As if the Doctor Who series 7 finale wasn’t exciting enough, the BBC has revealed that there will be a Doctor Who prequel available via red button for the week leading up to it!

According to Radio Times, the episode, entitled He Said, She Said, will feature both the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his new companion Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) in a dream like style as they both talk directly to the camera, discussing how well they really know one another.
Read more & comment »

In my review of Vicious, I noted how ITV are introducing a plethora of new comedy. While Vicious may be campy and old-fashioned, we have also been given the more contemporary The Job Lot. The Job Lot centres around a West Midlands Job Centre where the employees are almost as hopeless as their clients. Despite that premise not sounding exactly unique, there’s a likeability to The Job Lot that hasn’t been present in a lot of recent terrestrial sitcoms.

Read more & comment »

It’s fair to say that this year has already been a pretty good one in terms of British TV drama. Over the last few weeks this has been proved by the amount of buzz surrounding the finale of Broadchurch, which got everyone talking. However, while TV drama may well be on a high, our current comedy output is sorely lacking. Recent efforts such as Plebs, Being Eileen and The Wright Way have all fallen flat while I’m still baffled at why Mrs Brown’s Boys is as popular as it is. However ITV are now promoting a double bill of comedy on a Monday night which kicks off with old-fashioned sitcom Vicious.

Read more & comment »

The Job Lot is ITV’s new sitcom which is set in a busy West Midlands Job Centre. The show focuses on the relationships between the people that work there and the people who don’t work anywhere else. It’s the work, or lack of it that brings the characters together and their relationships, or lack of them, around which the series revolves.

Read more & comment »

Tonight on ITV will see the start of Vicious – a brand new studio-based sitcom that stars respected luminaries of British Stage and Screen, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. The pair star in this unashamedly wicked comedy alongside Frances de la Tour

Read more & comment »

It’s been announced by the BBC that comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are heading back to our screens with a new sitcom entitled, House of Fools.

Commissioned by BBC2 Controller Janice Hadlow and Comedy Commissioning Controller Shane Allen, the new show is set to go into production this year with an air date expected for next year.

Here’s what the BBC have to say of the show… Read more & comment »

This post was written by guest blogger and reality TV showbiz observer Daniel Cohen. Catch up with him on Twitter here!

Why he has actually created a FIRST for LGTB TV and was it written for Rowan Atkinson ??

In the last few days review writers have laid into Ben Elton as if he had become the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells himself.

In actual fact he has just written a new sitcom, “The Wright Way”, his first in years. A sitcom that would have been well received coming from any other writer, but because it comes from Ben Elton it will never be good enough… Read more & comment »

There’s no denying that The Royle Family is one of the best sitcoms of the past twenty years. Part of its success was definitely the well-observed writing of Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne. While Cash went on to write and direct a number of successful shows, Aherne remained relatively quiet. Outside of The Royle Family Christmas Specials, Aherne’s last project as a writer was the 2009 festive special The Fattest Man in Britain. This week Aherne reteams with Jeff Pope, who co-wrote The Fattest Man in Britain, for one-off comedy The Security Men. The show focuses on four security guards and, like The Royle Family, is totally based in one enclosed set.

Read more & comment »

It’s been revealed by ITV today that the Solana Resort is set to re-open for business in a sixth series of the hit comedy, and former Hollyoaks star Phillip Olivier will join the cast, as will former Coronation Street star, Ken Morley.

Returning to enjoy the four star hotel treatment are Mick Garvey (Steve Pemberton), Janice Garvey (Siobhan Finneran) and Madge Harvey (Sheila Reid). Viewers will be surprised to see how grown up Michael Garvey (Oliver Stokes) has become – he’s now an adventurous teenager who’s set to cause his parents many troubled afternoons by the pool… Read more & comment »

Downton Abbey has missed out on a Bafta nomination for the first time since it began back in 2010, adding fuel to the rumours that its current spate of main stars departures has left the fans unsure of its future!

Downton Abbey instantly struck a chord with fans all over the UK when it burst on to our screens three years ago, and before long it had become a worldwide phenomenon, with even the First Lady of America, Michelle Obama pleading with the BBC to send her series 3 ahead of its US premier.
Read more & comment »

This morning the nominations for the TV BAFTAs were announced. As always there were some surprises and some glaring omissions so here’s a little look at the main nominees.

Leading the drama nominations are Jimmy McGovern’s Accused, Alfred Hitchcock biopic The Girl and Sally Wainwright’s Last Tango in Halifax each with four nominations. Accused appears in the best mini-series category with acting nominations for Sean Bean, Stephen Graham and Olivia Colman. Last Tango in Halifax is also nominated in the drama series category with other nominations for cast members Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid and Sarah Lancashire. Meanwhile The Girl is nominated for Single Drama with acting nods for Toby Jones, Sienna Miller and Imelda Staunton. The Hollow Crown series, which adapted some of Shakespeare’s History Plays, has three nominations including acting nods for Ben Whishaw and Simon Russell Beale.

Read more & comment »

Fans of Take That will no doubt be pleased to hear that singer Jason Orange is to appear in next week’s Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless as DJ Scouse Mouse.

Following in the footsteps of his Take That band mate Gary Barlow, who starred in a festive edition of Miranda Hart’s comedy, Jason will feature as a DJ at a festival on the Chatsworth Estate.

A show source told The Sun, “Jason has been a huge fan of Shameless for years and jumped at the chance to get involved.

“But he admitted he was really nervous and didn’t sleep at all the night before it was filmed.” Read more & comment »

There’s sad news this morning as BBC News have announced that actor Richard Griffiths, who starred in the Harry Potter movies as well as TV drama Withnail and I, has died aged 65.

It’s believed he passed away following complications after having had heart surgery.

BBC News adds, “Griffiths enjoyed a long career of success on film and on TV, but also on the stage where he was a Tony-winning character actor.

“He was best known for playing Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films and Uncle Monty in Withnail and I.” Read more & comment »

It’s been reported today that former EastEnders star Samantha Womack has joined the cast of Sky Living comedy, Mount Pleasant, and will feature in the show’s third series.

Samantha, who of course played the role of Ronnie Branning on EastEnders, told Click Liverpool that she’s about to start filming for the show, which stars former Coronation Street actress Sally Lindsay as well as Daniel Ryan, Bobby Ball and Angela Griffin.

She said, “I begin filming Mount Pleasant for TV alongside Pauline Collins [Sue] in Manchester soon.” Read more & comment »

June Brown is of course a legend in her EastEnders role as Dot Cotton, however, in an interview with TV Biz this week, she’s revealed that in her younger days, she’d wanted to become a doctor!

86 year old June, who joined the cast of EastEnders in its first series back in 1985, said, “In my early days I might have liked to have done something with medicine.

“I think I would have quite liked to have been a doctor. But I decided not to stick with it because of the long training.”

She added, “I wouldn’t have had the confidence to trust myself as a doctor… Read more & comment »