Pop Buzz UK

Regular readers of Pop Buzz UK will be well aware of my hatred for Jeremy Kyle, his show on ITV, his guests, his smarmy attitude, and everything else which comes wrapped up with the cult of Kyle.

In the past I have laughed at Kyle as Jon Culshaw has done a brilliantly accurate yet scathing impression of him on Dead Ringers, and then gone to town on the hypocritical piece of work as his ex-wife sold her story, and called him a lying, gambling addict.

And now the news is even better, as The Jeremy Kyle Show has been named the worst programme the daytime television schedule has to offer… yes, it’s even worse than Loose Women!

And this isn’t just the worst programme on TV currently, oh no, even though that would be humiliation enough for the irritating cheeseball, it’s been named as the worst EVER.

(more…)

Who would have thunk it? The Queen, yes that dear old 80 year old woman who somehow manages to get her face on our stamps, is a closet gamer, and enjoys a bit of Wii every now and again.

According to reports this week, she became fascinated with the Nintendo Wii console after seeing her grandson William playing with the one he received from on-off girlfriend Kate Middleton for Christmas. So she did what any self respecting grandmother and pensioner would do, and had a go.

The game in question was Wii Sports, and she was said to specifically enjoy the ten pin bowling mini game.

According to Blorge, a royal insider told tabloid news reporters that:

“When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in. His only difficulty now is prising it away from the Queen’s clutches. She showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict.�

I just can’t see this happening so it’s either made up entirely or an invention by Nintendo to keep their console in the news.

(more…)

Tonight should have seen the launch of the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother, but due to the race rows which blighted last year, that has now been replaced by Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.

The new format launches tonight at 9pm on E4, and features 12 housemates between the ages of 18 and 21.

The celebrity part comes from various celebrity guests who will play the part of Big Brother, and going on the most recent reports, also play an active role in the show itself.

I previewed the show in full a few weeks ago, but since then some new details have been revealed, and some definite changes have been made to the original format.

First of all we have the 12 housemates, all young, all gifted, and all chosen to argue and fight in the same way as every normal Big Brother housemate is.

We have seven boys, and five girls, which includes circus performers, a boxer, a beauty queen, an entrepreneur, a racing driver and a politician.

Some of the celebrities have also been revealed, with the show kicking off under the guidance of Little Britain star Matt Lucas. Others to be given a role include art critic Brian Sewell and comedians Jimmy Carr and Joan Rivers.

(more…)

As soon as the seventh and supposedly final Harry Potter book ‘The Deathly Hallows‘ was released, fans and book lovers alike started speculating about the possibility of an eighth book securing a release one day.

That possibility came a step nearer this week as Harry Potter author JK Rowling admitted that she had considered it, and certainly wouldn’t rule it out.

Talking to Time magazine, the author admitted there had been times when she’d thought about penning another installment in the long running, and hugely successful franchise, which is estimated to have earned her a billion dollar fortune.

“There have been times since finishing, weak moments, when I’ve said: ‘Yeah, all right’ to the eighth novel.”

“If, and it’s a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the (wizarding) world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I’ve already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let’s give it 10 years.”

At the time of the release, I said on Pop Buzz UK that there would be no reason not to carry on the series, using the same world which we now all know and love, but focussing on another character, or even set of characters than Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione.

(more…)

All of us loyal Dr Who fans only have a few days left before we can watch the Christmas special, starring Australian pop tartlet Kylie Minogue as the Doctor’s assistant.

Titled Voyage of the Damned, it follows the Doctor trying to persuade passengers on a ship of his magical powers, and in the process saving them from a meteorite storm.

Nice story, original, fun, and it should be exciting to watch. But wait, what is that there on the horizon? It’s some religious zealots who assume once again have taken to assuming everything is about them.

Unbelievable as it may seem, some Christian groups have criticised the programme’s makers for allegedly insinuating that the Doctor is the second messiah. Oh dear God, how the hell did they come to that conclusion.

It’s true that there have been some threads of storyline, and dialogue which have hinted at the fact that the Doctor may be more than just a mere mortal, but that’s because he’s a timelord, not a human. No-one has ever said that the Doctor is the reincarnation of Jesus!

(more…)

Amy Winehouse may be about to be made a suspect in the trial fixing plot which her husband Blake Fielder-Civil already finds himself in jail for. If this is the case, and she gets found guilty in a future trial, she could end up facing life in prison.

Fielder-Civil was arrested back in November for the alleged plot to pervert the course of justice. Along with another man, he is accused of trying to persuade a man he allegedly beat up, from giving evidence at the trial.

The police case revolves around a sum of £200,000, which was allegedly offered to the victim for him to withdraw his complaint, and fly out of the country instead.

It’s that large sum of money which is where Winehouse herself becomes involved. The police seized mobile phone records, bank details and computer software when they raided the couple’s house in Camden, London, and this is thought to contain evidence that Winehouse was involved in the plot.

Although it was thought that Winehouse was just being regarded as a witness, the News Of The World claims that her status could change to suspect this week.

(more…)

I’ve been following The X-Factor all series, right from the early auditions where we get to see the morons who think they can sing, but can’t even hit a note, get the chance to humiliate themselves on national television. Tonight was finally final time, and we were down to just three acts: Leon Jackson, Rhydian Roberts, and Same Difference.

They all performed three times, singing their favourite songs from the whole series, and they all gave good accounts of themselves, with hardly a bum note audible during the whole 2 hour show.

Rhydian had been the favourite, with the judges, fans, and even the bookies, since the live shows started and his exhibitionist style shone through, and raised him over the rest of the pack. But tonight just wasn’t his night and he lost out to Leon Jackson.

First out were Same Difference, which was the right result, because as good as they are, their fan base must have an average age of about 10, and have a limited musical knowledge which begins and ends with the hits from High School Musical.

So it came down to a straight (although I have my doubts about Rhydian) fight between Danni Minogue’s two acts. I’ve actually been a bit scathing of Dannii in the past, and even though her acts ended up finishing 1st and 2nd, I stand by my thoughts that she is an untalented lump of lard who lives in her sister’s shadow.

(more…)

You’ll have probably heard by now that there is no Celebrity Big Brother this year, mainly down to the racism that occurred during last year’s show, when Shilpa Shetty became the subject of abuse from Jade Goody and her cohorts.

But fret not, because ready to take its place is a new spin off called Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.

The show will begin at 8pm on January 3rd 2008, being simulcast on both E4 and Channel 4. The live launch show will be 90 minutes long, and hosted by Dermot O’Leary, in his last Big Brother assignment.

So how does it differ from the normal Big Brother? Well, as the name implies, instead of having the anonymous Big Brother producers as the voices of Big Brother, that role will be taken by various celebrities, who will basically run the house in turn for a certain amount of time.

Unlike normal, they won’t be just a presence there to help the house mates, instead being able to set random tasks, set their own rules, and punish the contestants they choose to.

As for the house mates themselves, unlike the usual summer Big Brother, we won’t have a random mixture of ages, and people thrown together to cause arguments.

Instead Channel 4 have hand picked a group of 18-21 year olds, all of whom have a special skill, or talent, which puts them head and shoulders above the rest of the population (and on a different evolutionary level than your average Big Brother contestant!)

(more…)

Philip Pullman is the best selling author of His Dark Materials, the trilogy of which The Golden Compass is the first book.

That has obviously been turned in to a big budget movie, which opened in the last week over in America, as well as the UK.

Newsround, a British children’s television news programme spoke to him about it, and during the interview he revealed his love for the new version of Doctor Who, the main writer Russell T. Davies, and David Tennant.

Even more interestingly, he expressed an interest in maybe writing an episode of the cult show for the BBC:

“[Penning a story for the show] sounds like enormous fun.”

“Since Russell T. Davies came back and started having a hand in it, [it] has been wonderful. I’ve really enjoyed it. David Tennant is terrific. Billie Piper was wonderful as Rose.”

He’s right of course, the show is brilliant, especially the new incarnation, with some brilliant writing, amazing special effects, and acting talents which were never even got close to on the original show.

I would love to see Pullman write an episode, as he’s an awesome writer, and his style would fit perfectly with the show. I just hope Davies saw the interview, or is even maybe reading this, and gets in touch with him to discuss the possibility.

(more…)

The Spice Girls long awaited reunion (or is it goodbye) tour around the world kicked off in Vancouver, Canada last week, and was feted as a triumph, with very little going wrong.

But, it seems that it’s not all going so smoothly behind the scenes, with arguments and in fighting blighting the comeback tour so far.

The News Of the World’s Rav Singh was given exclusive access behind the scenes of the rehearsals in preparation for the tour, and reports all five of the girls were at each other’s throats in the build up to the record breaking concert run.

He reports the following as having taken place:

“Mel B shouted at Geri for mucking up the dance routine for Stop. She yelled: “You’ve got to keep it together, if you spent more attention on your routines then it would be right.”

“Posh had a pop at Mel B for dancing out of time to Spice Up Your Life. She snapped: “Next time we all have to stand in line and get it right.”

“The others rounded on Posh for spending too much time chatting with pals Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes when they turned up to watch rehearsals with baby Suri.”

There’s no surprises there really, as the attention, and expectation on the five girls must be incredible at this stage. Even though they are all older, and (potentially) wiser, you can’t pile stress on people and expect them not to clash with people close to them.

(more…)

I live in the UK, and at times it’s bloody depressing. It DOES rain all the time, we don’t seem to belong anywhere in the world, kind of being European, but not, having a friendship with America, but disagreeing fundamentally on some policies, crime is rising, immigration is continuing at a pace that our island is struggling with etc etc.

And it seems that I’m not the only one getting a bit down on the whole thing, as anti depression tablets are now being prescribed at a massive rate.

A News of the World study found that over 32 million anti depressant prescriptions are issued each year in Britain, which roughly translates to one every SECOND.

Middlesbrough, a town in the north east of England has it worse than anywhere else, with people fromt he area taking £7.58 worth of the drugs each per year.

The whole of the north east of England does badly, with neighbours Gateshead, Redcar, Cleveland, and Newcastle coming next on the list of the saddest places in the country.

(more…)

Michael Parkinson has been simultaneously interviewing the biggest celebrities, and delighting audiences around the world for over 30 years now, but every career has to come to an end, and Parkinson is no exception.

Earlier this year he announced, via his Radio 2 show, that he would be making this latest ITV1 series of his chat show, the last ever. So to commemorate the occasion there will be three specials to end his reign as the king of chat show hosts.

The second of the specials, to be shown on ITV1 on December 15th is the big one, as it comprises Michael Parkinson’s wish list of guests. He hand picked every person who would appear, a mixture from his many years, and people he looked up to, enjoyed interviewing, and counted as personal friends.

While filming the show, he is reported to have had to fight back tears, no surprise seeing as this seems to be Parky’s final bow in broadcasting, with him also quitting his radio show to write an autobiography and do some travelling.

(more…)

The Nintendo Wii has been an incredible success so far, selling in huge quantities, and surprising gamers, pundits and games developers alike.

The problem (not a bad one for Nintendo) is that demand continues to outstrip supply, meaning there are millions of disappointed kids and adults alike around the world who are unable to get hold of a console.

In the UK, the situation has been terrible, with Wiis in short or no supply ever since they were released last year. There was a short period during the summer when you could maybe have got one by bribing a shop to put you at the front of the waiting list, but otherwise, no chance.

This problem looks set to continue to in the run up to Christmas and beyond, with shops already displaying ‘Sold Out’ signs.

Nothing has demonstrated the demand better than the news that HMV’s flagship store in Oxford Street, London, sold out of their latest delivery in just 34 minutes.

(more…)

Almost two weeks ago, lanky funnyman Iain Lee left his job as a talk show host on LBC Radio, and I wrote a long post telling the story of his time there, and imploring someone to employ him sooner of later. Well, I’m delighted to tell you all that someone has, with Virgin radio giving him a show on a Sunday night.

From January 6th 2008, Iain will be hosting his own 10pm-1am show on Virgin. This is the same timeslot in which Iain used to host his Triple M straight to air experimental programme, although we don’t yet know what format the new show will take.

It also puts Iain in direct competition with former LBC colleague and friend Clive Bull, who took over the timeslot when new LBC owners Global radio decided that Iain’s face didn’t fit any more.

Iain and Clive have an interesting relationship in that Iain used to ring Clive’s show under different pseudonyms well before taking the job working alongside him.

This is the first hire by Virgin Radio programme director, David Lloyd, who was a big fan and supporter of Iain Lee when he was at LBC. He left his role as LBC managing director around two months ago to join Virgin, and has now seemingly decided to take Iain with him.

(more…)

The new series of ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here’ kicks off tonight, and the line up has now been confirmed. Ten celebrities are going to be heading in to the Australian jungle and facing two weeks of pure hell, with torrential rain, camp beds, snakes and creepy crawlies.

They will also have to face the notoriously cruel Bushtucker Trials, which producers are promising will be given a higher budget and therefore be even more humiliating than normal.

The ten celebrities to sign up to the reality show are:

• Gemma Atkinson: Former Hollyoaks actress.
• Malcolm McLaren: Sex Pistols former manager.
• Rodney Marsh: Sky Sports Football pundit.
• Cerys Matthews: Former Catatonia singer.
• Janice Dickinson: 1970s supermodel.
• John Burton Race: Celebrity chef.
• Marc Bannerman: Ex Eastenders actor.
• Lynne Franks: PR guru.
• Jason ‘J’ Brown: Ex Five boy band member.
• Anna Ryder Richardson: Changing Rooms designer.

Last year’s edition of the show saw Matt Willis, ex Busted band member, walk away as the winner, but it was David Gest’s transformation from freak show to fan favourite which kept people hooked.

(more…)