Look, I love it as much as you do, but if The Killing has one flaw, it's surely this:
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Monday, April 19, 2010
Thursday, November 05, 2009
What's in the lunchbox?
Apart from the time one of the entrepreneurs from Dragon's Den personally delivered a customisable voodoo doll to my office, I haven't really had that many nutty free promotional gifts (although a colleague did once receive these in the post). On Tuesday night, though, at a screening of the Sci Fi Channel's upcoming US import, V, I became one weird object richer.
The lunchboxes, lined up in shiny rows like Stormtroopers as a trio of grinning PR people looked on, were really light; I assumed they would just contain a two-page press releases banging on about how V was going to be the greatest TV event of early 2010, like, if you've got a decent satellite or cable bundle and can be bothered to spend an hour a week staring at Americans with the most distressingly perfect teeth ever (NB snarking aside, the show is actually pretty decent - I guess you could say it's V. good, hahaha). But I was wrong.
*Applause*
Update: More on V this way
The lunchboxes, lined up in shiny rows like Stormtroopers as a trio of grinning PR people looked on, were really light; I assumed they would just contain a two-page press releases banging on about how V was going to be the greatest TV event of early 2010, like, if you've got a decent satellite or cable bundle and can be bothered to spend an hour a week staring at Americans with the most distressingly perfect teeth ever (NB snarking aside, the show is actually pretty decent - I guess you could say it's V. good, hahaha). But I was wrong.
*Applause*
Update: More on V this way
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Britain's Best Brain, Wednesday 8pm, Five
For viewers of a certain age, Britain's Best Brain will prove both exciting and depressing. Why? Because it reunites Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, the duo who presented Saturday morning children's show Live & Kicking in the '90s and, slightly less memorably, Channel 4's The Priory.
Zoë and Jamie were presumably paired up in the first place because next to either of them, anyone else would look like they were kneeling down, and it's comforting to see they're both still very tall. But, like the rest of us, they do look older. Sigh.
Anyway, the show. "This is not a quiz show," Theako tells us, proudly. It sort of is, really, but the challenges are all geared to test different parts of the brain – so it's not something you can revise for beforehand, unless you count gorging on fish and blueberries.
The studio audience greet the five contestants like they're heroes returning from war, despite the fact that, as in every show like this, they're just normal people with ages, jobs, and one anecdote each.
The first round has contestants trying to answer fairly simple maths questions while heavy metal plays in their ears and disembodied voices shout numbers at them, while staring at a screen of swirling integers. It's that sort of thing.
The parts you at home can take part in – the memory tests, say – are reasonably fun, but the ones you can't – like the one where you have to watch someone wrestling with an egg timer while they're whirled around in a giant gyroscope – aren't so much.
Meanwhile, BBB's slightly clinical approach – the challenges are "each scientifically designed to test a primary brain function", we're told – means it's quite hard to root for anyone; it seems to be reducing the idea of human endeavour to something more random. In summary, then: when's the Trev and Simon revival due?
by Will Parkhouse, Tuesday 27 October 200
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Zoë and Jamie were presumably paired up in the first place because next to either of them, anyone else would look like they were kneeling down, and it's comforting to see they're both still very tall. But, like the rest of us, they do look older. Sigh.
Anyway, the show. "This is not a quiz show," Theako tells us, proudly. It sort of is, really, but the challenges are all geared to test different parts of the brain – so it's not something you can revise for beforehand, unless you count gorging on fish and blueberries.
The studio audience greet the five contestants like they're heroes returning from war, despite the fact that, as in every show like this, they're just normal people with ages, jobs, and one anecdote each.
The first round has contestants trying to answer fairly simple maths questions while heavy metal plays in their ears and disembodied voices shout numbers at them, while staring at a screen of swirling integers. It's that sort of thing.
The parts you at home can take part in – the memory tests, say – are reasonably fun, but the ones you can't – like the one where you have to watch someone wrestling with an egg timer while they're whirled around in a giant gyroscope – aren't so much.
Meanwhile, BBB's slightly clinical approach – the challenges are "each scientifically designed to test a primary brain function", we're told – means it's quite hard to root for anyone; it seems to be reducing the idea of human endeavour to something more random. In summary, then: when's the Trev and Simon revival due?
by Will Parkhouse, Tuesday 27 October 200
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Official matters
I've become kind of addicted to The Office: An American Workplace of late, thanks to ITV2, Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra repeats, and the joys of PVR technology. Since it ditched the Gervais/Merchant template, it's been hitting whole new heights. Oh, speaking of hitting...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Insane in the Ukraine
Woah, check out the Ukraine's Got Talent winner. She's no Stavros Flatley, of course, but good stuff nonetheless. Outsanding, you could say, if you liked dreadful puns, which we don't.
(via Holy Moly)
Friday, July 10, 2009
I can't believe I'm not watching Big Brother this year
From the Channel 4's press release highlights of tonight's show:
1.22pm
Halfwit and Marcus are in the living room. Halfwit says: 'I think I might bust some reps today.' Marcus stares into space.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Tonight on ITV1: Boy Meets Girl
Ah, the body-swap comedy – it's an actor's dream. If it's of the “man becomes boy, boy becomes man” type, a jaded star gets to play completely against type by clowning around childishly in business meetings, while a young up-and-comer gets to show his maturity and range by teaching his classmates the value of youth.
New ITV1 six-part comedy Boy Meets Girl follows a slightly different route, but one that's just as liberating for the stars involved. A pesky bolt of lightning – close the door on your way out, science! – simultaneously strikes conspiracy theorist and hardware store worker Danny (The Office's Martin Freeman) and posh fashion journalist Veronica (Pushing the Velvet's Rachael Stirling), causing them to switch bodies.
Danny, in Veronica's body, suddenly finds himself a fully paid-up (and fully punchable) member of the middle class, living in a swish apartment with an emotive man called Jay (Paterson ‘Johnson from Peep Show’ Joseph) and a stack of Elton John CDs, with a job which requires him/her to write horoscopes. On the plus side, he has breasts. Stirling, a noticeably deep- voiced actress already, whacks up the slobbery, surliness and frumpiness, and it's all quite uncanny.
Meanwhile, Veronica, in Danny's body, has lost her memory and is wandering round the streets, asking passers-by for money. Freeman looks like he'll have a bit more to do in next week's episode – winning back Jay could prove tricky – but de-blokes himself well, without resorting to lazy camp.
And so the screwball fun whizzes by nicely, but, as always, we do wonder if things might go even quicker if, when trying to explain what's happened to their disbelieving friends, Danny or Veronica just namechecked Vice Versa or Freaky Friday...
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 29 April 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
New ITV1 six-part comedy Boy Meets Girl follows a slightly different route, but one that's just as liberating for the stars involved. A pesky bolt of lightning – close the door on your way out, science! – simultaneously strikes conspiracy theorist and hardware store worker Danny (The Office's Martin Freeman) and posh fashion journalist Veronica (Pushing the Velvet's Rachael Stirling), causing them to switch bodies.
Danny, in Veronica's body, suddenly finds himself a fully paid-up (and fully punchable) member of the middle class, living in a swish apartment with an emotive man called Jay (Paterson ‘Johnson from Peep Show’ Joseph) and a stack of Elton John CDs, with a job which requires him/her to write horoscopes. On the plus side, he has breasts. Stirling, a noticeably deep- voiced actress already, whacks up the slobbery, surliness and frumpiness, and it's all quite uncanny.
Meanwhile, Veronica, in Danny's body, has lost her memory and is wandering round the streets, asking passers-by for money. Freeman looks like he'll have a bit more to do in next week's episode – winning back Jay could prove tricky – but de-blokes himself well, without resorting to lazy camp.
And so the screwball fun whizzes by nicely, but, as always, we do wonder if things might go even quicker if, when trying to explain what's happened to their disbelieving friends, Danny or Veronica just namechecked Vice Versa or Freaky Friday...
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 29 April 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Friday, March 27, 2009
Tonight on BBC1: The Real Swiss Family Robinson
The problem with being shipwrecked is that it often looks like such fun. When it happened to the Swiss Robinson family in Johann David Wyss's 19th century novel, they ended up learning some important lessons about family values and self-sufficiency. When it happened to the cast of Channel 4's Shipwrecked, they ended up with, like, amazing tans and a handful of invitations to a variety of low-budget film premieres.
So what will transpire when the Dye family from Essex are sent to the tiny, remote, unpopulated Pacific island of Anariki (what do you mean, "Where?" It's part of the Republic of Kiribati, you dunce) to fend for themselves? Will they create the kind of idyllic community seen in The Beach – or will they head the way of Tom Hanks in Castaway, performing makeshift dental surgery on each other and ranting at volleyballs?
Dad Andy has particularly strong reasons for getting away from it all and trying out a simple life. His once lucrative building business – which also employs two of his three children – has failed, and he sees this as an opportunity to put everything on hold, take stock, slow down and have a good, long think about what life is really all about.
"Do we want to go back to how it was before?" he asks, round the family dinner table. "We did have a lot of disposable money and we could go out and eat where we wanted to eat, we could buy the cars that we wanted to buy and we could go on three or four holidays a year. Do we want that back – or don't we actually want that back?"
Hmmm, that sounds all right, actually. Anyway, the clan head off to the beautiful island on their three-week jaunt, and, after some moaning, manage to build their own shelter, catch their own food and, eventually, throw off some of their materialistic western ways. It's reasonably diverting stuff which, with a bit of luck, might even make you question your own position in the rat race.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 25 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
So what will transpire when the Dye family from Essex are sent to the tiny, remote, unpopulated Pacific island of Anariki (what do you mean, "Where?" It's part of the Republic of Kiribati, you dunce) to fend for themselves? Will they create the kind of idyllic community seen in The Beach – or will they head the way of Tom Hanks in Castaway, performing makeshift dental surgery on each other and ranting at volleyballs?
Dad Andy has particularly strong reasons for getting away from it all and trying out a simple life. His once lucrative building business – which also employs two of his three children – has failed, and he sees this as an opportunity to put everything on hold, take stock, slow down and have a good, long think about what life is really all about.
"Do we want to go back to how it was before?" he asks, round the family dinner table. "We did have a lot of disposable money and we could go out and eat where we wanted to eat, we could buy the cars that we wanted to buy and we could go on three or four holidays a year. Do we want that back – or don't we actually want that back?"
Hmmm, that sounds all right, actually. Anyway, the clan head off to the beautiful island on their three-week jaunt, and, after some moaning, manage to build their own shelter, catch their own food and, eventually, throw off some of their materialistic western ways. It's reasonably diverting stuff which, with a bit of luck, might even make you question your own position in the rat race.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 25 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Last night on Five: The Mentalist
I've always wondered what would happen if Derren Brown decided Channel 4 wasn't big enough for him and started using his awesome powers of psychological illusionism for evildoing. Presumably he'd have his hands on millions of pounds and would have recruited an army of hypnotised mercenaries before you could say, "look into my eyes…"
Five's glossy new US import – we know this is a quality drama, because its supporting cast includes two 24 stars and one former West Wing actor – imagines what would happen if Derren had the sunswept good looks of a Lost cast member and got a job as a homicide detective in California.
Simon Baker plays enigmatic Patrick Jane, a former phoney TV psychic who's given up his fraudulent ways and turned cop. We first meet him at the crime scene of a murdered young girl. Within seconds of the family's press conference, he's earned the trust of the grieving mother byguessing her favourite colour and so on – "You really only pretend to like skiing... you love India, but you've never been there" – and solves the case in true maverick fashion. "You're psychic?" she asks. "No," he laughs. "Just paying attention."
Baker is good, giving Jane a self-assurance which just about manages not to spill over into cockiness and a calm, ethereal air, meaning that even when he makes a ham and cheese sandwich, it seems mysterious and unknowable.
You'll see echoes of Life (kooky cop tussles with his uptight female partner) and moments of Dexter (each show has individual crimes to solve, but with an overarching serial killer case to tie it all together), but this opener seems to have a personality all of its own. And, irrespective of all of the above, how can you not love a show with a title like The Mentalist, when it's directed by someone called David Nutter?
by Will Parkhouse
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Five's glossy new US import – we know this is a quality drama, because its supporting cast includes two 24 stars and one former West Wing actor – imagines what would happen if Derren had the sunswept good looks of a Lost cast member and got a job as a homicide detective in California.
Simon Baker plays enigmatic Patrick Jane, a former phoney TV psychic who's given up his fraudulent ways and turned cop. We first meet him at the crime scene of a murdered young girl. Within seconds of the family's press conference, he's earned the trust of the grieving mother byguessing her favourite colour and so on – "You really only pretend to like skiing... you love India, but you've never been there" – and solves the case in true maverick fashion. "You're psychic?" she asks. "No," he laughs. "Just paying attention."
Baker is good, giving Jane a self-assurance which just about manages not to spill over into cockiness and a calm, ethereal air, meaning that even when he makes a ham and cheese sandwich, it seems mysterious and unknowable.
You'll see echoes of Life (kooky cop tussles with his uptight female partner) and moments of Dexter (each show has individual crimes to solve, but with an overarching serial killer case to tie it all together), but this opener seems to have a personality all of its own. And, irrespective of all of the above, how can you not love a show with a title like The Mentalist, when it's directed by someone called David Nutter?
by Will Parkhouse
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Friday, March 06, 2009
Last night on BBC3: Natalie Cassidy's Real Britain
Natalie Cassidy, aka Sonia out of EastEnders, is annoyed. Fed up with gossip stories about how perfect celebrities are – although actually only the really boring gossip stories are about how perfect celebrities are – the soap actress is presenting Natalie Cassidy's Real Britain, which tells the story of two unique real people (i.e. not from London, not obviously beautiful) as they hold their noses and hurl themselves face first into the swimming pool of fame.
First up is endearingly naïve South Shields girl Lauren Luke, whose YouTube videos, in which she gives make-up tips, have pulled in a total of more than 30 million views. And what has it got her? Nothing, that's what. Luckily, there's a New York marketing firm who think they can turn the hits into dollars by releasing a make-up line using Lauren's name.
The second story follows the adventures of Nicky Avery, an Essex man diagnosed with breast cancer at the mind-bogglingly young age of 24. He wants to turn the disease into a living – hey, it's his cancer, he can do what he wants with it – so, despite having already sold his story umpteen times, he heads to London for a meeting with Max Clifford in the hope of getting a TV gig. Although both Lauren and Nicky are chasing their dreams in unconventional ways, neither seems to have any beef with celebrity culture, making for a programme that doesn't quite seem to know what it wants to be.
The real life stories work well enough in their own right, but they're bookended by Natalie's tub-thumping "fame culture = last days of Rome" screeds, which at times just seem to be an excuse for the soap star to blow off some steam about the unfair way the celeb magazines have treated her. Could it be that the programme makers have just tacked a celebrity name onto the title in order to pull in a few extra viewers? Surely not!
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
First up is endearingly naïve South Shields girl Lauren Luke, whose YouTube videos, in which she gives make-up tips, have pulled in a total of more than 30 million views. And what has it got her? Nothing, that's what. Luckily, there's a New York marketing firm who think they can turn the hits into dollars by releasing a make-up line using Lauren's name.
The second story follows the adventures of Nicky Avery, an Essex man diagnosed with breast cancer at the mind-bogglingly young age of 24. He wants to turn the disease into a living – hey, it's his cancer, he can do what he wants with it – so, despite having already sold his story umpteen times, he heads to London for a meeting with Max Clifford in the hope of getting a TV gig. Although both Lauren and Nicky are chasing their dreams in unconventional ways, neither seems to have any beef with celebrity culture, making for a programme that doesn't quite seem to know what it wants to be.
The real life stories work well enough in their own right, but they're bookended by Natalie's tub-thumping "fame culture = last days of Rome" screeds, which at times just seem to be an excuse for the soap star to blow off some steam about the unfair way the celeb magazines have treated her. Could it be that the programme makers have just tacked a celebrity name onto the title in order to pull in a few extra viewers? Surely not!
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Last night on Channel 4: Red Riding
We'd very much like to shake the hand of the brilliant individual who
signed up the Red Riding cast – that's once they've wiped the great
globs of special thespian pheromones from their sticky mitts. With the likes of David Morrissey, Sean Bean, Paddy Considine, Rebecca Hall, Andrew Garfield, Eddie Marsan and Warren Clarke featuring in this trilogy of feature-length dramas, this must be the most talented bunch of British actors to be seen together on the small screen for quite some time.
Although it'll look familiar to anyone who's seen David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac, which has both similar tone and content, Red Riding is based on David Peace's quartet of books, which are set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, though also strongly concerned with alleged police brutality and massive corruption.
It begins with eager young Yorkshire Post journalist Eddie 'Scoop' Dunford (BAFTA-winning Boy A star Andrew Garfield proving he's no one-hit wonder) reporting the murder of a young girl who was killed wearing a red hooded anorak. As he joins the dots between the girl's death and other unsolved child killings years before, his colleague Barry is investigating the shady business activities of one John Dawson (a smarmy but vicious Sean Bean). Is it all somehow connected?
Set in 1974, part one looks fantastically authentic. Thanks to that nicotine filter camera lens, visually it takes its lead from Our Friends in the North or a grimmer Life on Mars: an era when most furniture and items of clothing were either green, brown or beige and when journalists pinned clippings and maps to the wall, instead of Ctrl+C-ing it all into a Word document.
As Eddie probes further and events take their horrifying course, the drama has the feel of a bad dream spiralling surreally out of control. You're likely to end up so sucked in, all that "acting masterclass" stuff will be the last thing on your mind. Very strong stuff.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Although it'll look familiar to anyone who's seen David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac, which has both similar tone and content, Red Riding is based on David Peace's quartet of books, which are set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, though also strongly concerned with alleged police brutality and massive corruption.
It begins with eager young Yorkshire Post journalist Eddie 'Scoop' Dunford (BAFTA-winning Boy A star Andrew Garfield proving he's no one-hit wonder) reporting the murder of a young girl who was killed wearing a red hooded anorak. As he joins the dots between the girl's death and other unsolved child killings years before, his colleague Barry is investigating the shady business activities of one John Dawson (a smarmy but vicious Sean Bean). Is it all somehow connected?
Set in 1974, part one looks fantastically authentic. Thanks to that nicotine filter camera lens, visually it takes its lead from Our Friends in the North or a grimmer Life on Mars: an era when most furniture and items of clothing were either green, brown or beige and when journalists pinned clippings and maps to the wall, instead of Ctrl+C-ing it all into a Word document.
As Eddie probes further and events take their horrifying course, the drama has the feel of a bad dream spiralling surreally out of control. You're likely to end up so sucked in, all that "acting masterclass" stuff will be the last thing on your mind. Very strong stuff.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 March 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Get your Rock off
After watching the first few episodes before dropping out, I've recently been reacquainting myself with 30 Rock (Five USA seem to have just got round to showing the second season). Friday's 'Rosemary's Baby' episode was a particular corker, and it featured one of the best lines I think I've ever heard in a sitcom.
Having visited the disgusting house of her screenwriting heroine Rosemary Howard, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is explaining her horror to her confidante, eccentric company CEO Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). "I don't think she has a toilet," says Lemon. "I saw my future, Jack."
Handing her a glass of red wine, Donaghy replies: "Never go with a hippie to a second location."
This scene, from earlier in the same episode, was also astonishingly good, particularly if you're used to Baldwin's usual strait-laced style of acting.
Having visited the disgusting house of her screenwriting heroine Rosemary Howard, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is explaining her horror to her confidante, eccentric company CEO Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). "I don't think she has a toilet," says Lemon. "I saw my future, Jack."
Handing her a glass of red wine, Donaghy replies: "Never go with a hippie to a second location."
This scene, from earlier in the same episode, was also astonishingly good, particularly if you're used to Baldwin's usual strait-laced style of acting.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Tonight on Channel 4: The World's Most Enhanced Woman and Me
Those of you who remember what
The World's Most Enhanced Woman and Me calls "the big boob scene of the '90s" will presumably have fond memories of Eurotrash staple Lolo Ferrari, whose record-breaking beach ball breasts brought her fame and fortune.
The movement, says presenter Mark Dolan (don't worry, we've stopped with the Louis Theroux comparisons), seemed to disappear from view with Lolo's death in 2000. "Personally, I can't see the attraction of freakishly large breasts," he adds, "But I wondered if there were any women out there who can compare with the girls from the '90s."
The current record holder, Maxi Mounds (not her real name, we'd wager) has five-litre breast enhancements – Lolo's were a mere three – but her agent tells Dolan she's "out of action", although we would've thought being Maxi Mounds was a full-time job, even if she's wearing a jumper.
So instead, we head to Las Vegas to meet porn stars Crystal Ashley and Minka. Crystal once had the world's largest implants, but downsized after they started leaking into her body and making her ill. Ugh. Meanwhile, Korean Minka and her less-than-charming husband Woody have made millions from her four-litre boobs. Tragically, she has a passion for tennis. Dolan gets a taster of the kind of attention she attracts when he goes for a wander round Vegas with her pal, the aptly-named Kayla Kleevage.
The show concludes with a visit to Brazil, where vivacious attention-seeker Sheyla Hershey has travelled to pump up the volume, in an attempt to win the word record with a 5.5-litre pair. "They love my personality," she says as she poses for pictures in the shopping mall.
There follows footage of a gruelling operation. Those looking for titillation, pardon the pun, should head elsewhere. Despite the premise, this is one of the more serious – and better – efforts in the ...and Me series, with insecurities as big as the breasts on show. Dolan, to his credit, looks every one of the women he's interviewing right in the eyes.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 February 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
The movement, says presenter Mark Dolan (don't worry, we've stopped with the Louis Theroux comparisons), seemed to disappear from view with Lolo's death in 2000. "Personally, I can't see the attraction of freakishly large breasts," he adds, "But I wondered if there were any women out there who can compare with the girls from the '90s."
The current record holder, Maxi Mounds (not her real name, we'd wager) has five-litre breast enhancements – Lolo's were a mere three – but her agent tells Dolan she's "out of action", although we would've thought being Maxi Mounds was a full-time job, even if she's wearing a jumper.
So instead, we head to Las Vegas to meet porn stars Crystal Ashley and Minka. Crystal once had the world's largest implants, but downsized after they started leaking into her body and making her ill. Ugh. Meanwhile, Korean Minka and her less-than-charming husband Woody have made millions from her four-litre boobs. Tragically, she has a passion for tennis. Dolan gets a taster of the kind of attention she attracts when he goes for a wander round Vegas with her pal, the aptly-named Kayla Kleevage.
The show concludes with a visit to Brazil, where vivacious attention-seeker Sheyla Hershey has travelled to pump up the volume, in an attempt to win the word record with a 5.5-litre pair. "They love my personality," she says as she poses for pictures in the shopping mall.
There follows footage of a gruelling operation. Those looking for titillation, pardon the pun, should head elsewhere. Despite the premise, this is one of the more serious – and better – efforts in the ...and Me series, with insecurities as big as the breasts on show. Dolan, to his credit, looks every one of the women he's interviewing right in the eyes.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 4 February 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Last night on Channel 4: The World's Cleverest Child And Me
After his last "…And Me" run, which covered the world's smallest, hairiest, tallest and fattest, Mark Dolan, who has hopefully resigned himself to becoming known as "the poor man's Louis Theroux", returns with a second quartet of superlatives. Read more...
Tonight on ITV1: Piers Morgan on... Dubai
Despite everyone being struck down with the credit crunch bug, it seems there's going to be no let-up in programme-makers packing celebrities off to glamorous locations to make travel shows. It sort of works, though, since no one will ever be able to afford to go on holiday ever again – but sending king of smugness Piers Morgan to Dubai, where the spookily clean streets are paved with tax-free gold, does seem to be rubbing it in a bit.
Never mind, because Piers actually does a pretty good job of it, meeting both the expats and the rich Arabs who live in the country and gawking at some of the impressive sights dreamt up by PM Sheikh Mohammed. These include such follies as the new seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel which cost so much to build, it’s expected never to make a profit (despite charging £12,000 a night for one of its top-end rooms), the 800m- tall unfinished skyscraper (160 floors and counting), and a theme park which, when complete, will be bigger than Birmingham. As Piers says more than once: "This is absolutely ridiculous."
The former Mirror editor is from the Jeremy Clarkson school of confident motormouthy presenting, at one stage pointedly telling a pair of investors who've just plugged $50m into some redistributed sea bed (i.e. sand): "You've both completely lost your marbles" – but with such enthusiastic camaraderie, it makes the interviews sparkle, as well as making this pair think they're crazy maverick pioneers.
The dizzying figures make for an eye-opening watch, the material feeling fresher than Griff Rhys Jones's recent Greatest Cities trilogy. Piers doesn’t quite get to the bottom of it all, though: it might have been good to hear from, say, someone who has come to recognise Dubai for the soulless money pit it probably is, or – perish the thought – a poor person.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 28 January 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Never mind, because Piers actually does a pretty good job of it, meeting both the expats and the rich Arabs who live in the country and gawking at some of the impressive sights dreamt up by PM Sheikh Mohammed. These include such follies as the new seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel which cost so much to build, it’s expected never to make a profit (despite charging £12,000 a night for one of its top-end rooms), the 800m- tall unfinished skyscraper (160 floors and counting), and a theme park which, when complete, will be bigger than Birmingham. As Piers says more than once: "This is absolutely ridiculous."
The former Mirror editor is from the Jeremy Clarkson school of confident motormouthy presenting, at one stage pointedly telling a pair of investors who've just plugged $50m into some redistributed sea bed (i.e. sand): "You've both completely lost your marbles" – but with such enthusiastic camaraderie, it makes the interviews sparkle, as well as making this pair think they're crazy maverick pioneers.
The dizzying figures make for an eye-opening watch, the material feeling fresher than Griff Rhys Jones's recent Greatest Cities trilogy. Piers doesn’t quite get to the bottom of it all, though: it might have been good to hear from, say, someone who has come to recognise Dubai for the soulless money pit it probably is, or – perish the thought – a poor person.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 28 January 2009
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
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