Trisha Goddard

TrishaTrisha has been around for a few years now and while her show is maybe not as controversial as the likes of Jeremy Kyle, she certainly does find some stories to tell! Today sees a couple who’s marriage has all but disintegrated with Kym giving her partner Dale her blessing to go out and find someone for an affair so that at least she can have him by her side most of the time. Trisha and her studio audience have their own special take on what is happening and who is in the wrong!

While Trisha Goddard was born in the UK, she emigrated to Australia at a young age and made a name for herself in children’s TV. Upon returning to the UK she teamed up with ITV for a daytime chat show called Trisha which literally threw her into the spotlight. The show went from strength to strength and while at her highest point she jumped ship to join Channel 5 as their main spearhead to grab the daytime chat show crowds.

“Trisha Goddard” as the show was named has built up a niche following with more and more people attracted to her sensible approach to love, life and problems. A quick look at Trisha’s own life will show that she relates so well to people because she has had a very difficult life herself. Recently it was announced that she is in fact batting against breast cancer, a subject which has been covered so many times on her show – how ironic.

Event though Trisha has taken a few weeks out for her treatment, in the time honoured fashion of TV, the show must go on. Let us hope that she makes a full recovery and we are all welcoming her back to our screens very much sooner rather than later. “Trisha Goddard” without Trish, that cannot be right?

This Morning

This MorningThis Morning sees TV’s funniest couple, Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield taking a look at the latest news, views and reviews in the world with guests today including Katie Price, aka Jordan. While these two have a reputation for enjoying themselves doing the show, something which is well reflected in their audience figures, they offer a great mix of serious debate and fun. Their candid approach to the serious interviews has brought many scoops to the show and today’s chat with Katie Price will no doubt reveal more about the woman better know as Jordan.

We also see Dexter Fletcher of Hotel Babylon come to the studio to discuss the success of his show and what he has planned for the future, with an insight into the man that has many fans off screen. Alison Hammond, once a contestant on one of the early Big Brother shows, is This Morning’s roving report and she meets Dr Roselle Antoine MBE, a lady who has dedicated her whole life to the education sector with some excellent results.

As well as offering a serious slant on some of the stories in the news at the moment there are competitions, cooking items as well as fashion gossip and tips from around the world. This Morning has done what so many morning shows in the past failed to achieve, mixing fun with serious debate, education with emotional issues and much more. Many people claim that it is the chemistry between Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield which has taken the show to another level, and a quick glimpse at the show one day will show you what they mean!

This is one of the longest running of the morning TV shows and looks set to continue for some time yet, although it has to be said that viewing figures have suffered in the wake of backup presenters taking on the show in the absence of the big two. However, as long as Fern and Phillip are involved in the show, success seems assured.

Crufts 2008

Crufts 2008While to the majority of the UK dog owning public, a dog is your best friend and part of the family, some of the competitors at Crufts see their dogs as their lives – with a win at Crufts opening the door to big money sponsorships and much more. Clare Balding, Ben Fogle and Matt Baker take us through the proceedings at day two of Crufts 2008, from the NEC Arena in Birmingham.

For those who have never been to Crufts, it is more than just a dog show with a whole host of entertainment and chances to learn more about the UK dog population and where they come from. When you also consider the fact that there will be over 25,000 dogs at this years show, all looking to be crowned Best In Show come the end of the event, you might start to get a feel for the size of Crufts 2008.

Crufts is officially the largest dog show in the world, something which is reflected by the ever increasing number of entrants. While it may be a little hard to believe, the event has actually been going since 1891 which saw the first show hosted in Islington. Since the early days the popularity has grown and grown, with the size of the event even surprising the Kennel Club (UK) who own and administer the event.

This year has been a little tricky with some controversy in the media with regards to alleged irregular betting patterns on the overall show winner. While these have been investigated and discounted by the authorities, it just shows how much attention the event is attracting not only throughout the UK, but throughout the world. It will be interesting to see which dog and which breed are crowned winners this year, and see if it sparks a demand for the winning breed of dog.

What’s happened to the Academy Awards?

Oscar StatueBy McGee Noble

A.O. Scott in The New York Times today said “The wonderful thing about the Academy Awards is that they are fundamentally trivial”. He has a point, at least intellectually if not financially, given that the winners involved can roll around in money screaming ‘they love me, they love me’. Anyway, his comment did remind me of some of the greater injustices of Oscar winners. My all time favourite example is 1997.

In 1997 the modern film noir L.A Confidential was nominated against some films that are still classics: the endearing As Good as it Gets, the unexpectedly moving, beautifully tempered Good Will Hunting as well as one of my all time favourite British comedies The Full Monty. Who can guess which film won best film that year? Go on have a guess. It was TITANICally bad. Yes. Against these four wonderful films, the film which won was Titanic. If ever we needed evidence that the Academy Awards was a trivial celebration of the commercial then 1997 certainly would be the year to hold up and show to our friends saying ‘see? see? Is there any justice?’ This piece of Hollywood fluff saw some of our best actors turn in their most absurd performances and also gave us one of the most cringe worthy acceptance speeches of all time (James Cameron’s misinformed decision to hold his Oscar aloft and say ‘I’m the King of the world!’. Tumbleweed drifted). In 1976 Rocky won both best picture and best director against Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. In 1980 Ordinary People won against Raging Bull (again best picture and best director). You may notice a theme here: generally the Oscars do not reward innovation in film. They reward the fairy tales, the heart warming, fantasy affirming stories that Hollywood produces so well. I love Rocky. I love it, I love the young Sly, I love that he wrote the movie and demanded to star in it even though the execs thought he was a terrible actor. But courageous, world examining film making Rocky is not. It is a classic Oscar winner.

Yet last night, something kind of weird happened. Not only was there an array of wonderful, challenging movies up for nomination, there was not a single commercial heavyweight among them. It was hard to pick which ones I wanted to win, because they all deserved to. Yet I wonder what this means for Hollywood when the films being lauded are universally outside the Hollywood model. I honestly like the Hollywood model, I liked Rocky, I thought Forrest Gump was charming, Jaws was scary and The English Patient was romantic and sad. Where are those films that once Hollywood did so well? The commercial, grand and heart warming? The divide between good cinema and Hollywood cinema grows greater every year and this year’s Oscars are a landmark in which even the Hollywood elite cannot find something to reward themselves for. A sad day for the fundamentally trivial, fairy tales of yore that once had the whole world in Hollywood’s palm.

The Academy Awards will be broadcast tonight at 9pm on Network2. Set an alert here.

To see the full list of the winners go to:
http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/nominees/index.html

Live Earth Concerts in 7 continents

Live Earth LogoWe have certainly hit the Festival season with Radio One’s “One Big Weekend”, Glastonbury and A Concert for Diana in recent weeks. The Live Earth concerts are taking place on 7 July 2007, in 7 continents (8 locations) including Wembley Stadium in the UK.

The purpose of the concerts are to raise awareness of climatic changes and Live Earth is the beginning of a campaign to ensure that people and governments take action against global warming. Former Vice-President of USA, Al Gore is head of one of the groups - The Alliance for Climatic Protection .

The concerts will reach a world-wide audience by radio, television (including the BBC) and the internet. They are being staged at:

Giants Stadium in New York; Wembley Stadium in London; Aussie Stadium in Sydney; Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro; the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg; Makuhari Messe in Tokyo; the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai; and HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg.

More than 100 bands and artists will perform and the Wembley concert will include Madonna, Razorlight, Duran Duran, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Snow Patrol and Genesis. Hopefully the concerts will be as successful as Live 8 in “Making Poverty History”.

Music fans have a rare treat this weekend with another festival taking place in Perth and Kinross, Scotland - the annual “T in the Park” from Friday 6 July to Sunday 8 July. Fresh from Live Earth, Razorlight will also be performing on Sunday and will be joined by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, The Killers, James Morrison, Mika and Snow Patrol.  Festival-goers can camp on the site, but it would be wise to prepare for the rains or catch coverage on BBC3, BBC Scotland or Radio One.