I spent most of this show alternately lifting my feet up off the floor and itching. The former was because the sight of rats scurrying around on the TV made me instinctively feel like they were running round me, and the latter because we were treated to a scene where big fat bed bugs were rampantly taking over a teenaged boy’s bedroom.

Welcome to the workaday lives of Ricky and Jimmy Clark, Pest Controllers. Their third team mate is terrier Charlie who loves nothing more than hunting out rats. According to Ricky, London’s rat population is booming with an increase of around 400% this year. That’s scary, and yet again, I’m patting myself on the back because I live up North where there are – I’m sure – rats, but I don’t think they out number people. I hope.

So this show took us into the heart of the action with Ricky, Jimmy and Charlie who dealt with not only rats last night but a rotting dead cat, a frenzied trapped pigeon and the aforementioned bed bugs… Read more & comment »

I tried really hard during this show to put aside my thoughts about the actual age of the women featured in this Channel 4 documentary – all of whom wanted desperately to be mothers, or already were – but it wasn’t that easy.

I had a constant running battle going on in my head about the whole thing; one part of my psyche was screaming “Nature didn’t intend a 70 year old to be a mother – that’s why we have menopause!” while another part was arguing, “Yes, but if nature had its way and medical intervention wasn’t on the cards, anyone with appendicitis would die.”

No, I’m not schizophrenic or anything and don’t normally have opposing voices arguing in my head, but whilst my debacle over nature versus science raged on, the arguments over the suitability of a pensioner to raise a baby were overwhelmingly on the side of the “it’s not right” brigade… Read more & comment »

I recently – and rather belatedly it seems – found that the BBC currently has a live beta version of its “simulcasting” service which, as you can see here, streams shows from the BBC as they’re appearing on TV. There’s a small disclaimer on the page which states, “Don’t forget – to watch TV online as it’s being broadcast, you still need a TV Licence.”

Now, in all honesty, if you don’t own a TV set or any equipment that flags you up on the Licensing Authority’s database as owning such gubbins – and therefore making you liable to pay the license fee – would you really pay the fee of £142.50, knowing that you can’t be detected watching BBC online? I have to say, I wouldn’t. In fact, were it not for the fact that I’d face a fine of possibly £1000, I wouldn’t pay it at all.

This made me question the fairness of the TV license fee given that if you have a computer and a broadband connection, you can watch the BBC for free, and you can’t be detected doing so. But if you don’t have those facilities and watch TV on a telly, you can and will be fined if you don’t buy a TV license. Read more & comment »

Michelle Collins has hit out at TV bosses for being ageist in a recent interview.

The former Eastenders actress has recently auditioned for Desperate Housewives and told The Daily Mirror:

“Do you really want to see perfect-looking men and women all the time?”

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 »

“Freefall tackles head on the extraordinary financial crisis we are currently living through. Written and directed by multiple-Bafta Award-winning Dominic Savage, the film dives into the events that have caused turmoil in so many people’s lives.

“Tautly and delicately interwoven, the film follows the lives of three men with everything on the line. Gus (Aidan Gillen) is the high-flying city exec who packages and sells bundles of mortgages for extortionate profit.

“Dave (Dominic Cooper) is the mortgage broker who can make anything happen, and when Dave offers Jim (Joseph Mawle), his old school friend, a way out of the council flat he and his family have been stuck in for years, it’s an offer that is too good to refuse.”

This was the BBC’s own description of Freefall and actually – for once – it did exactly what it said on the tin. The addition of Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud was quite interesting too; I enjoy seeing a famous face outside of their usual context – like Angela Rippon that time on Morecambe and Wise – and the girl done good. Read more & comment »

This was a gastronomic horror story, with Tom Heap and Simon Boazman providing the metaphor for a culinary Freddie Kruger and the Candyman as they presented us with horror upon horror in last night’s show. And as it came on, I’d just eaten fish and chips… or had I??

I came away from this programme thinking that nothing’s as it seems in the world of food trading. I thought I was eating cod and spuds, but in actuality, it could’ve been Korean Catfish and stuff injected with water, and all washed in anti-freeze. I kid you not.

Also, I’m not vegetarian and have always felt vaguely guilty about that fact, therefore I avoid veal like the plague and look for meat products which state that the original animals that my pork chops were, at least had a relatively decent life before becoming my dinner. But it seems that cosy notion of self-righteous meat eating was wrong.

Apparently, when the label says ‘Outdoor Bred’, it should more accurately read, ‘We Showed This Pig A Field For About Five Minutes’. What the labelling doesn’t tell you, according to this show, is that Outdoor Bred can equate to animals being outdoors for as little as four weeks, so there goes my guilt-free meat eating… again. Read more & comment »

I have to start this piece by admitting that I don’t like Madonna; I never have. She’s always struck me as being supremely arrogant and the acquisition of vast amounts of money has, in my opinion, effectively reinforced her narcissism. Nobody says no to someone who can buy Africa in its entirety if she wants to. And sure enough, nobody did say no to her – ultimately – over the adoption of Mercy James.

Jacques Peretti’s documentary last night added more weight to that theory for me, and despite his protestations at points in the film that he didn’t know “what to think” regarding the controversy, I would argue that he had very clear views on it. I suspect that he, like me, believes that Madonna’s involvement in the country is tantamount to colonialism stemming from egocentricity and her adoption of African children is analogous to a form of exotic pet collecting, which in turn is no different in motivation than a philatelist’s desire to acquire stamps. Read more & comment »

Rick Stein takes the viewer on an epic culinary journey by sea, down rivers and overland to explore the Far East’s diverse food cultures, which have soared to the heights of popularity the world over.

Read more & comment »

Valentine Warner sets his sights on the culinary delights of summer as he continues his journey through the seasons for a second series. Summer cooking is all about lighter dishes and fabulous natural pairings; from plump tomatoes with succulent prawns, to tasty raspberry, peach and almond tart.

Read more & comment »

Both Channel Five and Sky1 have this morning announced that they will be airing tributes to singer Michael Jackson tribute tonight following the shock news of his sudden death late yesterday.

Beginning at 8pm, Five are to broadcast Michael Jackson: King Of Pop which will be presented by Natasha Kaplinsky and Sky1 will also be airing The Real Michael Jackson at the same time. Both shows will take a look back over Jackson’s extensive and influential career. Read more & comment »

Mistresses star Sarah Parish and her husband James Murray have been speaking to The Sun about the tragic death of her baby girl, Ella-Jayen who died in January.

Ella-Jayne was born with a hole in her heart and despite this being a condition that can often be treated successfully, Ella failed to recover fully from two emergency operations. She died aged just eight months.

Sarah, who’s 41, told the newspaper, “It is terrifying when you have a baby and she is taken away ill.

“You were expecting cards and balloons and suddenly you are dropped into a nightmare…” Read more & comment »

Screen icon Farrah Fawcett has lost her battle with cancer today. She was just 62 and had been fighting anal cancer for three years. She died shortly after 9:30am local time in a Santa Monica hospital.

The news of her death comes just days after she and long-term partner Ryan O’Neal announced their intention to marry. O’Neal recently told the US chat show host Barbara Walters that he and Farrah would wed as soon as she was well enough, but sadly, that was not to be.

“We will, as soon as she can say ‘yes’ – maybe she can just nod her head” he told Walters. Read more & comment »

For this film, Alan Yentob met the inspiring ‘Company of Elders’ in the first of the new series of BBC One’s Imagine strand, which aims to “capture the power of the arts and the people who have changed our way of looking at the world”.

The said Elders are just that with the performers in the group ranging in ages from a youthful 61 to a slightly less youthful but no less determined 85. We followed the intrepid pensioners through some of their eight weeks of practice as they built up to a performance at world-famous dance venue Sadler’s Wells.

Without doubt, the most obvious thing from the get go about these ladies and gentlemen was that they’re all committed and determined, even if they forget they are every now and again and need the occasional gentle reminder… Read more & comment »

I think there’s a new form of addict inspired TV and it involves celebrities who’re addicted to a) food and b) diet shows.

Last night saw the first of two Tonight specials in which Cheryl Baker, Linda Robson, Darren Gough and Carole Malone embarked on a journey around the world’s cuisine hotspots to find out which is most likely to induce the most weight loss.

Cheryl and Carole – and possibly Linda though I couldn’t swear to it – have both been on Celebrity Fit Club in a bid to lose weight. Evidently, it didn’t work so maybe they’ll find dieting nirvana via this show and if not, I’m guessing they’ll turn up on another at some point. Read more & comment »