Comedy Central UK today announced plans to bolster its UK programming slate with a duo of new commissions including play-along panel show Guessable and topical TV round-up show Channel Hopping with Jon Richardson.Guessable (8th October) will involve two celebrity...
It's not an unfair comment to say BBC1 has struggled to find hits within the 'light entertainment' department. Where Channel 4 have found great success with shows like Gogglebox, Gogglesprogs and The Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds, the BBC have lagged behind leaning too...
The BBC have announced Stephen Fry is to leave QI After more than 180 barnstorming episodes of the much-loved panel show, Stephen Fry has announced his retirement halfway through the alphabet. The upcoming ‘M’ series will be his last. Stephen Fry comments: "For 13...
Industry magazine Broadcast are reporting that Nevermind the Buzzcocks has been axed by the BBC after 28 series on BBC Two. A BBC spokeswoman said: "After 28 series we've decided not to bring Never Mind the Buzzcocks back to the BBC. This will create space for new...
Welcome to a particularly ITV-heavy look back at what this week offered up in the world of telly. We start with what was later proclaimed as ITV's highest rated show of the year, I'm talking of course about Britain's Got Talent. Even though the last couple of years...
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...
Sky have announced that Great British Bake-Off co-host Mel Giedroyc will host as Sky 1’s new entertainment show, Relatively Clever. The quiz tournament pits families against each other in knockout rounds. It’s a test of intelligence and trivia but family dynamics will...
Welcome once again folks to another look back at the best and worst of what the TV week had to offer. We're starting off by going on the road with BBC's newest drama Truckers. Truckers is created by William Ivory, who nearly twenty years ago devised the TV series...
So we're now in September which means the start of a whole new TV season. With so much to pack in I've found myself having to write two weekly pieces the first of which focuses on ITV's week of debuting shows which featured both some returning names and some new...
A topical news quiz on Friday night in which a witty panel are quizzed about the week’s events. Hang on, haven’t we seen this before? For the past 20 years? Well, the Bubble has a twist. The guests are shut away from the world for a few days beforehand so they are...
The internet has provided many of the revelatory moments of this decade, and one of the most illuminating is that people, on the whole, are quite stupid. Burrow into the rancid carcass of any YouTube comments section and you’ll discover throbbing grubs mindlessly...
QI is the cockroach of the television world. Not because it is a pestilent interloper disseminating disease and effluvia throughout the world – at least not until the episode featuring Jeremy Clarkson. It’s because that it seems impervious to the world surrounding it;...
George Lamb, so much to answer for. While the Jonah of the airwaves was blessedly absent from Buzzcocks, his baleful legacy was not. Excused as the progenitor, Lamb is definitely the pernicious propagator of the odious audience coercion trend mindlessly employed by...
“True or false: Bill Cosby was the first black man?” “It was false, it was Sidney Poitier.” Or the spectacle of bespectacled Mark Lamarr defending himself armed only with a toy plastic shield as Vic Reeves hurls towards him pendulum-fashion a stuffed, life-size...
“I’m going to hate this aren’t I?” bristled David Mitchell as new host Rob Brydon prepared to recite from the Cockney Bible. But raising the hackles of the amusing Mitchell is one of the conceits that Would I Lie To You? relies on to thrive and survive in the same...
Did we like it? This was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Moyles has the tendency to allow his horribly huge ego to obstruct proceedings. However, on this occasion we found him to be quite entertaining. The major problem with this show is its format which...
Did we like it? On the Richter Scale of genii, Genius would nestle alongside Mark E Smith and Ivan Turgenev creating a cultural earthquake of about 7; below the 10 of Archimedes and Franz Kafka, but soaring above the squalid pseudo-genius of Friedrich Nietzsche and...
Did we like it? This was a hit show at the Edinburgh Fringe and transferred well to TV. What was good about it? • The Shooting Stars spirit of surreal madness with a cheap set, silly jingles, daft captions and nonsensical questions. • As celebrity guests, Germaine...
Did we like it? We were big fans of the Vic Reeves-Bob Mortimer comedy "quiz" show and, although this revival made us laugh, it didn't make us feel the need to march on the BBC demanding that it is reinstated to the schedules. What was good about it? • Their best days...
Did we like it? We feared that transferring Stephen Fry's comedy panel game from BBC2 would be the ruin of a fine show, what with those BBC1 viewers being a lot less erudite and demanding. Yet this first BBC1 outing was every bit as good as any edition we've seen...
Did we like it? Arguably, this is a very funny new comedy panel game. On the other hand, there are plenty of painfully unfunny moments. What was good about it? • The man with the mischievous smile, John Sergeant, is such a likeable chap (we gather he's going down a...
Did we like it? Twice a year, in our best handwriting, we compose a message to whoever is playing the role of Father Christmas at the BBC production meeting comprising one single plea: “Hire a permanent f***ing host for Have I Got News For You!” Sadly, once again our...
Did we like it? Leigh Francis’ Keith Lemon gets another outing – this time as the host of a celebrity-based quiz show, with team captains Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby. The first two series of Bo Selecta were funny, but this shambolic attempt at emulating...
Did we like it? Not a strong return for the comedy panel game which normally scores eight out of 10 when it comes to funny bits. More like a four this week. What was good about it? • David Walliams was the most entertaining star of the show, camping it up outrageously...