The first recording today starts with the end of The Likeaballs.
There’s a trail for Extreme Animals.
Then, a new episode of Totally Doctor Who. There’s some dancing girls, and Barney is wearing the little angel wings (and a Yoda T-Shirt – interesting choice).
Miranda Raison is in the studio.
Kirsten is in New York, visiting the Empire State Building. I wonder if this was at the same time that Helen Raynor visited in Confidential, to save money on the crew.
Talking of Helen Raynor, she’s in the Blue Box Cafe to talk about the episode.
Team Totally sees the two teams having to devise movements for the pig men, guided by choreographer Ailsa Berk.
Who Goes There is another easy one to guess – although younger viewers might be misled by the pig men in the most recent episode.
There’s a rather strange feature where Helen Raynor and two of the audience improvise a bit of a story with some random props. Helen starts by saying Martha sits on a sofa that then eats her and turns her into an egg. Then young Jeffrey says “Well, Martha’s gonna go over to the toilet, into the toilet, flush the chain and she’s now scrambled egg.” How do you “Yes and?” that? He just wanted to use the toilet prop no matter whether it was appropriate.
Helen draws a clue for the next episode.
Media Centre Description: Barney Harwood and Kirsten O’Brien look at everything Doctor Who with exclusive behind-the-scenes clips, and the next instalment of exclusive Doctor Who animation, The Infinite Quest. There are chats with Miranda Raison, who plays dancing girl Tallulah, and writer Helen Raynor, whilst Team Totally take on a choreography challenge.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Friday 27th April 2007 15:58
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Friday 27th April 2007 16:00
There’s a trail for The Underdog Show.
And for CBBC Saturday Mornings.
Then the recording stops after a few minutes of Extreme Animals.
The next recording is a repeat showing of Totally Doctor Who. It starts with a trail for CBBC Saturdays. Then an edition of Newsround featuring whether young people should be able to drink alcohol at home, and Stephen Hawking in zero gravity.
There’s also a trail for Shaun the Sheep.
Then Totally Doctor Who. Once again, the Media Centre is showing metadata from series one, despite getting it right two hours earlier.
Media Centre Description: Barney Harwood and Liz Barker present a show celebrating the latest adventures of the last living Time Lord, aimed at children. Actor Noel Clarke reveals more set gossip, there’s a ghost hunt in a haunted Doctor Who location and a chance to get airborne with some Kung Fu monks.
Recorded from CBBC Channel on Friday 27th April 2007 17:58
BBC Genome: CBBC Channel Friday 27th April 2007 18:00 (Hey look! This CBBC Genome page looks like it’s working. I think we may be past the missing data sections.)
After this there’s trails for BBC Saturday Morning, and Extreme Animals. Then the recording stops after the start of Stupid.
The next recording is another episode of Derren Brown: Trick or Treat. His subject this week is Anne, a 75 year old lady. And it’s at this point that I’m really hoping she doesn’t pick Trick. (Regular readers will know that I suspect that the choice is a force by Derren, so really I hope they’ve decided to give her a treat.) She’s on a bus laden with hidden cameras, which stops, the lights go out and all the passengers leave.
At least, when Derren appears from the top deck, she recognises him, and relaxes a bit. I’m immediately invested in Anne, and will be very angry if anything bad happens to her.
However, she does (genuinely) choose Treat, so I’m relieved. Or maybe they let her choose Treat. I’m sure Derren and the team wouldn’t want to dump poor Anne in the middle of Marrakesh looking confused.
Another segment has Derren pretending to be a waxwork. I do love his introductions. “So despite my winning three Olivier Awards and four BAFTAs, Madame Tussauds still refuse to do one of me, as if they couldn’t melt down Alan Titchmarsh and add a goatee.” There’s a recording of his voice telling people to imagine they were stuck in place, and sure enough, people couldn’t move.
Anne’s treat is that Derren is teaching her to play Poker, so she can compete in a big competition. He “teaches her” his methods of spotting when people are bluffing, and guessing which cards people have. I suspect a lot of this is just misdirection, but at least it’s misdirected into something fun.
George, her husband, is skeptical. “They must recognise her straight away, that she can’t play, surely.”
In Las Vegas, Derren manages to convince a woman in a nightclub that Yellow is Red, and Red is Black, so she’s very confused when he asks her to show him her car, which is red, and she can’t understand who’s painted it black. Again, my hypnosis denial gets in the way of really enjoying these tricks, but this one was amusing, at least.
Anne’s poker game is great. She defeats all but one of the professionals, and only loses the last hand thanks to an unlucky dealer’s hand. But coming second means she did win some prize money, and it’s impressive for someone who never played poker before this week. I love her so much.
The show is available on Channel 4. Click below to watch it.
Media Centre Description: Psychological illusionist Derren Brown involves members of the public and celebrity guests in a fiendish version of the Halloween game. Derren teaches a pensioner how to play poker professionally, becomes a living waxwork in Madame Tussauds and visits a Las Vegas nightclub where he makes a woman temporarily colour-blind.
Recorded from Channel 4 on Friday 27th April 2007 22:00
The next recording starts with the end of Peep Show so spoilers for me.
Then, there’s an episode of Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights. I don’t know why, but I’ve not watched much of Phoenix Nights. Maybe it’s a Peter Kay thing.
This episode sees a the club looking forward to a sellout performance from a psychic, although they’re having trouble with the marketing.
The local fire safety officer, Peter Lard, gives a lecture on fire safety (including a dramatic reading of a terrible tragedy involving fire, which turns out to be the lyrics of “Disco Inferno”). He’s played by Peter Kay, so we get an obligatory split-screen scene. Much fun is had from his recent court case where we was accused of having sex with a dog (although he was acquitted).
He does a surprise inspection of the Phoenix Club, and shuts it down for fire safety violations. But one of the club regulars tells Potter that only a week or so ago, she saw Lard in the back seat of a car with steamed up windows, with a dog. So Potter calls him back, and shows him a picture he’s had photoshopped. “300 of them dumped in the right places, you know what people will say. ‘There’s no smoke without fire.'”
But the Psychic whose show was sold out turns out to be pretty bad, and ends up getting punched by an audience member.
However, the funniest thing about this episode is the disclaimer at the end. I would love to learn the true story behind this.
Media Centre Description: Sitcom set in a northern social club. Will fire safety officer Keith Lard succeed in closing the Phoenix Club? Or will Brian manage to keep it open for the sell-out performance of psychic Clinton Baptiste?
Recorded from Channel 4 on Friday 27th April 2007 23:03
Finally today, two episodes of Star Trek which I have looked at before on the blog.
The first recording starts with the end of some Snooker.
There’s a trail for Maxwell. and a trail for the final episode of Superstorm.
Then we have Star Trek – The Gamesters of Triskelion.
Media Centre Description: A transporter beam is intercepted and Kirk, Uhura and Chekov find themselves on Triskelion, where the games are anything but fun. The Captain is less than enthralled by the life of a slave, and plays a dangerous game in order to discover the brains behind Triskelion’s operation.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 28th April 2007 02:23
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 28th April 2007 02:25
After this, there’s another trail for Superstorm and an advert for TV Licensing.
Then the next episode of Star Trek starts.
The last recording starts as the previous episode is finishing.
It’s Star Trek – A Piece of the Action. A great fun episode.
Media Centre Description: The Chicago mob-world of the 1920s is alive and kicking on the strange planet Iotia, which has adopted the era as its model. On a planet where the streets are mean and the racketeering rife, Kirk and the crew have a tough cleaning-up job to do, and it looks like they could soon be making their excuses down the barrel of a gun.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 28th April 2007 03:13
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 28th April 2007 03:15
After this there’s a trail for Any Dream Will Do. And the dramatic trail for EastEnders.
Then the recording stops after a few minutes of Malcolm in the Middle.
Here’s the two sets of ad breaks, from Derren Brown
And from Phoenix Nights.
Adverts:
- National Lottery
- Next in cinemas
- trail: Transmission with T-Mobile
- Playstation 3
- British Gas
- Mars Planets
- McDonalds
- Homebase
- The Breed in cinemas
- O2
- Guinness
- trail: Phone Booth
- trail: The F Word
- Ryvita
- Coffee-Mate Latte Creations
- Gillette 3X
- Army
- Specsavers
- Uncle Ben’s
- Nokia N95
- Volvic
- Snickers – Mr T
- 28 Weeks Later in cinemas
- MFI
- trail: Cutting Edge: Blind Young Things
- trail: Derren Brown: Trick or Treat/Peepshow
- Kit Kat – Colin Montgomerie
- Guinness
- F&F at Tesco
- Gillette Fusion
- Army
- Red Bull
- Mark Ronson Version
- Nokia N95
- BMI
- Ask.com
- trail: Transmission with T-Mobile
- Nike Plus
- Carling C2
- National Lottery
- The Times
- The Big Yellow Self Storage Company
- Snickers – Mr T
- Direct Line
- White Noise: The Light on DVD
- trail: Phone Booth
- trail: Derren Brown: Trick or Treat/Peepshow
- British Gas
- Sainsbury’s
- Ginster’s
- Aero
- BT Broadband – Kris Marshall
- Frosties
- Red Bull
- Nokia N95
- trail T4 On The Beach
VHiStory 