In 2006, the BBC took quite a big gamble. In a TV landscape where safe procedurals like New Tricks and a revamped Silent Witness were big hitters, Life on Mars, which saw a modern-day policeman transported back to 1973 didn't exactly fit. It helped, though, that that...
Matt, Dawn and Gary board the TV Time Machine and enter a new Millennium. They review four new shows that began in January. Dom Jolly takes to the streets to terrorise and irritate the British public in Channel 4's hidden camera hit Trigger Happy TV. The BBC attempt...
ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill has commissioned a six-part mystery drama, After the Flood, produced by multi award-winning Manchester based executive producer Nicola Shindler and her team at Quay Street Productions in association with ITV Studios. The compelling drama...
This year the BBC turns 100. Fundamental to Britain and funded by licence fee payers, the BBC has garnered a worldwide reputation for quality. For this special post highlighting the highlights of the corporation's massive contribution to television, I've decided to...
We discuss the return of Prey, the end of Nurse Jackie and the gibberish from The Apprentice.
As TV winds down for the summer, and some football tournament or other, this week's Matt on the Box will primarily be focusing on programmes that are coming to an end. The first series to come to an end this week was BBC's family saga From There to Here which...
In our latest podcast Matt & I discuss our disappointment surrounding Britain's Got Talent, our obsession with Happy Valley and the need for more socks! Gary reports on the US shows returning and leaving UK screens.
If you ask how people in Manchester feel about the 1996 IRA bomb, you might be surprised to hear that some Mancunians think it was one of the best things to happen to the city. Delve a bit further, beyond what could be the legendary Manc bravado and swagger and you...
When Sky1 launched Mad Dogs in 2011 I sat aghast. Some clever clever casting person managed (by some miracle) to get my four favourite British actors in one place and in the one drama! It must have been a strategic nightmare but they managed it. John Simm, Philip...
In this special late night instalment of TheCustardTV the gang discuss Case Histories, Frankie and The Eurovision Song Contest, plus Luke talks about attending the screening of Mad Dogs Series 3.
Ahh so so so so so so many unanswered questions and if we don’t get the final answers in the final episode I shall be writing to points of view on everyone’s behalf. Ashes to Ashes, like Life on Mars before it is something unique in as much as we know about as much of...
Believe it or not I have been known to venture out on the town on Friday nights. The living room lays silent and the TV gets a well earned rest but all that silliness stopped two weeks ago when the BBC decided to schedule the final series of Ashes to Ashes on a...
That Mitchell & Webb Look Why do I watch The Brits every year? It makes no difference to me who wins. And I know the host will be annoying. But there's always the hope that this year will be better or something amazingly awful will happen. Mika opened the show...
Did we like it? As egregious as the Flock of Seagulls singer’s haircut, as explicitly feeble as Tarzan, The Ape Man, as arrogant in its own beauty as Ultravox’s Vienna, as wrongly heralded as the engagement of Charles & Di, as self-consciously jaunty as Depeche...
Did we like it? There didn't seem to be as much charm as the first series – largely because it was crammed with the central conceit (is Sam Tyler dreaming? comatose? mad? part of a conspiracy?) rather than a gripping crime tale. What was good about it? •Philip...
Did we like it? It's a winner – with an inventive twist on conventional cop dramas and a great lead in John Simm, the 2006 Detective Chief Inspector in Manchester who is run over and wakes as a mere Detective Inspector in 1973. What was good about it? • There's a bit...
No-one does political thrillers like the BBC, and in an age when focus-group wisdom prescribes an attention span of two episodes (hence endless ITV two-shot dramas), no-one holds out for a good, old-fashioned six-parter like the BBC, either. Thus we have State Of...