David Ten-inch?

Doctor Who

• Elisabeth Sladen talks about how hoodies are nice to her.
• There's now an official The Sarah Jane Adventures web site (UK readers only).
• The last two episodes of Torchwood are going to air on New Year's Day.
• There's a spoiler-free review of The Runaway Bride on the SFX web site.

Film

• There's a trailer for Ocean's 13 up at AOL. You'll need Windows Media Player and probably Windows, too.

US TV

• CBS has commissioned some new pilots. Demons is about an ex-priest who travels around performing exorcisms. Swingtown is about wife-swapping in the 70s. A third pilot stars Janeane Garofalo as the head of a public defender's office.
• Some of the writers of 24 have ghost-written an article on Jack Bauer's behalf at Esquire, explaining some of his life lessons. They should stick to drama.

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Read other posts about: 24, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood

In the UK: Wednesday 20th, 10pm, More4

Aha! The much heralded 30 Greatest Political Comedies! No, really, it was. Okay, I'm lying, it wasn't.

I mean let's face it, if you were the More4 marketing department, would you bust a gut in the run-up to Christmas, promoting a list show voted for by MPs? No. Me, neither. I'd be off with Tiggy, Mimzin and the other PR girls, drinking cosmopolitans at that super new bar that's just opened near Victoria.

So it snuck out last night with the stealth of Jack Bauer, a knife clenched between his teeth, throwing a terrorist's body overboard to cover his tracks. Hosted by two Thunderbirds puppets with uncanny resemblances to Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy, the show listed, surprisingly enough, the 30 political comedies that MPs felt were both the closest to real life and the funniest. Ranging from the election night sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus to Yes, Minister and The Thick of It, the shows got hyped by various sitting MPs, journalists and broadcasters, strung out on speed and intravenous drug-using Dutch prostitutes.

See? That's what happens when you watch shows about politicians. They rub off on you and you start lying every five seconds.

Continue reading "Review: 30 Greatest Political Comedies"

Read other posts about: Chris Morris

Thanks to Anna for nominating me (although I'm not yet on the official list), and congratulations to everyone else for their nominations. Further details over at the awards site. Don't forget to nominate your favourite blogs as well, if you haven't already.

There's a certain expectation with prequels. At the end of them, you're supposed to go, “Oh, that's why he/she/it did that.” Everything's supposed to line up with the subsequent stories. It worked with Batman Begins; it sort of worked with Enterprise; even Foundation and Earth and House Atreides et al filled everything in and left you thinking you understood everything a little better. If I sat down and thought about it, I could probably come up with some non-SF prequels that did the same.

So why don't I feel that way having sat through the whole of I, Davros? Actually, why do I feel ripped off by the whole mini-series?

Continue reading "Review: I, Davros - Guilt"

Read other posts about: Big Finish

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. This Christmas, I give you a précis of news from other sites.

Doctor Who

• There's an interview with Graeme Harper, director of various episodes in the third series, about his work on last season's Doomsday on Ain't It Cool News.
• The Guardian talks to Russell T Davies about writing The Runaway Bride. He also says that if he had to revive another classic TV show, he'd go for Survivors.

Books

• The seventh (and final?) Harry Potter book is to be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Film

• There's another trailer up for the forthcoming 300 (QuickTime required).
• Keith Richards is to be Johnny Depp's dad in Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Not news. The pictures are.

British TV

• Gordon Brown's insisted on a sub-inflation licence fee increase.

US TV

• Kim Cattrall has confirmed that talks for a Sex and the City movie are back on.
• All episodes of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights so far broadcast are now available on the NBC web site for free (US readers only).
• Rules of Engagement, which has been drastically recast since the pilot, is to air from February 5th on CBS. Please don't watch it.
• ABC, clearly inspired by Dove soap, is launching a “Be Ugly '07” campaign to promote Ugly Betty. The purpose — aside from drumming up new viewers — is to promote a positive message for young women: “Be real, be smart, be passionate, be true to yourself and be ugly.” Okey doke.
• Studio 60 is the number one rated show on Nielsen's Timeshifted Primetime TV Program list. If you include people who watch it within seven days of broadcast on their TiVos, the ratings go up 11%. Also, all but one of the Top 10 product placement programmes are reality series, except for number eight, King of Queens.
• George Takei and Masi Oka both speak fluent Spanish. And apparently the guy who plays Ando in Heroes can't actually speak Japanese: he learns it all phonetically from Oka, who translates it on-the-fly for him.
• There are now shooting dates for the concluding Stargate SG-1 movies (spoilers at the end).
• I knew that Dexter was getting fewer than a million viewers, but its finale has beaten the Showtime records, with 1.1 million tuning into the season finale.

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Read other posts about: 30 Rock, Dexter, Heroes, Sex and the City, Star Trek, Stargate, Studio 60, Ugly Betty

Right. Well, I'm off on my hols. I'm trundling through freezing fog down to Swansea for a few days, then spending Christmas at a hotel in Cardiff (no, not with John Barrowman), before trundling back to London for the New Year. Guess how much blogging I'm going to be doing during that time.

So don't be too upset if there's nothing here until the start of January. As someone once said, “One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxiety. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me I'm not mistaken in mine.”

God, I'm a nerd.

Anyway, I'll probably look in from time to time to field questions, correct my usual typos and general factual inaccuracies, and if there's anything you think I should be watching or even reviewing, let me know below.

Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, one and all!*

*Except for you guys who don't believe in Christmas, in which case Happy Holidays**!
** Unless you're working, of course. That would be a bummer.