This new four part comedy-drama by David Allison – a previously pretty much unheard of writer – followed a format that was loosely based on Freaky Friday in that two people ‘swap’ bodies…

I was expecting it to be a clichéd yawn, and there were without doubt a zillion clichés but then again, clichés are clichés because they happen often enough to become clichés… it was funny stuff and I really wasn’t expecting it to be, so I can see that David Allison may well become a much-in-demand writer, assuming the other three parts were as good as last night’s.

In a nutshell, the story revolves around Danny and Veronica who, during a bolt of lightening, and due to their close proximity to each other, ‘swap’ into each others bodies. Danny – played by Martin Freeman of The Office fame – was out nicking copper piping to plump up his modest income as a DIY store employee while Veronica – played by Rachael Stirling who portrayed the type of lesbian men fantasise about in Tipping The Velvet – was stranded as her car had broken down.

Danny’s a scruffy, kinda hopeless, aimless but amiable bloke while Veronica’s a high-flying fashion journalist of the SATC kind; loves fashion, shoes, handbags and so forth. This first episode centred on Danny becoming Veronica, so we primarily got to see Rachael as Veronica trying to adjust to life as Danny on the inside while being the stunning Veronica on the outside… Read more & comment »

Hi all, hope you’re having a great weekend, and as part of your Sunday chill out, here’s a few entertaining finds for next week’s viewing…

We try to avoid the usual TV recommendations and go for programmes that are slightly unusual so many of them might be a tad graphic, but that’s half the fun right? Having to watch from behind your cushion while someone has an axe removed from their head or something or taking a look at how someone else’s life went awry or even went well!

Those are the kind of shows we like to recommend, so here are our TV picks for this coming week… Read more & comment »

I hope you’re all having a lovely Easter weekend and once it’s over, here’s what we here at Primetime reckon is worth watching this coming week…

Easter Monday

The Jet Stream and Us, 8:00pm, BBC4

This new documentary traces how human understanding of the jet stream – a ribbon of fast moving air high in the atmosphere – has grown. Now, that may sound boring but it’s actually very interesting!

It’s been responsible for bewildering effect on bomber pilots in World War II, turbo charging modern transatlantic flyers, the infamous 1987 hurricane and the devastating floods of recent years.

Scientists now believe this powerful weather phenomenon is now changing its pattern of behaviour and could have an even bigger impact on our climate and the way we live our lives.

Interviewees include Sir Brian Hoskins, University of Reading and Kirsty McCabe from the BBC Weather Centre… Read more & comment »

It’s been six months since series one ended and in last night’s season two premiere, we discovered that Tripp and Patrick are still estranged – but Nick’s been brought in to help reconcile the two – and Simon and Karen have “escalated” their relationship, but the mysterious Nola Lyons could throw everything into turmoil and the ‘de-frocked’ Brian wants to get closer to his illegitimate son.

It was great to see Peter Krause on screen again as Nick; I absolutely loved him as Nate in Six Feet Under and I couldn’t quite help waiting for one of his SFU daydreams or talks-with-the-dead to happen, but alas, neither did… Read more & comment »

I was reading an article on the BBC website earlier about how they’d carried out a poll to see how many people have lied about which books they’ve read, and it got me thinking – which is a rare event in itself! – I wonder just how many people prefer reading to watching TV?

This thought occurred just because I thought maybe if telly wasn’t available, the people in the BBC poll who’d lied about which books they’d read maybe would’ve actually read them, just for the want of something to do of an evening…

I realise that given this is a TV blog site, the odds are probably stacked in the telly’s favour, but nonetheless, I’d love to know the answer to this question… If you were plonked on a desert island, let’s say for one year, and you had a choice between having a TV or a huge stack of books to keep you entertained for that year, which would you choose? Read more & comment »

Martin Green and Stephen Powell

Last night’s first episode on BBC2 of this three-part documentary series began charting the ‘journey’ towards the much longed for – by some anyway – London 2012 Olympics.

This first film followed the activities of the ‘Ceremonies Team’ as they prepared for an eight-minute show to mark the official handover of responsibility for the Olympic Games from Beijing to London… and let’s face it, Beijing’s going to be a hard act to follow! Especially given that the economic climate in this country is on its knees, I don’t see how we’re going to pull it off in anything like the style of Beijing… 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 »

Many broadcasters and programme makers are waking up to the fact that a lot of us spend a great deal of time on the internet and use it for entertainment purposes.

They’re also realising that in a hectic world, lots of us prefer to choose when we want to watch something rather than be tied to TV scheduling. There are of course lots of ‘catch up’ facilities on the net for seeing shows you may have missed on TV but the new media wave is programming produced solely for broadcast online.

And another major factor about online programmes is that they are interactive. Viewers can take an active part in the shows, and that’s something that is becoming more and more popular. Read more & comment »

There’s recently been a good deal of debate about the rights and wrongs of swearing and violence on TV, so we thought we’d take a look at these issues and ask your opinion on the rights and wrongs of it.

F-ing chefs

Let’s start with the issue of swearing and of course, one for whom swearing is virtually a trademark is Gordon Ramsay, who even has a show entitled, The F Word.

Gordon’s made a niche for himself in the over-populated world of TV chefs because of his constant use of the F word… but is it a bad thing?

Comedian Frank Skinner recently commented to The Sun that TV chefs swear in order to look “more manly” because they do “women’s work”. Obviously, Frank meant this in a tongue-in-cheek way, but perhaps he’s not so far off the mark.

Read more & comment »

Kelly Osbourne has admitted to suffering from serious anxiety since accepting the role of Mama Morton in a West End production of Chicago.

“I’m absolutely bricking it because the only theatre I have ever done before this was my school play – and I was a windmill!” Kelly told The Sun newspaper.

She added: “The biggest problem I have is everyone who has seen the film now thinks Mama Morton is a big black woman because Queen Latifah played her.”

I don’t mean to be alarmist, but there’s been an increasing number of stories in the media about viewers being defrauded by our largest television stations. Whether it’s phone voting scandals, television quizzes where the production assistants phone in and win or faking programmes by bending reality to fit an editorial angle.

We’ve had the Queen made to look like a stroppy diva by the BBC (off with their heads!) and now ITV has admitted to falsifying an Alzheimer patient’s death when the man died several days earlier. Read more & comment »