after the Gillian Duffy scandal and we all wanted to see what Gordon said. He simply said, “There’s a lot to this job. And as you saw yesterday, I do not get all of it right.” BORING! I wanted Clegg & Cameron to lay into him! Anyway, the reliable David Dimbleby was our host (vast improvement on the previous two), in what looked like a Church. We didn’t learn anything new in this debate apart from Nick Clegg could still look down the lens of a camera and remember people’s names just as well as the debate before.

ELECTION NIGHT

For the big night I mainly stuck to the BBC’s broadcast, with their huge election studio and various ‘busy’ people sat at computers. I did drift to ITV occasionally, as they did seem to have a time machine, which gave us the results about 20 minutes before they were announced.

So the BBC gave us some ‘celebs’ on a boat. We saw Joan Collins painfully confess her love for David Cameron, Bruce threw in a few catchphrases and the rest just proved how little they all know about politics. I did feel sorry for Andrew Neil being given the role of interviewing these ‘celebs’, but after seeing the Wizard of Oz themed opening titles to “This Week” – he kinda deserved it.

Back in the studio, David Dimbleby was chairing the evening, with his sidekick Nick Robinson. Emily Maitlis used what appeared to be an over-sized iPad to show us the statistics on the incoming results. Fiona Bruce read the news every now and then, whilst Jeremy Vine wandered up and down some paving slabs, which represented the local constituencies that the Tory’s needed to reach the door of No.10. The best bit was when Vine talked about the current MP’s who weren’t standing and he gave us some digital dominoes to topple! License fee was totally worth it this year.

Alistair ‘Mr Clegg, Mr Clegg!’ Stewart was hosting the ITV coverage whilst Julie Etch-a-sketch stood by a large screen that seemed to present a Labour v Tory Top Trumps game. I’m sure they had other flashy things like the BBC but they must’ve used them around 5am.

Time for the results to start coming in. Sunderland were desperate to announce their seats first, so took a load of students and made them run around with ballot boxes, before passing them in chain-like system. The excitement was almost unbearable - surely this is the way forward for “Deal Or No Deal”. Gradually (in fact painfully slow) the results came through. I got bored and dozed off to sleep around 3.30am and woke up at 11am to see that David Dimbleby was still presenting live television – I really hope he’d had a shower at some point overnight.

Channel 4’s “Alternative Election Night” gave us David Mitchell talking to a few journos about the incoming results, Jimmy Carr presenting his ‘thoughts’ on the stories of the election and the ever-reliable Charlie Brooker gave us some Newswipe & You Have Been Watching goodness. Lauren Laverne was there too. Sandwiched between everything was a “Come Dine With Me” special in which we learnt that Edwina Currie, Rod Liddle, Brian Paddick and Derek Hatton provide a good case for euthanasia rules to be relaxed in the UK. Watching them desperately try to impress the public each other was as fake as Gordon Brown’s natural smile. The night as a whole was entertaining and it seems C4 think so too as they will be doing more of this politics/comedy crossover, which can only be a good thing for us viewers.

POST ELECTION

Although Channel 4’s “Alternative Election Night” was good viewing, the most laughs that week came from quite possibly the funniest episode of “Have I Got News For You”, ever. I chose to watch the extended and much funnier version titled, “Have I Got A Bit More Election News For You” (BBC2, Saturday 8th May 9pm – 10/10) or HIGABMENFY as I choose to call it. They delayed it to a Friday evening broadcast so they could film it on the morning after the results. Of course there was no new Government at that time.

Jo Brand was the host this week; she did well with her dry humour, and coped with Ian Hislop’s questions about her video for the Labour Party. The often-overlooked comedian Jon Richardson was on Ian’s team, until they swapped and Hislop & Merton joined forces, “I might win this week” quipped Hislop. The other panellist was former-cheeky-boy-and-now-former-MP Lembit Opik who was involved in another shocking story too: he was actually quite funny. The highlight being when Hislop directed a joke at Opik and other politicians, to which Opik replied, “I’m not a politician!” Hilarious episode, and I’m so glad we’ve had this show on during the Election.

The live announcement of David Cameron becoming Prime Minister came during “The One Show” (poor Lulu got all dressed up for nowt). Then we saw live footage of David Cameron travelling to Buckingham Palace and being stuck behind a learner driver. Personally, I was hoping that The Queen wasn’t in. Although it was more likely that she’d not been allowed out since election night until they made a decision and then to make it worse, they made her miss “EastEnders” too!

On the latest edition of HIGABMNFY (BBC2, Saturday 15th May 9pm – 9/10), which was the first show with DC as our PM, NC as our DPM and GB as regular old MP, we were treated to Martin Clunes as our playful host (who made plenty of errors in this uncut version). Ian Hislop and Paul Merton needn’t have been there as Julia Hartley-Brewer and Chris Addison provided most of the laughs. In particular Addison’s tirade against journalists throughout the episode, and Hartley-Brewer desperately trying to defend herself! The other highlights of this episode were Gordon Brown’s best bits (they showed a clip of his resignation speech), the revelation that George Osborne used to be Julia’s slave and a hilarious montage of Brown’s gaffes and fake smiles.

And with that we’ve been forced to go all cold turkey on any Election news for now. “Have I Got News For You” only has a couple of episodes left this series, so we’ll have to wait until the Labour Party leadership result is announced (in September, hopefully when Hislop & Merton are back on!) or until Cameron & Clegg screw up the country. Whichever comes first.

TV Summary 6th-8th May 2010 - Doctor Who & more!

Now here is the rest of last weeks TV, complete with marks out of 10!

REST OF THE WEEK - 6th to 8th May 2010

DOCTOR WHO




Saturday night is “Doctor Who” night (BBC1, 6pm – 6/10) and this week we were back to so-so it’s-good-but-not-great territory with “The Vampires Of Venice”. On the back of two scintillating episodes, “The Time Of Angels” and “Flesh And Stone” it was always going to be tough to maintain that high standard without the Weeping Angels, and these vampires (which are really fish?!) just didn’t quite cut it. Despite being written by Toby Whithouse (of “Being Human” success) the episode lacked real tension and concern for the citizens of Venice. However the setting and aesthetics of the episode were second to none. Some great buildings, costumes and props were used to film this episode and “Doctor Who Confidential” (BBC Three, 7pm – 4/10) showed us some of these in great detail. Plus Matt Smith got a trip to Venice, how is that fair!?
Next week’s episode does look to be an absolute corker though, so make sure you don’t miss it and come back here for my thoughts.


OUTNUMBERED

After being pulled off our screens the previous week for the final Leaders’ Debate (I still think having Karen asking the questions would’ve made up for it), the nation rejoiced when Britain’s only genuinely funny sitcom* returned. “Outnumbered” (BBC1, 9.25pm – 7/10) was a in a superstitious mood this week (well Karen was anyway). It wasn’t the funniest episode of the sitcom, the highlights being the pigeon in the kitchen, Karen’s obsession with everything remotely superstitious and Ben’s lovely chat with the pregnant house viewer. I’m looking forward to next weeks’ episode though, with the return of Sue’s sister Angela! Should be good.

*OK it’s the only genuinely funny one airing at the moment, because “Gavin & Stacey” has finished and “The Inbetweeners” isn’t back on yet.


THE SIMPSONS

The latest episode of “The Simpsons” (Sky1, Thursday 7.30pm – 5/10) “The Color Yellow” revolved around Lisa’s quest to trace the Simpson family routes. Most of the Simpson ancestors were not as pleasant as Lisa had expected, until she came across the diary of Eliza Simpson who came to the aid of a slave named Virgil. Until it transpired that Colonel Burns returned to retrieve his slave and Eliza did nothing to stop Burns, which disappointed Lisa. However it turned out that Mabel (Eliza’s mother) threatened Burns and ran away with Virgil to give birth to Lisa’s ancestor Abraham, meaning Bart, Lisa and Maggie are 1/64 Afro-American!

Sadly this episode has not continued the great form of The Simpsons anniversary season, which can already boast instant classics such as, “Thursdays With Abie” and the “Once Upon A Time In Springfield”. This episode felt like we were re-treading old ground as the storyline followed closely to the Season 9 Episode “Lisa The Simpson” – but just not as funny.


MODERN FAMILY

Thursday nights on Sky 1 are just awesome – simply because of brand new Simpsons and the excellent “Modern Family” (Sky1, Thursday 8pm). The first episode of the double bill (“Starry Night” – 6/10) wasn’t really that funny but had its’ highlights with Luke’s ADHD and Van Gogh school project and Cameron’s reaction to the food of Gloria’s ‘people’.

The second episode “Game Changer” (7/10) was almost the birthday from hell for poor Phil. Claire didn’t get him his iPad, Jay, Manny and Gloria were too busy fighting over chess and Mitchell got in a fight (wish we’d seen more of that!). Luckily the iPad Phil so desperately wanted turned up, courtesy of Luke, who’d lied to a fellow iPad customer that his dad was dying of cancer and wanted an iPad before he passed on.
It was a funny episode, as they always are when the whole family come together (see Episode 9 “Fizbo”), but it’s Luke who saved the day and is easily becoming my favourite character on the show. Here’s hoping we get more ensemble episodes before the season ends.


FINALLY...
WOW. I can’t believe what I just saw! Proper hands over eyes moment. What am I talking about? “Britain’s Got Talent” (ITV1, Saturday 8pm – 7/10) and the machete man Hayashi! The whole episode paled in comparison to this amazing act, who along with the gymnasts ‘Spellbound’ and regurgitator Stevie Starr – have to be some of the front-runners in this series. I just hope we don’t end up with a dance act or singer winning again....


That's your lot folks - see you soon for some more Stuff About TV!

30 ROCK ROCKS - TV Summary 03/05/2010

TV Summary Monday 3rd May 2010

OK, so I was off ill most of last week with an ear infection (yippee) and caught up on a lot of TV. So I decided to start a blog about TV, starting with last Monday….

CHRIS’S CHOICE



30 ROCK
(Comedy Central) Double-Bill “The Problem Solvers” (Season 4, Episode 5) – “Sun Tea” (Season 4, Episode 6)

Tucked away on Comedy Central (Channel 132 on Virgin & 126 on Sky in case you didn't know) getting only around 50,000 viewers is this gem of sitcom. For those who’ve never seen the show, it revolves around the production team on an NBC late-night comedy show “TGS” primarily focussing on the writers (lead by Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon) and its’ management (Alec Baldwin’s brilliant Jack Donaghy).

“The Problem Solvers” (9/10) was a great start to the double bill and provided many laughs from the get go. The team were awaiting their new cast member, when Lutz entered and some thought it was him, “No, I’m Lutz. Worked here for 3 years. Gave you that car I won” - poor Lutz. So when the new cast member arrived we learnt his name was Jack, to which Jack (of the Donaghy variety) informed him he couldn’t have that name and Danny would work better, he had no choice, it stuck. More laughs came upon learning that ‘Danny’ was Canadian and couldn’t say the word ‘about’ without sounding too Canadian. Cue plenty of "abooout", "abuout" and "abouout"s.

Liz’s female empowering ‘Deal Breakers’ book has been selling successfully worldwide, especially in China, where it translates to “Deal breaker, the book for you, man no good by Lesbian Flower Sour Fruit”. Jack has decided to commission a chat show based on the book, presented by Liz. Jenna tells Liz to get an agent and try to sort out a better deal. Of course the agent Liz ends up with usually deals with acting dogs and according to Jack is working on roles for, “Are You Smarter Than A Dog? and I’m A Celebrity Dog Get Me Out Arf Here!”

Also Jenna & Tracy began to go around solving peoples problems and imaginatively chose to name themselves the ‘Problem Solvers’ (complete with T-Shirts) and began giving advice to those who (they thought) needed it. After ‘Danny’ suggested to Kenneth that he does less of his page duties, Kenneth didn’t enjoy being unhelpful and sought the guidance of the ‘Problem Solvers’. It was only when ‘Danny’ informed Jenna & Tracy that Kenneth could one day be their boss, did the 'Problem Solvers' begin to act. In the end Kenneth did end up helping ‘Danny’ after an argument which led the Canadian to say ‘about’ in the correct accent! Hurrah!

This episode had two very strong narrative strands. Jenna & Tracy always work best together as the ‘talent’ on the show, and combined with new boy ‘Danny’ we could have some serious fun with the cast in the coming episodes. Liz’s ‘Deal Breakers’ show looks set to continue as a running trend throughout the season, which is a huge bonus, as it’s going to be pretty funny to see Liz in front of the cameras for once.

The second episode “Sun Tea” (8/10) still had some classic moments, namely Frank’s bottled urine, the return of Dr. Spaceman and a great comic turn from Al Gore. But as the episode centred on NBC’s ‘Green Week’ it didn’t quite translate as well to UK viewers as the first episode this week. That said, joint with ABC’s “Modern Family”, “30 Rock” is still the funniest American sitcom since “Friends” ended 6 years ago. So if you’ve got no excuse not to go and buy Seasons 1, 2 & 3 DVD boxsets and catch up! Go on, do it right now…..

ALSO ON MONDAY

“The Graham Norton Show” (BBC1, 10.45pm – 9/10) was rather enjoyable this week too. The reason Graham’s show works so well is that all the guests share the sofa together, so you get bewildered American A-Listers such as this week’s guest Jennifer Lopez, sitting next to the likes of Alan Davies! Along with the new Doctor Who assistant Karen Gillan on the sofa, the show really provided the laughs when a website produced an image of what an Alan Davies/Jennifer Lopez lovechild would look like, providing viewers with an image they’d never want to see again, until an Alan Davies/Karen Gillan baby was produced. Lopez proved to be a great sport and clearly enjoyed being on the show, Gillan seemed slightly nervy, whereas Davies was on top form and how refreshing it was to see a guest on a chat show who wasn’t promoting anything! Hopefully this chat show will end up filling the slot vacated by the departing Jonathan Ross on Friday nights.

Monday’s “Flash Forward” (Five, 9pm – 8/10) episode was actually rather good. Since returning from its’ mid-season hiatus, when the revelation that seemingly loyal Janis Hawk was the mole in the FBI, the show has regained the pace and thrills it began with. Now in this episode we learn that Janis is in fact a double agent working for CIA Agent Vogel to try an gain information from a mysterious lady working a fish shop (no, seriously, a shop that sells fish) and Janis is really a goodie after all, hurrah!

Also on Monday, E4’s episode of “Glee” (E4, 9pm – 5/10) was, well - a bit rubbish. Despite the hilarious Kristin Chenoweth returning as April, the episode sadly fell a bit flat. Plus, I only knew one of the songs. Hopefully it’ll be back on form next week – or else I’ll turn all Sue Sylvester on it.

So, that was my first TV blog, feel free to leave comments. That is if anyone is actually reading it....I'm slightly wary this was a pointless exercise.

Welcome!

Hello, I'm Chris and I'm new to this Blogging thing.

I plan to write a blog on "Stuff about TV" on a UK broadcast pace, and I hope you'll all join me - it should be fun.

Whilst I learn how to use this blog, keep watching TV...... it's ace.

Chris