Orange Television Blog

John Sergeant on the Tourist Trail, Tuesday 8pm, ITV1

2009-11-10T21:00:00+00:00

Posted by Stewart Turner A stern rap over the knuckles for whoever at ITV failed to notice John Sergeant’s new show was a shoe-in for a Sunday tea-time slot. Aimed squarely at the kind of people who find the Antiques Roadshow a little too racy and Last of the Summer Wine a little too blue, it was the perfect show in front of which to crack open a packet of biscuits and sip a cup of tea. Affable John, these days known primarily as “a dancing pig in Cuban heels” rather than a respected BBC political journalist, is on a...

The Execution of Gary Glitter, Monday 9pm, Channel 4

2009-11-09T23:28:37+00:00

Posted by Tom Murphy Paedophilia and the death sentence are two subjects that people generally have pretty strong views about. So how did this oddly conceived dramatised imagining of the fictional execution of Paul Francis Gadd (aka Gary Glitter) turn out so utterly unengaging? For a start, the format of the programme was a bit of a mish-mash. Emphatic title cards told us that “THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION” and “WE ARE IN AN IMAGINARY BRITAIN” where the death penalty was re-introduced after the Soham murders of 2003. However, it then became a mix of conventional drama and documentary-style...

The X Factor, Sunday 8pm, ITV1

2009-11-08T21:16:40+00:00

Posted by Rex Miles Lucie Jones has been eliminated from The X Factor after competing in the bottom two against the controversial John & Edward. Black Eyed Peas made a guest appearance with an acrobatic performance of ‘Meet Me Halfway’ as Fergie descended from the sky on a moon crescent and Will.i.am flew across the audience. 2006’s X Factor winner Leona Lewis turned multi-platinum also appeared with a beautiful rendition of new single ‘Happy’. Appealing to the judges, Lucie performed ‘One Moment In Time’ while the twins sang ‘Rock DJ’. The judges' vote was split, with Louis and Simon voting...

The X Factor, Saturday 8pm, ITV1

2009-11-08T12:17:27+00:00

Posted by Michael Baggs As themes for X Factor weeks go, ‘movie week’ was as flimsy as one of Dannii Minogue’s gowns, with judges bickering over what counted as a song from a movie and what didn’t. "I don’t know the movie it’s from and you’re cheating again Simon" trilled Louis Walsh after Jamie Archer sang ‘Crying’ from indie-flick Gummo. Not that it mattered, as Jamie was hardly the week’s talking point - other than for people to say it’s probably about time he packed up his gigantic afro and toddled off home. But if picking a song from a...

Strictly Come Dancing, Saturday, BBC1

2009-11-07T20:36:14+00:00

This weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing came from the home of ballroom dancing, the Blackpool Tower Ballroom – complete with Brucie’s predictably cringe worthy fish’n’chips jokes. But apart from the tiresome one-liners, there were some real highlights, including a Strictly first. More on that in a moment. Ricky Whittle’s tango kicked the evening off, and the judges got very exited about his performance. Apart from Craig, who, like me thought he was a bit wooden. But each to their own. Natalie Cassidy’s quickstep displayed a bit more passion that Ricky’s tango and, as she said herself, with Zoe, her close friend...

Comedy Showcase: Campus, Friday 10pm, Channel 4

2009-11-06T23:50:00+00:00

Posted by Will Parkhouse With the BBC currently receiving complaints a gogo for daring to broadcast anything that might mildly irritate anyone – even about safe shows like Have I Got News For You (apparently you're not even allowed to call the Queen a "Kraut" these days without people bellowing) – it's hard to imagine the broadcaster commissioning a comedy like Campus. Thanks, then, Channel 4, which last night kicked off its experimental Comedy Showcase series – a testing ground for new talent, the first series of which engendered full-length commissions for Plus One, Free Agents and The Kevin Bishop...

Wonderland: I Won University Challenge, Thursday 9.45pm, BBC Two

2009-11-06T00:23:15+00:00

Posted by Tom Murphy One of the lovely silly things about British TV is how much we love University Challenge. From the film Starter for 10 to this year's outbreak of Trimblemania, “Britain's poshest pub quiz” (as one of the participants in this documentary calls it) still exerts a hold, even after 47 years. This programme tracked down 10 of the 156 winning team members, from Francis Lambert (New College Oxford, 1964) to Susannah Darby (Christ Church Oxford, 2008), to find out how the experience had changed their lives. The quick answer: not very much at all. While the 10...

Coming up in 2010: V

2009-11-05T14:58:39+00:00

Posted by Will Parkhouse Have you not had enough big budget, big concept, post-Lost telly fun yet? Well, don’t worry, because 2010 is bringing with it intriguing new US import V. Well, we say new – older readers might remember the original '80s miniseries this is based on. If you do, shhh – no spoilers. The first episode of the remake aired in the US earlier in the week and is set to come to British TV early next year, courtesy of the Sci Fi channel. Like Five’s current big budget import FlashForward, it’s nabbed itself a blonde Lost supporting...

The Schoolboy Who Sailed the World, Thursday 9pm, Channel 4

2009-11-04T23:05:00+00:00

Posted by Will Parkhouse If you watch The X Factor, you’ll probably be under the impression that it’s the dream of most teenagers to win The X Factor. And that if you don’t help them fulfil this dream by phoning in your vote, they’ll cry and make you feel bad. Not so 16-year-old schoolboy Mike Perham. Tonight's documentary begins with him staring out the classroom window imagining himself becoming the youngest person ever to sail alone non-stop around the world. Fewer than 200 people have succeeded in this – that’s people full stop, not under-18s – and apparently it’s quite...

The F Word, Tuesday 9pm, Channel 4

2009-11-03T22:51:38+00:00

Posted by Stewart Turner It’s been a rough twelve months for gobby Gordon. With the ‘F’ in The F Word veering perilously close to standing for "financial meltdown", at times it looked like his empire was crumbling faster than it takes to reheat a two quid fish cake and shove it on the menu for a tenner. So it was nice to see Gordon gushing for a change. We’re used to watching him spit another culinary calamity into a paper napkin before getting to work on a Kitchen Nightmare, but last night he was given a chance to celebrate the...