Moyles plans to sex up Big Brother
Radio star Chris Moyles could make this series of Big Brother the most daring yet should the bosses allow him to go through with his plans.
The Radio 1 presenter is set to take over the reality-show house on Sunday as part of the Celebrity Hijack theme and he is keen to spice things up a bit for the housemates.
Speaking on his breakfast show, Moyles revealed that he intends to send some glamour models into the house.
“I’m hijacking the show on Sunday and I really like the whole ‘Voice of God’ thing - commanding people,” he said.
“I can say, ‘This is Big Brother. The page three parade starts in 15 minutes.
“And then we just get page three girls walking round in a circle in the garden for five minutes - that would be fantastic.”
Former celebrity housemate and racing pundit John McCririck is due to take the reins of the show tonight, while Russell Brand and Jimmy Carr have already been played Big Brother.
Animal Park
It is an important time at Longleat Animal Park. There has not been a new tiger there for 18 years and the programme showed 3 tigers being introduced into the park after a period of quarantine for 6 months. The tigers are sisters with very different personalities – one being quite soft and friendly (or so they thought) and the other two being more fierce. The tigers have come from a zoo in Alsace in France. Longleat already has a 22 year old tiger, who has been alone for some time since the death of the mail. They made the decision for the younger tigers to be in a separate enclosure to the older one.
The three new tigers are two years old and there were some concerns about putting them into the enclosure as they were quite lively and the operation was potentially dangerous. The manoeuvre went quite well but the friendly tiger – Soundari - had taken quite an interest in cars and started to chase them.
The programme also featured some Egyptian fruit bats having who were having some health checks. The bats were difficult to identify as they looked similar (there were 24 in all). The zookeepers has been considering different ways of identification. The keepers did not want to damage the bat’s wings and decided to try something similar to a bird ring. The bats were caught in a net and three of them had two types of ring fitted – one was plastic and one was aluminium. The keepers found the plastic rings on the floor and decided to proceed with aluminium tags. When caught, the bats had their health checks which involved looking for eye injuries, the condition of the wings and teeth. The Egyptian fruit bat can live for up to 28 years, but they had not been at Longleat for that long. The condition and size of the bat was able to give an indication of age.
Feeding animals at the park was a tremendous task and Ben Fogle helped out one keep. Whole horse hearts were minced and some sprats (small fish) added . Ben and the audience were asked to guess which animal ate this food and it turned out to be the Sacred Ibis – a type of wading bird.
Animal Park is an interesting look at how to run a safari park and see how animals are treated and fed.
Top of the Pops: The True Story
Top of the Pops was a national institution for more than forty years. A simple format, live acts miming (most of the time) to songs that were in the charts. Any act that had gone up in the charts was eligible to be on the show, anybody that went down was not; not even the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
Top of the Pops: The True Story tracks the story from its first programme in 1964, which was held in a church in Manchester. The first show included the Rolling Stones and within two episodes it was already a phenomenon. As pop music became enormous during the Sixties , so did Top of the Pops, eventually moving down to London and BBC Television Centre. A new theme tune, “Whole Lotta Love” performed by CCS, a new decade and new colour brought the seventies in and the classic period for the show.
With Britain in the throes of economic decline along came Glam Rock to make it all seem brighter. Each week the costumes on TOTP got more and more ridiculous with the friendly rivalry between Sweet and Slade bringing out the most outrageous outfits. The programme was must-see viewing for the whole family as these ‘modern’ bands were interspersed with whatever was in the charts at the time and that could have been Bing Crosby, who turned up once.
Apparently, for the dads, were the dancers. Starting with the Go Jos and followed by the classic dance group, Pans People, and eventually Legs and Co, they were there to sex up songs when acts could not appear. With a new routine every week, choreographer Flick Colby had a thankless task but delivered week-in week-out. The problems for her were caused by the rule that songs must not go down in the charts. As the charts came out at lunchtime on Tuesday and TOTP was recorded on Wednesday for broadcast on Thursday. This meant that a dance routine, that had been worked on for a week, could be scrapped and a new one required within a day. Literal dancing became the norm in these cases as the dancers acted out the lyrics.
Another source of controversy was the miming. The whole point of the show was the performance and having a perfect soundtrack was a good idea. However, some acts ridiculed it and the “Great Miming Disaster” of All About Eve made matters worse. Acts were forced to sing live and prove that they either could or could not sing, often the latter.
Changes of producer also meant changes of format, changes of theme tune and a loss of the original atmosphere.
Two latter-day producers, Ric Blaxhill and Chris Cowey, tried their best to redress the balance with Cowey reintroducing “Whole Lotta Love” as the theme tune. When he left there were further attempts to revive the show but rescheduling and dwindling audiences took its toll. The greatest pop show of all time was axed in 2006 much to the sadness of people that were brought up with it and the music industry that relied on the exposure to gave to its acts.
A legacy that Cowey left behind was giving TOTP to the world as he franchised it many different countries. One day it may come back to its homeland but for now it is no more.
Matt di Angelo lined up for shocking Albert Square exit
Details of Matt di Angelo’s forthcoming exit from Eastenders have finally been released by the show’s producers, with the dancing star set to bow out with a bang.
While the actor’s character Deano Wicks is currently in prison, he is due to make a sensational return to Albert Square within the next couple of weeks and it will soon be clear that a spell in custody has done little make him change his ways.
According to a source inside the show, Deano will return to a party organised by his mother to celebrate his release.
However, the bad lad is not in the mood to mingle with his family and instead orders his mother to pay for a prostitute he arranges to come to her house.
“It’s shocking behaviour from Deano, who’s become extremely aggressive since he’s been locked up,” the source told Female First.
“He’s not interested in catching up with Shirley - he just wants money. Getting her to pay the hooker is the final nail through her heart.”
The news comes as Matt and his dancing partner get set to hit the road on the Strictly Come Dancing Tour after they finished second on the hit BBC show.
Ladder 49
Ladder 49 is a film about firefighters starring the very talented Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta. It starts with Jack Morrison (played by Phoenix) lying on the floor in a pile of rubble, after his crew have attended a fire in a burning warehouse. He has hurt his leg but is trapped and his life is in danger. There are many flashbacks to his life throughout the film, such as:
- His first day, 10 years ago, working for the Baltimore Fire Station and the tricks that are played on him – such as one firefighter posing as a priest and listening to his confession regarding sleeping with women, and not being a virgin.
- The first time that he attended a fire and him being in charge of the hose of Ladder 49.
- Going shopping in the local supermarket with his best friend and chatting up a couple of girls – one of whom was to become his wife.
- The birth of his first child and his wife’s concerns over the daily danger faced in his job
- Rescuing a man from a burning building by climbing the ladder on the outside and warning him to calm down or Jack will drop him.
- Receiving a prestigious medal of honour.
After a period of unconsciousness, Jack is able to radio his colleagues for help but they are unable to get to him because of the burning inferno. His Captain, Mike Kennedy accepts the fact that he can not be rescued.
Ladder 49 is a touching story of everyday life for firefighters and shows the lengths that they put themselves to in order to extinguish fires and save lives. There are impressive effects and it is apparent that the cast and crew had plenty of training to ensure that the fire and rescue scenes were realistic.
Celebrity Hijack fails to draw in the viewers
The much-hyped new twist on the Big Brother format, Celebrity Hijack, has so far failed to pull in the viewers.
According to immediate estimates, the opening night of the show managed to attract just 3.5 million viewers in comparison to the 7.3 million who tuned in to watch the likes of Jade Goody and Jo O’Meara in last year’s celebrity version of the reality show.
What’s more, around two million people switched off when the show ended on Channel 4, with only a relative handful switching over to the digital output on E4.
The BBC One drama George Gently attracted 4.9 million viewers while Cold Blood on ITV was watched by 3.7 million.
In the first night of the show, Big Brother star Matt Lucas became the first celebrity to try his hand at being Big Brother, commanding the Scottish Youth Parliament chairman John Loughton to obey his every word for the duration of the evening.
On the back of the opening night, Loughton has become the bookmaker’s favourite to walk away with the £50,000 top prize.
Celebrity Mastermind
Mastermind has been running for 35 years and was originally hosted by Magnus Magnusson who was famed for his “I’ve started so I’ll finish” catchphrase. Four contestants sit in the creepy black Mastermind Chair with the lights turned down low and a spotlight on them. It looks like a scary experience and usually is. The contestants face two rounds of questions – one on a specialised subject of their choosing and another on general knowledge. The questions are asked quickly against a 2 minute timescale and the contestant can answer the question or pass to the next one. The person with the most number of correct answers after both rounds (or in the event of a tie-break the lowest number of passed questions) wins the contestant. The most famous of the winners of Mastermind is former cabbie Fred Housego, but Chris Hughes (who won the contest in 1986) is a member of the Eggheads team which appear daily on BBC2.
John Humphrys took over as question master in 2003. Tonight’s Celebrity Mastermind was part of a week of special programmes with each celebrity competing for charity and a trophy. DJ Spoony, Ghosthunter Yvette Fielding, dancer Wayne Sleep and art critic Brian Sewell took part. They had various specialised subjects from Henry VIII to Bob Fosse. It was interesting to pit your wits against the celebrities but it was surprisingly how low the scores were and the lack of general knowledge. Spoony won the night’s contest with a weak 18 points, but other programmes during the week had much higher scoring contests.
New Big Brother housemates unveiled
The latest line-up for the Big Brother house has been unveiled, with artistic geniuses and successful entrepreneurs replacing the usual fame-hungry airheads.
Brought in to replace the Celebrity Big Brother format, which was scrapped following allegations of racism, Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack will see the likes of Jimmy Carr, Joan Rivers, Matt Lucas, Ian Wright and art critic Brian Sewell take over the running of the house.
In addition to setting the housemates daily tasks, the eclectic group of celebrities will also talk to them in the diary room.
Among the dozen new housemates are a racing diver, a Mobo-nominated musician, a boxer, the chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and a circus performer.
Even this year’s beauty queen is a 21-year old member of Mensa.
“Rather than cast someone who’s desperate to be on television, they’ve gone out of their way to cast people who probably wouldn’t normally apply to be on it,” explained host Dermott O’Leary.
The winner will walk away will a £50,000 top prize.
Hollyoaks
Tina is feeling suffocated when Jacqui wakes her up early with pancakes and pregnancy advice, but Jacqui refuses to take the hint. She continues to bombard Tina with pregnancy magazines, even though Tina’s mind is clearly elsewhere, thinking about Dom. But later, Jacqui pressures her to take a pregnancy test and Tina explodes, leaving the surrogacy looking even more uncertain.
Warren’s presence in The Dog is causing a strain on the Osborne family, but Frankie demands a truce between him and Jack for the day as Newt’s social worker is paying a visit.
Elsewhere, Mike is worried that he made a mistake with Zoe the night before. When Zoe guiltily insists that she should move out, Sarah begs her to stay. Rhys, Elliot and Zak secretly sign each other up for the upcoming Mr Hollyoaks competition, but there’s a last-minute entrant - Mercedes.
Neighbours
A tired Susan is heading for disaster as she gets behind the wheel of the car in this week’s visits to Ramsay Street. Annoyed to discover that the family have left to go to Rachel’s Advanced Literature orientation meeting without her, she races from the house. But when she falls asleep at the wheel for a few vital seconds, tragedy looms. Blinded by tears after a row with Declan, Bridget is struck by Susan’s careering car. And to make matters worse it looks as if Declan is going to get the blame when Mickey arrives on the scene and sees Declan’s car driving away in an apparent hit-and-run.
At the hospital, the Parkers cling to hope - despite the fact that Bridget is unable to breathe without a ventilator. Is their any hope for their daughter?
Elsewhere, Elle tells Paul of her concerns about Nick and Laura’s honesty and is outraged when he continues to give Laura the benefit of the doubt. And unable to put the embarrassment of her attempted kiss with Adam behind her, Sophie wants to end their working partnership.
