When it was announced yesterday that Frankie Boyle’s BBC series New World Order had been cancelled, the comedian’s reaction was frank but restrained. “Not surprising in the current climate, I suppose,” he told fans on Twitter, many of whom had followed his superb topical panel show devotedly for the five years it was on the air. Boyle didn’t elaborate on what he meant by the words “current climate”, but it doesn’t take too many imaginative leaps to hazard a guess. New World Order was one of the few shows on TV that was sincerely and unapologetically left-wing. And politically speaking, the BBC is in the midst of a full-fledged climate crisis.
It’s not good for optics that New World Order’s cancellation comes just weeks after the BBC was embroiled in an impartiality row with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker. The dispute – prompted...
It’s not good for optics that New World Order’s cancellation comes just weeks after the BBC was embroiled in an impartiality row with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker. The dispute – prompted...
- 3/24/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
Exclusive: A BBC insider has told us the decision to reprimand Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis on Wednesday over her comments about Dominic Cummings was “weak and embarrassing.”
In a blistering attack, the well-placed BBC news source, who works on one of the corporation’s flagship shows, said: “BBC bosses couldn’t have handled this situation any worse. Rushing to judgment in order to hang one of its prized assets out to dry is frankly weak and embarrassing.“
They added that the decision has caused “dismay and anger” within the Newsnight ranks: “The mood among the team is of dismay and anger at this decision. We stand behind Emily and the editor Esmé [Wren] in support of them on this. The decision by BBC management will only act to undermine Newsnight’s award-winning journalism during a crucial time when it’s needed most.”
Maitlis clarified last night that, contrary to reports, she...
In a blistering attack, the well-placed BBC news source, who works on one of the corporation’s flagship shows, said: “BBC bosses couldn’t have handled this situation any worse. Rushing to judgment in order to hang one of its prized assets out to dry is frankly weak and embarrassing.“
They added that the decision has caused “dismay and anger” within the Newsnight ranks: “The mood among the team is of dismay and anger at this decision. We stand behind Emily and the editor Esmé [Wren] in support of them on this. The decision by BBC management will only act to undermine Newsnight’s award-winning journalism during a crucial time when it’s needed most.”
Maitlis clarified last night that, contrary to reports, she...
- 5/28/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
This shit is by Sun columnist Rod Liddle, and here’s the text:
Hermione Granger has been addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Nope, not kidding.
The actress Emma Watson is a Un “Goodwill Ambassador.” What’s that, when it’s at home? I haven’t a clue.
Anyway, instead of telling them all the rules of quidditch or how to turn someone into a frog, she bored them all rigid with whining, leftie, PC crap.
Just like all actresses do if people are stupid enough to give them the chance.
Why do we indulge these luvvie slebs, most of whom know nowt?
I don’t object to them having views and expressing them. I just don’t understand why we take them seriously.
I suppose they got Emma in because Angelina Jolie is a bit tied up with other stuff at the moment.
There was a time when any...
Hermione Granger has been addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Nope, not kidding.
The actress Emma Watson is a Un “Goodwill Ambassador.” What’s that, when it’s at home? I haven’t a clue.
Anyway, instead of telling them all the rules of quidditch or how to turn someone into a frog, she bored them all rigid with whining, leftie, PC crap.
Just like all actresses do if people are stupid enough to give them the chance.
Why do we indulge these luvvie slebs, most of whom know nowt?
I don’t object to them having views and expressing them. I just don’t understand why we take them seriously.
I suppose they got Emma in because Angelina Jolie is a bit tied up with other stuff at the moment.
There was a time when any...
- 9/23/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Quotable characters and legends are around every bend in this lively documentary celebrating the Targa Florio
This feature spin-off from Francesco Da Mosto’s small-screen primers on Italian life documents the Targa Florio, formerly the world’s longest-running road race, deploying a double-pronged approach. The genial, silver-haired Da Mosto – more Rod Liddle than Clarkson – potters around the Sicilian villages the cars once hared through; his interviews are intercut with reconstructions centred on Vincenzo Florio, the race’s founder and Bernie Ecclestone of his day.
An early scene of Da Mosto and co-pilot Alain de Cadanet poring over the dashboard of a vintage Peugeot suggests it’s been compiled with specialist audiences in mind, but it stays lively, interrupting its archive material with trips to a Targa-themed model village and a self-appointed, somewhat self-aggrandising race cobbler.
Continue reading...
This feature spin-off from Francesco Da Mosto’s small-screen primers on Italian life documents the Targa Florio, formerly the world’s longest-running road race, deploying a double-pronged approach. The genial, silver-haired Da Mosto – more Rod Liddle than Clarkson – potters around the Sicilian villages the cars once hared through; his interviews are intercut with reconstructions centred on Vincenzo Florio, the race’s founder and Bernie Ecclestone of his day.
An early scene of Da Mosto and co-pilot Alain de Cadanet poring over the dashboard of a vintage Peugeot suggests it’s been compiled with specialist audiences in mind, but it stays lively, interrupting its archive material with trips to a Targa-themed model village and a self-appointed, somewhat self-aggrandising race cobbler.
Continue reading...
- 10/22/2015
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
The lineup for this year's Pointless Celebrities series has been announced by BBC One.
Beginning with an August 9 comedy special, the upcoming series will feature different themes each week.
Four teams of two from the world of music, TV, soaps, sport, food and drink, journalism, radio and theatre will compete for charity in weekly specials to air on Saturday evenings on BBC One.
The first show pits Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson from Birds of a Feather against Ronni Ancona and Phil Cornwell, Su Pollard and Ruth Madoc, and Josh Widdicombe and his partner Sara Pascoe.
Standout teams from the series include Stefan Dennis and fellow Neighbours star Rebekah Elmaloglou, who will square off against Ray Quinn and Louis Emerick from Brookside.
Antony Costa from Blue will team with 5ive's Scott Robinson in the music special, while TV stars Louie Spence and Carol McGiffin will face off against the likes...
Beginning with an August 9 comedy special, the upcoming series will feature different themes each week.
Four teams of two from the world of music, TV, soaps, sport, food and drink, journalism, radio and theatre will compete for charity in weekly specials to air on Saturday evenings on BBC One.
The first show pits Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson from Birds of a Feather against Ronni Ancona and Phil Cornwell, Su Pollard and Ruth Madoc, and Josh Widdicombe and his partner Sara Pascoe.
Standout teams from the series include Stefan Dennis and fellow Neighbours star Rebekah Elmaloglou, who will square off against Ray Quinn and Louis Emerick from Brookside.
Antony Costa from Blue will team with 5ive's Scott Robinson in the music special, while TV stars Louie Spence and Carol McGiffin will face off against the likes...
- 7/25/2014
- Digital Spy
✒On newly minted culture secretary Maria Miller's CV are two spells at Grey Advertising, as an "executive" in 1985-90 and a "director" from 1995-2000. Monkey's inquiries about what she actually got up to have yet to produce results, partly because no one at Grey now was there so long ago. What is known is that she was at Grey when a famous group photo of 36 naked staffers (around half the total) appeared in Campaign, to promote the agency as trustworthy; but it seems that who took part went unrecorded. So we may never find out. Only hunting down back copies of the magazine from 1998 might reveal whether the future cabinet minister was a spoilsport or went with the flow, and Monkey naturally has not the slightest desire to encourage such seedy sleuthing.
✒In an exciting development announced last week, some Telegraph journalists are to be equipped with "a backpack device...
✒In an exciting development announced last week, some Telegraph journalists are to be equipped with "a backpack device...
- 10/9/2012
- by Monkey
- The Guardian - Film News
As Hugh Grant and Milly Dowler's family give evidence, we must remember it is the courts who mete out justice, not the press
Magna Carta, Ken Clarke observed to the press types assembled at last week's Society of Editors conference, was a pretty conservative document: the product of a baronial revolt against monarchical excess. Given the document's influence, it might have appeared somewhat bold for the Society to bill its conference as Magna Carta II, though the venue did happen to be in Runnymede 800 years on. Yet the comparison may not be quite so unlikely, given what is about to happen in the high court this week, where a revolt of a different sort of aristocracy is about to begin from two groups of people accorded automatic respect today: victims and celebrities.
It may seem bizarre for the Leveson inquiry to move on to the Dowler family and Hugh Grant,...
Magna Carta, Ken Clarke observed to the press types assembled at last week's Society of Editors conference, was a pretty conservative document: the product of a baronial revolt against monarchical excess. Given the document's influence, it might have appeared somewhat bold for the Society to bill its conference as Magna Carta II, though the venue did happen to be in Runnymede 800 years on. Yet the comparison may not be quite so unlikely, given what is about to happen in the high court this week, where a revolt of a different sort of aristocracy is about to begin from two groups of people accorded automatic respect today: victims and celebrities.
It may seem bizarre for the Leveson inquiry to move on to the Dowler family and Hugh Grant,...
- 11/21/2011
- by Dan Sabbagh
- The Guardian - Film News
I know there is an article in this week's Spectator that has prompted a judge to refer the magazine to the attorney general for a possible contempt of court.
Not being a member of the jury, I have read it. And I must say I am amazed that... no, on second thoughts perhaps I'd better stop there. I'd prefer to let the Ag, Dominic Grieve, make up his mind about the judge's reference without clouding the issue further.
I don't wish to end up standing alongside Rod Liddle in court, or anywhere for that matter.
More positively, I urge those who have a copy of the magazine, which I suspect is many more than usual, to turn to page 50.
Indeed, to paraphrase Mr Justice Treacy's admonition to the jury in the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, I'm not asking you to read it, I am directing you to read it.
On...
Not being a member of the jury, I have read it. And I must say I am amazed that... no, on second thoughts perhaps I'd better stop there. I'd prefer to let the Ag, Dominic Grieve, make up his mind about the judge's reference without clouding the issue further.
I don't wish to end up standing alongside Rod Liddle in court, or anywhere for that matter.
More positively, I urge those who have a copy of the magazine, which I suspect is many more than usual, to turn to page 50.
Indeed, to paraphrase Mr Justice Treacy's admonition to the jury in the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, I'm not asking you to read it, I am directing you to read it.
On...
- 11/18/2011
- by Roy Greenslade
- The Guardian - Film News
I have three British friends who write literate and stylish columns that will soon go behind Rupert Murdoch’s paywall at the Times and Sunday Times of London. For a little while longer, you can see the newly designed Times site and read Rod Liddle, AA Gill, and Dominic Lawson for free (the site now requires registration—which means you’ll be spammed about subscribing to the Times forevermore), but soon this will end. Tim Kevan, the author of the Times’ enormously popular legal blog—BabyBarista—recently announced he was leaving his Murdoch home (where he’s gotten two book deals from his blog) and setting up his own site because he doesn’t want to be in the “exclusive preserve of a limited few subscribers.” In other words, he wants an audience. But my friends Liddle, Gill, and Lawson, all presumably being paid a premium by Murdoch (at least,...
- 6/10/2010
- Vanity Fair
Producers were reportedly forced to intervene on the election special of Come Dine With Me after a drunken row. According to The Sun, filming of the show was stopped when Derek Hatton and former Today editor Rod Liddle had a heated argument. The duo clashed when Hatton heard Liddle make a rude comment about him while he was delivering his final scores. Hatton described Liddle as a "f**king fat, useless lump" and a "pathetic bully", and producers were forced to step in after Liddle called Hatton's political views "f**king bonkers" and threatened to "tw*t him in the mouth". Hatton also argued with (more)...
- 5/5/2010
- by By Catriona Wightman
- Digital Spy
Brian Paddick has claimed that Come Dine With Me relies on selective editing and "smoke and mirrors". The former Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor took part in a political special of the Channel 4 programme, which will air as part of their Alternative Election Night on May 6. Paddick, who described spending four nights with former Tory MP Edwina Currie, Labour Party member Derek Hatton, and Rod Liddle as one of the most traumatic of his life, said the programme offered him a lesson in so-called 'reality television'. "Just as in this super-spun election campaign, it takes a lot of smoke and mirrors and selective editing to make the whole thing appear on screen looking genuine," he wrote in The Mail on Sunday. First to arrive at Hatton's (more)...
- 4/25/2010
- by By Sarah Rollo
- Digital Spy
Brian Paddick has described his Come Dine With Me appearance as one of the most traumatic experiences of his life. The Lib Dem card carrier, who ran as the party's candidate for London Mayor, took part in a political special of the Channel 4 programme with former Tory MP Edwina Currie, Labour Party member Derek Hatton and Rod Liddle, who has previously worked as a speechwriter and researcher for the Labour Party. Writing in The Mail on Sunday, the former Metropolitan police officer said Liddle's "crimson-faced, spittle-flecked abuse" was worse than anything he saw as a police officer. Currie, he said, was "smutty" and had a lavatorial sense of humour, while Hatton shouted and swore at his guests. Paddick said that (more)...
- 4/25/2010
- by By Sarah Rollo
- Digital Spy
Channel 4 has announced plans to screen a political-themed edition of Come Dine With Me. The four diners taking part in the one-off special are former Tory MP Edwina Currie, Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick, Labour Party member Derek Hatton, and Rod Liddle, who has previously worked as a speechwriter and researcher for the Labour Party. The programme will air on Thursday, May 6 - the night of the General Election - as part of Channel 4's Alternative Election Night, which also features a You Have Been Watching election special fronted by Charlie Brooker, plus other themed programmes. The channel's head of news and current affairs Dorothy Byrne commented: (more)...
- 4/9/2010
- by By Dan French
- Digital Spy
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