Category Archives: Entertainment

Charlie Brookner nails the inner workings of The Apprentice.

An old tale seen through scientific eyes…   http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3514904&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.    (hat tip A Blog Around the Clock)

Here’s a wonderful impression of this month’s Mardi Gras in Sydney by filmmaker Keith Loutit. He uses a time lapse technique coupled with tilt and shift focus that turns the parade into an animated film using toy figures. The end … Continue reading →

Dear god, but I cannot believe how bad the new BBC series Merlin is. What a waste of some good actorly talents (John Hurt, for example) on a pile of utter crap.   Update: Mark Pickavance’s review puts into words the … Continue reading →

Thanks to a reference over at Atheist Media, I’ve now discovered that John Cleese has a Podcast site. There’s a collection of short skits or presentations that he’s done. I’m still going through them, but I was rather taken with … Continue reading →

I mentioned yesterday that the re-emergence of Joyce McKinney was surely evidence that the Silly Season was in full swing. In today’s Bad Science piece, Ben Goldacre confirms that hypothesis by pointing to a credulous article (in the Telegraph, no less) that … Continue reading →

So I watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on BBC HD. All very spectacular, although the combination of little girls and goose-stepping military men carrying a national flag always fills me with unease. But, why oh why do … Continue reading →

Dear me, talk about a blast from the past – it appears as though Joyce McKinney is still making the sort of news that is perfect for the annual Silly Season.

A rather nicely written piece in today’s Guardian about Mr. Methane, who is clearly the 21st century’s answer to Le Pétomane. I’m almost tempted to want to experience one of his performances. He sounds very droll (and that, for all … Continue reading →

I mentioned that Joss Whedon has returned with a sing-along blog: Dr. Horrible. What I didn’t realise is that it will only remain up on the web for a few days, so if you haven’t seen this musical in three … Continue reading →

I’ve seen some wacky advertising in my time – but this takes the biscuit… Please tell me it’s a joke?       (hat tip to The Intersection)

I see that Joss Whedon returns next week with a sing-along blog: Dr. Horrible. What’s not to like? Whedon’s work (Buffy, Firefly, Serenity) always struck me as a cut above the usual pap we see on the haunted fishtank or … Continue reading →

Last night, the Beeb showed a TV drama about the clash in the 1960s between Mrs. Mary Whitehouse and Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, then director-general of the BBC. Entitled Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, it was an entertaining look at the … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned before how much I love to hate The Apprentice. Last night’s episode was a cracker. Two of the contestants had not a clue as to what the term Kosher actually means – and one of them describes himself … Continue reading →

Dear lord, but I do hate meeja people who have not two brain cells to rub together. Francis Sedgemore points us to this idiotic puffery about some upper-class twitess. Excuse me, penguins in the Artic? Clearly the makers of this … Continue reading →

BBC’s latest series of The Apprentice is now down to 10 candidates. Anna Pickard, in the Guardian, gives us the run down on their chances. Frankly, not one of them strikes me as anyone that a) I would like to … Continue reading →

Well, it was certainly a great improvement over the finale of series one, with its truly bathetic monster. But I still found it a bit of a curate’s egg.The best bits (for me) were:   Naoko Mori’s acting at the moment … Continue reading →

…that’s the BBC’s Apprentice. Yet another series that starts with 16 hopefuls demonstrating all that is worst in human nature. Is it just me, or are these 16 even more frightful caricatures of human beings than ever before? The first casualty, … Continue reading →

… continues to disappoint. I’m sorry, but tonight’s "Out of the Rain" episode was not a patch on "Something Wicked This Way Comes", from which it all too obviously seemed to be derived…

BBC2 starts a series of programmes this weekend themed around the white working class of Britain. Judging from the trailers, it strikes me as a particularly crass wallow in imagined victimhood. Justin, over at Chicken Yoghurt, sums up my feelings … Continue reading →