Television Review Of The Year 2005

Well every News channel is doing one, so I feel it appropriate that we have a small Review of the TV we've seen in 2005, in terms of Presentaion and anything else I can think of from the top of my head.

We've seen the drastic relaunch of presentation on Channel 4 (though it launched at the end of 2004, it was more for 2005 really), we saw ITV celebrating it's birthday in true style with many programmes and Birthday themed idents, which ran for the best part of a month. We've seen the competition on Digital get more fierce, with Freeview becoming even more popular, with new channels to the spectrum such as More4, E4, Men & Motors, ITV4, Sky Three.

But this year has also said goodbye to two Television greats such as Ronnie Barker and Richard Whiteley, in terms of Broadcasting it has said goodbye to the ITV News Channel, a victim of Freeview's success.

This year also saw the successful return of Doctor Who, though it's not my cup of Tea, it's return has proved popular, we also saw the Battle of Saturday Night TV again with X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, but with success come flops such as He's Having a Baby and Celebrity Wrestling. ITV started to put new talent into Daytime with ITV Day, with it's biggest success being The Paul O'Grady Show, albeit at the expense of Richard & Judy, plus we also welcomed back Noel Edmonds onto TV with Deal Or No Deal. It also proved (unfortunately) that Reality TV isn't dead, with the return of Big Brother, I'm A Celebrity and (the poor) Celebrity Love Island. There was also Live 8, again not my thing, but it was popular, and important enough for BBC1 to move the Wimbledon Women's Final to BBC2.

Channel Five now became fully owned by one company and is coming to end of it's first year of it's News being provided by Sky News rather than ITN, we saw the new ITV set's being rolled out across the Plc Regions, with only Central South left to go, with ITV News finally being generic. Sky News also got a drastic relaunch from a New, State of the Art HQ, and an all new line-up to go with it.

For me the TV Highlights of 2005 have to be ITV 50, it was a good Nostalga fest looking at how good at ITV used to be, also thanks to The Story of ITV, which gave a pretty balanced view of the channel and a rather detailed history aswell. Other highlights have to be Little Britain, Dead Men Weds (ITV1, January), Sugar Rush (C4, Summer) and there are probably loads more programmes I've watched throughout the year.

Feel free to add what you think is the Best of 2005 and to add anything else I've bound to have missed out, whether it be Regional or National.

the low point of the year for me was when maxine mawhinney was scheduled in the radio times to do the 10 oclock news, only to be cast aside like a pair of soiled pants. it was a cruel trick, many of us have waited long and hard for the day when maxine would migrate to the limelight of bbc ones flagship bulletin.

then of course another immense blow came when the itn news channel closed. isha sesay, joyce ohajah, susan bookbinder and of course owen thomas were like family to many forumers. no longer can i hold on to the dream that maybe - one day - pat murphy stark will return with her infomercial - or will i get to see the man with the eyebrows in the writers bureau advert again - or will i ever see sharon grey again

and then of course over the past year we lost katherine, i like to imagine that one day, the people at her new place of posting will tire of the aspergers/look north/weather/formula 1 chat - and she will find it in her heart to return to her true home.

I think what has been the most saddest highlight this year is the death of Richard Whiteley back in May. Such a sudden and tragic time of the TV year. Carol Vorderman fighting back tears in a tribute programme and the lights going down on the Countdown set really got me emotional. Its nice to see that Des Lynam has taken over the show but of course - its not the same.

The death of Ronnie Barker was also a sad time but his comedy lives on.

On a lighter note, its good to see Noel Edmonds back on TV with Deal or No Deal. This show has been performing very well in the ratings and I'm sure it will become much more popular next year.

The soaps have been doing well. Emmerdale and Corrie have been brilliant this year. Of course the death of Seth in Emmerdale was for me very poignant and the scriptwriters carried the story very well. Zoe Tate leaving the village and blowing up Home Farm as she left was superb. In Corrie I have enjoyed most of all the Battersbys, Charlie bullying Shelly (although it went on for too long), and many more comedy elements it continues to produce - although a bit OTT this year. EastEnders has had its ups and downs (i.e. the trip to France) but hopefully will improve and get back on track next year.

Richard Whiteley died on the 26th of June. Not the best of birthdays for me...

I don't think 2005 is going to be remembered much as a classic year for television - though it will probably be known as the year of the comeback - Doctor Who, Chris Evans, Noel Edmonds are the three that spring to mind.

The soaps haven't pulled out the big guns this year and on the whole have just plodded through the year. EE hasn't improved at all and it's "blip" is getting on for three years - and talking of comebacks, that's all the show is surviving on at the moment. Corrie has been constantly good, but it's not been an outstanding year for it, and likewise for Emmerdale - good, but not great. Hollyoaks has picked up towards the end of the year, but overall it's the imported Home and Away which has been consistantly a good watch throughout the year.

Presentation wise it's been quite a quiet year. C4 rebranded last New Year's Eve, a rebrand which is still working well. The only other major change is ITV Day - which have nice enough idents but nothing to get excited about.

As for other programming - well, IMO Big Brother once again showed the rip-off reality shows how it is done - but apart from that my viewing has been more limited than usual this year. Shameless is brilliant as always, and the only things I've really watched on the BBC (outside sport) is Casanova (twice) and Rome - which after a shaky start is picking up.

I was quite surprised by how good Desperate Housewives was - and disapointed at the patchy quality of Lost, which goes from outstanding to little more than average.

ITV is still producing some good drama premieres - but far too many are detective dramas or psycho lover stories. ITV now need to be turning more of these one-off dramas into long running series to stop relying on the soaps and shows like I'm a Celebrity.

Digital wise - well C4 have done the most this year. Great that E4 came to Freeview, and the launch of More4 was far more welcome than Sky Three and ITV4 - and though More4's schedule repeats it's "events" far too quickly, I think of all the digital stations it has the best Christmas line-up with second airing of quality dramas and documentaries - rather than cheap fillers.

Disapointing that the ITV News Channel has gone - I know I'm already missing it. And the worst thing about 2005 - the boom in Quiz channels!

Nice to see excerpts of the Whiteley Memorial service and some funnies this afternoon on Channel 4

At the end of the day I think this has been a sad and depressing year - not just on TV. We've had many popular people die, natural disasters and the London Bombings.

Roll on 2006.

The Two Ronnies Sketchbook and Doctor Who and QI


F**k all elese on really worth watching

Lost, Doctor Who and the Titanic show on itv last night top class

I've missed Harry Hill's TV Burp this year . I just hope he returns next year.

Saturday 21st January, 5.30pm, ITV1.

Highlights... Spending 5 months away from British television in Spain. It made me appreciate and realise that we have good TV production all year round.

Lowlights... Family Affairs ending. It finally got really good and then got the snip. Ah well.