The BBC have announced Louis Theroux is to front his own intimate chat show. In the first episode of the six-part series The Louis Theroux Interviews (working title), he joins multi-award winning, British Musician Stormzy on tour and at home for an in depth and...
James Corden’s chat show finally finds UK home!
Sky has announced their most exciting acquisitions for a long time. Next month The Late Late Show with James Corden will make its long-awaited UK TV debut. The full announcement reads: From the 19th July, all Sky TV and NOW TV entertainment pass customers can enjoy...
How did James Corden’s first show go?
When it was first announced James Corden would take over from Craig Ferguson as host of The Late Late Show on CBS I remember feeling perplexed. It seem to come completely out of left field. Despite success on Broadway and his beloved Gavin & Stacey being remade...
What’s on Channel 4 this Christmas?
A couple of days after the BBC announced their Christmas line-up; Channel 4 have followed suit with previewing their own festive schedule. Top of the bill is a new feature-length instalment of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. The special; starring Jon Hamm and Rafe...
Dave release clips of new Alan Davies show
Dave has released clips of new series Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled. The Jonathan Creek star hosts the series that sees himself and four top funny folk sit around a table and talk about literally anything in front of a studio audience. Led by an...
Matt on the Box: Last Week’s TV Highlights: Shetland, Law and Order UK, The Michael McIntyre Chat Show and The Walshes
It's a case of deja vu this week as once again I'm complaining about an over-abundance of crime dramas this week with another two returning detective shows populating our TV screens. The first is BBC1's Shetland, which returns after a successful two-part pilot last...
Father and son bond and embarrass on ‘Backchat’
We've seen a lot of Jack Whitehall of late. His fantastic comedy Bad Education was a must see in August, he's back in the still fairly edgy Fresh Meat on Channel 4, and he recently hosted a particularly strong episode of Nevermind the Buzzcocks. But if all that wasn't...
Host of celebrities set to join Comic Relief’s Big Chat with Graham Norton on BBC Three
BBC Three today confirms a star-studded line-up of guests and performers for Comic Relief’s Big Chat with Graham Norton. At 7pm on Thursday 7 March, Graham will be taking over BBC Three for the whole night to host the biggest chat show ever, which will last into the...
That Sunday Show, ITV
How many times does someone have to make a doomed switch from the BBC to ITV to illustrate that it is almost always a very bad idea. On the BBC, the star is like the inadvertent star of a wildlife documentary. Unassuming but endearing, eliciting affection through its...
The Justin Lee Collins Show, ITV2
Did we like it? A fairly average stab at a new chat show, with an impressive line up for the firstepisode featuring Catherine Tate, Billie Piper and American comedy actor, Kevin James. However, with Jonathon Ross, Graham Norton and Paul O’Grady already busy on the...
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Sharon Osbourne, ITV1
Did we like it? Piers Morgan lacks the inquisitorial skills and Sharon Osbourne is utterly bereft of cultural significance, therefore casting this indulgent, cosseted chinwag to be more akin to a corporate chinwag an insurance salesmen’s conference. What was good...
Richard & Judy’s New Position, Watch
Did we like it? They're not particularly great but we've always has some affection for Richard and Judy, so we were pleased to see them back in a show that started well but petered out into nonsense. What was good about it? • The couple's much-loved trademark...
The Dark Side of Fame With Piers Morgan, BBC1
Did we like it? Tomas de Torquemad meets Genghis Khan. What was good about it? • Discovering that Jim Davidson now lives in Dubai, which, in totally unconnected news, is a place of discrimination and cruelty. • The feeble justification Piers Morgan trumpeted for...
Lily Allen And Friends, BBC3
Did we like it? The idea of putting a celebrity novice in front of the camera and then to ask dumb questions of their peers as a way for viewers to pass time instead of slitting their wrists has often been tried before. But Lily Allen’s incarnation, even in the face...
Luke on TV – Louis Behind Bars, American Idol, Shameless, Never Better
Shameless What weird jobs some people have. On our local news the other night there was the usual story about a man who had robbed a bank. They had nicknamed him the Bad Hat Bandit. He is on the run, but rather than focus on the crime he had committed, our local...
Parkinson, ITV1
Did we like it? To anyone who revelled in their cultural heyday of the 60s and 70s, it must have seemed like a vacation in nostalgia nirvana; to everyone else it was a bunch of old people talking about events that happened before they were born. What was good about...
The Alan Titchmarsh Show, ITV1
Did we like it? Of course not. The vital question that needs to be answered is, is it worse than That Anthony Cotton Show? The answer: no, surprisingly it isn't. It is tedious, safe, twee and mindless but Cotton is much more rotten. What was good about it? • The...
That Antony Cotton Show, ITV1
Did we like it? If this had been a parody, it would have been a shoo-in for comedy awards aplenty. But it is, shockingly, for real. Another low benchmark in ITV's withering reputation (yes, it's worse than those Sharon Osbourne and Nigella Lawson chat shows, but will...
TV Heaven Telly Hell, Channel 4
Did we like it? If this show was hopelessly marooned in a lifeboat adrift on an endless ocean sharing the vessel with other comedy kindred such as QI and Have I Got News For You, it would be one of the first to be clubbed to death with a spare oar and tossed overboard...
Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, BBC1
• The number of people who gazed at Jonathan’s dazzling tie and had their eyes burnt out instead of viewing it safely in a reflection: 16. • The number of references to Daniel Radcliffe’s “nude scene” in Equus, thus reducing the show to the same low-com-denom status...
The Big Finish With Graham Norton, BBC1
10 reasons why Saddam Hussein enjoyed the New Year festivities more than us after we became trapped indoors with only Graham Norton and a sickbag of minor celebrities for company. • The teams – “15 of the biggest names of the year” – culled from the scrap yards of...
Richard And Judy’s Christmas Books, Channel 4
Did we like it? Books for people who hate reading, for people who used to tear the hearts from the chests of bookish classmates and squeeze the blood onto their chips on the school bus as a substitute for tomato sauce. What was good about it? • Richard’s excruciating...
The Russell Brand Show, Channel 4
Did we like it? An experience not unlike a bomb going off with windows shattered by deafening levels of amateurism, the foundations upon which there was to be built a chat show weakened to the point of shambolic collapse by the shrapnel of egregious egotism, but...
The Sharon Osbourne Show, ITV1
Did we like it? ITV tries to replicate the success of The Paul O'Grady Show. Which only makes us wonder why they picked someone as lacking in wit and ability as a presenter or interviewer as Sharon Osbourne. Highlights of the shows on Tuesday and Wednesday • The...