TV Comeback of the Year

In the words of Eminem, guess who’s back, back again?

Excellent, eh? Next Monday at 9pm on BBC Two, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, the new series from Adam Curtis, the best documentary maker in the world whose name isn’t an anagram of “Nojh Gepril”. While it might be possible to sometimes have doubts over what he’s saying, the programmes he puts together are so finely crafted it’s near impossible not to find them utterly compelling.

One of the reasons we find his work so compelling is his mastery of the archive, eschewing straightforward news clips in favour of rushes taking in unguarded moments from major figures in modern history. Another is his expert use of pop music that we like throughout his work – when watching one of his short films made for Newswipe, we actually had to stop and rewind thirty seconds of it as we’d been too wowed by his use of Stereo Total’s “C’est la Mort” to actually listen to what was being said. Our favourite Franco-German garage rock/ electropop duo also get an outing in the trailer for his new series too, with the use of their track “Aua”.

To top all this, the trailer for the series also features a return appearance for someone we thought might never return to our screens. That’s right:

Not seen since the mid-1980s, it’s the long-awaited return of The BBC-2 Hyphen. Long since shoved off Britain’s television sets to make way for the slightly more arty “TWO”, which in turn made way for the bouncing, frolicking “2”, and latterly for it’s more sober older brother “BBC Two”, the Hyphen is back for a limited time only.

ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE Featuring* THE BBC-2 HYPHEN, Monday 9pm, on BBC Two.

(*Though, of course, the actual trailers shown on TV have the standard aqua-coloured BBC Two branding slapped over the end of it, so the BBC-2 Hyphen won’t actually appear on telly after all. Pity. It was a nice idea while it lasted.)

Sorry for getting your hopes up, Hyphen.

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Our Favourite Bit Of New Doctor Who So Far

In the latest episode, where Amy is in the retro-future Britain starship’s information room, a display in the background of Starship UK’s informational terror video looks kind of familiar. Look to the left of beardy-Mc-Info’s shoulder here.

Compare that to an old BBCtv on-screen ident, in use from 1962 until (we think) 1964 (when BBCtv would have become BBC-1 due to the launch of BBC-2, and would have needed a new ident). 
(image taken from the splendid 625.uk.com):

An ident which would still have been in use in 1963, when Doctor Who first took to the air. A lovely little touch on the part of the set designers, there.

As for the remainder of New Who, we’re enjoying it a lot. Never mind fretting over any plot inconsistencies, clumsy exposition or The Doctor hacking every computer in the world using a mobile phone, and just enjoy the ride. It’s back!

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The Unsettling North American Television Ident Awards

What is it with pre-90s US television networks, eh? They’re not content with merely having channel identities that look like the corporate logo of a sinister megaglobal corporation pumping out robotic vigilantes that go wrong and kill everyone in early 1980s straight-to-VHS movies, no. They have to ramp up the chill factor my animating them badly and playing in music recorded by (we’re guessing) a hook-handed killer given a Bontempi organ for the first time. In short, they make the 1970s and 1980s Open University ident seem cosy by comparison. What do we mean? Here’s what we mean.

Aargh!

Aiee!

Urg!

Spuh!

Meh.

Fuh. Though admittedly this last one is from Australia.

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Logo Police

The new channel identities for Skys One, Two and Three have been unveiled. And here they are.

Oh dear. Admittedly, we spend a bit too long on this blog doing little more than just slagging off new 'developments' in television, but when it comes to these they'd better do something pretty bloody impressive 'on-screen'. Luckily, going by the press release, there will be distinctive "elements" making up each channel's respective 'brand' 'identities'. Going from the article on Digital Spy -

Sky 1 will adopt "solids", where shards of blue come together to make up the "1", Sky 2 will look liquid, and Sky 3 will take on a "particles" motif. The channels' idents will be powered by a new live presentation system, with the various motifs highlighting content exclusive to Sky.

Mm. Given Sky's mixed history when it comes to on-screen presentation, we're going to embargo our opinions for now, as these could turn out to be surprisingly non-rubbish. We can't help but feel however, if someone had uploaded the above images to the TV Forum Mock Designs forum*, they'd be roundly vilified for being done in MS Paint.

(*Where, somewhat surprisingly given how it annoys us when it happens in other fora, the TVFMD people's short shrift of rubbish n00b contributions is refreshingly even-handed. For one thing, they always show their workings out when slagging off someone's stab at 'reinventing' ITV1's continuity, and there are a few talented individuals there who would be right at home working for Red Bee.)

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