Archive for March, 2009

An Open Letter To Everyone Who’s Not Enjoying Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle

March 26, 2009

“Dear Everyone Who’s Not Enjoying Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle,
Please, by all means, go ahead and don’t enjoy it. It’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes, you can’t please all the people all of the time, and some of you might never even have seen any rap singers, on the Top Of The Pops, [...]

The Greg Grunberg Commentary Masterclass

March 25, 2009

#1: Expression Of Appreciation For A Dramatic Scene Imaginatively Rendered

“Ahwwwwwwwwww!”
#2: Reaction To A Visually Impressive Special Effect

“Ahwwwwwwwwww!”
#3 Suggestion Of Sexual Attraction To Fellow Cast Member

“Ahwwwwwwwwww!”
#4 Thoughts On Own Implementation Of Acting Technique

“Ahwwwwwwwwww!”
#5: Advanced Level – Use Of The Above In A Multi-Participant Commentary Environment

“Oh man, Zach is such a cool actor, he plays it like [...]

Pick Of The Lazy YouTube Embedded Pops – The Rebel Pebbles ‘How Do You Feel (About Me)?’

March 23, 2009

It’s an unwritten law of the pop charts, mainly because I just made it up and nobody else has even bothered to think about it and there’s probably no other comparable examples anyway, that a successful chart-conscious compromise made in one direction cannot be successfully replicated in the other. Whereas The [...]

That Joke Isn’t Funny Any More [CITATION NEEDED]

March 20, 2009

Apparently, according to a bizarre writeup elsewhere on the internet, the key characteristic of Out On Blue Six is the ’submerged catchphrase’, which after much baffled researching and repeated stumbling across references to The Burkiss Way eventually translates as meaning an in-joke that is ‘got’ by the audience but only properly understood by the writers [...]

The Best Of BBC Records (And Tapes): Part 4

March 19, 2009

The latest instalment in the increasingly futile quest which is hopefully shortly to become slightly less futile to obtain some form of copy of every interesting-sounding single ever released by BBC Records And Tapes. Anyone able to provide an MP3 or similar of any of the following?:
The Two Ronnies – But First The News
The Two [...]

Ferry Cross The Mersey Pirate (‘Film Trims’ Not Included)

March 18, 2009

Shamelessly ‘borrowed’ from an eBay auction it may be, but what a tremendous archive find – the cover of an issue of Look-In containing what was probably the only significant media exposure ever for The Mersey Pirate, the short-lived Granada-instigated Bleasdale-fuelled Redmond-applauded boat-centric technologically-haphazard summer replacement for Tiswas, forever at risk of being yanked off [...]

Torchwood Sings!

March 16, 2009

While we’re waiting for the BBC to announce a new broadcast date of March 1874 for the new series, exciting news has reached us of some forthcoming Torchwood sound-only spinoffs. So, make space on your CD shelves next to John Barrowman Reads Torchwood: Another Life (Logo), Eve Myles Reads Torchwood: Bloody Fucking Border Bloody Princes, [...]

Little ‘Red Riding’ Good (No, That Doesn’t Work)

March 13, 2009

The 11 O’Clock Show. Seaquest DSV. The Brass Eye Special. The Ace Of Wands story Sisters Deadly. That one where Doctor Who fought a talking cactus. Yes sir, I’ve sat through some bad TV over the years. From Los Dos Bros to Natural Lies, from Manimal to Thompson, from Ring My Bell to CP & [...]

Desperately Seeking Gobbo

March 12, 2009

If you’ve read the highly recommended most recent issue of This Way Up – which, if you haven’t, you should do so forthwith – you’ll probably have read my article on those fondly-remembered run-up-to-Christmas Childrens’ BBC drama serials with a supernatural/sci-fi twist (apart from, erm, the one about tennis). Within it you may also have [...]

A Bunch Of Mindless Jerks Who’ll Be First Up Against The Wall When The Revolution Comes

March 11, 2009

So, the open letter didn’t work then… above you’ll see an oversized copy of the ‘new’ Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novel (about as ‘canon’ as a scribbled-out idea for a Doctor Who New Adventure written by Lawrence Miles in a Silvine exercise book in which The Doctor meets James Corden and plays Wii Soccer), [...]