Pop Buzz UK

We all know Robbie Williams has had his problems in the past, with drink, drugs, and food. He seems to be addicted to everything, including sex. But it seems he may be about to get another problem in to the problem - Gillian McKeith wants to help him deal with his issues. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even my worst enemy.

McKeith is the nutritionist and dietician, who has made her fortune telling people You Are What You Eat and rifling through their shit. Although she certainly knows her stuff, and offers sensible, healthy advice about eating, the way she does it is to act like a stern headmistress, talking down to grown adults as if they are twelve years old. I can’t see the free-spirited Williams taking kindly to that.

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The BAFTA Television Awards took place tonight at the London Palladium, and the ceremony was full of surprises, as a series of unexpected winners took home the trophies.

The ceremony is an annual back slapping for the cream of British television, with actors, directors and programmes being awarded for the last twelve months.

The big winners were the cast and crew of Gavin and Stacey, a little sitcom which has built a cult following on BBC Three over the past two years.

The show, currently on its second series, won programme of the year, while its star, and co-writer James Corden, who is rumoured to be dating songstress Lily Allen, won the award for best comedy performance.

The series beat The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent to the title, while Corden beat such illustrious names as Stephen Merchant (Extras) and David Mitchell (Peep Show).

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The story of Mark Speight and his fiancée has taken a terrible final twist today after his body was found hanged at London Paddington train station.

Mark Speight was the TV presenter of children’s programmes such as SMart, Scratchy & Co. and History Buster, who in January, found his fiancée’s body in the bath of the North London flat they shared together.

At first he was arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs. He later admitted the pair had been partying all night, but was cleared of murder, and released on bail.

The BBC then cancelled SMart for the foreseeable future, and Speight quit as presenter.

An inquest, which was opened in January, records Collins’ death as one by misadventure after high levels of cocaine and sleeping pills were found in her blood. The results were made public on April 2nd, by which time Speight is said to be depressed.

On April 7th, Speight was reported missing after failing to meet Collins’ mother for lunch. Today, six days after he disappeared, his body was discovered hanged at Paddington station in London.

This is an absolutely unbelievable ending to a tragedy which has ended up taking two lives away, and affecting many others.

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Britain’s Got Talent started very ropily last year, but was saved when Paul Potts came on stage and blew everyone away. This mild mannered mobile phone salesman got over his crippling lack of confidence to win the final by singing opera like an Italian tenor.

Since then Potts has gone on to have a best selling album and is playing venues around the world. But that was last year, and we need another winner of his calibre. Unfortunately, based on the first episode which has just aired on ITV, that ultra talented individual is going to take a bit of searching.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some good performers on show tonight. The dog was talented, the Christina Aguilera-alikes were nice in their own right, the electric string quartet called Scala were brilliant, and beautiful too. And last but not least there was the Pie Jesu singing 13 year old bully victim.

They were all very good, and the latter even made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle in the same way that Potts managed 12 months ago. However, his voice will break, and then he’ll just become another average singer who Simon Cowell will abuse till kingdom come.

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With the first news on the next UK Big Brother just being revealed, it appears that Poland is just about to dose of Big Brother 3, after programme makers Endemol sold the series lock, stock and barrel to the Polish broadcaster TVN.

While we in the UK are looking forward to the ninth series of the biggest and best reality television show, Polish people are just about to experience what is rightly considered the best ever series.

If you need a reminder, BB3 was the one where Jade Goody, the most successful Big Brother contestant ever, appeared, and showed off her flabby body for all to see in a late night drunken game.

She didn’t end up winning it though, with Kate Lawler proving to be the most popular house mate at the end of the 12 week series.

Endemol has until now just sold the rights to the show’s format rather than a whole series in its entirety, so this is an unusual move on their part.

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Regular readers of Pop Buzz UK will already know of my love for Big Brother, the granddaddy of all reality television shows. This is about the time of year when the rumours start flying about the next series, with fuzzy shots of the house, and countless false unveilings of the new contestants.

There’s not been much of that so far this year, but there are some concrete facts that have now been revealed, making it prime time we had our first preview of the forthcoming series, Big Brother 9.

The biggest news is that for the first time ever the series won’t begin its summer run in May, having had its start date put back to Thursday June 5th.

This is a clever move on the part of Channel 4 bosses, as it prevents it from overlapping with the second series of Britain’s Got Talent, the Simon Cowell led talent show which got huge ratings last year when amateur opera singer Paul Potts finally emerged victorious.

Davina McCall will once again be back to do the main presenting duties, which will please and anger a fairly equal amount of people I guess. She’s not the best interviewer in the world, but Big Brother just wouldn’t be the same without her, and she is at least also a huge fan of the show.

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The new series of Doctor Who begins on British television this coming Saturday, with the first episode showing at 6.20pm on BBC One.

There’s been debate over whether the BBC have done the right thing in moving the cult series from its 7pm timeslot. I personally think it’s a bad move, especially when you consider it’s only been done to allow the God awful reality show I’d Do Anything to nab the prime time slot instead.

Regardless of when it’s on however, I and millions of others will be glued to our screens week after week for the next few months, so here is a short preview of the upcoming series.

David Tennant once again returns as the Doctor, although he does have a new assistant in the form of Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate.

I wasn’t too keen on her character, and performance in the Christmas special but having seen previews of her in the new series at the cinema over the last few weeks, I think she’s upped her game, and become more of a traditional assistant.

Martha Jones, the Doctor’s last full-time assistant will also be making an appearance in a few episodes, as will Rose, played by Billie Piper, after she somehow manages to bypass the previously closed void between her and the Doctor.

Also returning for brief appearances will be Captain Jack, and Sarah Jane Smith, as well as Rose’s mother Jackie Tyler, and the lovable Mickey Smith.

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I’m a big fan of The Apprentice, both the US and UK series actually. Donald Trump has his hairpiece, while Alan Sugar has a face more wrinkly than a bulldog’s backside.

The British version of the series which sees a collection of supposedly the best candidates in the country competing for a job with Sir Alan returned on Wednesday night, and it is already set to be an explosive year.

First we got to meet the sixteen new candidates, although some were so lacking in personality, I couldn’t tell you their name, where they were from, or what they contributed to the show.

They are all very good looking this year though, with the producers seeming to have started picking people as much for their dress sense and grooming as their business acumen.

The teams met Alan, and were then set their first task even before being shown the house they will be sharing for the next few months.

As is traditional, they were separated along gender lines to begin, although that will likely change in a few week’s time. The men called themselves Renaissance, while the ladies opted for Alpha.

The task was as simple as anything, at least in theory: The teams being given £600 worth of fresh fish and being told to sell them at a market for as much profit as possible.

Unfortunately, both teams went off half-cocked, with very little preparation meaning that pricing, and even labelling were all wrong.

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The X Factor Judges are at it again, trying to upstage the acts as usual, and this time, surprise surprise, it’s over money. For once Simon Cowell isn’t actually involved, as he’s sorted. He’s currently in the middle of a three year contract with ITV which sees him get paid £20 million. Nice work if you can get it.

The rest of the vultures though, Dannii Minogue, Sharon Osbourne & Louis Walsh, are after more money because they’ve been asked to work an extra day a week during the next series. Yes, that means 2 days a week instead of one… ah diddums.

Basically, because of the unexpected success of the BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing, the next series of The X Factor will run over two days a week instead of one, with the results show being moved from Saturday night to Sunday.

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The Brit Awards took place tonight in Earls Court, London, and here we have all of the latest news, gossip, winners and losers.

The annual event was presented by the Osbourne clan, with Sharon and Kelly taking most of the stage time. Unfortunately, Sharon spent the whole evening looking and acting drunk, while Ozzy sat in the background shaking.

There was a particularly memorable moment when Vic Reeves came on to the stage to present the award for Best British Album. He was pissed as a fart, and so he and Sharon fought over who was going to announce the winner. That was about the only controversy on a night celebrating a year of great British music.

Most of the awards went the way I had expected, or at least secretly hoped for. The big winners of the night ended up being Take That, Arctic Monkeys, and Foo Fighters, who all walked away with two awards each.

Leona Lewis ended up as the biggest loser, as even though she managed to win The X Factor in 2006, she managed to lose in all four of the categories she was nominated in.

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One of my favourite programmes on British television when I was growing up is being axed by the BBC after 30 years of being on air, simultaneously making me feel old, and rather sad at the demise of yet another British institution.

Grange Hill began on February 8th, 1978, less than a year after I was born, so it’s a programme which has been there nearly all of my life, whether I was actively watching it or not.

Although a children’s programme in essence, it’s hard hitting subject matter, and at time brilliantly acted plots made it a family favourite. I know myself that I watched it right up until I was about 21, when despite the story lines not being aimed at me any more, I found myself watching religiously in the same way I’d watch Eastenders and Coronation Street.

The BBC has now announced, in its infinite wisdom, that the series which will air later this year, will now be its last.

CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist paid tribute to the show and said:

“[It is] sad to say goodbye to such a much-loved institution. The lives of children have changed a great deal since Grange Hill began and we owe it to our audience to reflect this.”

The show’s axing has been announced as part of a wider shake up of the Children’s BBC programming schedule, but is definitely the biggest news to come out of the whole re imagining of what today’s kids want to watch on television.

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Kylie Minogue, she’s almost British, even though she’s an Australian by the simple technicality of being born over there. She launched her pop career here under defunct record label Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and now spends most of her time in the UK, living here when she’s not gallivanting around the world on tour… she’s even appeared in Doctor Who for cripes sakes!

So that’s my justification for writing about her here on Pop Buzz UK.

The latest saga to emerge from camp Kylie is the video for new single Wow (crappy title, not bad song) being banned from British television, or at least it’s first version.

The video was meant to be getting an exclusive première on Channel 4 last Wednesday, but was pulled at the last minute due to Ofcom (the television regulators) rules about flashing light effects.

The video heavily features strobe lighting which could affect epileptics and people sensitive to that sort of thing. Yes, while you’re happily sitting there watching a Kylie video, and wishing you could be her, or be with her, depending on your gender, you could suddenly start fitting or convulsing. Which isn’t a good look by anyone’s standards.

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Jeremy Beadle, the man best known for being a notorious television prankster, has sadly died of pneumonia in hospital at the age of 59. Beadle had previously battled cancer of the kidney, and then leukaemia, both of which he fought and beat, but died in hospital after contracting pneumonia and being admitted to hospital earlier this week.

The TV funnyman leaves behind wife Sue, daughters Cassie and Bonnie, and stepchildren Leo and Claire.

Beadle was born in Hackney, east London in 1948. He had an unsettled childhood, having to spend multiple times in hospital being treated for a rare genetic disorder called Poland syndrome. This condition stunted growth in his right hand, a disability for which he was mocked in later life.

He started a writing career after a number of different jobs came to nothing, and a career on radio and television beckoned. When he was young, he provided material for stars such as Terry Wogan, Noel Edmonds and Kenny Everett.

He became a well known celebrity in his own right after becoming a presenter on Game for a Laugh, where alongside Matthew Kelly, Henry Kelly and Sarah Kennedy, he would set members of the public up in small pranks.

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The first, and probably last series of Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack came to an end last night, and no-one either watched or cared. Apart from me obviously, as I am addicted to the show, in whatever format it takes.

Celebrity Hijack was conceived to replace the normal unmissable Celebrity Big Brother. That was canned by nervous Channel 4 bosses after last year’s Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody race row, which almost sparked an international incident.

Instead of celebrities entering, and living in the house as contestants, they now took the role of Big Brother over, and controlled the lives of 12 young and gifted people. The format worked, and I actually enjoyed tuning in every night, but it wasn’t unmissable, and was clearly lacking some drama.

John Loughton, current voluntary youth worker, and future politician ended up as the winner of the show and the £50,000 prize money. He got 54% of the vote, and it was a good result, with the nice guy winning, and someone who you know won’t piss the money up the wall.

If I’d have been a betting man, I would have put my money on Amy to win, but maybe that’s just because her smile makes her look angelic. How Emilia came second, I’ll never know, as although I quite liked her, the crowd didn’t, and she even got booed on her way out of the door.

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Anyone who regularly reads Pop Buzz UK will know I’m a massive fan of the current incarnation of Doctor Who. Not only do I try and write about the big news on the show, I read, comment, and link to Watching Doctor Who whenever possible.

So today’s news/announcement is virtual music to my ears, and ensures I will have some reason to turn the television on for the next few years at least.

Russell T Davies, the head honcho and chief writer behind the new Doctor Who, has reportedly promised fans that the series will be around for years to come.

He said:

“I reckon the long-term future of Doctor Who is safer now than any other drama on telly.”

“A secret history of phone calls, dinners and face-to-face conversations had led me to feel sure of its place on British TV.”

“For Doctor Who, there are many New Years to come. And that’s a promise.”

That’s quite a promise, and great news for the legions of Doctor Who fans who have been worried by the constant and unyielding rumours over the last few months that the sci-fi show may be canned for the second time in its history.

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