..and the worst
So, from the Christmas crackers to the brussel sprouts of the Christmas schedules and top of the list is EastEnders and the demise of Pauline Fowler.
I've never been a big fan of the Christmas Day death and misery that EastEnders seems annually obliged to throw at us but I was actually quite looking forward to seeing the end of the old battleaxe. But, what could have been an explosive exit a few weeks earlier with the house fire storyline turned into a complete damp squib of an ending. No wonder Wendy Richard had a monk on about it for so many months. Her big exit scene came and went even quicker than the sudden miraculously-appearing snowstorm which managed to deliver 3 inches of snow to the Square in under half an hour (and be completely gone again by Boxing Day morning).
Another let-down was It Started with Swap Shop which, as you see from this post, I was originally looking forward to hugely. Unfortunately, I gave up after about 35 minutes - around the time when Noel deliver his sixth crap Deal-or-No-Deal-related gag of the show. Quote of the show went to my wife, who is too young (just!) to remember the original show but, on seeing Maggie Philbin delivering her third link of the night, enquired "Was she always this rubbish?". Thankfully I don't remember that being the case, no. Although Maggie wasn't the only presenter of the night who looked like she was working from an autocue for the first time in about 15 years.
Challenge Anneka was another revival that I'd been looking forward to hugely. Now it wasn't dreadful but, again, not as good as I remember it. I'm hoping that it was perhaps just the huge seriousness of the cause (Tsunami aid in Sri Lanka) that served to dampen some of the comedy and fun that I remember the show for and that, come the new series which is no doubt now inevitable, it'll be all fun and frollicks again when she's back in the UK building children's playgrounds on run-down council estates in Bury. (And the cartoon opening featuring the road-crossing hedgehogs needs bringing back too! Although at least they kept the old theme!)
Little Britain Abroad seems, by general consensus, to have been much less funny than it could have been, although Lou and Andy stranded on the desert island proved the one saving sketch for me - particularly Lou spelling out the SOS signal in stones "Help, we're in a bit of a kerfuffle"!
Finally, top of my list of worst of the worst shows of the festive period, mainly due to its overwhelming "how the hell did this make it to a prime time Christmas slot" factor was ITV's pre-Christmas offering Whatever Happened To Gareth Gates? "He went and got pissed for 4 years and is probably now about to make his comeback, hence this god-awful show" was my rather cynical suggestion just as the opening titles rolled. And what do you know - we then proceeded to sit through an hour-long advert for Gareth's up-and-coming new album. Still, could have been worse I suppose - it could have been Whatever Happened To Michelle McManus?
So, what's widely been acknowledged as a generally crappy year for TV in general ended true to form with a less-than-spectacular Christmas line-up. Fingers crossed that Michael Grade can work his magic at ITV in the coming year and get things back on track for next Christmas. Either that or we end up suffering the same festive TV fate as American audiences. Their most-watched show of Christmas Day was Deal or No Deal - shown on NBC which was the only major American network to broadcast new programmes on Christmas Day. Seems the likes of Fox and ABC gave up on Christmas viewing a long time ago...
~~steve~~
http://www.tellytunes.com/
posted by ~~steve~~ at
1:03 pm
I've never been a big fan of the Christmas Day death and misery that EastEnders seems annually obliged to throw at us but I was actually quite looking forward to seeing the end of the old battleaxe. But, what could have been an explosive exit a few weeks earlier with the house fire storyline turned into a complete damp squib of an ending. No wonder Wendy Richard had a monk on about it for so many months. Her big exit scene came and went even quicker than the sudden miraculously-appearing snowstorm which managed to deliver 3 inches of snow to the Square in under half an hour (and be completely gone again by Boxing Day morning).
Another let-down was It Started with Swap Shop which, as you see from this post, I was originally looking forward to hugely. Unfortunately, I gave up after about 35 minutes - around the time when Noel deliver his sixth crap Deal-or-No-Deal-related gag of the show. Quote of the show went to my wife, who is too young (just!) to remember the original show but, on seeing Maggie Philbin delivering her third link of the night, enquired "Was she always this rubbish?". Thankfully I don't remember that being the case, no. Although Maggie wasn't the only presenter of the night who looked like she was working from an autocue for the first time in about 15 years.
Challenge Anneka was another revival that I'd been looking forward to hugely. Now it wasn't dreadful but, again, not as good as I remember it. I'm hoping that it was perhaps just the huge seriousness of the cause (Tsunami aid in Sri Lanka) that served to dampen some of the comedy and fun that I remember the show for and that, come the new series which is no doubt now inevitable, it'll be all fun and frollicks again when she's back in the UK building children's playgrounds on run-down council estates in Bury. (And the cartoon opening featuring the road-crossing hedgehogs needs bringing back too! Although at least they kept the old theme!)
Little Britain Abroad seems, by general consensus, to have been much less funny than it could have been, although Lou and Andy stranded on the desert island proved the one saving sketch for me - particularly Lou spelling out the SOS signal in stones "Help, we're in a bit of a kerfuffle"!
Finally, top of my list of worst of the worst shows of the festive period, mainly due to its overwhelming "how the hell did this make it to a prime time Christmas slot" factor was ITV's pre-Christmas offering Whatever Happened To Gareth Gates? "He went and got pissed for 4 years and is probably now about to make his comeback, hence this god-awful show" was my rather cynical suggestion just as the opening titles rolled. And what do you know - we then proceeded to sit through an hour-long advert for Gareth's up-and-coming new album. Still, could have been worse I suppose - it could have been Whatever Happened To Michelle McManus?
So, what's widely been acknowledged as a generally crappy year for TV in general ended true to form with a less-than-spectacular Christmas line-up. Fingers crossed that Michael Grade can work his magic at ITV in the coming year and get things back on track for next Christmas. Either that or we end up suffering the same festive TV fate as American audiences. Their most-watched show of Christmas Day was Deal or No Deal - shown on NBC which was the only major American network to broadcast new programmes on Christmas Day. Seems the likes of Fox and ABC gave up on Christmas viewing a long time ago...
~~steve~~
http://www.tellytunes.com/
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home