TOAST OF LONDON and PEEP SHOW DVD winner!

Thanks if you entered my DVD competitions last week, to win copies of TOAST OF LONDON Series 3 and PEEP SHOW Series 9 on DVD. The winner is below:

Win TOAST OF LONDON Series 3 on DVD for Christmas!

The seasonal cheer just keeps on spreading! After giving away a DVD of Peep Show yesterday, I'm now giving away a DVD of TOAST OF LONDON Series 3 for one lucky reader, too!

Win PEEP SHOW Series 9 on DVD for Christmas!

If you're struggling for a last-minute Christmas gift idea, now's your chance to pickup a copy of an iconic Channel 4 comedy, absolutely free. I have a copy of PEEP SHOW Series 9 to give away to one lucky reader! It probably won't arrive for Christmas Day, but it'll make a nice addition over the festive period.

Netflix producing 12 more BLACK MIRROR episodes

Channel 4's BLACK MIRROR is returning next year, but it's now being produced for Netflix. The online streaming giant has bankrolled 12 new episodes from creator Charlie Brooker, but subscribers from the UK and Ireland won't have access. Instead, Channel 4 will likely continue to show the popular anthology series exclusively to its native audience, as they have the "first-look option" to do so.

David Fincher's UTOPIA remake for HBO dies in pre-production

Fans of Channel 4's quirky and horrifying thriller Utopia were inconsolable last year, when it was announced the show wouldn't be renewed for a third series. While the final episode sort of works as an ending, the story was clearly intended to continue with a new dynamic. The only silver lining was the prospect of a big-budget U.S remake perhaps becoming a bigger commercial success, to potentially continue the basic story beyond where Channel 4's version left off. And while the idea of American remakes of English-language shows generally causes puzzled looks from English-speakers everywhere, the fact this one was being masterminded by David Fincher (Fight Club) and writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), for cable heavyweight HBO, was enough to make me optimistic...

Brief thoughts on Channel 4's relationship comedy CATASTROPHE

Despite adhering to an overused setup (two lovers cope with an unwanted pregnancy), Channel 4 comedy CATASTROPHE overcame its hoariness because, frankly, it was funny and well-performed by writer-stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney. They played, um, Sharon and Rob—middle-aged, transatlantic lovers who become expectant parents following a crazy week of passionate sex after meeting in a London bar.

Finale reviews: THE AFFAIR (Season 1) • DEREK: THE SPECIAL • THE WRONG MANS

It's the time of year when U.S shows have their mid-season or seasonal finales, and UK shows have Christmas specials that occasionally act as series-enders. So I just thought I would briefly cover three shows I've been watching, that ended very recently...

Review: Channel 4's BLACK MIRROR – WHITE CHRISTMAS

★★★☆

It's hard to say which was the most exciting thing about this feature-length edition of Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR; the fact the show's been given a Christmas special, or that its growing acclaim overseas resulted in Mad Men's Jon Hamm having an extensive role. Both were equally stimulating before a single frame of the show had been seen, but I'm pleased "White Christmas" managed the difficult trick of making an extended episode with an intertwined narrative work. It's just a shame that, if I'm completely honest, only a few elements of this special achieved the highs I expect from the show.

December 2014 Highlights – BLACK MIRROR • DOCTOR WHO • DOWNTON ABBEY • ESIO TROT • THE WRONG MANS

December is a particularly busy month in British TV because of the two-week period over Christmas and New Year when various shows air specials. It's less exciting in the U.S, where shows go on mid-season hiatus until January or February. (I've never understood that, seeing as you have more of a captive audience thanks to 'holiday period + winter weather', but whatevs.) Below are my picks of the best stuff heading our way this month—although there's always a level of secrecy with UK scheduling, so it's subject to change and amendment the closer we get to Christmas time. As always, let me know about any glaring omissions, and I will sneakily update this post. (That's an added incentive for RSS readers to visit the actual blog, too...)

Q&A: Tom Edge, creator of Channel 4 comedy SCROTAL RECALL

I recently did a Q&A with writer Tom Edge (Pramface, The Midnight Beast) about his new Channel 4 comedy SCROTAL RECALL , which concerns a young romantic with Chlamydia who tracks down his exes to inform them they could be infected. You can read the results below...

Review: Channel 4's SCROTAL RECALL • an infectiously sweet sex comedy

★★☆☆

I don't begrudge creator Tom Edge (The Midnight Beast) failing to avoid naming his sitcom SCROTAL RECALL, because sometimes a good pun's irresistible. However, it does create assumptions about the tone which are misleading, as this wasn't as vulgar as I was expecting a single-camera comedy about Chlamydia to be.

MAD MEN's Jon Hamm gazes into Channel 4's BLACK MIRROR

It's been announced that the ninety-minute Christmas special of Channel 4's twisted anthology drama BLACK MIRROR will star Jon Hamm (Mad Men), whose character will link three intertwined stories. He'll be joined by The Shadow Line's Rafe Spall and Game of Thrones' Oona Chaplin (great-granddaughter of silent movie legend Charlie).

Have a BLACK MIRROR Christmas

After two series, Charlie Brooker's satirical anthology drama BLACK MIRROR has been given a Christmas special by Channel 4. The show is usually comprised of three separate weekly tales, but the festive edition will weave three storylines into one feature-length episode.

Did THE SINGER TAKES IT ALL find its voice in week two?

Last week's premiere of THE SINGER TAKES IT ALL was mired by an embarrassing failure of its app, which meant the first three singers were actually being voted on by 100 back-stage helpers as a contingency plan. Hardly a promising start, although I quite enjoyed how this show wasn't taking itself seriously and is offering audiences something new with instant interactivity. (Well, when it works.) Britons seem to like the whole idea, too. Channel 4 were quick to reveal that 142,000 votes were cast during last week's debut (14.3% of the hour's available audience across all channels). More than 3,500 video auditions have also been uploaded to the app, mostly after the first episode was broadcast.

Channel 4's THE SINGER TAKES IT ALL; average karaoke with an innovative twist

Channel 4's thrown its hat into the ring of reality singing contests, taking on ITV's X Factor and BBC1's The Voice, with THE SINGER TAKES IT ALL. As befits Channel 4's remit for innovation in the field, the key difference with this series is how it puts the power at the audience's fingertips using modern technology...

Has Channel 4's THE MIMIC lost its voice?

THE MIMIC returned a few weeks ago, continuing the hapless non-adventures of maintenance man Martin Hurdle (Terry Mynott), who's now lost his low-paid job and chance of fame and fortune after bottling a TV appearance in series 1's finale. Martin has an uncanny gift for impressionism, see; hence the show's title. It's an original way to showcase Mynott's talent for imitation, although he's also done the more traditional impersonation-based sketch show. The only problem is, I'm not sure creator Matt Morgan really knows where he's going with this.

What are the best British TV panel shows?

One of the most common and popular formats on British television is the venerable "comedy panel show". The UK has cornered the market with this genre, largely because it's the only country that makes so many. It probably helps that they're so cheap and relatively easy to produce.

Oddly, the panel show is almost unheard of in America nowadays, although the US is credited with originating the genre and it was very popular in the '50s and '60s. But the comedy panel show sub-genre never really took hold across the pond, perhaps because there was no radio tradition of "parlour games"? Anyway, here endeth the history lesson. Below are my favourite UK-made comedy panel shows, of those currently in existence... do you agree with my choices?

Stop the press! Is MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D actually good now?

I've stuck with this show, despite not being a Marvel-head (although I enjoy the films), and while ignoring the harsh critical and audience response. This is mostly because shows like this deserve time to mature into themselves, which today's impatient culture isn't keen to grant. I remember the days when you didn't even expect a new Star Trek series to become good until two years of trial-and-error to refine the formula. People are so quick to judge television nowadays (myself included), although I agree the first half of Agents of SHIELD wasn't the best. I demoted the show to UK-pace viewing by mid-season, and haven't regretted that decision... until now. See, a funny thing's happened in the past few weeks; AoS's storylines have felt more compelling, and a few plot twists have made me excited to watch the next episode. Has AoS become a good show as it races towards its first season finale?

Review: Channel 4's DEREK - Series 2

The intention behind Derek (and one that writer-star Ricky Gervais believes he's succeeded at) is to take an affectionate and half-serious look at the state of elderly health care in the UK, while making people fall in love with the eponymous simpleton Gervais plays. Never mind the fact Derek started life as a blunt characterisation of a mentally-disabled man, or that one of Gervais's own stand-up comedy shows saw him "doing Derek" to mimic the abnormal nerds with bad haircuts that occasionally pester him for autographs. Maybe he's had a change of heart since then, and now sees Derek-types as beacons of hope in a cynical world. Or maybe he's just realised his range as an actor (after six degrees of David Brent) immediately narrows into going "full retard"--as Robert Downey Jr's character described it in Tropic Thunder.

MSN TV: Channel 4's FARGO, 1.1 - 'The Crocodile's Dilemma'

Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the excellent TV adaptation of the 1996 film FARGO, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman, which had its UK premiere on Channel 4 last night...

We're seeing a good deal of big-screen properties transfer to the small-screen lately: Hannibal, Bates Motel, From Dusk till Dawn, the upcoming Rosemary's Baby, etc. The thinking appears to be that audiences are so consumed by TV, studios need to cut through this digital din by pitching remakes of stories with which people are already familiar, or else lean on brand recognition. On hearing about a Fargo mini-series, the very idea felt pointless. Fortunately, screenwriter Noah Hawley (Bones) knew there was no improving on the Coen's original production so he wisely decided to tell another "true crime" story with fresh characters.

Continue reading at MSN TV...