All articles by Stephen Price – Page 79
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RatingsTVC goes one step beyond
My first day at the BBC coincided with charity abseiling down the side of the TV Centre by quaking would-be plummetiers.
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RatingsA right royal success story
The top five recorded programmes of the week are all drama, with one exception: ITV’s documentary Our Queen (which makes her sound a bit like she comes from Yorkshire).
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RatingsHollywood stars for BBC
For many years, I thought Bedfordshire – a magical place at the top of our wooden stairs – was in somewhere called the Land of Nod.
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RatingsITV holds winning ticket
BBC1’s Syndicate gets off to a solid start, but Foyle’s War and Broadchurch are the week’s top dramas.
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RatingsFewer TVs but more viewing
The future: it’s confusion, wrapped in contradiction inside uncertainty. Wonderbra ad man Trevor Beattie says the 30-second ad is dead: long live the bite-sized, five-second ad, or, unhelpfully, the two-minute ad.
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RatingsSpurs score for ITV4
Manicurists in London may have had a few odd visits from burly blokes on Friday morning: Tottenham fans with no nails asking for falsies.
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RatingsQueen finds an audience
ITV doc pulls in more than 5 million on Sunday as Friday’s Comic Relief wins the week for BBC1
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RatingsMimicry’s not dead on C4
As a yoof, my only skill was replicating the sound of the family telephone. For weeks, the phone would ‘ring’ at deliciously inconvenient times. My stifled giggling eventually betrayed me and I was crushed in an avalanche of telling off. Still, mimicking isn’t dead, as Channel 4’s new comedy showed.
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RatingsCrufts is top dog for C4
My childhood companion was a dog called Dougal. On long postschool walks, one of us would always walk through the muddy puddle, and sometimes it was him. We Brits love our dogs, as More 4 finds out with each passing year.
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RatingsThe Brits do for Derek
A wise sage once said to me: “You aren’t going outside dressed like that are you?” Days later, a different sage ventured that a repeat is only a repeat if you haven’t seen it; how true.
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RatingsHeaven beats Hindenburg
As a nipper, I was ambitious for my train set; it would have many miniature people and tiny trees. However, once I found I had to make my people, I lost interest. BBC2, however, retains its fascination with locomotives.
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RatingsSkating on thin ice at ITV
Torvill and Dean and Dancing On Ice help channel overcome the pain of Woeful Wednesday
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RatingsKing still rules on More 4
I promised I wouldn’t mention Richard III again, but blow me if More 4 hasn’t made that difficult with more on the car park king.
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RatingsExtra shine for Black Mirror
Getting into a lift in busy, cacophonous Tunis, with all its ancient Carthaginian history and recent rebelliousness, it feels rather incongruous to stand in an airtight box listening to classic piano for 20 seconds.
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RatingsBBC blasts C4 in meteor war
This week, there was much toing and froing. Stephen Poliakoff headed out as a long-loved favourite began its final run, while Sue Perkins’ Heading Out was invited in.
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RatingsRecipe for success eludes
ITV Simon Cowell’s Food Glorious Food fails to get viewers tucking in, while Mayday sinks Mr Selfridge
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RatingsChivalry isn’t dead on BBC4
Every day there’s treachery, manoeuvring and a need to do anything to survive. But enough of TV; it seems medieval England was also a ruthless place.
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RatingsViewers warm to Ripper St
It was the end of a long hot day in Western Australia and the street namers’ creative juices were corked.
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NewsBBC2 stays on track
Trains are the rattle-ridden tinny and frozen things you get stuck in when you’re stranded by the wrong kind of snow/rain/leaves or general points failure.
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RatingsViewers fill up on Takeaway
Ant & Dec give ITV a timely boost, while The Brits proves too strong for BBC1’s Meet The Izzards.