Last night’s documentary, On the Fiddle, featured benefit fraud investigators and benefits compliance officers up and down the country whose job it is to uncover those who make fraudulent claims for state benefits. And uncover them they did in one case which I’ll go into more detail about shortly, but for now, suffice to say there was a huge operation to uncover and apprehend the suspect. Fine, ok, and rightly so; he was costing the taxpayer thousands annually and deserved to be caught.

However, the reason this show angered me is because as many revelations about MPs claims for expenses continue to flood the press – which have been proven to be unjustified and often falsely claimed – why aren’t we seeing police and several civil servants kicking in the doors of their homes at 4am in a bid to prove culpability in stealing public money?

How is it that MPs claiming taxpayer’s money for things they aren’t entitled to any different from a member of the public claiming taxpayer’s money that they’re not entitled to? Read more & comment »

It’s good pickin’s for TV next week so as always at the weekend, here are our Primetime Picks for your upcoming televisual delight… Read more & comment »

This was a very emotive film, as of course all media reports about missing children are and especially this high profile case, but the McCann’s have had to face so much, I wonder how they’re still standing; how they’re still functioning and able to live with what any parent will know must be the horrific thoughts about what could have happened to their daughter.

I can think of few things worse than having your child abducted, except perhaps not knowing what happened to her and if she’s dead or alive.

As we all know, on May 3rd 2007, their daughter Madeleine was abducted from their holiday apartment in the Portugese resort of Praia da Luz and she’s never been seen again. This Cutting Edge documentary examined the circumstances of her disappearance as well as catching up with how Kate and Gerry McCann have been coping with everything that’s happened to them since that fateful and devastating night… Read more & comment »

It’s been a while since I had a good old rant so the pressure’s been building… and now it’s going to blow! There are some things that I am sick to death of seeing and hearing about on telly, and here’s just a few of them…

For a start, as good as she undoubtedly is, I am sooooooooooooooooo sick of hearing about Susan Boyle; she’s like poop in a cow field – you just can’t avoid her. Yes, she’s good, yes she’s ‘plain’ looking, yes people in the media industry are gagging to give her a makeover. Who cares?? There’ve been more – or at least equally – talented people on similar shows, such as Leona Lewis or Rhydian but in a society that prizes beauty and thinness so much, oddly, no such fuss was made of Leona, but bring on someone who looks like your average I-shop-at-Tesco-in-a-mac looking woman and everyone goes nuts!

And because she looks like she does/did, the BGT panel all clearly impatiently waited for something like a tortured cat sound to come out of her and then sat there like slack jawed yokels when she sounded good… and why? Because she’s not the prettiest of women let’s face it, so they didn’t expect her to have a good voice, but nonetheless, I’m sick to death of hearing about her and seeing her. It’s not her fault and I have no issues with her personally, but dang it, she’s even been mentioned on South Park! Read more & comment »

On Monday, Andy demands that Victoria stop trying to contact Daz. She tries to put up a fight but Andy stops any argument by telling her that Jack would be ashamed of her. In an effort to cover up the scandal before Diane returns, Andy asks Scarlett to keep quiet and she reluctantly agrees. Aaron tries to apologise to Victoria for telling Andy about her and Daz but she blames him for Daz’s departure and tells him to get lost. Victoria is at an all time low, but how will she recover?

Meanwhile, Debbie hears that there’s been a ‘disturbance’ at Butlers and grows concerned that Andy’s returned to his violent ways. After seeing Maisie looking after Sarah, Debbie confides in Natasha that she’s being refused access to her daughter so Natasha offers financial assistance to fund a solicitor by way of saying sorry for using her at the shoot. Debbie’s thankful for the option but says she want to sort things out on her own. Instead, Natasha asks Maisie to persuade Andy to allow access but Maisie suspects her mother of wanting to cause trouble and tells her to back off… Read more & comment »

An episode of Coronation street which was shown on Easter Sunday has caused controversy and has seen viewers complain to Ofcom over what was seen by many as an ‘attack’ on Christianity.

The storyline in the episode depicted Ken Barlow saying that the Christian faith targetted “vulnerable people”. Ken also said his grandson Simon’s school was “indoctrinating” him with regard to Christianity and Ken ranted that he would tell Simon “the truth” about religion.

ITV’s message boards and forums have since been inundated by posts from viewers who deemed the episode’s content “completely unacceptable”… Read more & comment »

An article in The Sun yesterday quoted extracts from a report by the Centre for Policy Studies – authored by Martin Le Jeune – which branded the BBC a “parasite” for what it described as its “serial record of imitation and lack of original ideas”.

The report referred to the BBC’s airing of shows such as Strictly Come Dancing which follow the format of many shows that first ‘proved’ themselves to be money-spinners by way of phone votes when they were originally broadcast on commercially sponsored channels.

The report added that it was time the BBC “got back to real public service broadcasting” and accused BBC chiefs of spending too much money on “cheap and poor copies of commercial programmes”… Read more & comment »

Do you remember the series ‘V’ as in, stood for ‘Visitors’? I do and it used to scare seven colours of you know what out of me but I find it hard to believe that ABC – even though they are one of America’s biggest TV networks – are going to pull off a remake with anything like the credibility and sheer shock value of the original. I just don’t think most remakes ever do work; do you?

However, in case you’ve never seen or heard of ‘V’, the original series centered on some extremely unpleasant aliens – The Visitors – who tried to take over the Earth. It only ran for a year but achieved cult status then and to those of us who are – sadly – old enough to remember it, it still does have cult status! Read more & comment »

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what we reckon is worth tuning into this coming week!

Monday

A brand new series of the fabulous Monkey Life starts at 6:30pm on Five. The series follows the residents – both human and primate – of Dorset’s Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre. In this episode, 88 capuchin monkeys rescued from a research laboratory in Chile wake up to their first morning at Monkey World.

Over in the Chimp nursery, Rodders has a run-in with a sticky melon and the park’s naughtiest resident, Seamus the chimp, comes face to face with alpha male Butch in the bachelor pad… Read more & comment »

On Monday Maisie’s unnerved that Nathan’s career is soaring whilst hers languishes at the Woolpack. After speaking with Val, Maisie tells Mark that she’s enjoying working at the pub and would love to be landlady. Mark’s unsure and his hesitation upsets Maisie so, putting his reservations aside Mark discusses Maisie’s wishes with Val.

She puts two and two together and tells Pollard that Mark’s offered to buy the Woolpack. The pair of them jump the gun and tell Mark to name his price, only to have him immediately reject the opportunity. However, after watching Maisie excel on her day shift, Mark reconsiders. The sneaky trio agree not to share the secret, even with an unsuspecting Diane. Can Val sell the Woolpack behind her sister’s back? 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 »

On Monday in the 7:30pm episode, it’s the day of Gary’s court case and there are mixed feelings about it on Coronation Street. Gary’s scared stiff that he’ll be sent down and David’s worried that Tina won’t turn up to court. Joe, meanwhile, is feeling guilty about the pressure he’s putting on his daughter, while Anna tries to comfort her family… 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 »

Without doubt, the fact that Cerrie Burnell  – who has a deformed arm and is missing a hand – has prompted complaints to be made to the BBC claiming that she’s “frightening” children is SO ridiculous, it’s hard to find sufficient adjectives; ludicrous, ridiculous, preposterous, absurd… I could go on ad infinitum; the whole thing is truly pathetic but perhaps the most fitting might be ‘outrageous’.

Cerrie, who co-presents Cbeebies ‘Do And Discover’ with Alex Winters, has been accused of causing young children “sleep problems” – one assumes in the form of nightmares – and apparently, parents find it unpalatable to have to discuss disability with their children “before they are ready to hear it” according to the BBC news website.

Well boohoo and tough t*t! Guess what? Not everyone’s born ‘perfect’. Does it make them lesser people? No. Does the fact that some people feel the need to negatively comment on it make them lesser people? Hell yes… Read more & comment »