Unfortunately we’re having serious problems with the forums at the moment – I’m doing my best to restore them and will let you know when they’re available again. In the meantime, why not have a little chat in the comments under here?
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Following a couple of years on BBC One, QI takes a voluntary relegation back to 10pm on BBC Two for the “I” series. Thought to be a more natural home for the show, the producers say they were tired of toning down the more adult stuff for a Prime Time audience. So can we expect utter filth all of a sudden? Having only recently caught up with the first volume of Stephen Fry’s autobiography, I shudder to think what tales he might share. The most exciting thing about the trailer that’s been playing lately though is that it appears Fry has got one of his greatest wishes: An appearance in the new series from Professional Luvvie and Celebrity Lunatic Brian Blessed.
Meanwhile back on BBC One, QI’s place is taken by the rather hit and miss Would I Lie To You? Hopefully this week should be more hit than miss though, as Miranda Hart is among the panellists (along with gurning Apprentice sidekick Nick Hewer) and we’re promised she’ll be entertaining us with an uncontrollable fit of corpsing.
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It’s been a while since London theatre offered up any excitingly lowcultural casting but Islington’s Almeida are making an effort in the next couple of months. Later this autumn Dame Billie Piper will be treading the boards there but from today there’s a real rarity: Tracey Ullman makes a return to the stage (and indeed these shores) for My City, about a chance reunion between a former teacher and pupil. Ullman will probably be forever remembered for her relatively minor role in the birth of The Simpsons but let’s not forget her most important contribution to 20th century culture. By which of course I mean “They Don’t Know.”
This play also marking the return to the stage from TV of writer Stephen Poliakoff, I sadly doubt there’ll be much call for Trace to give us a blast of her greatest hit, but with a cast that also includes Sorcha Cusack, David Troughton and Lost in Austen‘s Tom Riley this could be worth a look.
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I don’t know whether it’s a sign of getting old, or whether it’s a sign of the mediocrity of this year’s crop that I find it hard to care too much about this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize (note the absence of ‘Music’ from the title these days, curiously). I remember the days when it was actually sponsored by Mercury, and it were all fields round ‘ere. I would say the nominations were also better then, but Simply Red were up for it one time, so that would be a lie.
To be fair, the albums nominated (or at least the ones I’ve heard) aren’t that bad, but the presence of the usual suspects (Elbow, PJ Harvey, sodding Adele) surely indicates a lack of creativity on behalf of the judging panel – although looking back over the previous years, the most edgy they’ve ever really got was nominating the Spice Girls one year. Winning the prize remains something of a poisoned chalice, with Speech Debelle (2009) and the xx (2010) seemingly fading into obscurity subsequently as have so many previous winners.
Still, any music on television is better than no music on television. Or The X Factor. There’s little else of merit on tonight that you don’t already have on series link, so this is the best you’re going to get. And it has the advantage of being live, which means there’s a chance someone will pull a wacky stunt like they used to in ye olde days of The Brits.
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E4 and Friends. As closely linked as Waterstone’s and 3-for-2s. In a sure sign that the apocalypse is imminent, in the same week as Waterstone’s announced it was ending its most famous book deal, E4 shows its last ever episode of the sitcom.
OK, so we all know the episodes well enough that we could recite them without watching, and lots of us own the box set and never bother watching it, but that’s beside the point. Friends on E4 has always been the reliable place you can go to when there is absolutely nothing else on the telly. There’s something strangely comforting about seeing Joey with a chicken on his head, or Ross’s tan, or Fat Monica that very few other television experiences offer. It really is the telly equivalent of a cup of tea – temporarily solves all ills.
With no Friends and no Big Brother, it’s difficult to see what E4 is going to fill its schedule with, other than it still trying to make How I Met Your Mother Happen. (It’s not going to happen).
If you need cheering up afterwards, television’s not offering you much levity tonight. ITV1 has Fred West dramatisation Appropriate Adult, whilst you can watch the uncomfortably-funny Four Lions on Channel 4, and play spot the famous bit of Sheffield in between feeling slightly guilty for laughing.
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Outnumbered is back for a fourth series tonight – only fourth? The kids look so much bigger than I remembered, it can’t just be my advanced age can it? Of course, I did notice earlier how much younger policemen are looking these days, and the summers were definitely sunnier when I were a lad, but these things are objective truths and definitely not my perceptions changing as I shuffle closer to death. Therefore the kids in Outnumbered are simply growing at an increased, possibly illegal rate. QED.
Anyway the unorthodox, semi-improvised family sitcom returns to BBC1 tonight with the Brockmans attending a family funeral. And this isn’t even the best sitcom news of the night: No, a show which definitely has been running forever, My Family finally croaks tonight. Unlike Outnumbered it’s a show whose only deviation from the comedy formula was in resolutely refusing to be funny for a solid decade. So good riddance.
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