BrokenTV's Tribute To A Forgotten Comic Genius

Yes, we've finally got around to updating BrokenTV TV. And what have we added? Some of the best old comedy we've found, dating from the late 1940s. Viewers of Victor Lewis-Smith's output may well have noticed clips of old Public Information Films with a rubbery-faced old man...

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They Never Seemed To Select The Moneybags Icon

Here's something we were thinking of doing for a while. Remember The Chart Show? The pop video showcase that used to be on Channel Four in the 1980s (and then on ITV, where it wasn't anywhere near as good)? Repeats of old episodes are now running on Sky Digital channel The Vault on Saturday mornings and Thursday afternoons. It'd be handy to capture...

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Music To Eat Griddles By

We're currently sitting at home waiting for Johnny Parcelforce to deliver the Nintendo Wii we should be getting today. We'd be really excited, if it weren't for two things:(a) The parcel tracking page for the delivery in Amazon claims that it was actually delivered yesterday morning. No it bloody wasn't. Nobody was in, and no stupid little card was...

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American Television: Special Report

My Name Is Earl. American Dad. Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Daily Show. Arrested Development. Studio 60 On Sunset Strip. Lost. 24. The Colbert Report. American television is in a very healthy state at the moment, possibly the healthiest it's ever been. OR IS IT?Thanks to modern...

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Tiswas: It's Coming Back

MediaGuardian says:"ITV is set to air a 90-minute special version of 1970s children's show Tiswas. Presenter Chris Tarrant and other members of the original cast are due to be reunited for the one-off, according to The Sun. The return of the cult show will feature clips of the original, plus new sketches. However, co-producer Tarrant is said to be...

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It's a new find

New, from the makers of BrokenTV: BrokenFM. Like BrokenTV, but about music, and home to at least two good ideas. Only one of which was stolen from elsewhereIssue one comes with a super free gift for all boys and girls - a 99 track compilation that can magically fit onto a single...

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Accidental Rudeness News

Erm.You know, for ages now, we've been looking over the blog and wondering why no-one ever leaves comments any more. Over twenty people have been looking at the site every single week, and nary a "dude, where are the pictures of Beverly D'Angelo in the shower I'd Googled?"....

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BrokenTV's Nitpicky Review of The State Within, in Easy To Digest Chunks

The deleted final scene from the EverybodyHurts video finally unearthed.We're glad they stopped the shaky-close-up-on-faces-o-cam after the first few minutes. It looked awful.Was is just us, or did quite a look of it seem overdubbed? The dialogue didn't quite fit the action...

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Unexpected Blackburn Rovers Left-back Sightings

Is our telly on the blink, or is that really Graham Le Saux hosting Working Lunch?No, it is him. Blimey. How long's he been doing that then? We've heard of Garth Crooks fronting Despatch Box once, but again: blimey.As for 'how well did he do?', the odd bit of verbal muddlement,...

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Out and about with BrokenTV

As you may not be aware, one of the things that BrokenTV tries to do in order to keep it different from all the other meanderings in the ‘blogniverse (yes, ‘blog with an inverted comma because it’s an abbreviation of weblog, and niverse because ‘blogosphere would be a twatty...

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Waterlogged Pitch

So, as is tradition every five years or so, the BBC have announced some new idents for BBC One. As part of the tradition, several message board posters and the Daily Heil are ready to whine loudly about the fact the BBC has spent some money on something that isn't Radio 4, and...

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Rubbish Films That Are Great: Number 2

Only about a year after the first part of RFTAG (we're still getting hits from searches for "Beverly D'Angelo shower" y'know), here comes part two. And it's a cracker.Night Of The Comet (1984)Just look at this plot summary: "Two sisters, high school seniors in the early 1980s,...

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Excellent Adult Swim News

Tom Goes To The Mayor is currently showing as part of Bravo's Adult Swim strand. This is excellent news, as we mentioned in the headline just up there."This is the sound of my voice."It's a wonderful barely animated show (with occasional live action bits) about a well-meaning...

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BrokenTV's Belated Tribute To Patrick Allen

1927-2006For the benefit of those who didn't know (quite likely, as most newspapers didn't really mention it), Patrick Allen recently passed away. In case you're not sure who he is (you might be one of the people who still stumble across this site looking for information on...

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Lazy Idiot Journalist Thinks Of Fifty Television Programmes He Doesn't Like, Then Writes Them Down

As our ever vigilant readers may be aware, the Radio Times has paid John Naughton some money to hand in a list of the fifty worst programmes ever shown on British television. Presumably, he'd then forgot about it until an hour before his deadline, and ended up cobbling together...

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BrokenTV's Top Nine Titles Of Foreign Versions Of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Yes, nine. 9. Be A Millionaire! (Hungary)This reminds us of Tommy Vance's "stop being poor!" soundbite from The Chris Morris 1FM Show.8. Do You Want To Be A Billionaire? (Romania)Wow! Oh, it's in Romanian lei, and therefore a measly €28,000. Aw.7. It's Good To Be A Millionaire (Slovenia)Just in case you thought it might be rubbish, or something.6....

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Before They Were On Telly

So, another series of Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe is over, but not before an entertaining look at American television. It would have been better if he'd showed that focus group some of 'our' good programmes, like Life On Mars or Peep Show, but that wouldn't have served the...

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Test Yourself: Are You Excellent?

Find out with BrokenTV's super quiz!1) Been watching [adult swim] on Bravo?a) "No. What's that, then?"b) "Yes, now and then. Man, that Robot Chicken is something!"c) "Yes, but I wish they hadn't had that technical fault throughout what seemed like one of the best, most gloriously silly episodes of animated comedy ever produced. Man, I wish I could...

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Hey, sometimes you have to dip into commerical radio, because someone's spilled Russell Brand all over 6Music

At the moment, every ten bloody minutes on commercial radio there's a terrible, terrible advert that goes along the lines of:Teen one: Do you want one of these drugs I've got here?Teen two: No. N. O. Not now. Not tonight Josephine. Our survey said: BAHBAH! Nyet! [continues like this for about six years]I've always dashed over to the radio to switch...

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Beavers, Faggots and Lesbians

There's a title to get the hit counter spinning. Time for some YouTubey goodness from the 1980s.BeaversKenneth Kendall announces his fondness for Beavers. That is to say, an estate agent by the name of Beavers. Why, what did you think we'd meant?Please note: BrokenTV claims no responsibility for what might happen if you dial 100 and ask for 'Beavers'...

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Supposing...

BrokenTV was any good, had more than a cursory amount of effort put into it, was on television, and was allowed to use all of it's favourite music in the background (Vitalic: check, a track from the new Grandaddy album: check, the wonderful Summer Overture from Clint Mansell's...

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Three Bits Of Text Plucked From Media Guardian That Restore Our Faith In Television

"Hmm... fifty dull minutes of EU tax fraud, eh. Whatelse is on? Bah. Tax fraud it is, then."Sentence one:"On ITV1, PokerFace attracted its best ratings yet, when nearly 6 million viewers tuned in to see Sarah Lang win the £1m prize in the final."Good. It was a pretty good programme,...

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The World Cup Of World Cup Coverage: Final Standings

Best Player: Big Dennis Lawrence (Trinidad and Tobago).Not just because he plays for Wrexham, but because he did really, really well against both Sweden and England (er, we didn't watch T&T against Paraguay), but mainly the Wrexham thing*. Well, it'd be a bit boring to go...

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This Just In: All News Parody Rendered Utterly Redundant

Thanks to the wonder of Science's The Internet, BrokenTV has been enjoying Granada's wonderful 1985 documentary series on television called, er, Television. Not only is it an enthralling programme in it's own right, and proof positive that there was a time when ITV wasn't shit, but it also contains a snippet of the USA's first television news service,...

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It's The End Of The World Cup As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Much to the relief of BrokenTV's non-football-liking readers, the World Cup is now over for another four years. Well done for sticking it out, there's a treat at the end of this post for you. But first, the points from the final. Oh, and Zidane: shitting heck.BBC OneFirstly,...

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World Cup Things Galore: Part Two

Crikey, update frenzy.More YouTubed clips, this time of three World Cup themed adverts shown (as far as we know) in these full-length versions just the once.First, here's the full version of the Carlsberg Old English Internationals Wander About On A Pitch For Cash advert. Especially...

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World Cup Things Galore: Part One

Welp, to celebrate the forthcoming Italy vs France (ahem) World Cup Final, here's a quick scan of a page from the TVTimes, circa 1978, and their meeting in the first group stage of the '78 World Cup. Why? Well, mainly because we've bought two issues of TVTimes dating from the...

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Get Your Semi On (1)

In order to check every leak in the UK's World Cup broadcast pipe, BrokenTV (note to selves, think up a better metaphor for the previous statement), we've been listening to FiveLive's commentary of the Germany-Italy semi-final. Oh, alright. Due to accidentally agreeing to spend the duration of the Germany-Italy semi-final stuck in an office deep in...

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