TV

Five comedy shows worth watching on TV

1: Outnumbered This superb celebration of parental incompetence continues with mum (Claire Skinner) finding an inappropriate image on the family computer and launching an investigation to discover the dodgy downloader’s identity. BBC1, Thu 15 Apr…

The verdict on Matt Smith as the new Doctor Who

Channel Hopper

He might have a name that suggests boy band membership and a tweed/bow-tie look that screamed late 70s geography teacher, but judging by the wave of acclaim which has greeted his Timelord debut, Matt Smith could have gotten away with being clad in a…

True Stories Starsuckers an example of celebrity-obsessed culture eating itself

Channel Hopper

An entertainment magazine discussing a TV programme analysing the corrosive nature of our celebrity world might be a shocking example of culture eating itself, but True Stories: Starsuckers (More4, Tue 6 Apr, 10pm) is deserving of our attention. Sure…

Wallace and Gromit Present: A World of Cracking Ideas

Oscar-winning characters Wallace and Gromit take centre stage at this Aardman Animations exhibition, as visitors get the chance to tour around Wallace and Gromit’s 62 West Wallaby Street home, as well as looking at, and interacting with, their most…

Channel Hopper: Jack's Back..

There have been many moments to unintentionally chuckle at during the previous seven series of 24 (Sky One, Sun, 9pm): Jim from Neighbours conducting a political coup to claim the US presidency; Kim Bauer being kidnapped every second episode (was I…

Twin Peaks complete series released on DVD - Mark Frost interview - complete transcript

To mark release of the Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold DVD Box Set, Murray Robertson interviews the seminal TV series’ co-creator and producer Mark Frost. This is the complete unedited transcript of the interview.

Twin Peaks boxset released on DVD - Mark Frost interview

Almost twenty years to the day since Twin Peaks first aired, the long-awaited conclusion to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal series is finally released on DVD. Series co-creator and executive producer Frost tells Murray Robertson what took so…

Channel Hopper: The Gemma Factor

Ten years ago, something like The Gemma Factor (BBC3, Tue 9 Mar, 10.30pm) would never have been made. Quite probably in five years’ time, all programmes will be a little like this. Gemma Collinge (toothy newcomer Anna Gilthorpe) is obsessed with fame.

Channel Hopper

A tough, highly trained US operative is chained to a wall soon to be tortured by a nasty European. Even when his captor brings out the jump leads, you just know he won’t talk. No, it’s not the 348th day of 24 but Archer (Fiver, Thu 25 Feb, 10.30pm), an…

Limmy and Rab, welcomed onto TV

Are we actually in the midst of a halcyon period for Scottish telly comedy? Or is it easy to get carried away when, to use the vernacular of their main figureheads, two current shows aren’t actually pish. Ringing in the new is Limmy’s Show (BBC2, Mon…

Show me the funny - Limmy interview

Limmy’s problem is that he just thinks too much. ‘I was walking through the Botanic Gardens and starting to just enjoy walking about, doing nothing. I’m not thinking about the past or holding any grudges or thinking should I have done that differently…

Tracy Beaker Returns

Anyone who tunes in to CBBC from time to time might not know it, but it’s five years since the last new episode of the show featuring the abandoned and shouty Tracy Beaker. But that constant loop of archive 20-minute snapshots of life within the…

Comedy On TV - Reunions, Oration and Urinations

While Larry David may be genuine in his belief that reunion shows are lame, he knows how to spin the best out of a flimsy idea. Getting the key cast of Seinfeld back together for the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (More4, Thu 3 Dec, 10.40pm…

The New Reality Of 3D TV

Television just got that little bit more invasive

In the face of falling box office receipts 3D has been a godsend to the film studios. It seems any movie screened in 3D has both a longer shelf-life at the cinema and a better chance of making its money back at the multiplex. It’s still a novelty that…

How It Works: 3D TV

The technology behind bringing the screen to life

Early 3D cinema (and DVDs, books and posters) worked by using glasses with different coloured lenses, usually red and green or red and blue. The system blocks out the opposing colour in the image your mind perceives, giving a simple, if multicoloured…

Fergus Craig Still Watches Neighbours

How soap can save your soul

‘When it’s good, it’s alright, but when it’s bad it’s better,’ is the mantra all hardened Neighbours fans agree upon. Fergus Craig is one of the few to have remained loyal, following the hugely popular Aussie soap’s shift to Five and the endearing…

Sighthill - The Estate

A new Channel 4 series of short films seeks to dispel the myths surrounding one of Glasgow’s most notorious housing estates. Kirstin Innes meets the director.

Sighthill - The Estate: episode guide

Sifiso Forced to leave Zimbabwe because she opposed Robert Mugabe, Sifiso has been living in Sighthill for four years, watching her children grow up with broad Glasgow accents, and worrying about their sense of identity. Episode 1: My Home. Airs Mon…

T in the Park: Info

Amy Taylor provides you with all manner of sensible information to take the hassle out of the weekend

True Blood

The TV schedules have succumbed to a plague of bloodsucking parasites ever since Buffy staked her first vampire. But have vamps lost their bite? True Blood puts the allegorical power back into the fangs of the undead, and triumphs over the genre’s other…

Five Comedy Things to Watch on TV

The Inbetweeners Series two gets into its stride as Will’s birthday looms. He’s planning a suitably grown-up dinner with a few close friends, and, naturellement, any girls they can persuade to come. E4, Thu 16 Apr, 10pm. Reno 911! More spoof…

Doctor Who - Space Oddity

In four years time Doctor Who will be 50 years old, but still it remains one of the most popular and imagination-grabbing shows on television. While the best of British actors and television writers are lining up to work on it, the series’ first…

Doctor Who - The making of a time lord

TIMELINE Nov 1963 Doctor Who is devised as an educational science fiction show to appeal to viewers of all ages and is given an evening time slot. The screening of the first episode is overshadowed by a power cut in parts of the country and the…

TV - Remote Control: Christmas TV

Christmas is a time when TV goes mad for the long-awaited comeback. Alongside Rab C, Vic ‘n’ Bob and Stanley Baxter in making a welcome return is Alan Davies’ duffle-coated sleuth with Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (BBC1, Thu 1 Jan, 9pm ●●●●). And…

TV: Rab C Nesbit: Christmas Special

BBC2, Tue 23 Dec, 9pm With his dishevelled demeanour and manky string vest, Rab C Nesbitt may look exactly the same as he did when we last eyeballed him staggering from our screens in the summer of 1999, but the wise old nutter fae Govan is a…