Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister co-creator Sir Antony Jay has died aged 86. The broadcaster, who (with Jonathan Lynn) created the classic 1980s political TV series starring Paul Eddington and Sir Nigel Hawthorne, passed away earlier this week. His representative said: “Sir Antony Jay CVO CBE died peacefully on Sunday evening after a long illness. He […]
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In 2006, an Iceland-based outfit called The Sunshine Press launched the website WikiLeaks.org. The site’s mandate involved regularly publishing top-secret documents and covert information, often regarding governments and their respective military operations. By creating a platform that allowed whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, a huge debate ensued between those who admired the organization’s courage […]
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You might not know the name, but you can’t help but know the comedy output that Jon Plowman has been involved with and responsible for over the years. As the former head of BBC Comedy involved in the commissioning of comedy output and now working freelance for the BBC producing comedy, Jon Plowman has been […]
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Judging from the original review of the first two broadcasts of Doctor Who, the word of a telly critics in the early 60’s was not taken as gospel, thankfully. Doctor Who will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013 despited the fact that Mary Crozier, telly reviewer for The Guardian was less than impressed when the […]
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Sky 1, to further demonstrate their ongoing commitment to create original comedy content, announced recently that Trollied, starring Jane Horrocks, Jason Watkins and Mark Addy, has been renewed for two seasons. In somewhat of a departure for British comedy commissioning, which traditionally consists of green-lighting one season of a series for 6-8 episodes at a […]
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It was great night for telly last night on both sides of the pond with Neil Gaiman’s Doctor Who episode kicking the evening off followed by the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with Eli/Nikki from Azerbaijan taking home the prize. No, really, Azerbaijan. If you’re interested in a brilliant recap, here’s a […]
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Working class sitcoms vs. Blue collar comedy. Fawlty Towers vs. Father Ted. The Telegraph vs. The Guardian. No matter what side you’re on in this rather ridiculous issue, what viewers ultimately want is good comedy. While Telegraph readers tend to lean more towards the Conservative Party and a centre-right view, the majority of the Guardian readers […]
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Forgive me. It’s been far too long since I last ranted that the brilliant BBC drama, Spooks (MI5), was better than it’s American counterpart, 24. Not to worry. With every new season, comes a host of reasons why I will forever continue to believe that Spooks (MI5) is the best show on television. Series 9 […]
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Lots to follow-up on with respect to recent posts, comments from the tellyspotting mailbag, rumors swirling around on the Internets and questions from the voices in my head these days. While this might not be the equivalent of Anything You Ever Wanted to Know, hopefully, it will be close to a This May Be All […]
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After having watched The IT Crowd the other night on Channel 4, I now get how really well done it is. Written by Graham Linehan, who wrote the great Father Ted and the even greater, Black Books, I had only seen a couple of episodes of season one and, to be honest, couldn’t see what […]
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