To lazy for DVD's

Perhaps it is that we are lazy…………..I sometimes wonder why watching films on TV is so much appealing than watching it on your DVD player……When in fact it is not easier at all, you have to watch it when someone else decides and have breaks every 15 minutes, are we just too lazy to put the DVD in the player, and often find myself staying up to watch the end of the film on TV when I already own the DVD- What’s the point? Perhaps we are all striving for the feeling of belonging and the feeling of watching Bridget Jones Diary with the rest of the country make sus feel us special I guess we can also tweet about it to reiterate that feeling!

On the 12^th of November I along with thousands of other people documented a pat of my day on this Saturday. The outcome will be Britain in a day, the project is a joint venture with BBC2/ BBC learning being produced by Ridley Scott, and will be created into a programme documenting life on the day in 2012.

 A few weeks ago I was also invited to partake in part two of the project…. Not only have the thousands of videos been narrowed down, students were invited to create there own local area playlists, to act as a online archive to compliment the programme. When the online sites go live in a few weeks and the programme next November I think it will be an interesting experiment and a great way to remember 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kqz5p

This weeks highlights:

1. Britain’s hidden homeless: Monday 9pm BBC3- Documentary exploring homeless people and how sleeping rough and sofa surfing is affecting peoples lives.
2. Jimmy and the Giant supermarket: Tuesday 9pm Channel 4- New documentary series investigating how Britain’s low cost meat products are being made so cheaply.
3. The Olympic Aquatic Centre: Mega Builders- Friday 8pm Channel 5-We all know a lot of money has gone into Olympics and it’s become a bi of hot topic, but how have they built the big wave shaped building for the games.
4. Alan Carr: Chatty Man: Friday 10 pm Channel 4- Chat show hosted by Alan Carr with guests Michael McIntyre and Kylie Minogue.
5. Notting Hill- Saturday 9pm ITV2 Film staring Julia Roberts & Huge Grant even if you own the DVD its not the same as watching it on TV. 

Events for this summer and the future

Event Tv is something of things to come many BBC employees have said that TV outputs are likely to become much more event led....We have seen channel 4 doing it for quite some time with of course their T4 on the beach yearly roadshow, where the whole of Weston- Super Mere is taken over for the day with 13 -17 year olds, highlighting all the great music acts along with TV presenter and actors will come out for a day to the beach.
In recent years the BBC has been joining in too however only amongst Children's with cbeebies and Mr Bloom doing a improve your local area roadshow, CBBC's big birthday bash! 


But of course with the country going a little bit Olympic mad, so has Blue Peter and in the saturdays during the latter part of the torch relay Blue Peter will be broadcasting live in the morning and then hosting a fun-day throughout the afternoon! 


Coronation Street have already made their 'Streets of Dreams' theatre production but soon will we be able to attend Corrie Fun-days?

This week's progress of the street!! ( many thanks to my camera assistants who kindly took this weeks photo for me) 

This weeks highlights:

1. 56 up -Monday ITV1 9pm second par of this series now the 7year olds are 56
2. 90210- Tuesday E4 9pm seems to be nearing the end of the series just as Naomi is engaged 
3. Hitler's Children- Wednesday 9pm BBC2- documentary looking at the ancestors of Hitler and what life is like with a name everybody knows.
4. Michel McIntyre Comedy Roadshow- Friday 9:30 BBC1- for a blast of comedy from McIntyre's comic genius first episode in series 2 
5. A picture of London- Saturday BBC2 9:15 eye witness accounts into how London has grown and changed over the years.

Your in charge in more ways than your remote

So TV has been going a bit interactive crazy this week, channel four have this amazing factual programme Hidden Talent I think its great but when I was explaining it to a friend earlier in the week I realised how if you have not seen it, explaining it makes it sound….RIDICULOUS. ……..But here goes again…(and don’t judge a programme by my explanation you really must give it a go yourself.)

It is Richard Bacon presents the show and him and a group of experts have an aim to uncover the public’s hidden talent, test centre’s were set up inviting people to come and be tested from that the best and most likely achiever were set a task and then the programme follows them as they train with experts and hope the achieve the goal……the thing I find must fascinating and perhaps strangest to comprehend are the types of talents they are on the search for…..were not on the look for dancers, magicians, or (the very topical and my favourite) dancing dogs…..the show is on the hunt for, somebody good at climbing, lie detecting or learning languages, to name the first few however perhaps as these are not your average talents this is where the programme gains some of its interest.

Now if this show was on TV even just a few years ago I don’t think it would have been as successful because it wouldn’t have worked interactively but of course nowadays everyone wants to join, tweeting, watching extra clips or in this case taking the hidden talent tests online to discover if like the contributors in the programme you have your own hidden talent.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hidden-talent/articles/take-the-hidden-talent-tests

And for those of you watching the Britain’s Got Talent live final did you hear the announcement and indeed see the interactive advert. Where if you have the Shazam app on your mobile you were able to get your device to recognise the music and you would be at first entered into a prize draw for Pepsi Max and Cadbury’s, I don’t think we will be waiting too long before we are able to chose using our remotes witch adverts we want to want…..or perhaps even during the break your TV will log you on to Twitter so you can tweet about the current show…….(copyright that is my idea….A.Kimberley 13^th May 2012) creating an extremely interactive experience live.

I hope that you all watched ‘Small Teen Turns Eighteen” and if you didn’t it’s still on Iplayer till Thursday-http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01hllwm/Small_Teen_Turns_Eighteen/

What a great programme it was not only was the production great, Jaz and her family were yet again inspiring and it was another wonderful insight into their lives very moving especially during the sections with her Dad as his addiction fights…….I don’t think I would ever get bored of watching more documentary’s as Jaz gets on with her life and I think it would be wonderful to see her again as she gets a job and married…….fingers crossed.

Another great documentary that works again and again, is the up series that I has always been whirling around my mind since I watched as episode at school, because I have been unable to remember what its called…but now I know I cant wait for tomorrow, originally commissioned as a one off documentary with a group of 7 years olds looking into the class system it soon turned into a longitudinal study re visiting the contributors every 7 years and now they are 56, and I wonder how their lives have been progressing.

This weeks highlights:

1. Inside Facebook: Zuckerbergs $100 billion gamble-Monday 8pm BBC2 – looking into how the social network with earn the money its expected too when it goes on the market next month- contributions from the man himself. 
2. 56 up- Monday 9pm ITV1- longitudinal study re visiting the contributors every 7 years
3. Hidden Talent – Tuesday 9pm Channel 4 – looking for someone with the natural talent for opera singing.
4. Long lost family- Thursday 9pm ITV1- Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present another episode of Long lost family where a groom to be is looking for his Dad before the wedding.
5. Piers Morgan life stories- Lulu- Friday 9pm ITV1- acclaimed interviewer piers morgan interviews Lulu about her career in the music industry and her marriage with Bee Gee band member. 

Small teen!

In 2010 there was an amazing extraordinary people documentary about Jazz a girl who has restricted growth, and her mum Bev who also does! The programme was a great success and was recommissioned as a four part series the next year! And it's back tomorrow sees a new episode "Small Teen Turns Eighteen" as the name says the programme will document Jazz as she turns 18, the show has been given an amazing prime time slot 9pm on this bank holiday Monday on bbc3 and I know it will be just great and even if you did miss the other shows now is your chance to jump on board! Tonight also sees the launch of Planet Earth Life, I think that much of the beauty of wildlife programmes is the access to the animals which could obviously be improved if there was less time pressure and the best bits could be chosen in the edit! So I will be very interested to see how they make the show exciting and what if whilst live the animals are no where to be found! And another live sensation tonight  Britans Got Talent with the finalists chosen love or hate it we are in for a full week of variety! My favourite has to be Pudsey the dog! This weeks highlights to add to the ones above:

1. Planet earth live BBC1 Sunday  8:50 
2. Small Teen Turns Eighteen monday 9pm BBC3  
3. Hidden Talent- Tuesday 9pm Channel 4 :looking for someone with a talent for languages to appear of TV in Jordan.
4. Britain's Got Talent: semi finals- Monday - Thursday 7:30 ITV1
5. Coronation Street Monday- Thursday ITV1 9pm 

Extremely Loverly Doc!

So this week has been an interesting week in Television…I have LOVED Coronation street, more so than usual….mainly because of  Shaun (Anthony Cotton) trying to work out Bettys famous hotpot recipe…… pure genius script writing. With the weight of such a well known Corrie landmark resting on his shoulders, the portrayal of those scenes was brilliant.

I have now watched Louis Theroux BBC2 series Extreme Love more than once now…and what an interesting concept, I hadn’t thought at first very much into the title, 'extreme love'…. I just took to the title as nothing more than a few words to add to his name as its not really about him so they had to add something!

I now see this was not the case and how extreme love really can be.

The documentary was a two part series, with the first episode looking into, families whose children have autism, and the second whose family members suffer with dementia.

Both episodes showed extreme love, between families, where from the parents who couldn’t cope with their children, and the wives and husbands whose partners had dementia and were watching them think they were married to someone else. 

Both episodes were great and definitely worth a viewing and are available on Iplayer till Thursday 3^rd May,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01gvt26/Louis_Theroux_Louis_Theroux_Extreme_Love_Dementia/

I have recently been re- watching some episodes of friends and it reminded me just how amazing the production team on the show must have been in particular the writers, I love how even spread out over 10 series everything links back and is intertwined….My favourite episode is the ‘one where know one is ready’ I love Ross in this episode…….I think his constant clock watching is brilliant and it is also the one where joey lunges in all of Chandlers clothes.

"Dear Blog readers I would love to know your Favourite Friends episode? So comment below???"

This week TV Highlights:

1. The Mighty Mississippi with Trevor McDonald- Monday 10:35-11:35pm, Trevor explores America from the river.
2. William and Kate: The first year. Tuesday ITV1 8pm- we all went a bit royal crazy last year, see how the year has been.
3. Piers Morgan: Life Stories- Jason Donavan- Friday ITV1 9pm- interview with the Aussie star, talking about his relationship with Kylie amongst more.
4. Alan Carr: Chatty Man- Channel 4, 10pm- episode 2 in his new series, guests David Walliams and Amanda Holden.
5. The Cube- Saturday 7:45 ITV1- cube show beat the cube’s games to win £250,000

Food and Family

Cooking shows are not something as a general rule I would ever series catch up with but when there on I do enjoy them……….however until recently I often wondered how many more different ways can they take a cooking program….of course there’s the race element like ready steady cook, and the teaching element like Saturday kitchen and the cooking extracts on This Morning and Lorraine….and there’s the competition element like MasterChef and Great British Bake off, and Come Dine With Me …..all make great viewing and not just for ‘foodies’ and then there is the food programmes that look at international cooking……..so I was surprised when I came across: The Little Paris Kitchen, cooking with Rachael Khoo, I was pleased to find a new take on a cooking programme, Rachael moved to Paris 6 years ago and is interested in Parisian cooking, she lives in a tiny Parisian flat with a two ring and hob and oven the size of a microwave but she runs a restaurant from her dinning room, of course the programme does have cooking tutorials but all from her take on Parisian food.

Well done on a wonderful new dimension on the international cooking programme. (the series is still available on Iplayer till the weekend) 

Studios seem to be coming along nicely!

Going back to a previous week where I said how I think that great TV, has the ability to make you feel every feeling under the sun…….if this is the case Long Lost Family must be amazing TV…..  again we have seen family history programmes before, and celebrities look at their family history, as well as the experts looking for the rightful heir’s to people’s estates. But the stories on Long Lost Family are so moving, and the contributors so powerful that it really is amazing watching……..The programme sets about to re unite long lost families, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the show and help the families find each other whether it be parents looking for children or children looking for parents learning about places and people around the country and then the so far happy endings :) …the series is so moving and with its thursday night prime time slot it is definitely worth a watch. 

This weeks highlights:

1. The Little Paris Kitchen: cooking with Rachael Khoo- Monday 8:30 BBC2- Chef who lives in Paris and has a restaurant in her tiny dinning room cooked in her tiny kitchen.
2. Waterloo Road- Wednesday 9pm BBC1 last episode in series 7 end of term and the school prepares to close!
3. Louis Theroux: Extreme Love Dementia- Thursday 9pm BBC2 following last weeks autism episode this week Theroux looks at families struggling with dementia.
4. Long Lost Family- Thursday 9pm ITV1 (or ITV1 +1 at 10pm) Reuniting families with Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, Nicky has tweeted saying this is his favourite episode.
5. Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Carol Vorderman: Friday 9pm ITV1- Carol Vorderman opens up about her life being abandoned by her father at 3 weeks old, and how she coped with the death of Richard Whitley.

"On This Morning, This Morning"

I will be the first to admit that being a student has its benefits, and one of my favourite perks is the ability to watch daytime TV (and although the amount of time I do get to enjoy this luxury has drastically decreased since my undergrad I’m sure its still much better than most peoples so I do count myself lucky…..

I love how multi genre daytime TV is from current affairs to entertainment and helping people, of course Jeremy Kyle does get some stick, I think the show is great and although I’m not an avid viewer I think he does do some great work, and good luck in America !

I will happily watch TV all day and can sit through GMTV, Jeremy Kyle, This Morning, Loose Women and then Dickinson’s Real deal before realising its mid afternoon…..I  don’t however do this anymore. This Morning is my absolute favourite daytime viewing, I love Philip and Holly they are so entertaining whilst being so serious when it is necessary. I hate the weeks when I have no need to say "this morning on this morning" the show is perfectly current that it is always necessary to discuss with other viewers or tell people what happened, and hats off to ITV when they decided to turn the weeks highlights into 'This Morning Weekend' for all those 9-5 working people.....Genius. 

This weeks Tv Highlights:

1. The Sydicate- Tuesday 9pm BBC1 Leanne's (Joanna Page- Stacey from Gavin and Stacey) episode her past live catches up with her after the lottery win.
2. I Woke up Gay -Wednesday at 8pm BBC3 documentary about 21 year old Chris Birch who had a stroke and woke up gay.
3. Long Lost Family- Thursday 9pm ITV1- Davina Mc Call and Nicky Campbell reuniting families episode 1 was very moving and wonderful TV. 
4. Louis Theroux: Extreme Love - Autism Thursday 9pm BBC2 (Iplayer) Louis visits a school in amaerica to see how they cope with autism. 
5. The Voice UK- Saturday BBC1 7pm week before the live shows, acts get cut from 10 to 5 per judge.