The boss of the broadcast regulator has expressed concern about how the chase for audience ratings is harming the industry
Television has become more “exploitative and cruel”, according to Michael Grade, the chair of the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom.
“The exploitation dial has been switched up more and more for ratings,” said the peer and former chair of the BBC board. “It makes me mad. I really don’t like it or enjoy it.
Continue reading...Viewers’ association accuses Amica Chips of resorting to blasphemy in order to increase sales
An Italian TV advert that depicts nuns eating crisps instead of altar bread while receiving holy communion has been accused of blasphemy by an outraged association of Catholic TV viewers.
The 30-second advert for Amica Chips – one of Italy’s top crisps brands – takes place in a monastery and opens with nuns preparing to receive holy communion. Their mother superior realises that the tabernacle is empty of hosts, and so fills it with crisps.
Continue reading...Sajak, 77, announced last summer he was ready to retire as host, marking the end of a four-decade gig on venerable gameshow
Pat Sajak will take his final spin on Wheel of Fortune on 7 June, marking the end of a four-decade gig as host of the venerable gameshow.
Sajak, 77, announced last summer that he was ready to retire as host from the show, which features contestants guessing letters to try to fill out words and phrases to win money and prizes. Deadline confirmed his final date on air on Friday.
Continue reading...Cole Brings Plenty, 27, had gone missing amid domestic violence investigation
An actor who appeared in a spinoff of the popular television western Yellowstone was found dead after he went missing amid a domestic violence investigation in Kansas, authorities said on Friday.
The Johnson county sheriff’s office said in a statement that deputies found the body of 27-year-old Cole Brings Plenty in a wooded area. Crime scene investigators and the medical examiner were at the location, but no details were released about a cause of death.
Continue reading...Television star was killed in a motorcycle accident that involved no other parties, representatives say
Chance Perdomo, the British American actor who starred on the television shows Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Gen V, has died in a motorcycle accident. He was 27.
Nobody else was involved in the accident, his representatives said in a statement. No details on the location or date of the accident were shared.
Continue reading...Eight-episode series based on Liu Cixin novels triggers accusations of ‘Americanisation’ of a Chinese story
Netflix’s big-budget adaptation of Three-Body Problem, a series of novels by the Chinese author Liu Cixin, has divided opinion on Chinese social media.
The eight-episode series, 3 Body Problem, was released in full on Netflix on Thursday. It is based on the first book in Liu’s trilogy, an ambitious sci-fi series spanning civilisation from the 1960s to the end of humanity.
Continue reading...Character actor, who appeared in more than 220 roles across seven decades, died in Vermont on Tuesday
M Emmet Walsh, the character actor who appeared in more than 220 film and television roles including Blade Runner, Knives Out and the Coen brothers’ films Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, has died aged 88.
Walsh’s manager, Sandy Joseph, confirmed to the industry publication Variety that he had died Tuesday in Vermont.
Continue reading...The model and actor wrote on Instagram ‘My heart is broken’ after house in Studio City apparently collapsed after a fire broke out
A Los Angeles home that appears to belong to the model and actor Cara Delevingne was destroyed in a fire Friday.
One firefighter was taken to a hospital in fair condition with unspecified injuries, and a housesitter who was inside at the time was treated for minor injuries, a Los Angeles fire department spokesperson, Nicholas Prange, said.
Continue reading...Programme that follows the lives of 14 children at seven-year intervals tops Broadcasting Press Guild’s 50th anniversary chart
The groundbreaking Up documentary series has been voted the programme that changed television the most over the past 50 years in a poll of the country’s leading TV writers.
The series, which follows a group of children from different social backgrounds and documents their progress every seven years, topped a list of the the most influential shows from the last five decades compiled by the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG).
Continue reading...The hugely successful beach-set drama is returning to television after an underwhelming response to 2017 movie
A reboot of the highly successful drama Baywatch is heading to television.
The original series became one of the most watched shows in the world running for 11 seasons in the late 80s and 90s. The new version will again follow a group of Los Angeles county lifeguards as they deal with various emergencies.
Continue reading...Bagpuss, the Clangers and Paddington are among the icons of childhood that fans are determined to save
Are you sitting comfortably? Bagpuss is, but Mother Clanger is not. Dougal may be – nobody is quite sure. And the Wombles – well, they haven’t been seen for years.
Not all of these icons of childhood have been given the care they deserve and now some of the leading lights of children’s TV and animation have called for them to be given their own home.
Continue reading...Soap has given opportunities to actors, writers and production staff, says Philip Ralph on last day of filming
A screenwriter has described the decision to axe the daytime drama Doctors as “disastrous” and said soaps are collapsing as he marked the last day of filming the show.
The BBC announced in October the show would end in December this year due to “super inflation in drama production”.
Continue reading...High-budget series with largely Japanese cast avoids well-worn western orientalist fantasies and wins plaudits in Japan
Japanese audiences could have been forgiven for bracing themselves when Disney announced Shōgun, a 10-part adaptation of James Clavell’s classic 1975 novel.
With few exceptions, Hollywood depictions of Japan and the Japanese have relied on one-dimensional characters whose purpose is to confirm cultural stereotypes, set against the backdrop of an inscrutable archipelago whose people have much to learn from the western hero.
Continue reading...The 25-year-old actor was among 30 demonstrators taken into custody during Joe Biden’s appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, organisers confirmed
Euphoria actor Hunter Schafer was among dozens of protesters arrested at NBC’s headquarters in Manhattan during the president Joe Biden’s appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this week, organisers confirmed Wednesday.
The 25-year-old star was part of a group of more than 100 demonstrators who packed the lobby at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Monday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war, the group Jewish Voice for Peace said.
Continue reading...Christopher Nolan’s historical epic picked up three major acting awards while The Bear and Succession shared the big TV wins
Christopher Nolan’s hit biopic Oppenheimer has dominated this year’s Screen Actors Guild awards.
The cast of the biographical epic won for best ensemble, ahead of Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon. Cillian Murphy picked up male actor in a leading role, which was also contested by Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright. “This is extremely, extremely special to me because it comes from you guys,” he told the audience at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.
Continue reading...Surprisingly, Foxtel’s Hubbl makes a pretty good case for itself even if it doesn’t completely pass the sniff test
Foxtel is set to kickstart a massive marketing blitz to promote its new streaming TV hardware Hubbl. As viewers watch the TV ads featuring Hamish Blake dancing across their screens dressed up as a Hubbl set-top box, many will be asking a not-unreasonable question: “Doesn’t my TV already do this?”
Most Australians now have a smart TV. Australia got serious about streaming TV back in 2015 with the launch of Stan and Netflix. With the general lifespan of a TV being somewhere between 7 and 15 years, it means most of Australia by now have smart TVs or have equipped their TV with a plug-in device to make their TV “smart”.
Continue reading...Peter Moffat will write show about what is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history
ITV has announced a drama on the contaminated blood scandal, widely considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history, after the success of its series on the Post Office.
The drama, which is being written by the Bafta award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, will show how people with haemophilia and other blood disorders were contaminated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, the American media site Deadline reported.
Continue reading...Actor, who has accused two directors of raping her as a teenager, to address France’s most prestigious film awards ceremony
Judith Godrèche, an actor who has accused two high-profile directors of raping her as a teenager, will address France’s most prestigious film awards ceremony on Friday in an unusual move aimed at breaking what she calls the “omertà” surrounding the abuse of women and girls in the industry.
Godrèche, whose autobiographical hit TV show about the grooming of a 14-year-old girl has sparked a national debate, will take to the stage at the César awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, which is broadcast live on television.
Continue reading...It’s no joke for new shows as classic favourites live on while investment in sitcoms and sketches falters
There is a quip beloved of comedians, when asked if their industry is going down the pan: “Nostalgia? It ain’t what it used to be.”
But for fans of well-worn jokes, and the shows in which they appear, 2024 could be truly a golden era.
Continue reading...Popular British comedy ended in 2019 with unanswered marriage proposal
The beloved British TV sitcom Gavin and Stacey is reportedly set to return to the BBC for a Christmas special, five years on from a dramatic cliffhanger, according to reports.
Created by James Corden and Ruth Jones, the comedy followed the two titular characters, played by Matthew Horne and Joanna Page, as they pursued a relationship across Essex and Wales.
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