TVSquad

Let's start with the good news, because I like ending on a downer. American fans of the British comedy Spaced, starring Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), and Nick Frost, are in for a treat because the Spaced Region 1 DVD finally has a release date! Expect the good stuff to come out July 23 of this year. I'm tempted to buy it just because it's something new, shiny, and Spaced-related, but I already splurged on the 3-Disc Collectors' Set and a region-free player that I got just so that I could watch the series. Why, yes, I am a sad little person.

It's rather comforting, if a little scary, to see that even computerized icons can age a lot.

Britain's Channel 4 has brought back Max Headroom, the 80s TV character that everyone thought was just a computer creation but was actually actor Matt Frewer, for a series of TV commercials. The ads (or are they called adverts or something over there?) will show Max insulting Channel 4 for ignoring his idea of a digital TV world.

According to Variety, an American version of the Simon Pegg/Jessica Stevenson Channel Four Brit-com Spaced is being developed for American audiences. It is being adapted by Will and Grace alumni Adam Barr and to be exec-produced by McG and Robert Green. The BAFTA-nominated show is about a man (Simon Pegg) and a woman (Jessica Stevenson) who pretend to be a married couple in order to rent a cheap apartment in London. Simon Pegg went on to star in movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

I've seen episodes of Spaced and liked it. It has that frenzied storytelling style that is seen in Pegg's later movies. It also has a lot of pop culture references and it helps that Pegg plays a comic book artist and fan.

According to this article in the U.K.'s Telegraph, kids on the reality TV show Supernanny have been intentionally made to cry to boost ratings. The show is successful in Britain and in the United States (on ABC) and has made host Jo Frost a household name.

My question is: why is this surprising? It's somewhat common knowledge that reality TV intentionally gets its participants into awkward situations in order to get good TV out of it. Hell, right before I started with TV Squad I appeared on a cable TV game show and I was amazed at how much the producers wanted me to behave a certain way in order to make for better TV.

The UK's Channel 4 had decided not to broadcast a drama featuring British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees so as not to exacerbate the current situation surrounding fifteen Royal Navy personnel currently held captive in Iran. The debut for the movie was moved to May 17, which will most likely remain now that the soldiers have been released to the British Embassy (and assuming their return to British soil).

The drama, Mark of Cain, is somewhat based on the true-life story of three British soldiers who were convicted of abusing Iraqi civilians at Camp Bread Basket, Basra, in May 2003. The drama itself, however, is entirely fictional according to Gerard Kearns, who plays a soldier in the made-for-TV movie. Due to the tumultuous nature of the diplomatic standoff, the channel decided it was better to avoid anything that might endanger the lives of the fifteen soldiers, who were held captive in a secret location for twelve days.

Interesting article on the BBC website today; they had an independent polling company survey over 2,000 Brits on their video viewing habits, and they found that, of the people that said they regularly watch online video, 43% say they watch less television as a result. The number of total online viewers is still a minority: 9% of the people surveyed said they watch online video regularly, 13% they watched occasionally, and another 10% say they plan to watch online video within the next year. But, remember, there is not nearly as much current British programming available online as there is in the U.S., so that number might grow as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 rolls out on-demand video on the web, which the article says is due in the next few months.

If you live in the UK and have been enjoying Lost, get your TiVos ready: Channel 4, which has been airing the first two seasons of the American hit, has lost the rights to seasons three and four to Sky One, according to The Sun.

"The series has defined TV drama over the last two years. We are absolutely thrilled to bring it to Sky One," Sky One chief Richard Woolfe told the tabloid.

Of course, Lost is currently only in its third season, but even with its slipping ratings, chances of a fourth season are almost 100%. So Sky will likely get its money's worth. Unless half the country has downloaded season three's episodes already. Then Sky is toast.

This is really odd. It's a promo for Lost from Channel 4 in England. I'm not sure quite what to make of it other than it seems to me that it has to be a promo for season one. I say that because A) it prominently features Boone and B) bits and pieces of Flight 815 are still strewn all over the shore. I just don't get why they needed such a weird ad for the show? What's wrong with the ones that air here in the States?

It has it's moments though. I thought it was funny when Locke and Walt were "conducting" the dance and the crazy organ music (I think that's what it's supposed to be). Plus, it was very telling that Jack and Sawyer were fighting over Kate. If all this sounds confusing, you can watch the video after the jump. Any other interpretations? Am I right in thinking this is an old promo?

Imagine what would happen if, in this highly tense and prickly time in the country's history, the president was assassinated. That's what the UK's Channel 4 will examine in a new movie called Death of a President. The movie, shot in documentary format, will be a fictionalized account of the investigation following the assassination of George W. Bush, who will be shown being killed by a sniper in Chicago. Digital mock-ups will allow the movie producers to show a realistic-looking picture of the incident.

The purpose of the movie is to show what the implications such an event would have in a world where we can't take shampoo on an airplane. The investigation in the movie will focus on a Syrian-born man, who may or may not be the person who did the deed. The movie will be shown on Channel 4's digital channel and will also be shown at the Toronto Film Festival.

Of course, showing a real president, especially one as controversial as Bush, getting assassinated is a risky move. Not sure if any US outlet is going to have the fortitude to show this movie over here.

The 13-week long marathon that was the seventh series of the popular reality TV show Big Brother in the U.K. ended last night, with Tourette Syndrome sufferer Pete Bennett ending the show as the last remaining contestant in the house and earning himself £100,000 prize money in the process.

Having re-introduced former evictee Niki back to the BB house last week (and thereby confirming what a sham the whole Big Brother process is), viewers watched as the final six housemates were left to slug it out and then departed the house one at a time on the whim of the public, starting with Liverpudlian Jenny, then Niki, followed by Canadian Richard.

Davina McCall then chopped it down to the last two when Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace was evicted from the house, leaving just Pete and Welsh lad Glyn.

When the announcement finally arrived, Pete jumped around the house throwing pillows into the air, and found it difficult to speak to Davina in the traditional post-celebration interview. Glyn was presented with his exam results and a message from the Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who described him as an "inspiration for other young people in Wales".

I haven't updated on the U.K. Big Brother series for several weeks, mostly because it started to lose whatever appeal it ever had as a reality TV show when the producers introduced half a dozen new housemates half-way through the series, but also because it started to feel like I was watching some kind of bizarre, mind-numbing TV marathon that had absolutely no point to it whatsoever.

In the intervening weeks since my last post on the show, we've lost Nikki (the most irritating person in the western hemisphere), the 'golden ticket' housemate Susie, loudmouth Jayne, Irish DJ Spiral, Michael and Mikey.

Things picked up a few weeks ago when Big Brother introduced a hidden prison in the house and split the housemates up like some kind of Stanley Milgram experiment, but it was temporary relief from the mundanity of this overly-extended offering from Endemol.

Hell's Kitchen host and chef Gordon Ramsay got an OBE (Order of the British Empire) yesterday in Scotland.

Don't worry, he actually wore a suit and tie and didn't swear at the Queen even once. The article above also says that he hosts a show on Channel 4 titled The F Word. Anyone know what that is?

By the way, Hell's Kitchen is doing rather well in the ratings this summer for FOX, consistently placing in the top 20 shows of the week.

[via TV Tattle]

Another week, another twist to the Big Brother U.K. house.

If you're recording the shows and watching them later, like me, you might want to go elsewhere.

Warning: spoilers after the jump.

As ever folks, look away now if you don't want to know who will be facing the chop in the Big Brother 7 public vote over here in the U.K. this week...

Warning: spoilers after the jump.

As they say just before the classified soccer results here in the U.K., if you don't want to know the results of this week's nominations in the U.K. Big Brother house, look away now.

Warning: spoilers after the jump.