Bingo! Merry Christmas!

Here’s a Christmas treat, an hour in to Christmas Day in New Zealand. Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, filmed in 1977 33 days before the crooner’s passing, featured a duet between Bingo and David Bowie.    Taped on September 11, 1977, the special aired after Crosby’s death, on November 30. The set is supposedly the […]

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Starting Upstairs, Downstairs this weekend

I know I did this on November 23 on my Tumblr, but I have to share this joke with the Ashes to Ashes fans out there.    Will the opening of Upstairs, Downstairs on Boxing Day on BBC1 (at 9 p.m.) begin with the Alexander Faris theme tune (see also below), or will Keeley Hawes […]

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A new Eric and Ernie clip

I wonder if I should get part of the Broadcasting Fee, the way I promote the BBC.    I like real-life dramas, particularly about recent history. BBC2’s Eric and Ernie, to be shown on January 1 at 9 p.m., looks very good.    A new clip came out on YouTube 12 hours ago. The earlier […]

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BBC drama, this autumn and winter

Don’t know how I could have missed this. Oh, yes I do: I was running for office.    Now that I’m not, I want to give the BBC a bit of a push, because these dramas look awesome. Aurelio Zen, with Rufus Sewell, looks like my sort of drama, and begins the first week of […]

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Johnny Foreigner might be better at running a car company in Shanghai

As I made links for the last post, I noticed there were a lot of comments on AROnline about the replacement for the Roewe 750, the Chinese car that is based on the old Rover 75.    The replacement will be on the Opel Insignia platform, owned by GM. It’s been followed by a lot […]

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Yay for Paul Henry!

During the Paul Henry débâcle, I was surprised to find that I had friends who joined the pro-Henry groups on Facebook. This included friends whom I thought were cosmopolitan and internationally minded. It dawned on me that they were probably supporting the first Paul Henry who many of us encountered, when we were watching the […]

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Is your favourite 1980s’ celeb here?

From the ‘Whatever happened to …’ and the ‘My God, is (s)he still alive?’ files comes this promotional video for the (Norwegian) TV2 show Gylne Tider, with a bunch of celebrities lip-synching ‘Let It Be’ (including, appropriately, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli). Sir Roger Moore kicks it off, but right after, you’ll catch (inter alia) […]

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Twenty-ten’s TV in eight paragraphs

BBC2’s Mongrels was probably the best thing on telly for me in 2010.    Hustle suffered from being filmed in Brum and the scripts weren’t as good (the “Kylie Minogue” scene being one of the few highlights); Ashes to Ashes’ ending was disappointing and the whole series felt cheap; Luther had a few too many […]

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Police issue videos of fourth Pike River explosion

New Zealand Police has issued two videos from the Pike River coal mine, which shows the fourth blast on Sunday. These are probably the clearest yet, and give an idea of how terrible the conditions must be within the mine. May the 29 men who were trapped and who possibly perished there two Fridays ago […]

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Doctor Who’s Christmas ’10 special: US trailer

Matt Smith completes his first calendar year as the Doctor with a Christmas special, inspired by Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Michael Gambon! Best guest star since Bill Nighy. And if that’s Katherine Jenkins, that’s an extra reason to watch this. (Hope she sings, and not the Singing Detective.) You may also like Steve McQueen, […]

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