Robert Hampton

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22nd March 2013

Ogle the Goggle Box

BBC Television CentreI always like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t watch much TV, apart from the odd highbrow drama on BBC4, of course. However, on reviewing my blogs of times past, it’s clear that television has been a big inspiration for blog entries over the years.

The TV I discuss isn’t always high-minded, either. One of the earliest television related entries came in the wake of a massive brawl in the Big Brother House in 2004:

Sorry to go all Daily Mail on people, but BB really is the most reprehensible, morally bankrupt thing on TV. I hope the police investigation results in prosecutions against all the Channel 4 executives involved in putting this vile show on the air.

Good grief, that show pisses me off.

While on the subject of reality TV, let’s skip ahead chronologically and get this embarrassing post out of the way right now:

I’m going to come out and say it: Hooray for good old-fashioned Light Entertainment bollocks on ITV1! Britain’s Got Talent was actually fairly entertaining.

What was I thinking? In my defence, this was before I found out how cynically produced the whole thing is.

A much more pleasant show to watch is Frasier, so I was sad to see the show come to an end:

I think Frasier will stand the test of time much better than that other recently-ended American sitcom. Friends, with its reliance on 90s pop culture and “cool” dialogue (like… you know, whatever), will be irrelevant within 10 years. Whereas Frasier never tried to be cool, just funny, and was all the better for it.

Not sure whether that prediction has come to pass, with Friends filling up every spare timeslot on Comedy Central while Frasier is relegated to the lesser Comedy Central Extra. But I still think it’s a million times better.

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18th May 2009

Idol Chatter
Posted by at 9.18pm | Music, Television | No responses

Adam Lambert Entertainment Weekly CoverEurovision may be over for another year, but in the US, another high-profile singing competition is storming towards its finale: namely, American Idol.

I seem to have become addicted to these sorts of shows recently. The Apprentice and (oh, I’m ashamed of this one) Britain’s Got Talent have both sucked me in and got me watching. It’s quite worrying for me: what if I can’t stop it? Will I be grabbing the Daily Star off the newsagent’s shelf during the summer to catch up on Big Bruv? (dear God, no)

Anyway, I have a perfect excuse for plonking myself down in front of ITV2 (aka the Katie and Peter channel) to watch Idol, and that reason is Adam Lambert.

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