Saturday
9.15pm Festival of Remembrance BBC1
10.35pm JLS Revealed ITV2 - Documentary following 2008 X Factor runners-up JLS on their rollercoaster ride from TV fame to success as a group in their own right.
Sunday
9.00pm The Children Who Fought Hitler BBC4 - Documentary telling the story of a heroic battle fought by the children of the British Memorial School to help liberate Europe from the Nazis. The school served a community of ex-First World War soldiers and their families living in Ypres in Belgium who lovingly tended the war graves.
10.35pm Alexander Armstrong's Very British Holiday BBC1 - Alexander Armstrong explores the state of the great British holiday. It is widely acknowledged that 2009 is a bumper year for the UK tourist industry, with many consumers tightening their belts and forgoing foreign holidays.
Monday
8.00pm Not Forgotten Channel 4 - Journalist and broadcaster Ian Hislop explores the compelling and poignant stories of soldiers from across the British Empire during the First World War. Ian provides a reminder that 2.5 million soldiers from Asia and Africa; from the Dominions of Canada, Australia and New Zealand; from Ireland and from the West Indies fought alongside the British "Tommy", and of these, a quarter of a million lost their lives for King and Empire.
8.30pm Miranda BBC2 - Sitcom starring Not Going Out's Miranda Hart in a semi autobiographical title role. Also starring Sally Phillips, Tom Ellis & Praticia Hodge.
9.00pm Collision ITV1 - Five-part drama focusing on a pileup on the A12. As the crash investigation team try and peice the crash together what they discover about those involved lead to surprising revelations. Starring Douglas Hodge and Kate Ashfield as the investigating officers. Real life brothers Dean Lennox Kelly and Craig Kelly teaming up to play brothers whose suspicious activities tear their family apart. Paul McGann as Millionaire whose involvment in the crash leads to love and Phil Davies as a man who takes one final trip with his mother-in law.
Airs all week.
9.00pm The Execution of Gary Glitter Channel 4 - Fictonal drama set in an imaginary Britain in which the death penalty has been re-introduced, this feature-length drama confronts viewers with the possible consequences of capital punishment in the UK. No crime arouses more passion than the abuse of children, and in this parallel world, the public, sickened by a spate of serious child abuse cases, has demanded the return of the ultimate sanction. The first person to be tried under the new Capital Crimes Against Children legislation is Paul Gadd, aka 1970s glam rock star Gary Glitter.
Tuesday
8.00pm John Sergeant on the Tourist Trail ITV1 - John Sergeant takes a journey around Britain and meets tourists of all nationalities. In this episode John joins some Californian gardening enthusiasts at RHS Wisley in Surrey. Then he is off to the Isle of Man to meet 10,000 Germans there for the annual TT race, followed by monster-hunting on Loch Ness, visiting the Lake District with some Japanese Beatrix Potter fans, and enjoying the Welsh Eisteddfod with a group of visitors from Java.
8.00pm Mad About the House BBC3 - Couples who can't afford to transform their house into a dream living space are given the cash to do so with the proviso that one half must make every design, decorating and DIY decision by themselves.
9.30pm Ross Kemp Remembers Pirates Sky1 - Ross Kemp and the BAFTA-winning documentary team conclude their investigation into modern day piracy in South East Asia.
10.35pm When A Mother's Love is Not Enough BBC1 - Rosa Monckton, businesswoman, charity worker and confidante of the late Princess Diana, explores the realities families face when caring for a disabled child. After the recent shocking high profile cases in which mothers have killed their disabled children.
Wednesday
8.00pm An Audience with Donny & Marie ITV1
8.00pm Country House Rescue Channel 4 - Ruth Watson revisits Mary-Anne and Alastair Robb, owners of Cothay, a medieval manor house in Somerset. Built in 1485, Cothay Manor is a superb example of medieval architecture. Fifteen years ago Alastair and Mary-Anne Robb bought and restored Cothay Manor.
10.45pm Bought Up By Booze: A Children in Need Special BBC1 - Callum Best explores what hope there is for the 1.3 million children in the UK currently being 'brought up by booze'.
Thursday
8.00pm River Cottage Channel 4 - With Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
9.00pm Cutting Edge: Octomom Me & My 14 Kids Channel 4 - Documentary about "Octomom" Nadya Suleman who became the focus of the world's media when she gave birth to eight children in January 2009. She already has six Children and his now an unemployed parent, with 14 demanding children under the age of nine, who faces the constant presence of dedicated paparazzi.
Friday
8.00pm Axe Men Five - Cameras follow the work of North American loggers as they risk their lives to cut timber whilst battling mechanical failures, unpredictable terrain and falling trees.
Follow @LukeCustardtv on Twitter. Contact lukeinthecustard@gmail.com The latest TV NEWS, REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Ghosts in the Machine, BBC4
Ghostwatch, in its own little way, was as much of an epochal TV event as the Kennedy Assassination, the Moon Landings and Michael Portillo’s glorious excommunication from Parliament, and was the hilarious centrepiece to this engrossing retrospective of supernatural dramas, documentaries, entertainment and investigations.
Trailed as part of the Scene One drama series, Ghostwatch acted as a precognitive parody of the as-yet-unborn Most Haunted and Famous & Frightened, and all that curdled miasma of turbid sludge that aspires to penetrate the mysteries of the paranormal yet succeeds in creating only an amusing diversion clogged up to the nostrils with its own deluded sense of pioneering piety. The otherwise likeable Yvette Fielding snorted sulphur as she prissily pointed out that Most Haunted isn’t an “entertainment show”, as branded by Ofcom, but an “investigation”.
Ghostwatch was certainly an “entertainment show” even if many mentally indolent viewers perceived it as a genuine “investigation” into the spooky events of an ostensibly ordinary suburban family. The ‘deception’ was that the ‘stars’ of the show, other than the family, were well known presenters who were masquerading convincingly as fictional presenters. Craig Charles was the cheeky roving reporter, Mike Smith and Sarah Greene were TV’s golden couple intrepidly scouring the house for evidence of the malevolent ‘Mr Pipes’ – evil which manifested itself in the mutilation of a comatose girl; her face scratched as if by a wild animal – and, best of all, Parky playing the bemused anchor back in the studio, who was ultimately ‘possessed’ by Mr Pipes as the studio disintegrated around him.
Inevitably, there was a backlash. Not a serious backlash. It was just the frothing indignation of people who want Robbie Williams’ Angels played at their funeral, and who spend most of their lives telling other people how much they want Angels played at their funeral. Some prostituted the supposed psychologically-shredding terror of their “11-year-old son” as reason enough for their vituperative rage, masking their own shame that they were duped by a pretty obvious, but none-the-less clever, drama.
And while Ghostwatch was the sort of knockabout hokum peddled by Most Haunted and the like, it was not the most chilling programme here. The most terrifying was the Nigel Kneale drama, The Stone Tape, which posited the ingenious theory that ghosts exist because buildings somehow capture horrific events by ‘taping’ them like a cassette, which are then replayed at a later date.
The whistle-stop tour of ghouls and ghosts took in Kneale’s Quatermass And The Pit and the ghost stories of MR James, focusing on Whistle And I’ll Come To You that features the scariest bedsheets in the history of TV, and Mark Gatiss’s excellent Crooked House from last Christmas. The clip of Rentaghost, however, was inappropriate, coming from its rubbish latter period evidenced by the presence of the insufferable Dobbin the Pantomime Horse and McWitch. And redoubtable cult oracle Kim Newman provided a neat summary of the impact of British horror on popular culture in his slightly incredulous tone that makes him sound like an atheist relishing rejecting the fundaments of Christianity by smashing the tablets of the Ten Commandments over the head of Moses.
Derren Brown, who had a cameo in Crooked House, was on hand to debunk the fraudulent practices of Doris Stokes and other mediums; although he conceded that they do provide a comfort of sorts to believers. The only shame here was that Derek Acorah was seen defending his methods in a documentary – “I adhere to the spiritual codes in my responsibility” – rather than being given the opportunity to rebuke Brown’s caustic dismissal.
A token effort was made to analyse what makes horror and ghosts so alluring; much of which settled mundanely like a slit corpse at the bottom of the lake for the hackneyed observation that people just like being scared except for Matthew Sweet. He perceived that the popularity of the supernatural is a symptom of the lazy, consumerist ethos that stuffs concepts distilled of all their complexity into the unthinking cerebral corridors rather than impelling people to explore the supernatural in such things as religion or culture.
He could, of course, just as well have been talking about the wonders of BBC4, such as this documentary, as opposed to more facile TV channels that would have you believe the fortunes of some so-so chefs is more captivating than the wonders of wildlife.
Yes, we are still pissed off that Autumnwatch has been pruned to a crude Friday stump as a sacrifice to the heinous banality of Masterchef.
Trailed as part of the Scene One drama series, Ghostwatch acted as a precognitive parody of the as-yet-unborn Most Haunted and Famous & Frightened, and all that curdled miasma of turbid sludge that aspires to penetrate the mysteries of the paranormal yet succeeds in creating only an amusing diversion clogged up to the nostrils with its own deluded sense of pioneering piety. The otherwise likeable Yvette Fielding snorted sulphur as she prissily pointed out that Most Haunted isn’t an “entertainment show”, as branded by Ofcom, but an “investigation”.
Ghostwatch was certainly an “entertainment show” even if many mentally indolent viewers perceived it as a genuine “investigation” into the spooky events of an ostensibly ordinary suburban family. The ‘deception’ was that the ‘stars’ of the show, other than the family, were well known presenters who were masquerading convincingly as fictional presenters. Craig Charles was the cheeky roving reporter, Mike Smith and Sarah Greene were TV’s golden couple intrepidly scouring the house for evidence of the malevolent ‘Mr Pipes’ – evil which manifested itself in the mutilation of a comatose girl; her face scratched as if by a wild animal – and, best of all, Parky playing the bemused anchor back in the studio, who was ultimately ‘possessed’ by Mr Pipes as the studio disintegrated around him.
Inevitably, there was a backlash. Not a serious backlash. It was just the frothing indignation of people who want Robbie Williams’ Angels played at their funeral, and who spend most of their lives telling other people how much they want Angels played at their funeral. Some prostituted the supposed psychologically-shredding terror of their “11-year-old son” as reason enough for their vituperative rage, masking their own shame that they were duped by a pretty obvious, but none-the-less clever, drama.
And while Ghostwatch was the sort of knockabout hokum peddled by Most Haunted and the like, it was not the most chilling programme here. The most terrifying was the Nigel Kneale drama, The Stone Tape, which posited the ingenious theory that ghosts exist because buildings somehow capture horrific events by ‘taping’ them like a cassette, which are then replayed at a later date.
The whistle-stop tour of ghouls and ghosts took in Kneale’s Quatermass And The Pit and the ghost stories of MR James, focusing on Whistle And I’ll Come To You that features the scariest bedsheets in the history of TV, and Mark Gatiss’s excellent Crooked House from last Christmas. The clip of Rentaghost, however, was inappropriate, coming from its rubbish latter period evidenced by the presence of the insufferable Dobbin the Pantomime Horse and McWitch. And redoubtable cult oracle Kim Newman provided a neat summary of the impact of British horror on popular culture in his slightly incredulous tone that makes him sound like an atheist relishing rejecting the fundaments of Christianity by smashing the tablets of the Ten Commandments over the head of Moses.
Derren Brown, who had a cameo in Crooked House, was on hand to debunk the fraudulent practices of Doris Stokes and other mediums; although he conceded that they do provide a comfort of sorts to believers. The only shame here was that Derek Acorah was seen defending his methods in a documentary – “I adhere to the spiritual codes in my responsibility” – rather than being given the opportunity to rebuke Brown’s caustic dismissal.
A token effort was made to analyse what makes horror and ghosts so alluring; much of which settled mundanely like a slit corpse at the bottom of the lake for the hackneyed observation that people just like being scared except for Matthew Sweet. He perceived that the popularity of the supernatural is a symptom of the lazy, consumerist ethos that stuffs concepts distilled of all their complexity into the unthinking cerebral corridors rather than impelling people to explore the supernatural in such things as religion or culture.
He could, of course, just as well have been talking about the wonders of BBC4, such as this documentary, as opposed to more facile TV channels that would have you believe the fortunes of some so-so chefs is more captivating than the wonders of wildlife.
Yes, we are still pissed off that Autumnwatch has been pruned to a crude Friday stump as a sacrifice to the heinous banality of Masterchef.
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