In an interview with This Morning, Corrie star Kym Marsh spoke about her premature baby son’s death in February, and described her grief as “very, very painful”.

Archie Jay was born 18 weeks prematurely and died soon after his birth, which has led Kym to reveal that she’s afraid of becoming pregnant again.

During the interview, Kym said, “You do go home and your body is still doing all the things it would normally do (after giving birth) but you have no baby.

“So it’s very, very hard to try and channel all those feelings somewhere else.

“It’s very difficult… there kind of wasn’t an awful lot of support afterwards, so you just leave with leaflets.

“I obviously haven’t really divulged too much about what happened to me and I don’t intend to do that because that’s something that is still very, very painful for me to talk about.” Read more & comment »

As part of BBC’s Wonderland series, this odd little film was idiosyncratic and edifying to watch. And I must say, I hadn’t expected to like it much, but I did…

It seemed an odd concept, having couples talk about their lives together while sitting in their beds, but what it unearthed was a plethora of deeply moving emotion and revelation, as well as gratifyingly sweet and loving relationships.

And with hindsight, perhaps various beds were in fact a good setting for this film, even though it was often perhaps more of a Jeremy Kyle-esque show in some ways. For instance, young Tariro couldn’t tell his partner Khadijah that he loves her, even though this terribly young couple are expecting twins.

If it had been a Jeremy Kyle show, the programme’s title might’ve been ‘You’re Having My Babies But I Don’t Know If I Love You’. However, I think his admission was refreshingly truthful; teenagers mostly don’t truly understand the meaning of the word ‘love’ in relationship terms, and at least Tariro was honest enough to admit that. Read more & comment »

As we leave October behind and go boldly forward into November, there are some great shows to herald the start of winter scheduling.

In the coming week, the new series of The Family gets underway and we’ll get to look at the lives of another family in this fascinating show.

We’ll also get to see another slice of life with Yvette and Karl and chew over the contents of what goes into our food… strong stomachs at the ready for both shows! I jest; I love watching the shows about Yvette and Karl… Read more & comment »

What a moving and emotional interview this was, and for once, Piers was somewhat gentle with his interviewee, Cilla Black.

His notorious terseness was thankfully largely absent, and rightly so because Cilla is a national treasure and I might’ve had to go down to the ITV studios and beat him up with his own shoes if he’d been mean to her.

Especially in light of her open and frank discussion with Piers about the death of her baby girl, Ellen, in 1975. Ellen was born prematurely we heard, and suffered from breathing and lung problems that led to her death just two hours after her birth. Read more & comment »

Saturday night scheduling on telly has traditionally appealed to those of us who don’t go out, and for ‘don’t go out’, read, ‘have no life’, and Piers Morgan’s ITV natter with the fairy-princess-esque Cliff Richard appealed strongly to that demographic.

I grew up listening to my mum singing along to Cliff’s songs and watching her positively swoon – yes, people swooned in those days – whenever Hank Marvin was on TV, which, I might add, had newly become colour.

But if she were alive today, I’m not sure that she’d be happy to see Cliff in a bright pink jacket or inexplicable amounts of lime green. I suspect she might’ve longed for the days of monochrome telly as her retinas would have remained undamaged by watching Cliffy going about his long-standing and unbreakable career. Read more & comment »

I always feel like it’s officially autumn when two things occur; Big Brother ends and Casualty starts, and working on that premise, this week’s TV sees the start of the autumn season on telly.

And of course, this week is the anniversary of 9/11 so there are a plethora of programmes about that terrible event, but some of them feature never seen before footage and accounts of that day.

So, with no more ado, not that there was much ado, let’s take a look at our recommendations for this week’s TV highlights… Read more & comment »

As I’m writing this, that most rare of events – a sunny day – is happening outside my window, so I’ll be making the most of it, but if you’re stuck indoors next week, here’s what we recommend you tune into on your tellybox… Read more & comment »

It seems that chat show host and comedian Paul O’Grady is going to be moving back to a tea-time slot on ITV, despite the fact that three years ago, he said he’d “rather sweep the streets” than work for ITV again.

However it seems that Channel 4 – who currently host his popular chat show – are planning to make massive budget cuts which Paul believes will damage the format of the show.

ITV have apparently told Paul that while they will cut his own pay, they will not reduce the budget for the actual show, which is around £2 million per year. A source close to Paul told The Sun that he’s happy with that arrangement, saying, “Paul is happy to take a smaller fee for presenting the show… Read more & comment »

I’m sure you’ll have heard rumblings in the press and on TV about ‘Gordon-Grimshaw-Gate’ in which Gordon Ramsay has provoked fury down-under by allegedly verbally ‘attacking’ Nine Network’s ‘A Current Affair’ programme host Tracy Grimshaw. But what really happened? Well, let’s take a look…

It all began last Friday when Tracy interviewed Gordon for ‘A Current Affair’ and during the course of that interview – which there’s a clip of later in this article – it became clear that there was some tension between the two.

They clearly don’t like each other that much, however, it seems Grimshaw had agreed to give a wide berth to the stories about Gordon’s personal life, including his alleged affair or affairs plural, depending on which tabloid you read.

She did so but a lot of the interview leaned towards his personal life, and it seems he wasn’t happy about that… Read more & comment »

Welcome to our weekly round up of all the best shows to delight and titillate you over the next week, and as this week sees the launch of Big Brother on Thursday, I’m currently in a state of edge-of-my-seat anticipation ahead of meeting the new victims/housemates. Yippee!

However, before that, there’s loads of brilliant telly to keep you entertained… Read more & comment »

Piers: “You’ve had an extraordinary career and for a long time you were one of the top female presenters in the country. I suppose the problem for you is that you’re still defined in most people’s eyes by men. You’ve had four children now by four blokes. You’re the 4 x 4 Star.”

Ulrika: “I know. It’s a funny terminology but it is appropriate, it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.”

Piers: “If I asked the audience, some would like you very much be a fan of yours, others would think ‘bit of a floozy’?”

Ulrika: “I think others might be a little bit circumspect. A lot of women have more than one partner in their life and because I’ve ended up marrying now for the third time and yes admittedly having four children by four men, doesn’t necessarily mean I’m more of a floozy than anybody else.”

And thus the interview between Piers Morgan and Ulrika Jonsson went on in a similar manner; with Piers offering thinly veiled insults in the form of questions and Ulrika answering defensively in a very non-defensive manner.

That said, Piers did his usual ‘idol worship’ of an introduction which basically involves licking the metaphorical boots of his guest verbally before they start talking, which often – as it did last night – takes up way too much time… Read more & comment »

Last night saw the first of a new four part series celebrating Alan Whicker’s remarkable fifty years on television. The show sees the TV legend off round the world on a journey of remembrance as much as celebration during which he reflects on his incredibly varied life and career.

In this first episode, Whicker revisited Venice, a city of massive significance and one that’s apparently very close to his heart. He retraced his steps from war to peace, from soldier to Fleet Street journalist, and then his subsequent move into the fledgling world of television.

Included in this episode were Whicker’s earliest surviving TV appearance, an in-depth profile of both John Paul Getty, Baroness Fiona Thyssen, and Alan’s legendary encounter with millionaire Yorkshireman – and general ‘eccentric’ – Percy Shaw, the man who invented the cats’ eyes which illumine our roads… 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 »

Let’s be honest, there’s nothing more exciting than watching a normal programme – like the news or a chat show – degrade into a bitter swearing match or even actual fisticuffs, so we thought we’d bring you a round-up of the all time greats of TV tantrums most of which were live on air as they happened.

The majority of them happen on American TV – maybe that’s because we Brits are too reserved for such behaviour! – however, I did find two UK TV interviews where tempers were somewhat frayed… Read more & comment »

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what’s on our tellyboxes next week, and it looks like being a good ‘un this week!

Monday

The Real Pink Panther: Lord Victor Hervey, 8:00pm, Channel 4

The final film in Channel 4’s Toffs and Crims series, which explores the affinity between the upper echelons of society and the criminal underclass.

Victor Hervey, the sixth Marquis of Bristol, masterminded a gang of career criminals and then found himself at the Old Bailey on two counts of jewel theft.

It has long been believed that, when he was convicted in 1939 and sentenced to three years penal servitude, this was the end of Victor’s criminal ways. However, recently declassified police documents reveal that after he was released Victor may still have been involved in crime… Read more & comment »