Soap Weekly
TV Weekly: ‘I just hope it doesn’t interrupt him getting elected out of office’
TV Weekly, our round-up of telly stuff from the past seven days.
TV Weekly’s TV 10 for the past week. From the latest to join Dancing on Ice to Piers Morgan ticking off Dominic West.
It is what it is
The famous quote said by Donald Trump about Covid-19 cases in the past has been widely used to mock the president of the U.S following the news he’d come down with the virus himself. However, Piers Morgan was left unimpressed with actor Dominic West following an appearance on Good Morning Britain.
Morgan wasn’t on the show on Friday, October 2nd, however, he took to social media to show his distaste at West’s comments on the ITV programme.
Speaking to Kate Garraway via a videolink interview Dominic said he ‘did slightly leap in the air with joy’ when he learned the news of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. He then went on to use Trumps ‘it is what it is’ line which the POTUS said after being confronted with the staggering death toll from the pandemic stateside. ‘I think the phrase is what goes around comes around. I just hope it doesn’t interrupt him getting elected out of office, that’s all.’ West added.
Morgan was more offended that West had said such comments to Kate, whose husband Derek Draper is still fighting the illness. Draper is believed to be the longest Covid-19 victim in the UK after having fallen ill with it in March and is still currently seriously unwell.
‘Imagine telling someone whose own husband is lying in a coma from coronavirus that you ‘jumped for joy’ when you heard others had caught the disease?’ – Piers Morgan on Twitter
HRVY
The worst that had previously happened is he’d lost his A and E from his name, but soon-to-be-seen on Strictly Come Dancing – hopefully – YouTube personality HRVY, tested positive for coronavirus this week.
“hi, wasn’t gonna worry anyone and say anything but now the story’s out, I have coronavirus, I’m all good, no symptoms, just isolating for the next 10 days. already super bored so prepare yourselves for my Tik toks.” – HRVY on social media
The singer is now self-isolating for ten days. The BBC has noted that he is still lined up to take part in the launch show, pending a negative test result in the coming weeks. A spokesperson for the Beeb also noted that HRVY had only come into contact with a small number of the production crew who were all following the protocols in place to limit the transfer of Covid-19.
Spit it Out
It returned today, and hopefully, it’s shocked the woke snowflakes so much they’re stunned into silence for at least a decade. Spitting Image is back. Out to entertain and offend in equal measure it sadly isn’t quite the show backed fully by Central Television of old. It seems, if a tabloid is right, ITV bosses at BritBox fear offending gingers.
A strange situation considering ITV was happy to air Monkey Trousers on their main network that featured regular ginger mocking such as “Have you been Gingered at Work… call our claims line now…”
An insider told The Sun how times have changed, with more care now for gingers. “It was thought to be gratuitously offensive so we ordered them to rejig the puppet.” The ITV source added that “The puppeteers didn’t seem too happy about the changes.” The puppet creators had made the singer a ‘carrot top’ by the caricature having carrot leaves pouring from his head. They’ve been replaced with turnip leaves instead. Turnip sums up the exec that decided to make that change.
“But it’s a fine line when you’re making comedy. It’s one thing poking fun at the rich and powerful but it’s another insulting some viewers. It cost quite a lot of money to change. But it’s worth the expense.” – ITV source
The first episode of Spitting Image is now available on BritBox with highlights including Donald Trump using social media through his arse, a politically correct Disney product and dear Greta finding the latest forecast to be ‘hot’. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
Family Matters
Jenny Bradley, on-and-off, has been wandering the cobbles of Coronation Street since 1986. She arrived to live with her demented father Alan Bradley and became a foster daughter to Rita (Barbara Knox) when it was deemed there were no relations around to take care of her following her mother Pat’s earlier death in a road accident, and then Alan departing in a similar fashion via a 1930s electric tram sometime later.
But now, it appears, maybe a long lost relative from the Bradley clan may just be turning up in Weatherfield. Jenny is currently married to Johnny Connor (Richard Hawley), however, has always remained close to ‘our Reet’ despite the fact Alan tried to smother Rita to death with a pink cushion after she found out he’d illegally gotten hold of her assets.
Later, for a while, Jenny blamed the newsagent for her father’s death – when he was accidentally killed by a Blackpool tram chasing after Rita – who thought it was the mid-1970s having suffered memory loss due to his wicked abuse of her. But over the years they’ve remained like mother and daughter.
Actress Sally Ann Matthews has told a tabloid that this is about to change for Jenny with a relation being introduced for the character to fill a family void.
“Jenny is going to have a family member join the show, someone the audience knows nothing about” – Sally Ann Matthews speaking to The Mirror
It’s what its ‘Four’
Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon this week spoke to the Royal Television Society about how the network has coped during the recent pandemic situation. The station gained much praise for showing true ‘Public Service Broadcasting’ while some of the other PSB offerings failed to make much of an effort to inform or educate in particularly during the lockdown.
“We made all these shows that were super responsive and because of that we did really well in audience numbers… As lockdown happened, we had a clear, strategic conversation about what the editorial response should be, led by Ian (director of programmes Ian Katz) and the commissioning team. It was clear to us that we should be saying something back to Britain about what was happening.”
Mahon noted that thanks to their responsive schedule, during peak time viewing the under-35s tuning on surged by up to 38%. She also observed that there will always be a place for ‘traditional television’ thanks to its reactive to news and events capabilities.
“It was the exact opposite of what the SVoDs would be doing. If you were watching Netflix, it’s Tiger King, which is not saying anything about [the UK] or the pandemic.”
While ratings in some cases improved, and audience reach gained due to job losses and those isolating at home, business closures and the high street becoming no-go-zones saw advertising on Channel 4 practically lost half of its income overnight.
“We don’t have the BBC’s guaranteed income. For us it’s pretty much all advertising. In the worst months advertising dropped 50%. To have 50% of your revenue ripped away and not know how long it would last is really bad. On the other hand. Channel 4 is at its best when it’s up against it – in a crisis when you have to change really fast Channel 4 is actually amazing.”
Dancing on Ice
Lighter news now with the latest names for Dancing on Ice revealed by ITV this week including wife-of-a-footballer Rebekah Vardy signing up to skid across the rink, musician Lady Leshurr will be donning her sequinned outfit for the show and pulling on their skates is telly personality Billie Sheperd.
Previously announced for the series we have Myleen Klass, Joe Warren Plant, Denise Van Outen, Faye Brookes, Jason Donovan, Sonny Jay, Skier Graham Bell and athlete Colin Jackson.
She has worked for Aunty for more than 25 years, starting as a reporter at BBC Wales before joining the parliamentary team at Westminster. She became the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent in 2015.
Vicki has covered seven General Elections, numerous international summits across the world, and has been a presenter on the BBC News Channel, Politics Live, and Westminster Hour on Radio 4. She is also a regular studio pundit for the BBC’s election results programmes and on The Andrew Marr Show. She also spent two years as a health correspondent.
“It’s a real honour to become the BBC’s new Deputy Political Editor. As a journalist, it’s both a privilege and an incredible responsibility to be in the front row at such an extraordinary period in UK politics.” – Vicki Young
Too Loose
This week Loose Women once again saw itself facing complaints to television regulator Ofcom after they debated Chrissy Teigen’s miscarriage and how she handled it by sharing the news on social media with photographs from her hospital bed with husband John Legend.
‘We are assessing these complaints against our broadcasting rules, before deciding whether or not to investigate,’ – Ofcom statement
RIP
This week we said farewell to actor Archie Lyndhurst who passed away at just 19. The young performer was known for shows including Bad Education and So Awkward. Archie is the son of Only Fools and Horses and Goodnight Sweetheart actor Nicholas Lyndhurst.
It was also goodbye to actor Frank Windsor known in recent years for his advertising of elderly-aimed products, but at his career height, he entertained millions of views via Z-Cars and Softly, Softly. Frank passed away aged 92.
We also mourned the passing of Australian singer Helen Reddy who gave us hit songs such as I am Woman, No Way To Treat A Lady, Candle on the Water, Angie Baby and Delta Dawn also gave us some great ‘covers’ including You’re My World. Helen departed aged 78.
In Memory: We also today remember the late great Ronnie Barker who departed the mortal life fifteen years ago.
