In our last podcast of 2012 we discuss The Town, Our favourite TV moments of the Year and get all bleary eyed at the Sports Personality of the Year. Download this Episode
CUSTARD TV PODCAST #32: Drama of the Year and The Town
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Best of Men, BBC2
Anybody who has watched Channel 4 over the past month or so know that they have acquired the rights to the Paralympic Games and will present live coverage later this month. It is the BBC though who have commissioned a single drama looking at the intriguing story of...
Eastenders LIVE: Billy’s chance to shine
When you think of the London 2012 Olympics you imagine happiness, hope and community spirit. Similarly, when you think of Eastenders… Oh, wait… In fact, when I think of the fictional London borough of Walford, I mostly think of misery, dead-end jobs and constant...
18hrs of Olympic coverage on the BBC – That’s enough surely!
I was sat in a GCSE ICT lesson when London won the rights the Olympics. It felt like 18 hours had gone by without anything happening, my mouse curser flitting across a screen with the enthusiasm of someone who wanted to watch Songs of Praise, but got skeet shooting...
Trophy Kids, Channel 4
Did we like it? This should have been called Loser Parents. Horrendous, abusive, appalling species, all exposed in this fascinating but anger-inducing documentary. What was good about it? • Some pushy parents may have seen this and decide to lay off pressurising their...
BBC Sports Personality of the Year, BBC1
Did we like it? A better year for British sport led logically to a better celebration, which provoked much breast beating for good old Britannia and resulted in the right winners* in many of the categories. What was good about it? • An almost flawless line up of...
Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker, Sky1
Do we like it? It's the reality show revelation of the season. What is good about it? • The Vernon Kays and Dermot O'Learys of this world may prance around like attention-seeking toddlers when called upon to appear on primetime television shows. But Wayne Rooney turns...
Soccer Aid, ITV1
Team ratings England 4 David Seaman: Endured the agony of seeing a clumsy chip from an obscure French actor join Ronaldinho and Nayim in the gallery of glorious miskicked goals to sail over his head. 6 Des Walker: Always wore a grimace in his playing days, which...
Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, BBC1
Did we like it? A visually stunning spectacle but one that is as emotionally vapid as a Saturday night TV talent contest, concentrating the wonder and history of a fascinating nation into a bite-size abomination palatable to idiots and children the globe over. What...
Superstars, Five
Did we like it? We like to imagine the original Superstars from the 70s as the jolly, Cambridge-educated athlete jousting for Olympic glory in the 1500m and breasting the tape ahead of a sour-faced Hun. But those impressions, as well as our jaded jingoism, are...
Royal Ascot: Ladies’ Day, BBC1 & BBC2
Did we like it? Spend an hour at the carefree, careless Ascot and you will soon forget that war, pestilence, famine and death have ever existed and the world revolves in perpetuity around the essentials of hats, skulls bereft of cerebral activity, happiness for all,...
Review of Euro 2008: Italy v France, BBC1
Did we like it? The football was pretty good, as has much of the competition so far. We just hope it doesn’t decay as the World Cup did. The presentation just felt dated; not necessarily inferior to Sky Sports’ suffocating analysis, but more that it simply appears to...
David Beckham’s Soccer USA, Five
Did we like it? Tim Lovejoy and his Soccer AM mercenaries have made this magazine show as good as it can possibly get, but, much like if gravity vanished from the Universe, without the titular ex-Manchester United winger, it would disintegrate into disparate atoms....
David Beckham: New Beginnings, ITV1
Did we like it? Not, as we feared, quite the slimy squid of sycophancy reaching with all eight of its fawning tentacles into David Beckham to lightly tickle him to elicit anecdotes of his new sub-human celebrity chums. This was thanks to the professionalism of...
The Million Pound Footballers’ Giveaway, Channel 4
Did we like it? Hastily assembled like castaways making an improvised vessel upon which to sail to salvation with anything they can get their hands on – sand, coconuts, animal carcasses, seaweed – which will only be strong enough to take them as far as the horizon at...
Inside Sport, BBC1
Did we like it? Despite trying a little too hard occasionally, Gabby Logan made a confident, professional start to her new magazine. Sadly, her efforts to spearhead a new era in TV sports journalism was hampered by studio guests who contributed more hot air than that...
The Match, Sky One
The player ratings: The Celebrities: Mark Bosnich: This once-lithe former Man Utd goalkeeper is now so enormous that if you chained him to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and set off a volcanic reaction in his belly, it would comfortably have the capacity to expand to...
World’s Strongest Man
World’s Strongest Man: Super Series, Five Did we like it? The old BBC shows may have lacked the requisite ‘razzmatazz’ necessary to enliven the sight of men who appear to have been sired by the sacrilegious union of some of the lesser Himalayan peaks and an...
Soccer Aid, ITV1
Did we like it? ITV1, for all their faults, have gone about this in the correct manner – get as many of the world’s greatest footballers and a reasonably talented bunch of celebrities, toss them on to a football pitch and observe for one week. What as good about it? •...
Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six Final, Sky One
An apology: In our review of the introductory programme for the ‘Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six’ we stated that “The football on Sunday will be better”. Having seen some of the football, along with the overall presentation, we now accept that this claim was false and...
Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six Day 1, Sky One
Did we like it? We’ve seen the real atrocities of the world, but nothing could have prepared us for this pogrom of decency in which Sunday’s Celebrity World Cup was previewed. What was good about it? • Comedian Omid Djalili hanging on to his dignity as he spoke about...
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2005, BBC1
In view of the BBC handing out more awards than there were people at the ceremony, here are some they didn’t have time to present: The Restless Theatre Audience award for best impression of a swarm of mayfly award: the apathetic round of applause which greeted Sue...
Mourinho: The Special One, BBC1
What to say if you liked it A vivid journey into the heart of one of English football’s most engaging characters. What to say if you didn’t like it Gary Lineker lathers up Mr Flavour Of The Month with soft soap questions. What was good about it? • The peculiar...
50 Years of World Of Sport, ITV1
What to say if you liked it A perfect pantheon devoted to the endeavours of the past half-century’s sporting deities (or at least those contracted to ITV). What to say if you didn’t like it Like scrutinising effluent-thick sewage throb from an exit pipe into the pure...