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And That’s Blockbusters

Published 7th January 2012

TV Gameshows / TV Presentation

As I slag off Challenge when they do something wrong, it seems only fair to congratulate them when they do something right. With the sad death of Bob Holness yesterday, Challenge made a point of not only updating their EPG, but also recording some new links; genuinely impressive for a channel which doesn’t have live continuity. Take a look below – and make a note of listening to Bob’s intro for the female contestant, where he makes a hilariously inappropriate joke, but gets away with it because he was brilliant:

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CELEBRATING 75 GLORIOUS YEARS

Published 2nd November 2011

TV Gameshows / TV Presentation

So, you want a more inappropriately placed end voiceover than the one on GOLD the other day? How about this one, taken from tonight on Challenge+1?

Well done Challenge. You have LITERALLY managed to disrespect the dead.

It’s fairly simple. If you’re using pre-recorded voiceovers, make sure you preview everything to check your timings are right. If you can’t be arsed to do that, at least place them 15 seconds or so before the end, so you’re unlikely to crash the programme.

Don’t make it look like you don’t give a stuff about the channel, or the viewers. If you can keep the dead out of your incompetence as well, so much the better.

(EDIT: Listening again, only just noticed – the voiceover repeats halfway through! Ouch…)

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How GOLD ruins programmes, Part #367234

Published 22nd October 2011

TV Comedy / TV Presentation

Whilst we’re on the subject of GOLD transmission errors, the below – broadcast yesterday – brings me out in FISTS OF RAGE. The dinnerladies episode Minnellium – and just as we get to the discovery that Anita was the one who abandoned her baby:

One of the most heart-wrenching endings they ever had to an episode: ruined. The last joke in the episode: ruined. One episode of dinnerladies: ruined. All because they triggered their pre-recorded voiceover in the usual place, rather than actually checking the end of the episode to see if it fitted.

Brilliant, GOLD, well done.

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Stick Something INCORRECT On

Published 20th October 2011

TV Presentation

Oh dear, GOLD’s going through an identity crisis. Broadcast at around 7:40pm on the 19th October:

For anyone wondering how that happened, I’m fairly certain that’s a dynamically created trail – not a pre-created piece of video, but automatically generated by the playout server. Clearly, the right schedule information, audio, and video clips were present – but the wrong channel graphics were selected…

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Bad news everyone, etc

Published 25th July 2010

TV Comedy / TV Presentation

This afternoon, between 12:30pm – 6pm, Sky1/Sky1 HD are showing three of the four Futurama movies. (Missing out Bender’s Game, but for various reasons, if you were going to not show one of them, that’s probably the one I’d drop.) Now, you’d think that would be difficult to mess up, yes?

Don’t be stupid. This is television. They can mess up anything.

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#He’s fucked his endcap up, never mind…

Published 20th June 2010

TV Comedy / TV Presentation

Well, things have been quiet around here for a while, haven’t they? Whilst we prepare for upcoming “stuff”, take a look at something I posted on Twitter a while back, from 70s Bill Maynard vehicle Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt. (Which, incidentally, has a dodgy pilot, is really good for the first series, and then sadly tails off a bit.) Yep, you’re waiting around for the Yorkshire endcap at the end, although feel free to enjoy the end theme, which proves that Blackadder II isn’t the only sitcom which had different lyrics for the end of each episode…

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