彼女はそう言いました。

Ricky Gervais introduces his inspiration for “The Office”. (N.B It’s not actually that funny, bearing in mind all the effort they put in to learn their lines… ah well, good try.)

The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

I finally got around to watching this the other night, I had it on the old Sky plus taking up a world of space (BBC HD) from when I was in Lisbon. My feelings can be summed up in bullet points thusly…

• I really liked the cinematography, it’s a shame it takes a Hollywood production to make Botswana look beautiful.
• I couldn’t stand Jill Scott’s accent. It may just be that I am so used to hearing her sing.
• David Oyelowo was hilarious, I didn’t know he had this comedy performance in him. So many quotable lines from “Kremlin”.
• It was also good to have Idris Elba back on my screen. I’m watching Season 4 of The Wire, and although it *is* great, I do miss Stringer Bell.
• I can’t wait for the series to start…

iTunes updates…

UK programming abound on both sides of the Atlantic on iTunes. ITV have started selling their old archive stuff on the UK store, including Lewis and Brideshead Revisited (Riveting, my mum says). On the US store, BBC AMerica has started selling the likes of Little Britain and Torchwood. So there you go.

BBC on iTunes

Just a quick note to say that BBC shows started appearing on iTunes this evening, ahead of an expected announcement on Tuesday morning. Spooks, Life on Mars and The Mighty Boosh are among the better offerings, with someone also having the gall to put Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps on there, under the baner of “The Best of British TV”. I’ll let all you UK readers know what this means for your licence fee once I have had the chance to think of something subtly witty. Oooh… no it’s gone again.

Extras Christmas special

I just finished watching the final episode of Extras, the feature length Christmas special. I know it’s been on the internet for the last 11 days but I thought I would watch it at the same time as the rest of the UK. Alright, that’s actually a lie. I didn’t know it had been on HBO already until I went looking to find out when it was airing in Britain, and then proceeded to download an HD copy veerrry sloooowly yesterday. In fact by the time it arrived, I realised that I wouldn’t be watching it until this evening when my better half arrived home, in which case I might as well watch it on BBC HD in a slightly higher quality!

Heroes S02E05 – Fight or Flight

A bit of a slow episode, but I am just so happy that Kristen bell has found paid employment again! I am willing to give them time, but I hope that all the story threads come together in a coherent and credible way. Until that time, I will reserve judgment. Also, I love the nightmare mans power. That was insane. Watch the promo for next week after the jump:-

Screenwipe

I guess I could call this my favourite thing on TV, because there is nothing I look forward to more at the moment. I only noticed once I had installed the BBC’s iPlayer, but apparently Charlie Brooker returned to BBC Four last week, and he came out swinging against Reality TV, Heroes and even his own channel towards the end. watch a clip (not the best moment of the show, just the only clip I could find) after the jump.

4oD, iPlayer, ITV.com all working on Vista

Today’s adventure involved trying to get different UK networks online offerings working with Vista. And I am happy to report that I managed to get ITV.com, 4oD and the BBC’s iplayer believing that I was using a machine running Windows XP, and successfully download and watch programming. It involved downloading a utility to make your IE7 browser (eeurgh) report itself to certain websites as IE6. If anybody wants to know more, leave a message in the comments and I will send you in the right direction.

Heroes..

I’m going home to watch the first episode of season 2 in HD. I can’t wait. But I’ll have to, because my other half won’t let me watch it until she gets home.  That’s right, I’m whipped. goodnight.

Silent Witness

Tonight, I am watching Silent Witness on BBC HD. Never tuned in before, I decided to have a look-see purely because it is being broadcast in high definition. But here is the funny thing, it’s not bad. Not bad at all. The sooner all of BBC’s output is in HD, the sooner I can become re-acquainted with the content ‘Auntie Beeb’ has to offer.

UK broadcasters unite to create video on demand solution

It is almost as if they read my post yesterday and took immediate action. UK broadcasters have today decided to work together to create a joint offering that allows viewers to download copies of their favourite shows to their PC’s. With a working title of Project Kangaroo, it is not yet known how this application will work alongside the existing download services available from the UK networks.

although initially a broadband proposition, the application would one day be installed in freeview boxes, and work much in the same way as BT Vision does today, delivering content over the the old copper wire, and maybe one day fibre optics if BT get their act together. Stay tuned for more developments… or maybe this is a knee-jerk reaction to a loss of viewers to Bittorrent, Youtube and the internet in general, and nothing will come of it. Only time will tell.

Five take Neighbours from the BBC

Breaking(ish) news, five have paid Fremantle Media £300 million for the rights to show Neighbours for the next 10 years. For those of you that think its a staggering sum, just consider that the show is still the most popular in daytime, after BBC’s lunchtime news bulletin. Expect that popularity to end, I’ve lost track of the amount of people that can’t locate five on a remote, or wouldn’t watch the channel even if someone held a gun to their head. Sad, really.

BBC iPlayer

Today the BBC trust approved the Beeb’s plans for the iPlayer. This fancy bit of software will let you catch up on any show for the next 7 days, and even download and store them for a reasonable period of time, you all know the rest by now. Really exciting developments that I believe will change TV for the better, with more people more willing to catch a show they missed because of their hectic life, or a scheduling conflict, or some such.

My only gripe is a personal one, as a mac user. One of the changes imposed on them by the trust was to make the iPlayer available to those not using a Microsoft operating system in “a reasonable time frame”, thought to be two years. Yesterday a BBC spokesman said they may not be able to do that, with their plans to roll the software out on cable boxes first, then other operating systems, but that depends more on the third parties involved.

I would love a bit of iplayer action, but I’ll be damned if I have to use Windows or join Virgin Media to get it before 2010.