I have the faintest of memories of the 1960s science fiction series Out of the Unknown.This episode, starring David Hemmings a year or so before Blow-Up, has recently turned up on Youtube in four parts. This is the first and Youtube will lead you to the...

Sackings, strike threats and a bitter battle for supremacy engulfs French TV channelWhen launched four years ago France 24 was billed as a "CNN à la française": a television news channel that would counter the influence of Anglo Saxon media and make the voice of France heard around the world.In recent days, however, that voice has sounded rather more anguished than authoritative.Engulfed in rivalries and recriminations, the newsroom has been plunged into crisis, with one union threatening a  strike and another planning a vote of no- confidence. Journalists mutter about a "battle of the bosses" fuelling dissent. One even likened the atmosphere to the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre: vicious, unrelenting and very, very, bloody.Since last week, when rumours of sackings and...

Today is 09/02/10 – time to celebrate a US import that hit the perfect balance between teen angst and superficialityIt is not, admittedly, a date that most people will have marked on their calendar. It's not even a date that most British people will have properly noticed. But jot down today's date in an American format while reminiscing about 1990s teen TV and all will become clear. Today is 09/02/10 – which can only mean it's time to wish yourself "Happy Beverly Hills 90210 Day!". Or, if you're a British fan who decided to celebrate the enduring Californian show in February (which doesn't quite feel right, given the weather and the quintessentially American feel of the show): "Happy International Beverly Hills 90210 Day!". If you happen to be in the vicinity of Beverly Hills today...

Panasonic and Sony show off new 3D products at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin3D television has dominated the early agenda at IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics show, with Panasonic and Sony both announcing flurries of new products and initiatives.Panasonic showed off what it claimed was the first genuine 3D consumer video camera, the HDC-SDT750. This will allow users to shoot their own footage in 3D. Makoto Nagura, director of Panasonic's video camera business unit, said this would put 3D firmly into the hands of consumers."There is still one thing missing [today]...That is to keep your precious moments in 3D," Nagura said.The SDT750 will go on sale in October. UK pricing was not available but it is expected to be priced at $1,399 (£908) in the US.Most of...

Rather a break from writing and commenting on the news, but I wanted to mark the final episode of The Bill, a programme that was part of my childhood.The Bill ran from 1984 to 2010, and focused on the lives and work of police officers in one station, unlike detective dramas such as Morse and A Touch of Frost, which concentrated on two or three characters and usually involved a murder or four.It was intended to portray police officers in a realistic light, although I'm not sure the show stuck to that throughout its history.For me, The Bill's golden era was between 1998 and 2001. During that time, the show introduced and made good use of some of the show's best characters: PC Cass Rickman, DC Duncan Lennox, DC Danny Glaze and PC Nick Klein.Episodes were witty and gripping, with an inventive...

Steve Jobs hasn’t finished playing with his pet Apple TV yet. He has now made it smaller, it now streams cheaper HD content and it will cost £99! There didn’t seem to be any mention of iTV either – perhaps someone told Steve that the UK already has it The new Apple TV (which costs $99 over in the US) will offer first run HD movie rentals for £3.49 – apparently TV shows from ABC and Fox will be 99 cents across the Atlantic so perhaps 99p for similar networks over here as Steve Jobs expects the rest of the networks to get on board. But how can the Wizard Jobs make the box so very ickle? Well, everything on the device will be rental only – which also means that Apple could see no point in including a hard drive In that tiny frame Apple have...

In fact I told you so back in December 2008, simply by quoting the Guardian.So why has the BBC been spending money trying to keep a secret that was told long...

The BBC has lost a legal fight to stop publication of a book which reveals the identity of Top Gear's driver, known as The Stig. The High Court in London refused to grant the BBC an injunction blocking the publication by HarperCollins of an autobiography that unmasks the character on the BBC Two show.For what it's worth, they ought to sack him, get a replacement and tighten up their terms, conditions and legally-binding obligations....

Panjabi wins best supporting actress award for role in The Good Wife as Mad Men takes best drama series gongHugh Laurie, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen went home empty-handed from last night's Emmy awards, leaving Archie Panjabi to fly the flag for British acting talent.London-born Panjabi picked up the outstanding supporting actress award for her role in The Good Wife as the US honoured stars of the small screen at a lavish Los Angeles ceremony.The 38-year-old, who made her name in British hit films East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, won the Emmy for her role as a law firm's in-house private investigator in the hit TV show. She beat fellow The Good Wife actor Christine Baranski and Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss.Michael Sheen was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a mini-series or TV...

From Simon Amstell to Steve Coogan to Trinny and Susannah, today's stars simply play exaggerated versions of themselves. Does it count as acting? Mark Lawson on the 'sim-com'There are stories of particularly intense actors who, in the interests of remaining in character, insist on being addressed on set only by the names of the person they are playing.There's no risk of such pretension, though, on the set of Grandma's House, the BBC2 sitcom in which Simon Amstell portrays the TV presenter Simon Amstell. Or during filming of Trinny and Susannah: What They Did Next, an online mockumentary purporting to depict the daily lives of the fashion presenters. Or in the shooting of The Trip, a forthcoming TV comedy in which the names of both the actors and the characters are Steve Coogan...

Barry Stocker on Liberal Vision looks at the ideas of the American liberal philosopher John Rawls. He is a blind spot as far as I am concerned: I am more of a Mill, Popper and Rorty man.Lynne Featherstone writes about the Coalition government's decision to outlaw wheelclamping on private land: "As soon as I became a Home Office minister with wheel clamping as part of my portfolio, I was deluged by letters from other MPs (representing their constituents) asking when we would do something about rogue clampers.""The Russians call it Kompromat - the use by the state of sexual accusations to destroy a public figure. When I was attacked in this way by the government I worked for, Uzbek dissidents smiled at me, shook their heads and said "Kompromat". They were used to it from the Soviet and...

There's been much talk of X Factor contestant Shirlena Johnson's mental illness. But isn't it just a coverup for the Auto-Tune scandal?Roll up, my little tricoteuses, and take your seats for the X Factor – now officially a three-bath show. Crank up the Carmina Burana soundtrack to category five, and bow down for the return of the Karaoke Sauron, as the debut of Simon Cowell's talent contest draws ratings that in effect amount to 12.6 million people emitting a wanton moan of: "Use me! Use me, you depraved old genius!"Yet already, this septic isle is being rocked by X Factor scandal – not simply an Auto-Tune row, but the wildly appealing front-page saga of a contestant's psychiatric problems.Wistfully, I note that it was only last series that Lost in Showbiz was asking you to picture...

Post-9/11 conspiracy drama Rubicon is a slow burner helping to cement network AMC's reputation as a mini HBOJonathan BernsteinBBC4 has already delighted British fans of Mad Men by bringing forward the new series by six months, to September. Now viewers partial to slow-burning US dramas can look forward to Rubicon, the latest offering from Mad Men broadcaster AMC which has been acquired by the channel.Mad Men, the stylish drama set in the world of 1960s New York advertising, is nominated for 17 awards, more than any other drama, at this Sunday's 2010 Emmy awards. It has changed the fortunes of AMC (American Movie Classic), a cable channel once known for old movie repeats but now being likened to a mini HBO, the station behind The Sopranos and The Wire.Post-9/11 conspiracy drama Rubicon is...

Late-night mixture of standup and sketches includes parody soap opera mocking BBC's reluctance to cause offenceHe is one of the most controversial comics of his generation. Now Frankie Boyle, who caused much hand-wringing at the BBC with his jokes about the Queen and the Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington, is to take his acerbic brand of humour to Channel 4 with his first one-man television show.The broadcaster confirmed details of the show, Tramadol Nights – named after a synthetic painkiller similar to morphine – as part of its new autumn season of programmes today, saying it would feature Boyle's "no-holds-barred standup with pre-filmed sketches in which he picks apart all aspects of modern life".Channel 4 said the show was "not for the faint-hearted. Expect brass neck and laughs in...

There’s been much guessing as to when this would happen but Apple has finally released an invitation to UK journo types offering them the chance to join in a music-themed event next Wednesday, 1 September. The event, which is a week ahead of the rumoured date of 7 September, will kick off at 6pm on Wednesday. UK folk will get to watch a live link from the event in California which wil reveal just what the company has in store. Now, unless Apple are actually releasing a branded acoustic guitar, I reckon it’s a safe bet that the even will be iPod-based. I’m expecting it’ll be a new iPod Touch and Nano being unveiled but there is a chance that there could be announcements regarding iTunes launching in the cloud and possibly that iTV (Apple TV). What...

PistonHeads writes:imagine our surprise to hear from both Aston Martin and Jaguar that one of the nation's most admired liberals spent much of yesterday getting his kicks from a range of Britain's finest...

Daily Star owner understood to be in negotiations with Endemol to move Big Brother after Channel 4 run ends next monthRichard Desmond is in talks to take Big Brother to Channel 5 next year.The show's run on Channel 4 is to end next month, with last night's Big Brother 11 final to be followed by two and a half weeks of Ultimate Big Brother to find the most popular housemate from the past 10 years.Talks are now said to be in progress between Channel 5 and Big Brother producer Endemol UK.However, it is understood the full details of the deal are still to be finalised and no announcement is imminent.Northern & Shell and Channel 5 declined to comment.Desmond has publicly declared his interest in buying the series, despite the fact that many observers believe it is a tired format.Channel 4...

Reading Iain Dale's Total Politics interview with Matthew Paris...You mention Weekend World there. You’re quite critical of yourself in your autobiography on that. Was it something that you felt instantly uncomfortable with?Yeah. I felt instantly uncomfortable with it when I started. I thought, and I suppose everyone does, that after a while you’d get better at it but I found after two years I still wasn’t getting better at it and our ratings were dropping. I don’t think I was a flop. What I failed to be was the new Brian Walden. The programme itself was probably out of date. The concept was arthritic and old-fashioned. I think a really sensational presenter could have given it a new life and I just wasn’t doing that. I just wasn’t sensational.Don’t you think nowadays there...

Josie, Dave, JJ, Mario or Andrew – who will win BB11? And which former housemates will be joining them for Ultimate Big Brother? Join Heidi Stephens from 8pm LIVE!9.56pm: We see all the highlights of the series. I've been a BB fan since the very beginning, but this series has left me a bit wanting. Last year we had the Marcus/Noirin/Siavash love triangle, Halfwit and Bea, Dave dressed in his alien costume...this series just never seemed to take off in the same way. A shame, but perhaps Ultimate Big Brother can redeem things. It seems a shame not to go out on a high, as despite what all the haters say (and thanks to so many of you for popping in tonight, it really wouldn't be the same without you), it has been ten years of outstanding television.Right, I'm getting misty-eyed. Let's...

The news that some of the performers on The X Factor have had their voices enhanced (i.e. made in tune) reinforces my long-held belief that nothing on television is what it seems.Another example is the show Undercover Boss, where a highly paid manager is shown in a good light. Because the programme can be less beneficial for the less well-paid workers involved, as the Watford Observer shows: When hotel handyman Michael Doherty was asked if he wanted to star in a TV documentary he jumped at the chance, believing it would be “a bit of a laugh” – a chance to get his face on the telly and raise a few laughs with his mates.What he never imagined, however, was that his brief brush with fame would get him the sack.As he lived at the hotel, he has lost his home...

Apple’s own television (branded the iTV), is as ambiguous as it gets, and many rumors on the television are currently circulating around it. Now, we have Digg founder Kevin Rose giving his own insider information on the next Apple product. Apparently the iOS-based set-top box, revealed not too long ago is just the beginning for the television. The television is set to use iAd for content providers, presumably changing how we view adverts to help channels make more … [visit site to read more] Apple’s iTV is expected to use iAd and an iPad remote? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com...

I returned home from holiday to find the latest Liberator waiting for me. So it is again time to catch up with Rutland's most celebrated fictional peer.This time his lordship has eschewed a strict daily account of his affairs and employed a looser format in its place.Nice.Lions pad across the parched grassland as a Paramount Chief of the Zulus hefts his assegai.Yes, summer has come to Rutland. The days flow into one another – hence the rather freehand nature of this Diary. I am modelling my literary technique upon the “stream of consciousness” pioneered by Virginia Woolf (or was it Ruel Fox?)It has not rained for quite some time; hence the dry grass. I shall certainly be selecting a second spinner in home fixtures until further notice.The lions? I always suspected that we had not...

OooOooOoO………. it looks like the new iPod touch, a new iPad and a mystery device have been spotted amongst the code of the latest iOS 4.1 beta. We already know to expect the annual iPod refresh but there’s rumours aplenty of a 7-inch iPad as well as an iOS-powered Apple TV….. could these bits of code hidden in the USB configuration files be definitive proof? The obvious one is for the new iPod touch which has the code “iPod 4.1”. That should point to a redesigned device rather than a mere update of the current iPod touch – everyone is expecting the same Retina screen as the iPhone 4, uprated camera including the addition of a FaceTime lens to bring it in line with the iPhone 4. This is where it all gets more interesteing: “iProd...

Quaequam Blog! wakes up and points out the ridiculous position Labour has got itself into on public services: "Labour pledged at the last election to halve the deficit within four years; the coalition plan to half the deficit within three years. Labour planned a 70:30 cuts:tax rises package and conspicuously didn’t rule out raising VAT; the Coalition plan a 77:23 cut:tax rises package which includes raising VAT. While the Coalition’s cuts are undeniable steeper than what Labour intended, Labour has made it clear that they oppose number of cuts to non-frontline services that the Coalition is introducing – specifically by scrapping the National Identity Register, ContactPoint and prison places. These ringfenced spending plans would have to be paid for out of increased cuts to...

With fantastic, gripping shows and innovative, exciting ways to watch, these are truly great times to be a TV viewerIt's not quite Dirty Den rolling back into the Queen Vic 14 years after he dropped into a canal, but it's still an impressive revival: UK viewers are watching more TV now than they did five years ago. The 3% increase between 2004 and 2009 identified by Ofcom doesn't sound much, but in an era when computerised distractions have emerged to compete for the audience's attention, it isn't what was supposed to happen.Earlier this summer, Clay Shirky was making exciting promises about all the great stuff the populace was going to accomplish in the time we used to spend watching telly as we abandoned the small screen to create and communicate online. Now it looks like we're still as...

TV presenter told BBC programme he killed his partner, who was dying of AidsA BBC presenter who claimed on a television programme to have killed his dying partner is due to be charged with wasting police time today, according to reports.Ray Gosling told the East Midlands Inside Out programme in February that he had smothered his lover, who was dying of Aids in hospital. Gosling said that his partner had been in "terrible pain" when a doctor told him there was nothing more that could be done. He said that he asked the doctor to leave them alone and then "I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead".Gosling, 71, was arrested on suspicion of murder 36 hours after the programme aired. He is due to answer police bail in Nottingham this afternoon, when according to the Times...

ITV as in, the Independent Televison has been around since 1955 and now Apple want to come along and start their own iTV as in, iPod, iPhone etc And according to the tabloid newspapers Apple could be heading into courtroom clash with the TV company. Confusingly enough the iTV was originally … [visit site to read more] Apple VS ITV: are ITV going to sue apple over ‘iTV’ is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com...

Five's children's strand Milkshake is safe, but could soon be sharing facilities with Television XThe good news for Peppa Pig fans is that Channel Five's new owner, Richard Desmond, is to continue with children's programmes – and even hints at more investment.However, parents may be less pleased to learn that the perky presenters who introduce Five's kids shows will soon be sharing studio facilities with Desmond's adult channels, home to programmes including Surburban Orgy, Northern Exposer and Wobbling Whoppers 2.Desmond's media company, Northern & Shell, regards Five's children's strand Milkshake as one of its "success stories" and has promised to invest £1.5bn in the network over the next five years.Under Five's Ofcom public service broadcasting licence, Desmond has no obligation...

Portia de Rossi wants to take her partner Ellen DeGeneres's surname. But should gay marriages be established on new, more equal, terms?As lesbian and gay couples in California wait for a decision on whether they will be allowed to marry, one Hollywood couple has reawakened another debate. Already married to the talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres, the actor Portia de Rossi has filed a petition at a Los Angeles court to take her partner's name.The couple were married in California in August 2008, during a time when same-sex marriage licenses were being issued. A subsequent amendment to the state constitution, approved by Californian voters in November of that year, banned gay marriage in the state, but just last week a judge in California overturned the ban. Now couples have been told they must...

After its original presenters defect to ITV, Jason Manford and Alex Jones pick up the mantle of hosting the popular showThey might prove the hardest TV double act to follow since Ant and Dec. The easy chemistry of co-hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley drew millions of viewers to The One Show, with its bizarre but cheery mix of showbiz chat, soft news and slimming advice for overweight pets. On Monday evening, new hosts Jason Manford and Alex Jones will take their places on the sofa.Both presenters admitted to nerves but insisted it would be business as usual. "It's more us getting used to the show rather than us changing it," said Jones. "It's going to be tough because they were great on screen and engaged me as a viewer. I think we'll be different, a bit more brotherly and...

Can Sky's Must Be The Music reinvent TV talent shows – or will it always look like an X Factor wannabe?Sky1's new talent show Must Be The Music begins this weekend and, on paper at least, it outstrips The X Factor in almost every category. It has three contemporary chart-botherers for judges – Jamie Cullum, Sharleen Spiteri and Dizzee Rascal – while The X Factor makes do with Kylie's little sister and the man responsible for Westlife. It's open to all musicians, while The X Factor limits itself to singers. The musicians are allowed to play their own compositions, while on The X Factor they'd be forced to sing I Can't Make You Love Me by George Michael 15 times in a row.There is the small issue of Fearne Cotton's involvement - but crucially, Must Be The Music is about giving the acts...

Ten years on, one of the participants in the BBC reality show on why it took him years to recover from the experienceTen years ago I was one of 36 men, women and children recruited to live on the remote Hebridean island of Taransay as part of the Castaway 2000 project for the BBC.It was ambitiously billed as a "bold new experiment for the new millennium" and we were the guinea pigs who'd build a sustainable, self-sufficient community from scratch and fend for ourselves in the Scottish wilderness. We'd grow our own food, kill our own meat and govern ourselves for the year-long project. It was to be a year that changed my life in ways I could never imagine.In contrast to today's reality TV, there were no cash prizes, rewards, winners or losers – we were told this was a show with...

Yesterday I found myself trying to defend the price of the TV licence but after finding out that part of this revenue goes to staff that can’t remember where their BBC issue tech is I’m not so sure I want to keep on paying. It turns out that workers at the Beeb have managed to misplace £241,019 worth of gadgets between April 2008 and March 2010 according to a freedom of information act request. Computer security firm Absolute Software, who put in the request for these details, said staff needed to be more careful. That’s putting it rather mildly aint it? 146 laptops, 17 BlackBerrys and 65 mobile phones are AWOL from Auntie Beeb with Dave Everitt from Absolute Software stating that: “It is shocking that any organisation could lose so much...

Let's hope the new series avoids the picture of unfulfilled women at law popularised in Hollywood films such as Jagged EdgeIn a recent press release, the BBC promised that its new legal drama series Silk would present a true-to-life portrait of a female barrister applying for QC or "silk".On the big screen female lawyers have not fared all that well in representing their real-life counterparts, despite similar promises from Hollywood. This was especially true in the 1980s and 1990s, when female stars were cast almost obsessively as lawyers: Glenn Close in Jagged Edge (1985), Cher in Suspect (1987), Jessica Lange in Music Box (1989), Barbara Hershey in Defenseless (1991) , Susan Sarandon in The Client (1994), and Julia Roberts as a law student in The Pelican Brief (1993), an assistant US...

I posted my detailed analysis on twitter:"Dear BBC, Re: #sherlock - very disappointed climactic scene in pool did not contain a NO BOMBING poster."image from @simonnricketts...

The French actress, writer and director Cecile Aubry died recently. She had a short acting career after the war and during the shooting of a film in Morocco, says her Guardian obituary, she met and married:Si Brahim El Glaoui, the oldest son of the pasha of Marrakech. They were married in secret because she thought that a marriage would harm her Hollywood career.In the event that career did not last long, but she went on to have a succesful career as a writer and in television.When I was very young there were three imported television series that were shown in every school holiday: Belle and Sebastian, White Horses and Robinson Crusoe.Belle and Sebastian was adapted by Aubry from her own novel. It's young star Medhi turns out to have been aubry and El Glaoui's son.Looking at the opening...

Former Popworld and Buzzcocks presenter's new sitcom stars a fictionalised Simon Amstell. But it's nothing like Curb Your Enthusiasm, no way, says co-creator Dan SwimerFirstly, by way of an apology, I ought to point out that the reason I'm writing this alone is definitely not because Simon is too lazy and self-important to do something as menial as penning a few words about his latest product himself. It's because he is a "genius recluse" who's much too busy being both reclusive and a genius to go grovelling to Guide readers in a bid to promote his new TV show.I just hope this doesn't become like the Seinfeld episode where George and Elaine go to the cinema together and find that without their mutual friend Jerry they have nothing to say to one another. Well, I'm aware we don't know each...

We seek them out so you don't have to. This is our weekly non-exhaustive round up of upcoming LGBT programmes on the radio and television. Inclusion of a programme is not a recommendation.Some of the programmes listed below will be available online on the respective network's websitesListings (times given are pm unless otherwise stated)Enjoy!SaturdayTerrestrialBBC18.20 Tonight’s the Night. John Barrowman turns the Jim’ll Fix It formula into a whole variety show. Barry Manilow is in there tooITV17.35 Odd One In. Julian Clary participates9.30 Years of an Audience with. 4 of 5 features Dame Shirley, Take That and othersC43.55 Come Dine with Me Down Under7 Elizabeth. The “Virgin Queen” gets the Starkey treatment9 Big Bro10 MisfitsFive12.30 & 8.05 Don’t Stop Believers. Talent...

The prospect of a television series on The Normans reminds me of a fascinating interview with Dr David Starkey I heard a few years ago. It was on, of all unlikely places, Richard and Judy's afternoon television programme.Starkey said the idea that 1066 is the most important date in British history is a recent one. In fact it dates from 1914 - the year when all things French became good and all things German bad. German Shepherd Dogs turned into Alsatians and the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha turned into the House of Windsor.Until then we had been very aware of our Saxon heritage and believed that the roots of our democracy lay in that era. After 1914 the Norman Conquest became almost a Year Zero and the Saxon kings were relegated to become a faintly embarrassing pre-history.So thank you,...

Sharp’s march into 3D hasn’t slowed down any and it’s just confirmed that a 3D phone is on the cards and should be on shelves across the planet by the end of 2010 – in time for Christmas lists? As you may remember – Sharp supplied the glasses-free 3D screens to Nintendo for the 3DS. Unfortunately Sharp also provided panels for the extremely short-lived Microsoft Kin so they have something to prove. According to a Sharp spokeswoman, the 3D phone will also be boasting a 3D camera round back.  I’m hoping that it will snap 3D photo’s and video This is all very exciting but what I need to know is what operating system will this 3D wonder be running? Let me know what you think – will it be Android, WinMo or something more...