Thoughts on the "Doctor Who" 2011 series split ..

Steven Moffat chose his spot at the Edinburgh International Television Festival yesterday to reveal that the 13 episodes of the 2011 series will be broadcast in two blocks, one from Easter and another from September. The Moff also tells us these shall consecutively be known as series six and seven (which is likely to prove as contentious as his initial claim that the 2010 series was to be known as series one). Just to confuse matters further series six will be seven episodes while series seven will be six episodes.

At first my feeling was dismay, but, certainly for next year, it makes sense. Not only do we have a particularly late Easter but it was officially announced the same weekend that a second series of "Sherlock" will be broadcast in Autumn 2011 and this will ease Moffat's shared commitments and deadlines. I suspect the proximity of these announcements is not a coincidence. I don't know what the future holds for "Merlin" if it goes to a fourth series - I presume they won't be ready to go out in spring or summer 2011 instead - more likely they will spill into January/February 2012.

So anyway, I worked out this will be the "Doctor Who" schedule for next year:

"Series Six" - 7 episodes starting 23 April (Easter Saturday) until 4 June

"Series Seven" - 6 episodes starting 4 September until 9 October

then the Christmas special in December.

I would fancy that this will still not satisfy the 'winter fetishists', especially if it's being broadcast before 7pm as it regularly was this year. If "Strictly Come Dancing" hasn't committed suicide this year, then series seven of "Doctor Who" will be the warm-up so 7pm starts would seem unlikely.

NB: photo courtesy of Richard Bacon on Twitter - he was the designated interviewer at the event.

Cricket Totty - Mohammad Amir

I had set this up before the weekend , when Amir's name has been associated with something less than great but he came to my attention at the end of last week when he was Pakistan's teen sensation against England in a test match. Hopefully he'll come through unscathed.

Stand Up Totty - Daniel Sloss

Comedians have that thing whereby they become sexy even if they're not that good looking, but when they are it's a bonus. Following the recent annual onslaught of their number on Edinburgh I present a lad who didn't have to travel far - 19 year old Daniel Sloss.

Retro Blast - August 1995

Aah, August 1995. My mindset is probably still stuck around here. Most of my generation yearn for the 1980s, but I was always more suited to the 90s. Though you might not be able to tell from my YouTube choices below.I couldn't pick some because I follow the classic TOTP rule of not including fallers, so no Connells, Take That, TLC, or Black Grape all of which were faves of mine.

Anyhow, while much more serious conflict raged in Bosnia that summer, a battle that made it to the TV bulletins and newspaper front pages here was the Blur v Oasis spat that ensued when both had released singles on the same day and both expected to be No1. By this point, Blur had won that battle (no-one can agree who won the war) and "Country House" was stable at the top.

I'm using the performance featured in the Christmas Day edition of "Top of the Pops", four months later, as it is a rather spirited turn by Damon. Introducing are Jack Dee and Bjork.

The classic promo video, featuring Keith Allen and Matt Lucas alongside the band, was directed by Damien Hirst, by way of Benny Hill and The Avengers.

And can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci0fyRAw21Q

The Gallagher brothers had to be content with a No2 - above they premiere the track on "Top of the Pops". Their new pal Robbie Williams was co-hosting.

Michael Jackson's second single from the "HIStory" album was a new entry at no3, but would depose Blur the following week. This is the bizarre video featuring his then-wife Lisa-Marie Presley.

Frankly, I have no recollection of this artist, who had a new entry at no5. Typical of contemporary mainstream dance records I recall. This mix seems as inspired by "I Feel Love" as "Sunshine After the Rain".

I'm including this one purely as it is so of the time - I never watched "Friends" and frankly hated the song, more so because it's one you get lodged in your brain. It's The Rembrandts' new entry at no6 - "I'll Be There For You".

Lastly, in at no26, where it characteristically peaked, is Morrissey with "Dagenham Dave"

Otherwise going on there was the much hyped launch of Windows 95 on the 24th of August - I was unaffected as I'd already had my Mac for more than 2 years at this point.

"The Usual Suspects" was released in the UK on the 25th, only 9 days after the US release. Others on release were "Babe", "Virtuosity", "Mortal Kombat", "Desperado" and "Dangerous Minds".

On telly, at the end of the summer drought, some new season programmes began to emerge. On the 31st came the short-lived return of Maureen Lipman as Jane Lucas in "Agony Again", the sequel to "Agony". Jane had fictionally moved from magazine to TV counselling, and in reality had transferred from ITV/LWT to BBC One. Maria Charles and Simon Williams followed too as her mother and ex-husband respectively, though Jane now had a black boyfriend and a gay son to spice things up. Shame it didn't get a second series, though it wasn't as good as the original. I always love Maureen Lipman's work but it's been doubly interesting in recent years as my boss is her niece (she's actually Jack Rosenthal's niece, but you get my point).



In an era when "Doctor Who" was officially dead, it might be thought there's nothing to report on that front (even the TVM announcement was months away), but not so. We had 2 new Virgin novels a month, Doctor Who Magazine and August 1995 had two VHS releases ("Frontier in Space" and "K9 & Company", since you ask).

Here are that month's novel covers for Gareth Roberts' "Zamper" (Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Roz and Chris) and Gary Russell's somewhat fanciful "Invasion of the Cat People" (Second Doctor, Ben and Polly). And yes, there does appear to an unfortunate anthropomorphic tendency going on.

In what was the first Frisky Summer for Bel Ami, as they celebrated their initial dose of success, I present their second big star, Johan Paulik as the designated 'Retro Totty' for August 1995:

Johan is now 35 and retired from 'performing' in 2007, though directs for the company and has held a Bel Ami managerial position (ahem) since 2002.

http://www.chartstats.com/chart.php?date=28%2F08%2F1995

Next weekend: September 1976

NB: this is an unfinished post, as I will be adding some personal colour later

The Moff's Hero Sandwich

I only upload this as it's so cute and will send several ladies and gents into throes of envy for Steven Moffat as he poses betwixt his leading men, Benedict Cumberbatch & Matt Smith.

The Moff is currently using this as his Twitter avatar, but he's such a busy man elsewhere that I only discovered this today.

Enjoy!

Meat to Please You - Kaden Saylor - ADULTS ONLY!

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/41gr2dqnhdph8xa43dd4b3cdebktq26u

No "Shame" for Robbie & Gary

Thanks to BBC Breakfast, I caught the video for the eagerly anticipated musical reconciliation between Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, entitled "Shame". And I'm not the first to notice the melody is reminiscent of the Beatles' "Blackbird" while the video is a fairly shame-less homage to "Brokeback Mountain". Officially the track was done for Robbie's next Greatest Hits album (see below) but I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the next Take That proper album once Robbie's new recordings with them, plus a tour together, have passed.



Not surprising that Robbie has a reputation for ego. With this second stab at a Greatest Hits the dating of 1990 to 2010 is curious when Take That didn't have any sort of hit until the end of 1991, but the only Take That track on it is from 1994. I suppose that might be down to EMI though, but it's still a bit of a cheat.

Here's the album cover and full track-listing anyway (a notably stronger CD2) ...


CD1

1 Shame (with Gary Barlow)
2 Heart And I
3 You Know Me
4 Bodies
5 Morning Sun
6 She’s Madonna
7 Lovelight
8 Rudebox
9 Sin Sin Sin
10 Advertising Space
11 Make Me Pure
12 Tripping
13 Misunderstood
14 Radio
15 Sexed Up
16 Something Beautiful
17 Come Undone
18 Feel
19 Mr Bojangles

CD2

1 I Will Talk And Hollywood Will Listen
2 Somethin’ Stupid (with Nicole Kidman)
3 The Road To Mandalay
4 Eternity
5 Let Love Be Your Energy
6 Supreme
7 Kids (with Kylie Minogue)
8 Rock DJ
9 It’s Only Us
10 She’s The One
11 Strong
12 No Regrets
13 Millennium
14 Let Me Entertain You
15 Angels
16 South Of The Border
17 Lazy Days
18 Old Before I Die
19 Freedom
20 Everything Changes (with Take That)