Yippee! It’s a long weekend and most of us are having some lovely sunshine, but, with the weather due to deteriorate next week, we might be forced indoors and what better way to pass the time than watching some great telly? Here’s what we recommend you take a look at on TV this week… Read more & comment »

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, G.O.L.D. is throwing open the doors of TV’s most famous hotel once more after a lengthy absence, but it’s an absence during which the show has remained as funny, and as watched, as it was when it first aired. So, we thought we’d add our own little anniversary tribute to one of the best sitcoms that’s ever been on TV, but before we do, here’s what the show tonight – and its follow-up shows – are about…

Fawlty Towers: Re-opened gathers the cast and crew together to retrace the history of the sitcom from their ‘insider’ point of view. This one-off special tonight leaves no English Riviera stone unturned in its search for trivia and nuggets of information from the Fawlty Towers guestbook, together with in-depth interviews with John Cleese, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales, as well as Connie Booth talking about her memories from the show for the first time in 30 years. Just don’t mention the war… Read more & comment »

I did much of my growing up in the 70s and even though this show is set in America and I was brought up in rural Cheshire, I love to watch it for many reasons but one being all the retro stuff that brings back some great childhood memories…

The big collars, the bizarre hair, the TV shows, the gaudy furniture and wall coverings but best of all – apart from the fact that it’s exceptionally funny – is the music. The seventies were without question the best musical decade in my opinion and lots of classic rock crops up on That ‘70s Show.

In case you’ve never seen it, here’s what it’s all about… Read more & comment »

Be warned, this I LOVE article contains themes of an adult nature, swearing, references to sexual activity and other fun stuff which may not be suitable for children… in fact, it’s really not, so don’t read this if you’re a child. Promise? Ok, then read on…

Anyone who’s ever seen Family Guy and who shares the quirky sense of humour that this show requires to appreciate it fully will undoubtedly agree that it’s compulsive viewing once you get into it… and it’s one of THE funniest programmes on TV ever.

In case you’ve never seen it – and you just plain have to; it’s incredibly funny – here’s the basic outline of what it’s about… Read more & comment »

Hope you’re having a great weekend, and while you do, here’s our Primetime Picks of what we recommend you have a look at on your gogglebox next week… Read more & comment »

This was awful. I don’t often begin my reviews with such negativity, but truly, as much as I love Martin Clunes in every other role he’s ever had, as Reggie Perrin, I’m afraid I feel he was grave robbing…

Well, maybe not him per se but certainly the commissioning editors at the BBC as well as Simon Nye and David Nobbs - who wrote the adaptation - certainly are; and actually, David Nobbs wrote the original Reggie Perrin series’, so what he was thinking, I can’t imagine!

I guess if you’ve never seen the original, then a) you won’t really get what’s going on and b) you might feel differently, but to remake Reggie was, in my opinion anyway, a big mistake; there can be only one Reggie Perrin and that’s the late, great Leonard Rossiter…

Read more & comment »

The original cast of British sitcom Fawlty Towers are reuniting to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show.

John Cleese, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales will come together to tell the story of how the well-loved sitcom was made.

The special, called Fawlty Towers: Re-opened, will air on Sunday, May 10 on TV channel G.O.L.D.

Read more & comment »

I’ve missed Shameless for a few weeks now, for several reasons but primarily because it’s on late and I’m a bit of an old fart and have to be in my bed by ten or I’m like a dead thing the next day… however, yesterday, feeling in devil-may-care mood, I stayed up past ten and caught up with the Chatsworth Estate gang.

Ably aided by my daughter, who never misses an episode, I got up to speed with what they’ve been doing – ‘scuse the ‘speed’ pun – and I’m going to make a point of staying up to watch it in future. In fact last night, throwing caution to the wind, I actually stayed up to watch the next episode on E4’s First Look too! I know!

So, the article that follows may contain spoilers about next week’s episode so if you didn’t watch it on First Look or don’t want to know what happens, don’t read on! Read more & comment »

Happy Days was of course an iconic American TV series which is still being replayed all over the world today, and Fonzie and diner owner Al spawned famous catchphrases that are still commonly used today too.

Shows such as Friends and The Simpsons continually make references to the show and both Ron Howard and Henry Winkler have “guest voiced” on The Simpsons, which when you consider the show ended 25 years ago, gives an insight into the impact the show had and continues to have.

So let’s take a look at what some of the old cast members are up to now… Read more & comment »

As you’ve probably heard, the Chief of ITV, Michael Grade, announced yesterday that more than 600 jobs would be cut across the ITV owned network and group of companies. He also announced that following a 41% drop in revenue from advertising, the company had to make radical cutbacks.

Mr Grade was quoted in The Sun yesterday as saying, “Current conditions in the advertising market are the most challenging I have experienced in over 30 years in UK broadcasting.

“This is reflected both in our financial results for 2008 and the tough actions we are announcing today”.

Apparently a large part of ITV’s planned savings will be via cuts to its £1 billion programming budget, which will be reduced by £65 million during this year… Read more & comment »

Ok, I know it’s been a lot of years since radios had dials and in fact, many of you reading this will never actually have hunted around for a radio station using a dial and some teeny tiny movements in order to tune in without static, but – history lesson about radio tuning over – the fact is that this new ‘comedy’ simply isn’t funny, with one or two caveat exceptions in the form of one liners and Chris O’Dowd of The IT Crowd fame in the starring role.

ITV’s description of the show is as follows… Read more & comment »

In Monday’s 7:30pm visit to the Street, Tina’s becoming very nervous about the court case, but David tries to calm her down. Gary realises that his Uncle Len has made things worse with his ‘strong-arm’ tactics and knows that Tina intends to go ahead with her testimony, despite Len’s attempts to convince her otherwise.

Len, however, has another trick up his sleeve; when Joe gets a call about a developer who wants him to fit a load of new kitchens, he doesn’t smell a rat until it’s too late… Read more & comment »

Oh I so love this series! It just gets better and better! This week saw Frank being the victim of identity theft and someone had run up huge credit card debts in his name, however, no sooner had Tom arrested him than he had to let him go again when it was obvious that Frank had nothing to do with it – this time!

Frank is of course pretty much oblivious to the effects of the credit crunch; he couldn’t get a library card, never mind a credit card, but David Threlfall who plays him told the Daily Mirror that the credit crunch might well mean the show gets more viewers… Read more & comment »

Friends has been a global phenomenon and has shaped a generation, both here in the UK and in the USA so as this year is its 15th year anniversary, we thought we’d take a look at the effect this unique series had on a whole generation who grew up watching it.

Life before Friends was a dark world where nobody would admit that men had fantasies about lesbians, but Friends made it totally acceptable. Friends made a generation believe that their friends are the most important people in the world and that it’s ok to have platonic relationships with the opposite gender… Read more & comment »

Sharat with Meera Syal

Tributes are being paid today to comedy writer Sharat Sardana, who died suddenly after a short illness on Tuesday aged just 40.

Sharat apparently collapsed at his father’s home after suffering from a streptococcal virus. The Evening Standard added that he later died at Whipps Cross University Hospital in East London.

Sharat was one of the writers behind the hugely successful shows Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars At Number 42… Read more & comment »