This was one of those ‘ahhhhhh’ shows, and how nice to see one in amidst a TV line-up of surgeries and ‘deep’ issues.

And nobody could’ve been better placed to present this meander back into childhood and unearth those rosy-tinted memories, bringing them squinting into the light of present day. Albeit that the kids he hoped to wow with Airfix quite obviously were only humouring him – because there was a camera around – his affection for his subject made me want to go out and buy a kit.

The group of children he enlisted to help him build a life-size Airfix model probably all hoped to be the next ‘big thing’ to come out of having been on telly, and if not, well, they’ve got it on DVD to show their own kids in years to come. For them, one got the distinct feeling that Airfix was not going to be one of their cherished childhood pastimes. Read more & comment »

In last night’s BBC4 offering, Upgrade Me, poet Simon Armitage – who, just as an aside, is my daughter’s favourite poet – waxed lyrical and rhapsodically about how technology, and its rapid and ever changing pace, is shaping all our lives.

This show was part of Aunty Beeb’s Electronic Revolution season and it wore two hats; it was a trip down memory lane for those of us old enough to have one, and it was also a look into the future of gadgetry. And I have to say, despite thinking I’d find it all a bit of a yawnfest, it was actually pretty interesting.

For instance, during a trip to Seoul, Simon met with a bunch of people who make up Samsung’s “ringtone team”, so in case you’ve been looking for a target when the sound of someone’s exceptionally annoying ringtone keeps going off – as I have been, ever since that chuffin’ frog tone was the ‘in’ thing – these are the people you want to aim for, or at. Read more & comment »

I’m so glad that Saturday night TV is picking up. Mind you, after the god-awful summer schedules for Saturday, it doesn’t take much.

That said, Walk On The Wild Side and The Cube both make excellent half-hour-each diversionary telly, and both are brilliant in their own way.

This weekend is the first time I’ve seen Walk On The Wild Side and having seen it, I’m going to catch-up on the previous episodes on iPlayer. In case you’ve never seen it, the concept uses footage of animals and Jason Manford – and a whole host of other folks – do voiceovers to provide very amusing ‘what they might be saying’ stuff. Read more & comment »

This week’s episode was every bit as good as last week’s, if not better in fact. One of the major high points for me was a brief appearance by Huey Morgan from Fun Lovin’ Criminals, with whom I’d happily get whacked on Scooby snacks any old time. However, I digress…

The saga of the Hotel That May Never Be Finished continued and as Christmas faded away and the New Year dawned, the hotel doors were somewhere in Europe, as were the beds, and Mick, second in command of the project, looked like he wished he was likewise.

Kevin on the other hand, the overall boss of the building work, was cooler than a polar bear’s dangly bits, despite the fact that the hotel was still nowhere near completion and Mark was on the brink of tearing someone a new one. And I doubt any court in the land would’ve convicted him if they’d seen for themselves the agony of trying to achieve even one deadline… Read more & comment »

FUTURAMA, the quick-witted animation from the mastermind behind The Simpsons, makes a much anticipated television return on Sunday 30th August at 6pm only on Sky1.

Set in the 31st century, Matt Groening’s FUTURAMA is sci-fi comedy at its very best. Billy West voices Fry, the 20th century pizza delivery boy who awoke in the year 3000. Katey Sagal voices Leela, the sexy cyclops who captains the Planet Express ship and is the object of Fry’s affections; and John DiMaggio voices Bender, the crude, rude alcohol-fueled robot. As the Planet Express crew explore New New York City and the universe beyond, the latest FUTURAMA episodes promise to be as spectacularly silly as ever.

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Fair dos, the parents featured on this show were indeed some of the most cringe-makingly embarrassing people ever to have given birth. And good for them I say! It’s time we adults rebelled against the conventional, and the parental rebellion is well under way all across Britain it would seem.

Kids will always want to blend in with the crowd; whether that’s wearing the same trainers as everyone else does or having the same kind of upbringing everyone else does, but the fact is, we parents would like it known we have personalities and interests of our own, and we’re not going to sit in a corner knitting just to please you kids and to fit into your stereotypes.

Like Karim who featured last night, if we want to play air guitar and go to rock gigs, we dang well will. If we, like Jo Sperring, want to be a muscle bound pin up, well, we so will. And as Jo said last night as she strutted her stuff before her kids and one of their friends, “If I know it’s embarrassing them, I’m gonna do it just that litttttle bit more”. You go girlfriend. We forty somethings must stand together and shame our children at every turn and wherever possible. Why? Because it’s funny and because we can… Read more & comment »

Well it’s been a while since Mrs Angry had a good rant so it’s overdue, and there’s plenty to rant about right now, including Saturday night programming, pants storylines, inappropriate use of props and putting good stuff on late…

If aliens landed on a Saturday night and tuned into our TV channels to see what constituted entertainment for us earth dwellers, on the terrestrial channels they’d see we were watching shows like Totally Saturday and the new ITV offering, Anonymous. And then they’d think we were less intelligent than plankton and either decide to take us over or bog off again looking for folks with more than one brain cell.

Just what is it that makes programme makers assume that anyone who’s home on a Saturday night is going to just love slapstick, clichéd practical jokes, what amounts to ritual humiliation and all presented in an oh so tired format? Read more & comment »

Unlike Taking The Flak – last night’s BBC2 comedic offering – BBC4’s Getting On was truly hilarious and for once, I didn’t feel like one of Dick Turpin’s victims where my license fee was concerned.

Filmed documentary style and directed by Oscar winner Peter Capaldi, it completely embraced and faultlessly put across the PC, paper strewn world of the modern hospital ward, and the characters were utterly believable.

From put-upon nurse Kim Wilde, played in wonderfully dead pan mode by Jo Brand – who of course used to be a nurse so she may well have drawn on her own experiences for this show – to the pedantic and patronising Consultant, Dr Moore, again played to perfection by Vicki Pepperdine, it was a real treat for anyone who truly appreciates dark humour. Read more & comment »

Well it’s been a pretty grim weekend for many of us so far with storms everywhere and feeling a tad sticky but at least when the weather fails us, we’ve got telly to keep us entertained!

And there are lots of new series starting next week too, so here are our picks of some great shows to watch next week… Read more & comment »

With the promise of a mini-heatwave this week, you maybe won’t be inside much but if you are, then it’s a great week of TV watching ahead!

And if you weren’t able to get to Glastonbury, you can watch all the highlights at the weekend on BBC3 and 4, so you can feel like you’re there, even if you’re not!

Here are our Primetime Picks for the next seven days… Read more & comment »

I really wasn’t sure whether to laugh, be scared or throw up while watching this new comedy-horror by the truly twisted inventors of The League of Gentlemen, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

It started out being promisingly amusing in the first few seconds with a mystery man, all gloves and black clothes, writing out cards saying ‘I know what you did’ and sealing them with black wax. He’s then called to “Cashier number 4 please” and we see he’s in a bank with someone in the queue behind him remarking that he’s left his candle.

We then cut to one of the recipients of the mystery cards, Mr Jelly, a psychopathic one-handed clown and children’s entertainer who was asleep on his sofa cradling the ashtray that looked very much like the dice one from the set of the Royle Family… Read more & comment »

Michael McIntyre seems to have come from nowhere to suddenly being everywhere, and thank God he is!

He’s without doubt one of the funniest men I’ve ever watched and his addition to the Saturday night line up on TV is very welcome because, let’s face it, Saturday night viewing is inordinately light on laughs. For instance, last night we had hideous alternative offerings such as Britain Does The Funniest things to compare this show to, and by comparison to Michael’s roadshow, Britain in general doesn’t do anything remotely amusing… Read more & comment »

I hope you’re having a lovely Sunday, despite the rain! There’s some great TV to look forward to next week so here’s what we recommend you tune your tellybox into in the coming seven days… Read more & comment »

Ah the absolute bliss; the Brits in Benidorm were back last night for a special episode which transcended the giddy heights of humourous excellence and made it to the roof of the high rise apartment block, the Solana… as did half the gang of our beloved holidaymakers who were being held hostage there by a murderer with a gun, but nonetheless, it was a nice day for it and luckily, the inside bar was still open.

If you missed this last night, it should be made law that you watch it on ITV’s catch-up Player – it’s for your own good because to not watch it would leave a huge humour shaped hole in your life, it was just that good. Read more & comment »