Continuity Booth - Television News and Nostalgia » TV shows

BBC say that Sherlock will return

Alan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:54:49 +0000

The dramatic conclusion of the second season of Sherlock led to the announcement by the BBC that the television show will be returning for a third series. The creators recently confirmed that the BBC1 drama will be returning despite an initial statement that it might not be.

The creator of the series is Steven Moffat and he had previously said that there would not necessarily be a third season of Sherlock. However, after the conclusion of the second, he stated that he was joking and it would definitely be returning.

Nearly eight million people watched the series finale and this is down about 1 million from those who watched the first episode of the season on New Year’s Day. The episode that aired on Sunday evening was called The Reichenbach Fall which is named after the book that Conan Doyle first published in the late 19th century.

The creative directors of the television show have said that they have complete freedom from the original books so they don’t have to keep everything as it once was. It is currently unknown when the next season will be broadcast but many people expect that it won’t be until next year.

Both of the stars have busy schedules and are filming major Hollywood movies. Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars as Sherlock Holmes, has recently been cast in the new Star Trek movie as the villain. Martin Freeman, who plays Dr Watson is currently filming the Hobbit, the shooting of which is taking place in New Zealand.

The second season of Sherlock was met with critical acclaim and the end of the final episode was particularly appealing to viewers. Mr Moffat originally said about the episode, before announcing that it would return, that he was unsure whether he would keep Sherlock alive or kill him off before the end of the series.

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We deduce BBC series Sherlock is back

Alan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:34:58 +0000

The hit BBC series Sherlock made a welcome return to our screens recently, with the screening of the first episode in series two, “A Scandal in Belgravia”. Tying up the nerve-racking cliffhanger from the previous series neatly within the first few minutes allowed Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the long-suffering Watson (Martin Freeman) to dive headlong into a new mystery – and also allowed the show’s creators to introduce one of the most-loved characters from the original Conan Doyle stories.

Irene Adler, the token love interest in the Sherlock Holmes stories for over a century, was here played with a sexuality and sensuality by actress Lara Pulver that would have had Sir Arthur turning in his grave. The scenes between Adler and Holmes were masterfully acted and it was almost fun to watch the normally unflappable Sherlock looking extremely uncomfortable.

The introduction of Irene Adler brought a new complexion to the show, and although the way her story ended made great dramatic sense, it is nevertheless a shame that Pulver is not to become an integral part of the cast for future episodes.

The writers included their usual appreciative nods towards the original Holmes stories – indeed “A Scandal in Belgravia” is very similar to the title of the story which inspired the early part of this first episode “A Scandal in Bohemia” – but the most dramatic and entertaining aspects of the show remain the modern interpretations of Holmes as a character and his relationship with Watson and the others who are drawn into his circle.

There were glimpses of the writer’s efforts to make Holmes a little more human in this new series, while their exquisite comic timing remains well and truly intact. The scene where Sherlock finds himself donning the fabled deerstalker cap before setting off in pursuit of another villain was, as ever, brilliantly conceived.

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Blue Peter the sacred childrens show under threat

Alan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:32:08 +0000

Blue Peter is a show that has been on British television for over 50 years and it is now having its episodes significantly cut back and it is being transferred off BBC1. The show is being moved to a digital channel and there is only going to be one edition of it every week. The BBC have said that the move is because the program is drawing less viewers and does not deserve a spot on the BBC’s prime television channel.

The television show first came on air in the late 1950s and has been broadcast two times a week for most of its life. The show was most popular in the 1980s where audience figures often came to over 5 million. The average number of viewers for the program currently is under 400,000 and the slump in interest has led the reduction in number of shows.

Despite the cutback in the number of shows per week, the television program will be continuing to be broadcast over the summer holidays, where as in the past it typically took a two-month break. A spokesperson from the BBC has commented, “Despite the falling interest, Blue Peter it is a show that we want to run all year round. Also, we’re not adjusting the budget that the show gets or the amount of time it spends on air, we’re just changing the place that it is broadcast.”

Save Kids’ TV is a pressure group that is pushing the BBC to keep allocating the same amount of money to children’s television programming. They’ve recently raised concerns that too many television shows are being moved to digital channels where they typically have smaller budgets.

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Doctor Who jumps back in time with two old episodes

Alan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:19:12 +0000

Fans of the television series Doctor Who will be pleased with the recent discovery of two episodes from the BBC series that were previously thought to be missing. The episodes are from 1965 and 1967 and star Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell who were the first two actors to star in the role of the Doctor.

There were 100 episodes the television series that the BBC wiped, but these two managed to survive. Until the 1950s television programmes were broadcast live as tape was not easily accessible, during the 1960s it became possible to record programmes and broadcast them later but the tape was so expensive that it was often wiped and re-used.

During the 1970s a historian was commissioned by the BBC to help improve the archiving of old television programs so that they could be viewed in the future. Some television programmes were transferred to films that they could be broadcast for an international audience and these are sometimes recovered and viewers are given episodes that were previously lost.

The episodes were found with Terry Burnett who purchased the tapes at a school fete in the 1980s. He did not think anything of his possession of the tapes as he assumed that the BBC would have archived copies, it was not until he was talking with the editor of the Radio Times that he realised that they would have significance.

One of the episodes that was recovered tells the story of a race who are trying to escape their home planet which is about to be destroyed. This second episode tells the story of a mad scientist attempting to recover the lost city of Atlantis by draining the oceans to the core of the planet.

The second episode is the third episode which starred Mr Troughton as The Doctor and he has commented that he was not impressed with the production of the episode. In a recent biography of the actor he said that he had many arguments with the director with regard to the nature of the costumes and makeup of the aliens, saying that they were ‘completely ridiculous.’ The producer of this episode later commented that, “Now I will definitely admit that this episode did look more like an American B-movie from the 1950s rather than episode of Doctor Who.”

The number of missing episodes of Doctor Who remains very high and there are currently over 100 episodes still being sought. All of these episodes were broadcast during the 1960s and this latest find is very modest when compared to the number of episodes waiting to be found. Other recent announcements of found episodes include, Emergency Ward 9 and a comedy sketch featuring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook.

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Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley available for a new generation

Alan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:07:45 +0000

Gordon Murray is the 90 year old creator of those much loved children’s animated TV shows from the 1960′s an 70′s; Chigley, Trumpton and Camberwick Green. He has finally seen his dream fulfilled as his beloved trilogy has been resored digitally by

BBC Studios and Post Production. The unforgettable antics of the famous characters, such as the Trumpton fire crew Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub are now preserved forever to be enjoyed by all future generations.

In a move that was both ambitious and far sighted, Murray enlisted the help of his ‘Trumptonshire’ son in law William Mollett to locate, restore and then future proof the trilogy. Mollett says that when we started on the process they had no great expectations as if they did manage to track down the original footage, they didn’t think it would be in a very good condition after 50 years.

He found some of the footage buried in Murray’s attic and then approached the BBC to see if they could help him to track down the footage that was missing. It was eventually traced to a vault belonging to the BBC in Perivale, West London, and it was soon evident that due to its age, restoring it was going to be a painstaking and time consuming task.

Gordon and William enlisted the expertise of BBC Studios and Post Production who took the footage and frame by frame meticulously cleaned, scanned and digitally restored it. “My mission was to preserve and future-proof the trilogy for new generations to enjoy,” said Murray. “I’d love to see the people who first watched it back in the 1960s to enjoy it again in pristine digital quality with their grandchildren. I’m so delighted it’s been so lovingly brought back to life. I was really worried it had been lost forever, and I can’t imagine a world without Trumptonshire,” he added.

“It was a great honour for us to be involved with the restoration of this fantastic piece of television history,” said Debbie Manners, chief operating officer at BBC Studios and Post Production. “The trilogy holds a very special place in the nation’s hearts, and transports us back to a simpler and more innocent age. The beauty of today’s sophisticated digital techniques means we can now avoid classic footage being consigned to the annals of TV history, and keep and improve it for future generations to enjoy.”

The fully re-mastered series of Camberwick Green, which first aired on the BBC on 3 January 1966, is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray via Amazon.co.uk from 16 December 2011. Click here on the banner below for more info.

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Looks like Daybreak may have had its day

Alan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:06:49 +0000

After the GMTV morning show finished, Daybreak was introduced to fill the gap and the producers of the show must be quite stressed right now as it seems that it is just going from one disaster to another. Ratings have recently plummeted and has led to the two hosts of the show losing their jobs however this seems to have done nothing to boost the ratings. Currently the show has less than half the viewers of their BBC competitor, BBC Breakfast.

A senior creative director for ITV has recently commented, “I don’t think there is another show on the channel that is currently performing so badly.” One of the initial problems with the show was that they wanted to use the skyline of London as a background, the problem was the show started at 6 AM and at this point the skyline of London is dark. To alleviate this problem the channel paid to floodlight important London landmarks.

Many people thought that the presenters of the show, Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakly would have a great on-screen chemistry as they had previously worked together, with much success on the BBC. However, when it came to present the morning showing this chemistry disappeared and they appeared bored on-screen. Initially the television show managed to get some big names such as Tony Blair and David Cameron but since then it has been in constant decline is now those who appear on the show are barely celebrities at all.

Many people have speculated that the reason the chemistry between the two presenters on the show is no longer present is because their real-life relationship has also soured. A source close to the presenters has said that in real life they don’t even talk to each other and that and Chiles is in a constant bad mood.

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British TV just not supplying what people want

Alan — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:16:08 +0000

Red Bee Media has recently conducted a survey that has shown the people in the UK are generally unsatisfied with the TV and radio options that are being broadcast. The company have recently announced that they are bringing together many groups of people to conduct think tanks and debates to see where broadcast media is heading over the next eight years and hope to draw up a picture of what it will look like by 2020.

The group expects that the amount of live television people watch will not decline over the next eight years and this is despite nearly 75% of people surveyed saying that they struggle to find anything good to watch on a weekly basis. There is also been a great deal of confusion among consumers about the different options for getting television into their homes. Overall, they seem confused by the number of devices available for receiving television broadcasts.

A great interest in non-live television has also been shown and over 70% of people have said that they want to be able to choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it. Nearly half of those people surveyed said that they also wanted to be able to watch all of the past episodes of their favourite TV shows.

Consumers also expressed an interest in changing the way the television can be viewed in the home. Especially in the younger group surveyed, the demand for having wireless access to television on any screen in the house is growing rapidly. People have also said that they want to be able to watch the television they subscribe at home when they are abroad and some even went so far to say that it is frustrating that they cannot do so if they have access to a high-speed internet connection.

Well over half of all the survey participants said that they wanted to see movies and television broadcast on the same dates all over the world. Currently television is broadcast in some countries before others and consumers would like to see this equalised.

There is little doubt in the industry that consumers are willing to pay more for better content and this survey confirmed that. 20% of people said they expect to pay more for television in the next eight years. Less than 20% said they expected the amount they spend to decline. However, around a third of survey participants said that they would pay less for their television subscription if there was a cheap way for them to get access to movies.

The general consensus from the survey is that people are more engaged with movies and television than ever before and when you combine this with a significant level of change that is occurring in the industry people are coming to expect a lot more. There is no question that viewing habits are going to change significantly over the coming years as people demand a higher quality and more flexible viewing experience.

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Parky heading back to TV

Alan — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:21:47 +0000

Sir Michael Parkinson, “Parky” as he is known with great affection by multitudes of fans in the UK and elsewhere, is going to provide another great treat for UK audiences next year. Though many reporters hail the move as “coming out of retirement”, the fact is that Parky never did retire from his career; he just changed venues.

In an interview with Graham Walker, digital editor of The Star, Sir Parkinson spoke briefly about his plans to host a ten-part series to be aired on Sky next summer. He said that instead of the traditional three guests, there will be just one per show, and his ambition is to find out just what makes his guests as ‘special’ as they are. He did not mention any names, but we can expect the sort of thing he’s done before with celebrities such as Elton John and Paul McCartney.

The talk show host, who is arguably the best in the business, said in the interview that watching David Frost was one catalyst that set him on the road to his 50-some year career. He officially retired from television back in June of 2007, but he has been as busy as ever. His book called Parky’s People is, according to Parky himself, 100 of his favourite interviews. He said he regrets never having gotten Frank Sinatra as a guest.

Sir Parkinson was appearing at Sheffield’s Crucible to promote the new book, as part of the Star-backed Off the Shelf literary festival. When asked which of the stars he has interviewed he would want to have back on his show, he mentioned Orson Welles, Shirley MacLaine, Billy Connelly and as a quick afterthought, Fred Astaire.

Certainly one secret of his own success is Parky’s conviction that it’s OK to ask anybody anything, as long as one does it diplomatically and in context. He said that some stars refused to be interviewed unless they were given all the questions that would be asked in advance so they could prepare. That, he said, is a no-go; it’s why he never got Barbra Streisand, and it took him 20 years to get Madonna on the show.

Sir Parkinson was and still is a dynamic personality with a charm all his own. You can watch the whole interview at http://www.thestar.co.uk/

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Vacation, Vacation, Vacation takes a long holiday

Alan — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:29:27 +0000

Vacation, Vacation, Vacation the Phil Spencer and Kristie Allsopp holiday show broadcast on Channel 4 was canceled after the station decided that it was not identifying enough with its viewers. The eight part travel show started at the beginning of this year and attempted to ride off of the success of Spencer and Allsopp’s DIY and property shows, but its ratings ended up coming in much lower than the network expected.

When it hit the air at the end of March its debut raked in 2.1 million viewers, but near the end of the series its viewership was down to just 1.3 million. This was a disappointing finish when compared to the duo’s Relocation, Relocation, Relocation show that pulled in 2.7 million before it was put on hold in the light of the recession.

However, the two stars will do just fine because even though Vacation, Vacation, Vacation has been scrapped the property duo have plenty of other shows in the works to try out on Channel 4. A spokesman for Channel 4 said that the holiday show simply did not do as well as expected, but that they have several other series to try out that they think will do great.

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Noah Fielding’s Luxury Comedy to give you more Boosh

Alan — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:02:38 +0000

The creator of The Mighty Boosh, Noah Fielding is returning to the television with a new show that he has created called, Noah Fielding’s Luxury Comedy. The show is half animated and half filmed; it is a character based comedy and features music from Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno.

Show and Tell is a show that is presented by Chris Addison and takes place every week. It invites three comedians to come onto the programme to show and tell the audience about something. They are told to bring in an item from home and then make a stand-up routine based around that item.

The Midnight Beast is another show that is coming to E4 this season and is something that has already caused quite a storm on the internet with comedy songs – these have nearly forty million views combined. The show is about two musicians who are in a band together and are struggling to make enough money to get by. As well as detailing their musical lives it also focuses on the problems that they are facing in their personal lives as they try and impress girls and struggle to share a small flat. The show sees many famous comedy guests make appearances.

Dustin Demri-Burns and Seb Cardinal also are presenting a new comedy sketch show called Cardinal Burns. Some of the sketches are cartoonish and a bit silly, while other utilise intelligent and contemporary concepts. Combined this makes for a show that will appeal to a wide audience.

A show that is making a reappearance is Comedy Labs which has been previously known for starting the careers of such major comedians as Russell Brand and Jimmy Carr. The new show will include six, half hour episodes which will bring a new type of comedy to the show.

The successful comedy PhoneShop will also be returning for a second season in November and will see the staff of the shop suffering as their star salesman is still being detained. The staff are being pressured to make up for the fall in sales and the comedy promises to be as good as the first season.

A show that focuses on celebrity news is The Dirty Digest and is hosted by Michelle de Swarte and a panel of others who examine the weeks celebrity news and gossip. It will involve all things to do with the famous, such as looking at rumours about their personal lives as well as criticising their bad behaviour.

Other shows that are arriving this year include the first season of Sorority Girls where five girls who have come from a sorority in the US come to introduce it to Leeds University. The show features how students have to go through weeks of challenges to be accepted into the group. Made in Chelsea also continues and you can expect all the drama that we saw previously in the show that follows the lives of the elite socialites in south-west London. Expect all the priceless quotes and awkward pauses we saw in the first season.

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