15March
Q: When did the Soup Dragons release their first single.
Guess: Oh, they were mentioned in Smash Hits before it went crap, so I'd say... 1987.
TV Scoop argues that the BBC should bring back Star Academy
. Only if they're really going to throw the kitchen sink at it, and make it into proper event television like they do in France. Having Richard "Dogsby" Park and Patrick "Cretin" Kielty is not enough. Make it proper light entertainment gubbins, so that the proverbial glitter comes out of the set and Strictly Come Prancing
pales into insignificance.
TV Scoop also pays tribute to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, ten years after its original broadcast. Though it was a groundbreaking series, for all the reasons outlined, it's a surprise to remember just how rubbish many of the individual episodes were. Season two, in particular, falls off a cliff about half-way through and never recovers. The whole Adam-and-Riley thing, that was pure, unadorned crap. Gloria, mildly diverting, but spinning out a six-episode plot over a whole series doesn't work. And the last half of the final series should never have been made. One of m'learned friends never got into Buffy
first time round, and got bored half-way through season two. My advice? Skip to season three; if that doesn't work, give up, and give up with a clear conscience.
We're sorry to see that Mighty Big TV has sold out, first removing a forum about some quarter-bit nonsense, then selling the site to the channel running that nonsense. It was fun while it lasted, though some of us said that it stopped being fun when it stopped being MBTV.
It's now two weeks since SKY's entirely rubbish channels were withdrawn from three million cable viewers across the nation, and we're able to see how the viewing figures have altered. If lots of people have gone missing, that suggests the channel's provider was correct in its claim that the channels were really popular. But if there's little change, it adds weight to the cable operator's position that no-one gives a flying buttress about it. So, here's the top ten from the week to 25 February:
1 LOST (Sun 2200) 1163
2 BONES (Thu 2101) 689
3 24 (Sun 2101) 652
4 THE SIMPSONS (Mon 1900) 583
5 THE SIMPSONS (Sun 1830) 580
6 STARGATE SG-1 (Tue 2001) 518
7 THE DRESDEN FILES (Wed 2101) 494
8 THE SIMPSONS (Mon 1932) 492
9 STARGATE ATLANTIS (Wed 2002) 453
10 THE SIMPSONS (Sun 1900) 442
And here's the top ten for the week to 4 March:
1 LOST (Sun 2200) 1127
2 BONES (Thu 2100) 746
3 THE DRESDEN FILES (Wed 2101) 597
4 THE SIMPSONS (Sun 1830) 553
5 THE SIMPSONS (Tue 1932) 547
6 STARGATE SG-1 (Tue 2001) 531
7 THE SIMPSONS (Sun 1900) 523
8 STARGATE ATLANTIS (Wed 2001) 508
9 THE SIMPSONS (Fri 1933) 505
10 24 (Sun 2101) 498
The channels went off air just after midnight on Thursday, so Thursday to Sunday were on the smaller audience. And, well, it does rather look as though the cable people were right to say that no-one would notice the channels were gone, with barely 40 of the channel's 1150 viewers going missing.
