Pop Buzz UK

Robbie Williams is said to have upset the American public with some controversial off the cuff remarks about sex and drugs… and presumably rock and roll.

The British singer now lives in Los Angeles despite a lack of success breaking the American music scene.

He was talking outside of an LA hotel and was asked what he’d recently been up to. He told reporters he had been “wanking and shooting heroin“.

The 33 year old ex Take That band member’s comments were aired on television, even though it was before the 10pm child free watershed. There were even subtitles added to help viewers understand his English accent.

When celebrity gossip site TMZ later asked him about the comments he replied “What else have I been doing? Just being nasty and having bum sex“.

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Cult British comedy show Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em is going to be made in to a modern American sitcom.

The original BBC made show ran from 1973 to 1978 with Michael Crawford in the hapless Frank Spencer role. Now Fox has ordered scripts for an American version of the show. I remember the show well, as it was shown all through the 1980s on a seemingly never ending series of repeats. But it never got boring, as each of the twenty two episodes was highly original.

Phil Stark, the man behind That 70s Show, is to write the scripts for BBC Worldwide and Sony Pictures Television. He will also be executive producer alongside the BBC’s Paul Telegdy and Ian Moffitt.

I have mixed views on this news, as although I loved the original show, I can see it being completely muffed up when it’s remade by a big American network. No offence, but the British and Americans seem to have a slightly different sense of humour.

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Gordon Ramsay appeared on Tonight With Jay Leno the other day, only to shock the presenter and the other guests by launching a vitriolic attack on a number of different groups of people.

The British chef appeared on the show alongside actor Joaquin Phoenix when he launched his verbal diatribe on the French, female drivers and American police, amongst others.

Luckily as with most things these days, you don’t have to take my word for it, as you can watch the explosive interview on YouTube instead. Man, the video sharing site makes my job a hell of a lot easier. Enjoy…

Telling American police to lighten up a bit is kinda justified although would Ramsay be happy if he was risking his life fighting gun wielding criminals while on low pay? Nah, I guarantee he’d be much happier ensconced in his little kitchen shouting and swearing at people who aren’t quite as good at cooking as him.

As for his attack on women drivers, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard him spill such sexist bile. He was on the British show Room 101 a few years back when he said virtually the same thing. Is “always looking in the mirror” a crime when it comes to driving? I was under the impression that would actually improve safety and prevent you having a crash.

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Although it seems that a new series of Red Dwarf is very unlikely to be made, Red Dwarf is making a comeback in one form at least.

From next week, anyone will be able to download (what are being called) mobisodes of the cult British Sci-fi show to their mobile phone.

Mobile entertainment company Pitch are to make several animated episodes available for people who subscribe for £3 ($6) a week. These so called mobisodes will be made up of a collection of clips from the show.

Users will also gain access to a social network solely based on Red Dwarf, where they can chat, upload pictures and videos and download wallpapers, ringtones and videos.

Pitch chief executive Martin Bowley said:

“Red Dwarf is iconic with millions of die-hard fans across the world. Combining such comic genius with the latest in mobile entertainment technology creates an exciting and dynamic environment that will move the cult of Red Dwarf into another dimension.”

The BBC produced show is nearing its twentieth anniversary, and DVD sales continue to be high, reaching almost 4 million to date.

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This is a letter I found while surfing around the Interweb a while back. It’s a letter that Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star John Cleese jokingly wrote to the citizens of America, in which he claims the United States back for us Brits.

It’s a brilliantly witty piece of satirical comedy from the master of the surreal, with references to your great leader as well as ours.

NB: I changed the name of the Prime Minister from Blair to Brown to keep it current. Have a read, have a laugh, if you’re British and a bit stupid be aware that this isn’t real, and if you’re American and have no sense of humour, well, screw you!

To the citizens of the United States of America

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I’m a big fan of the Red Dwarf series, with it’s hilarious take on Sci-Fi films and television series. So I’m gutted to hear that the BBC has turned down the chance to make a ninth series of the hit show.

Series creator Doug Naylor recently issued a statement about the decision at the ‘Dimension Jump’ convention:

“Some time ago, BBC2 decided not to take up their option for a potential Series IX, instead they said they were keen to pursue other projects.”

“They also told us that they weren’t interested in buying the TV rights for the Red Dwarf film, despite liking the script, as they weren’t convinced the film would be a success.”

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It’s Adam and Shelley is a new sketch show which starts on BBC3 next Monday. I’ve been lucky enough to already watch the first two episodes on DVD, so here is a quick run-down of what to expect in the series.

First of all I should point out that I have a very silly sense of humour. You’ll already know this if you are a regular reader of Pop Buzz UK and have seen some of the videos I’ve put up over the last year. So this sort of sketch show appeals to me more than it might my Gran for instance. I don’t think she’d appreciate some of the humour which borders on adult at times.

Adam and Shelley Longworth are a brother and sister duo who have already appeared in shows independently but now put their heads together to produce an original sketch show in the mould of (but not copying) Little Britain. As soon as you see a clip from the show you’ll recognise Shelley from TittyBangBang, another innovative BBC3 show.

It’s Adam and Shelley follows the basic sketch show format of a combination of characters in different settings. Some of the characters work, and some don’t, and I found it a bit more hit and miss than both Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show, which are two cult comedy shows which made the crossover to mainstream. For this reason I don’t know if it will repeat that success, but it’ll certainly have its fans who lap it up.

My favourite characters from the plethora on show here are the Goth twins Jake and Tilly. There’s something strangely funny about seeing a grown man and woman dressing up in the garb of the latest teenage trend, but they pull it off… just. The situations the pair get themselves in through daring and taunting each other are brilliantly conceived, and the characters will strike a chord with both kids and their parents.

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Finally someone is realising how cool us Daves are, and we’re getting a television channel completely dedicated to us!

No, not really, unfortunately this new channel, while being named ‘Dave’ is purely a renaming and re branding for UKTV G2.

UKTV G2 will be relaunched next month as ‘Dave’ and will focus on a younger male audience than it does currently. The channel will be dedicated to comedy and entertainment programmes kind of in the mould of BBC3.

The big news though is that it will now be available on Freeview as well as Cable and Satellite. This means those poor saps like me who can’t afford a monthly subscription fee for hundreds of crap channels get another one to add to our roster.

So what’s the name all about? Well the idea is that “everyone knows a bloke called Dave“. This is true, and is actually quite an ingenious name to give a channel that you want everyone to know and tune in to.

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Big Brother 8 has come to an end, and I’ll miss it, even though it was the least watched series of Big Brother ever.

These videos are great as they show the best bits of the whole Big Brother 8 series in under 9 minutes. I sat there for 3 months watching hour after hour of footage, and here it all is broken down in to a short compilation of clips.

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It’s over, yes that 12 weeks of blissful summer television viewing that was Big Brother 8 has come to an end. Thankfully I got the result I wanted on Friday night as Brian Belo (short for Bellend, at least in my head) emerged victorious from his 3 month long incarceration.

The bookies had twins Samanda (Sam & Amanda) as hot favourites to win the thing, but Brian beat those improbable odds and won through in the end with over 60% of the vote.

The final was great, with Davina wearing red for a change, maybe she’s now worn every black dress there is in the world. The format was the usual 2 parter, with 3 people being evicted in the first half and 3 in the second. The amount of time each evicted house mate had to be interviewed was disappointingly short, but apart from Carole and Ziggy, none of them had much to say anyway.

I’ve liked Brian ever since he entered the house, and desperately wanted him to win, especially over the pink twins. He’s the one house mate who has been on a journey this year, which seems to be the mark of a winner these days.

He entered the house emotionally stunted and well, not to be unkind but quite thick. While he’s still no Stephen Hawking, he does at least have a fair idea of who Shakespeare is now.

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After the successful adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s ‘The Hogfather’ novel to the small screen last Christmas, Sky One have turned their attention to the author’s first Discworld novel ‘The Colour Of Magic’.

Filming began on the version a few weeks ago, with some of the same cast who appeared in ‘The Hogfather’ appearing once again. Christopher Lee will return as the voice of Death, and what a good choice that is. David Jason meanwhile will appear as the wizard Rincewind, after putting in a great performance as Death’s faithful servant Albert last year.

Joining the legendary actors this time around will be Rocky Horror Picture Show star Tim Curry and Sean Astin who has recently been in 24 as well as the Lord Of The Rings movies.

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Last week I posted a video showing a bit of a mash up between the film ‘300′ and ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’. Well, now we have one better with a mash up between ‘300′ and The Simpsons. This is such a good edit, with the vocals working very well with the faces and animation of The Simpsons clips used. The audio is actually from the ‘300′ film trailer intertwined with clips from various episodes of The Simpsons.

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Big Brother 2007 continues to shock, delight, and anger in equal measure. If it’s not Charley’s vicious outbursts, it’s Tracey’s raving sayings and Ziggy’s bed hopping antics.

The Friday night project has been ridiculing the housemates antics every week since the start and this is one of my favourites so far. We present to you ‘Big Brother 8 - The Musical’…

The guest presenter of The Friday night project the week this was shown was Beth Ditto from The Gossip, and she played Ziggy and Tracey very well.

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300, that film about the Spartans has been released on DVD in the States this week, so I thought I’d trawl through YouTube and see if I could find anything interesting. Lo and behold, there’s a 300 and Monty Python mashup just sitting there, begging to be put on Pop Buzz UK. So I’ll oblige…

It’s a nicely done edit, which shows footage of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the opening vocals from 300. I’ve still yet to see this film which I previewed back in March, and the DVD isn’t out in the UK until September 17th, so I’ll have to wait a bit longer.

I seem to be going through phases at the moment. First of all it was Harry Potter mania, and now I seem to be stuck in a kind of Monty Python underworld, having already posted a Lego version of the Holy Grail last week. I wonder what will be next on the agenda?

300, Spartans, Monty Python, YouTube, Pop Buzz, UK, DVD, Holy Grail, Harry Potter

Star Stories returned for a second series last Friday on Channel 4 with the aptly named first episode ‘Take That: How our success was nothing to do with Robbie Williams’. It told the story, or a satirically comedic take on the story of the early days of Take That right through to their recent reunion (minus Robbie).

I loved the first series of Star Stories, with it’s childish humour and quite biting take on celebrities lives, and this second series started in the same vein as the last. Like ‘Rock Profiles’ or ‘Bo Selecta before it, the actors play a caricature of the real celebrity, with just enough of the real persona peeking through that you can recognise the star being portrayed.

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