All articles by Stephen Price – Page 81
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RatingsCBBC conjures up slot winner
It’s not Harry Potter battling the alien bursting out of John Hurt’s stomach, but CBBC’s tale of aliens and wizards began nicely.
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RatingsBeware the grizzly bear
One of the most chanted refrains emanating from the US elections was the Obama camp’s “four more years”. In the even more ruthless world of American TV, it’s often a more plaintive “four more episodes”.
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Ratings007 puts BBC2 in driving seat
BBC2 celebrated the understated launch of a new Bond film with a Top Gear special in an appropriately stunty schedule in which it also stripped icebergs and autumn. While smarting at the fate of the Jewish mum competition, Channel 4 can take comfort from the redoubtable Grand Designs.
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RatingsFall brings US dramas
In the US, the fall TV season is under way and the business of wondering what will survive is on. Some of those new dramas launched here this week, from sci-fi to a US take on Sherlock Holmes.
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RatingsX Factor loses out to Strictly
New Tricks goes down a treat and Savile’s toxic legacy proves popular for Panorama.
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RatingsChoir ends on a high note
As the weather around the world goes nuts with alarming regularity it didn’t help that this week Derren Brown convinced some poor sap the world was ending; forget the aid of skilful suggestion, just watching the news makes it feel like it actually might happen.
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FeaturesBake Off beats critics
Alas and alack the cakes, buns, bunting and icing sugar are but a memory. Alas and alack for BBC2 anyway, for everyone else the end of The Great British Bake Off might evoke a more bitter ‘thank goodness, get lost’.
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RatingsPop bios feel the Squeeze
Squeeze, those melancholy minstrels, were indubitably marvellous, if in a more niche kind of way than, say, ELO.
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RatingsDownton on an upper
Downton Abbey continues to prove that the UK’s appetite for costume melodrama remains unabated, as the latest consolidated episode, which aired on 7 October, is again at the top of the table.
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RatingsGB baking rises again
One far-flung summer past I worked for the Severn Trent Water Authority researching the history of its sewerage system.
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RatingsMaking a song and a dance
As scandals continue to hit hitherto revered institutions on a daily basis, where to turn for a sense that everything is not just mind-numbingly awful all the time?
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FeaturesRevival puts Dave in orbit
Appropriately in the week the Voyager space ship left our solar system, Red Dwarf returned, crashing UKTV’s website, while Captain Kremmen’s alter-ego was remembered in a BBC4 biopic.
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NewsTidy time for MTV’s Valleys
Perhaps the most famous of all Welsh poet and drinker Dylan Thomas’ works is Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, with its epic exhortation to “rage, rage against the dying of the light”.
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NewsViewers check out of Hotel GB
In my day, every self-respecting student had a poster of Karl Marx on their wall, usually next to that photograph of a ‘Parisian kiss’ by Paul Doisneau.
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NewsSaturday duel is back on
ITV1’s X Factor takes first round against BBC1’s Strictly as the annual PR battle gets under way
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FeaturesGolf swings it for Sky Sports
I gave up golf years ago; I couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo. But I was gripped by the Ryder Cup on Sunday.
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FeaturesRatings blip is no joke for C4
At school, my maths teacher had a very distinctive non-local accent, with which I became so fascinated that I often ignored the sums.
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FeaturesNigella serves up a winner
This week, Channel 4 did drugs, BBC2 took us downstairs to reveal the life of the maids who washed their masters’ pants, and Nigella served up a meat-based pizza.
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FeaturesParadise found for the BBC
New period drama sees off Midsomer Murders, while old favourite Downton builds on last year
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FeaturesFootball is the winner
This week, Tom Jones recounted life from Pontypridd to Las Vegas, while China’s past gave up its secrets reluctantly.