British TV Review 2009

British Television Review 2009
Here’s a thread to look back at all aspects of British television throughout 2009. I know this ought to have been launched the first few days of this month, but never mind that we’re almost at the end of January 2010. Better late than never.

Feel free to discuss ANYTHING that happened on British television between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2009. Programmes, broadcasting/technical issues (e.g. digital switchover), etc.

Here I’m going to comment on the following aspects of British television in 2009.
Digital Switchover
The Krypton Factor
Dancing On Ice
Red Nose Day
Eurovision Song Contest
Strictly Come Dancing
Children In Need
Christmas TV Presentation

Digital Switchover
Digital switchover continued during the course of 2009.

Border
Having started switchover in 2007, the process was completed here in 2009 with the following two transmitter groups.
Douglas (IoM) - Thursday 16 July
Caldbeck - Wednesday 22 July

Westcountry
All five transmitter groups switched during 2009 as follows:
Beacon Hill - Wednesday 22 April
Stockland Hill - Wednesday 20 May
Huntshaw Cross - Wednesday 29 July
Redruth - Wednesday 5 August
Caradon Hill - Wednesday 9 September

Granada
There was only one transmitter group to deal with here: Winter Hill on Wednesday 2 December 2009.

Wales
Switchover in Wales began on Wednesday 9 September 2009. So far the following transmitter groups switched in 2009.
Kilvey Hill - Wednesday 9 September
Preseli - Wednesday 16 September
Carmel - Wednesday 23 September
Llanddona - Wednesday 18 November
Moel-Y-Parc - Wednesday 25 November
Long Mountain - Thursday 3 December

Switchover in Wales will be completed in 2010.

A national retune was carried out on Wednesday 30 September at all transmitters broadcasting digital (switched areas and combo analogue/digital transmitters). Some channels moved multiplexes. In some areas viewers picking up from relays didn’t like the loss of ITV3 and ITV4. Why didn’t they leave ITV3 on multiplex 2 in place of ITV2+1, and put ITV2+1 on the multiplex that ITV3 is now on? Plus 1 channels are a waste of valuable bandwidth on the PSB multiplexes, which is all most relays are getting.

The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor returned to ITV1 on New Year’s Day 2009, having previously been axed in the mid 1990s. This time Ben Sheppard was the presenter, personally I thought he did as good a job as Gordon Burns. I enjoyed watching the series just as much as back in the 1970s and 1980s. There were five rounds:

Mental Agility
Observation
Intelligence
Physical Ability
General Knowledge

Just the same as they were in the 1970s, albeit in a different order (back then the order was Mental Agility, Physical Ability, Intelligence, Observation, General Knowledge).

There were some changes from the 1970s and 1980s. Firstly the assault course. Unlike in the Gordon Burns era, it could only take two contestants at a time. Thus they had two races, filmed separately. When they showed it on the programme, they alternated between clips of each race. Thankfully that’s been rectified for the 2010 series by going back to a four-person course so all four can race at once. Secondly they introduced an internal commercial break. There wasn’t one of those in the 1970s/1980s version of The Krypton Factor. Finally the studio is much more modern than in the 1970s and 1980s, with the contestants doing Mental Agility one by one in the Kube, and a much more modern scoreboard, graphics etc.

The final was on Thursday 5 March.

Dancing On Ice
Dancing on Ice 2009 began on Sunday 11 January. Thirteen celebrities and their partners took part. The seven male celebs and their partners took part in week 1 (11 Jan), the six female celebs in week 2 (18 Jan). The eleven remaining couples competed together for the first time in week 3 (25 Jan).

As always there was the problem of viewers voting for underdogs. Todd Carty, better known as Tucker in Grange Hill and Mark Fowler in EastEnders, was bottom in weeks 1, 3 and 4, yet he kept being saved from the skate-off. Weeks 3 and 4 I was upset about seeing two couples higher up the leader board in the skate-off, and one having to leave just because Todd had been saved. In week 5 (Sun 8 Feb) he was bottom of the leader board again, and I was so overjoyed to see him in the skate-off against Ellery & Frankie. I knew then there was no hope for Todd, and he ended up being knocked out that week. The other underdog was Coleen Nolan. She was bottom of the leader board the all-female week (18 Jan). Once Todd was out, she was bottom of the leader board each week 6 (15 Feb) to week 9 (8 March), and saved by viewers from the skate-off. In week 9 (quarter final) Jason said after the skate-off “It’s a shame this is still a popularity contest” as Zoe had to leave that week. At least in the semi-final, she ended up in the skate-off against Donal & Florentine. That week all five judges saved Donal, so Coleen was out.

The grand final was on Sunday 15 March. Thank God Coleen didn’t survive until that, otherwise I bet viewers would have voted her to undeservedly win. Ray Quinn and Maria Filippov won the competition.

Red Nose Day
Oh dear! What a load of tortuous garbage viewers were subjected to from 7pm Friday 13 March until 2:10am the following morning. What should have been an evening of entertainment was more of an endurance test. The evening began on BBC1 at 7pm the official Comic Relief 2009 single "Just Can't Get Enough" by The Saturdays; so far so good. David Tennant and Davina McCall presented the first part of the show. Their slot included Harry Hill's TV Burp, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Outnumbered. Celebrity Mastermind: David v Davina was ridiculous with final scores Davina 8, David 14. Pathetic compared to the real Mastermind. There was also an instalment of Victorian Dragon’s Den: the toothbrush. Things didn’t improve when Jonathan Ross and Claudia Winkleman took over presenting at 8:40pm. The sketch Smithy Vs. The England Team was about as amusing as watching paint dry. Basically, a disappointing assortment for the first three hours.

During the news break, BBC2 had a special edition of Top of the Pops from 10 to 10:35pm. That was one of the highlights of the evening really, just over half an hour of pop, including “Islands in the Stream” performed by Rob Brydon & Ruth Jones with Sir Tom Jones, and the week’s number one by FloRida “Right Round”.

Back on BBC1 at 10:35, Fern Britton and Alan Carr took presented until 1:00. What followed was no better than the first three hours. The Apprentice was downright boring, and Mitchell and Webb Vs. Armstrong and Miller wasn’t much better. There were two more instalments of Victorian Dragons’ Den: the flush toilet and the television set. If they had to have Victorian Dragons’ Den, why couldn’t they have had one single edition, promoting the toothbrush, flush toilet and television in succession? Really though, why promote things that are now taken for granted? Wouldn’t it have been better to have shown present day innovations? The best bit was Graham Norton's section 1am to 2:10 am, featuring the bit with those ladies dancing (can-can style), the live stand-up comic Jason Manford (he was excellent, and deserved longer than the five minutes he was allotted) and the cast of Let's Dance for Comic Relief doing The Full Monty. Also during Graham’s slot Franz Ferdinand performed the song "Ulysses", and there was an explanation of how the Amarillo video was made in 2005, using a green background. What a pity they didn’t make something similar this year. Finally at 2:10 it the grand total was £57,809,938.

Altogether, I was extremely disappointed with the line-up. Looking back, it’s something of a miracle that I sat through it all. There was nowhere near enough live singing in the studio, and way too much tommyrot. Fun need not be yuck. What they needed was a lot more live singing and more live comedy acts. Songs and stand up comedians could have alternated through the evening. I'd have liked to have seen Jimmy Cricket and Jasper Carrot, for example. Also they could have had a magician.

This is how I'd have liked the evening to have gone:

7:00 - 10:00 pm Family suitable stuff.
Start with the official Comic Relief 2009 single "Just Can't Get Enough" by The Saturdays. Thank God we got that, one wish fulfilled.

After that, an introduction by David and Davina.

Boogie Beebies with Pete Hillier doing a dance appropriate for 6-12 year olds (and have a group of 6-12 year olds on stage dancing with Pete).

Kids’ talent show / singathon

(approx 7:50) Ten minute LIVE regional split, showing live action in your region, e.g.
BBC South region: location Milestones Museum Basingstoke with clips from across the region (Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, IOW, Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester).
BBC South West region: location The Eden Project with clips from across the region (Penzance, Helston, Truro, Newquay, Plymouth, Torquay, Exeter, Barnstaple, Weymouth).
BBC West region: location Explore-At-Bristol, with clips from across the region (Minehead, Taunton, Yeovil, Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare, Wells, Bath, Bristol, Swindon, Gloucester).

8:00 – 8:20 A live song followed by a live stand-up comedian (Jimmy Cricket) doing family friendly material.

8:20 East Enders characters doing a song for RND

8:30 The 2009 UK Eurovision Song "My Time" (Jade)

8:40 John Garland puppeteer.

8:55 Second regional split (five minutes)

9:00 – 9:20 Comic Relief does Strictly Come Dancing (3 celebrity couples).

9:20 Boogie Beebies with Pete Hillier doing a dance appropriate for teenagers (and have a group of teenagers on stage dancing with Pete)

9:35 Celebs racing around the stage bursting balloons.

9:45 Another pop song

9:50 Third regional split (five minutes)

9:55 One more pop song before the news.

10:00 - 10:35 Top of the Pops on BBC Two.

10:35 - 2:10 Back on BBC One. More adult material now.

10:35 A pop song

10:40 BBC Newsreaders doing a song for RND (just like on CIN)

10:50 Group of celebs walking across a lowish tight rope positioned a giant ball pit. Try to cross without falling in the ball pit below (a kind of competition) - this would be a laugh. Right at the end show the celebs in the ball pit.

11:00 – 11:50 Stand-up comic Jasper Carrott (adult humour), magic show with Brian Sefton, all interspersed with pop acts.

11:50 - midnight Final regional split.

Midnight – 2:00
Boogie Beebies with Pete Hillier doing a dance appropriate for adults 18 and over (and have adults of all age groups: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s on stage dancing with Pete).
Hypnotists Phoenix International, live stand-up comedians Carl Schofield and Craig Harper, all interspersed with more pop acts.
Ladies dancing (can-can style), the live stand-up comic Jason Manford (he was excellent) and The Full Monty (all of which were featured during Graham Norton’s slot 1.00 – 2:10)

In the final ten minutes, the official Red Nose Day 2009 single again, with sing-a-long lyrics.

2:10 Grand total.

The end then - weatherview and join BBC News Channel. None of that unnecessary extra tack-on.

Stuff that should have been ditched:
Harry Hill (complete tommyrot)
Victorian Dragon's Den (the toothbrush, flush toilet and TV are things we all now take for granted anyway, not things to feature on Dragon's Den).
The Apprentice (a bit boring)
Smithy Vs. The England Team (about as amusing as watching paint dry).

Dross we've had previous years and thankfully didn't get in 2009:
Dick and Dom - "Bogies" (a game)
Drunken Fame Academy
Celebrity Number Wang (Johnny Ball and Carol Vorderman)

The Red Nose Day 2009 T-shirts were another gripe with me. Two designs were on sale at T.K.Maxx, one featuring The Beatles donning red noses, the other with Morecambe and Wise donning red noses. I gave both a miss as neither design was to my taste. Why couldn’t they have had T-shirts featuring a large Red Nose Day 2009 logo in addition to those two? I just wore the “I Love RND 07” T-shirts I bought in 2007: the white one Friday 13 March, and red one on the Saturday (when watching the post-midnight coverage).

Eurovision Song Contest
The UK took its song selection procedure much more seriously in 2009, with a series of programmes “Eurovision: Your Country Needs You” on BBC One each Saturday in January. They began with six singers. Week by week, one was eliminated until the final on Saturday 31 January: Jade, Mark, The Twins. They each had to sing Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s song “My Time” and the public voted for Jade to sing that song at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.

Since Russia won the 2008 Contest, this year’s Contest was at the Olimpiysky Arena, Moscow, Russia. Once again there were two semi-finals: 12 May and 14 May, plus the grand final on Saturday 16 May. I saw both semi-finals, and just like the last few years, had my surprises and disappointments when the qualifiers were announced. In semi-final 1, I was gutted when Belgium failed to qualify, as it was a lively Elvis Presley style song. Was it too dated for Eurovision? Montenegro and Andorra had songs worthy of being in the final, but failed to qualify. I’d have preferred any of those three in place of Armenia. In the second semi, Ireland’s “Et Cetera” was much better than Dustin the Turkey’s rubbish of last year, and "Shine" was the Netherlands best effort since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, if not a little dated for Eurovision. Ireland and Netherlands deserved the places undeservedly taken by Lithuania and Moldova.

Of course the highlight was the grand final. It began with Dima breaking through some walls, and performing a reprise of his winning song “Believe” from 2008. Some of you TV Forumers may remember I was in the TV Forum Eurovision Song Contest Chatroom that night giving a running commentary. Graham Norton provided the UK commentary for BBC One, as a replacement for Terry Wogan.

First in the line-up was Lithuania with a disappointing ballad “Love” sung by Sasha Son. Definitely one of the duds of the night that shouldn’t have qualified it finished 23rd with 23 points.

The Big Four’s results varied considerably. The UK’s effort paid off, Jade Ewen gave her maximum effort in performing “My Time” with outstanding clarity of voice, accompanied by Andrew Lloyd-Webber himself on the grand piano. This led to the UK’s best result since 2002: 5th place and 173 points. France entered a 1950s style ballad “Et S'il Fallait Le Faire” sung by Patricia Kaas, which finished 8th with 107 points. After their poor results of recent years, did they think going back to the fifties would bring them luck just like their debut win in 1958? Germany’s “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” and Spain’s “La Noche Es Para Mí” were both weak songs to be better valued for their dance routines, and both deservedly got low placings, 20th and 23rd respectively.

Among the other entries, there plenty of ballads. Malena Ernman performed an excellent operatic ballad “La Voix” for Sweden, which surprisingly included French. It deserved much better than 21st place and 33 points. Croatia’s “Lijepa Tena” sung by Igor Cukrov was a beautiful love ballad which deserved better than 18th place and 45 points. Bosnia & Herzegovina’s “Bistra Voda” by Regina was miles better than their lively entry of last year, and deservedly finished 9th with 106 points. Estonia’s Enya style ballad “Rändajad” by Urban Symphony scored a well-earned 6th place and 129 points. Denmark’s more up-beat “Believe Again” sung by Brinck sounded like a Ronan Keating song, not surprising as Ronan co-wrote it. It deserved better than 13th place and 74 points.

There were lively dance entries too. Sakis Rouvas performed “This Is Our Night” for Greece, and finished 7th with 120 points. Azerbaijan’s entry “Always” sung by AySel & Arash was much better than last year, and deservedly finished 3rd with 207 points. Turkey’s “Düm Tek Tek” by Hadise finished 4th place with 177 points. Norway went for a really catchy song, “Fairytale” sung by Alexander Rybak. All four featured lively dance routines, which I enjoyed dancing along to. One could say these were Boogie Beebies Big Videos for adult kids. I can remember Graham Norton’s comment about the Greek entry: “If that wins, there’ll be a keep fit video by Christmas”. Having those among the ballads paced the evening a bit; I think an evening of just ballads would have been a tad flat.

The interval act featured suspended pools of water above the green room, which were gradually lowered. In my opinion that was a better interval act than the one in 2008, but still not a patch on Riverdance in 1994. One thing is certain, the suspended pools of water must have made for a very expensive interval act.

Once again all 42 countries, including non-qualifiers, voted in the final. Most used a 50:50 mix of jury and televoting in an effort to produce a fairer result, but still some block voting occurred. Andorra gave 12 points to Spain. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia gave each other 12 points and Cyprus gave 12 to Greece. Norway, famed for last place (four times with nul points) enjoyed their third win to-date, with runaway success. They broke two records, the highest ever score for a winner: 387 points and largest winning margin to-date. Altogether, three greatly entertaining shows.

Strictly Come Dancing
This year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing began on Friday 18 September. That week was special in that only half the couples danced, each of whom did a ballroom dance Friday 18 September and Latin dance Saturday 19 September. The following week, the remaining couples did a ballroom dance Friday 25 September and Latin dance Saturday 26 September. Saturday 3 October all remaining couples appeared together for the first time, and from that week onwards the show was Saturdays only.

As always people loved voting for the underdogs. Former Coronation Street star Craig Kelly's dream was to perform in the special edition of Strictly Come Dancing at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom on Saturday 7 November (week , as his home town is Blackpool. Weeks 5 to 7 Craig & Flavia were bottom or 2nd bottom on the leader board, but each of the said weeks were saved from the dance-off. In week 7 (Saturday 31 October) the dance-off was Ali & Brian (joint 3rd with 33 judges' votes) v Zoe & James (5th with 32 judges' votes) Right at the end, Bruno was shocked, but decided to save Ali & Brian. Len said the result was ludicrous, and that neither couple should have been in the dance off.

Saturday 7 November Strictly Come Dancing took place at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom. Craig & Flavia finished bottom of the leader board with just 17 points. Alesha said “I can't believe Zoe's gone and I had to endure that. You're not as good as you think you are.” I was so glad to see them in the dance-off against Ricky & Erin; I knew then Craig & Flavia stood no chance. As I guessed the judges saved Ricky & Erin; Craig & Flavia were out.

In the semi-final, there were just three couples left. Ali Bastian & Brian Fortuna were knocked out, which was a pity. They should have been in the final. The final on Saturday 19 December was Ricky & Natalie v Chris & Ola. Chris & Ola won.

In the Christmas Special on Christmas Day, Ali & Brian were back, and they won. So although they missed out on the final of the main series, at least they won the Christmas special.

Children In Need
The BBC’s annual fundraising extravaganza took place on Friday 20 November. The fun began Friday evening at 7pm on BBC1 with Alesha Dixon performing "The Boy Does Nothing", an excellent start. The 2009 Children In Need single, "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley", was a medley of hits of yesteryear. This was accompanied by a cartoon video featuring characters from children’s programmes from Paddington Bear and The Wombles of years ago through to present day CBeebies favourites such as Teletubbies and Flowertots. Well done Peter Kay for this masterpiece. There were plenty more pop performances in the remaining time up to 10pm, including "Everybody in Love" from JLS, a cover of "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" from John Barrowman, "Love Story" performed by Taylor Swift and a cover of "What About Now" from Westlife. Also during the first three hours was a Queen tribute from the cast of Hollyoaks, and a Motown medley from the cast of EastEnders. It wasn’t all music though. In a Dragons’ Den special, a community centre was given a makeover in 72 hours. Very reminiscent of Challenge Anneka from twenty years ago. If they had to have Dragons’ Den on the night of Red Nose Day, why couldn’t it have been something like this? The BBC Newsreaders got involved, appropriately just before the BBC News at Ten.

When BBC1 broke for the news at 10pm, BBC2 had a special edition of Celebrity Mastermind. Lucy Porter won with a score of 35 points, much better than the Mastermind special the night of Red Nose Day. Back on BBC 1, Pixie Lott kicked off the second half with her song "Boys and Girls". The cast of Legally Blonde performed a selection of songs from the musical, and Justin Lee Collins sang a cover of "Delilah". After that the schedule included "To Love Again" from Alesha Dixon, "Just The Way You Are" from Harry Connick Jr, "Full Steam" from David Gray and Annie Lennox, "True" from Spandau Ballet, "It Must Be Love" by Madness and Peter André singing "Unconditional". A few acts from earlier in the evening were repeated, including the EastEnders Motown medley. The final act was "The Money Song" from the cast of Avenue Q. The grand total was £20,309,747, which was slightly down on 2008. Altogether an evening of first class entertainment, several orders of magnitude better than the night of Red Nose Day 2009.

Christmas TV Presentation
Well in this era of reduce, reuse, recycle, and a multi-cultural UK (including Islam and Moslem citizens among a Christian society), it seems the TV broadcasters were obsessed with re-using Christmas idents from past years, or not even bothering with Christmas presentation at all.

BBC1 brought out something new for Christmas 2009: the Doctor Who idents, of which there were two versions. Five brought out new Christmas idents for 2009: the cartoon style robin, of which there were at least two variations. Virgin 1 had Christmas idents for 2009.

On the other hand, BBC2 re-used their pop-up fairy / deer scenes from 2007/2008, and BBC4 re-used the 4-frame snow scene from the previous three or four years. ITV1 re-used its Christmas tree from 2008. Sky 1, 2 and 3 respectively re-used their blue, green and pink Christmas trees from 2008. Five USA re-used their skyscraper Christmas ident from 2008, the only subtle change being the Five US logo having been replaced with Five USA.

BBC3 didn’t bother with Christmas idents at all. Why not? Surely they could have made a Christmas ident that would fit in their current ident package (the pink three style). ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 stuck to their usual presentation. Channel 4 Television didn’t bother with any Christmas idents across its channels (Channel 4, More 4, E4, Film4); they couldn’t even bother re-using the E4 carol band idents from two or three years ago let alone make new E4 Christmas idents.

Looking Ahead
Well what an eventful year 2009 was with regards to British television. Who knows what’s in store for 2010? Well the rest of Wales, the West and STV North switch to digital in 2010. The Krypton Factor 2010 and Dancing on Ice 2010 are currently underway. The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 will be in Norway in May. There’ll be the Winter Olympics from the 12 to 28 February, and the FIFA World Cup later in the year (I guess early summer, like it usually tends to be).

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Television
Sh*te

There's something I forgot in my long review: Britain's Got Talent 2009.

Last year's series ran from 11 April to 30 May 2009. I saw the first audition show of last year's series on 11 April and was shouting boo and off at the acts I disliked. When I saw Susan Boyle, she didn't look hopeful at first sight, but when she started singing "I Dream A Dream" her voice was outstanding. Just goes to show, you should never judge a person by appearances. I cheered as she made it to the end of her act which I liked very much.

Susan made it to the final on 30 May 2009, and was the runner-up. The dance troupe Diversity won. I'd much rather Susan Boyle had won.

Oh, goodness me! Do you want to write for my blog Tumble?

Better never than late.

*snip rambling monologue. To misquote Margaret Mountford, Never before have so many words been used by one individual to say absolutely nothing of any great interest whatsoever*

Boogie Beebies @ 9.20pm is never going to happen and I seriously hope we never see Tumble Dryer in a senior TV position.

Isn't that what we all did at the time?

Honestly 2009 is soooooo last year!

I meant a one-off edition of Boogie Beebies at 9:20pm for Red Nose Day 2009 (the line-up I would have preferred) with Pete Hillier doing a dance appropriate for teenagers . Got that? Teenagers. And as for the other special edition after midnight, Pete doing a dance for ADULTS 18 and over.


Well the purpose of this thread is to look back at last year, and talk about programmes from last year, and technical matters, e.g. digital switchover. Perhaps you live in one of the areas which switched last year. If so, how did you get on retuning your equipment?