BBC: Rik Mayall, star of The Young Ones, dies aged 56 I’m quite upset by this news. As a teenager, I grew up with – and adored – the shows he was in… The Young Ones of course, but I went hunting for those that people may have since forgotten (or never seen, because they ... [More]
I’m a physical wreck this weekend, from head to foot. Some new shoes are fine for me, but the ones I wore on Thursday resulted in three blisters: one on each heel, and another on one of my toes. I’m sure the shoes will settle down after a couple of wears, but in the mean ... [More]
During my time involved with the PTUA, there’s been a policy to not comment on issues outside Victoria, for three main reasons: It’s a Victorian organisation. There are local groups covering other parts of Australia. You make media comment on stuff outside your knowledge at your peril. It takes away effort from activism for and ... [More]
This Friday 7th February is Melbourne’s re-tune day for digital television. This is when the frequencies of some channels change, so they can make more efficient use of the spectrum. If you don’t re-tune your digital TV devices, you may find some channels don’t work after this. Hopefully most people will figure out how to ... [More]
Analogue TV has been shut off in most parts of Australia in the last few months. Sydney was yesterday morning, and one enterprising bloke managed to record the last moments of all five stations. Have a watch, it’s great. Note Channel 7 (top right) which actually marked it by playing an old animation. The others ... [More]
Well, here we are. Some more thoughts on the Doctor Who anniversary… Warning — below are spoilers for those who have not seen the special episode yet November 23rd Anniversary day finally arrived. The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special episode “Day Of The Doctor” aired in the UK at 7:50pm GMT Saturday night which is ... [More]
This tram is bigger on the inside: The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is fast approaching, and fans are getting into a fervour. Normally it’s only sports fans who wake up early to watch live TV. Sci-fi fans? Not so much. All that will change next Sunday morning, when the special anniversary episode Day Of ... [More]
Half the gunzels in Melbourne are chattering about this: through the wonders of green screen and stock footage, the most recent episode of How I Met Your Mother (which aired last weekend in the USA, and on Thursday night in Australia) featured a Melbourne Comeng suburban train in Connex colours. Update Tuesday 2/10/2013 7:30am — ... [More]
Despite how it may look, I am not the next Doctor Who. We went along to the Astor Theatre on Saturday to watch the two 60’s Dalek movies — back from that curious time in British TV and film when they often seemed to remake television shows as big screen movies — in this case ... [More]
Those who have been paying attention might have noticed that the episode synopses for Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (seen for instance in the Electronic Programme Guide on most TVs) have been getting weirder and weirder. Courtesy of the ABC TV web site, here’s a summary of them this year so far (including the next ... [More]
20 odd years ago, when I was into music videos (and television in general), I used to regularly record (yes, on VHS) a few hours of Rage on a Friday and/or Saturday night, and watch it the next day. I’d categorise each song as a 1, 2 or 3. 1s I would copy onto another ... [More]
A little while ago I bought myself the Collected Shaun Micallef — a box set of numerous shows of his, including The Micallef P(r)ogram(me). The kids and I have been watching our way through it. I remembered that I had gone to a recording of the show, but had no idea which episode it was. ... [More]