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Betrayed by New Labour was Greg Dyke's recent Channel 4 film on the Hutton debacle and his departure from the BBC.

It made for an interesting sixty minutes viewing, and one that was very typical Greg. Heavy on style and rhetoric, rather light on detail. Or to put it another way a triumph of style over substance. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the most revelatory documentary you will ever see either despite the “edgy” handheld camera work.

It sort to give a balanced account of what happened – Dyke interviewing people from the Times and David Aaronovich (who were hardly people on his side) as well as people like Gavyn Davies – but it was very much a soapbox broadcast more than anything else. A fact not helped by the non-cooperation of anyone from the Government or the BBC, both of whom declined to take part in the film.

The most enlightening part was when Greg showed a private letter from Blair to him accusing the BBC of not being positive enough about the war (this was before the military action actually kicked off and just after the mass street protests in London). Suffice to say Greg and Gavyn Davis saw the BBC’s role to report the full spectrum of public opinion and not just be a Government mouth piece – it was an interesting taste of what was to come.

It’s pretty clear that Greg still misses the Beeb and is very angry about the way he was forced out by the Governors. He slagged off their subsequent apology, and laid most of the blame for what happened firmly and squarely at the door of Campbell.

Jon Snow recounted Campbell’s famous Channel 4 interview which he described as being the product of a man close to the edge and with nothing to lose (it was widely know by then that he wanted to leave No 10,) and there was a bit of pathos too with Greg going back to his old office at the BBC which is now little more than a storage cupboard.

However, for me, the most extraordinary thing was reminding myself that this all took place only a few months ago. Watching the footage and even listening to the interviews only serves to reinforce how many personnel have already changed and how much the world has moved on.

Not sure if Greg gets that or not – I’ve no doubt he’s broadly right – the dossier was sexed up, the Government put undue pressure on the BBC, there are no WMD, and trust in the Government is bordering on next to non existent – but the world has moved on.

It’s time now for Greg to do that too.

I was enjoying Series Three of 24 as it was - the last few episodes have been fantastic with the Russian Roulette sequence recently amongst one of the best things I've seen on TV in ages....

And then tonight with about two minutes to go they through ina whole load of left-field plot devices which made me just sit there and think 'what the f$%k'?

I now have totally no idea what is going on and where it is going - roll on next Thursday. Oh except I'm seeing Jools Holland at the Albert Hall - damn it!

Thanks to Mark for this...

New reality show starts next week 'The Swan'.
http://www.fox.com/swan/

Premise:
Take 20 mingers combine lots of plastic surgeons, personal trainers etc. and unlimited resources to see who can shed their mingiingness.

Nice.

Can't sleep, so just thought I'd post a quick comment about Series Three of 24 which is now two episodes in on Sky One.

I loved Series One and Two of this show - and although we're only be 2 hours into Jack Bauer's third longest day, things are already looking good. Friends be warned, I'm not available on a Thursday night for the next 23 weeks.... No seriously, I'm not. 24 is a religious appointment to view for me.

With this new series, I particularly like the fact that they've broken with TV convention by giving the hero a rather unpleasant drug habit (good guys are normally clean as a whistle, although admittedly we know that Smack Bauer only acquired this habit in order to bring down a drugs baron - so that's all right then!) and I also like the way the producers have given the show a different look, going for a much whiter and crisper images than the graininess associated with previous series.

What I don't like however is having to watch it on Sky One. I confess I seldom watch this channel, and now I can see why: the ad breaks are incredibly long, not only have they taken a 41 minute show and padded it out to last for a whole hour, but they've also edited the show at different punctuation points to the natural breaks put in by the programme makers and adhered to by the US distributor (Fox). As a result, whilst the show is good - the breaks - both their length and placement, makes for a very 'bitty' and broken experience.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that I'm not available any Thursday till September, but it also means that even more than with Series One and Two, I can already sense that I'm not going to fully appreciate this Golden Globe wining drama until it comes out on DVD.

I've not written any TV Reviews for a while, so thought I ought to redeem that with a few comments on the funniest thing I've seen on TV for a while: The Simple Life.

The premis is extremely simple: take two stupid rich kids from the city, and place them with some stupid poor kids and adults from the country.

The stupid rich kids in question are Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie – daughter of the former Commodore, Lionel Richie.

Episode One saw these bright young things spending thousands in the Dior shop on Rodeo Drive, buying suitable shoes for their farm. Their definition of suitable of course meant heels, but then these girls have led very sheltered lives – as they freely admit, they’ve never done a days work in their lives.

The shock therefore when they arrive (by private jet) in a little Arkansas town, is palpable. As indeed is their reticence for the work they have to do – slopping out pigs etc – for them The Good Life this ain’t.

Shot in a similar style to the US version of Blind Date – this is a suitably irreverent show – with everyone in one the joke bar the participants. It’s the usual fish out of water stuff, but makes for entertaining viewing partly because of the style, the astonishing ugliness of Nicole Richie (she speaks equally highly of me I’m sure,) and the rare opportunities to see some rural Americans on a TV show that isn’t Jerry Springer et al.

Then of course there is Paris, dear old Paris. As the collection of home videos which have surfaced on the web shows, this is a girl who likes to put it about it – but there’s no denying she’s a pretty girl – albeit one with no common sense, and a demeanour which reminds me of the IT girl Lady Victoria Hervey (fave quote from Hervey: "It's so bad being homeless in winter. They should buy a plane ticket and go somewhere hot like the Caribbean where they can eat free fish all day.")

Anyway enough of Lady V – back to Miss Hilton. According to Façade.com Paris and I are alarmingly compatible: "Physical 98% Emotional 37% Intellectual 99% Overall 78%" - (remarkably that's better than me and Carmen Electra, Sarah Michelle Gellar or Halle Berry,) although sadly I don’t have my own home in Beverly Hills, nor indeed my own farm in Arkansas. Still, you can’t have everything…

The Simple Life is on E4 tonight from 9-10pm, and with these two episodes repeated on Sunday at the same time.

No, not the film of the same name, but the excellent series on BBC Two - Monday at 2130....

This was on Radio 4 a while ago, and very funny it was too, focussing on the efforts of John Bird and Stephen Fry as spin doctors.

Well, now it's on tele, and it's chanegd a little - set in the world of PR and written by different people to the guy (Mark Taverner) who wrote it for Radio.

The first episode was terrible. Painfully unfunny. But, I stuck with it, and I hope you did too. First episodes of sit coms are almost always dire - too much time spent establishing characters, when often you just don't need to.

Having stuck with it, episodes two and three were great. The second focussed on efforts of two different Bishops to become Archbishop of Canterbury, and the third focussed (sub plots aside,) on a female Tory MP who wanted to restart her career (think Teresa May or Miss Widecombe).

Both episodes were very funny and droll. Lots of sharp gags, sly topical refrences and plenty of cynicism about the world of PR and the antics PR Execs will get up to in order to push their clinet forward. In short, these people have no morales - there is nothing they wont do. All publicity is good publicity etc.

It's well worth a look. Stephen Fry plays Stephen Fry (smug and conceited,) to perfection and John Bird does his permanently bewildered bit very well too. You can see biogs for their characters here.

Oh and there's a fantastic array of cameos and supporting crew too. So far I've noticed Mark Lawson, Charlotte Hudson, Millie from This Life, Michael Fenton Stephens (KYTV etc.) and Rebecca Front (from Knowing Me Knowing You) amongst others.

3 episodes to go - don't miss them!

The BBC One arts programme, Imagine, ran an interesting (if not very heavyweight,) documentary on the above tonight.

There was also an interesting article on this theme in this weeks copy of the New Statesman too, which I've just finished reading (but sadly can't link to as it's subscription only).

Their slants were somewhat different, but both worth noting:

Imagine focussed heavily on the desire US TV Networks' to find long-running replacements for shows such as Friends which finishes at the end of this season. The emphasis for the Networks was very much on finding new sitcoms which "had legs" and also would hit the right demographics for advertisers.

In fact it was interesting just how open the Americans were about the 'cash cow' status a successful sitcom can acquire (and that this was a highly motivating factor in making the show,) a point not lost on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Marchant who are currently looking to adapt The Office for the US.

The show featured some great footage from previously adapted Britcoms such as Fawlty Towers (with Basil's character now played by a woman,) and the cover version of One Foot in the Grave, known bizzarely as Cosby in the US. I say bizarrely, b/c whilst the Victor Meldrew part was played by Bill Cosby, none of the characters in the show actually shared the same surname (except in real life!) as the shows title... Bill Cosby's character being none other than one Hilton Lucas...

The New Statesman meanwhile focussed on the quality of US comedy and drama writing - noting the snobby attitude of Brits to much US TV when in actual fact their standards are often higher.

I confess I didn't entirely agree - there is a lot of rubbish on TV in the US, just as there is anywhere else. But there's no doubt that the budgets are bigger, and the scripts for peak shows often much better (and churned out faster). Look consistently at the quality of writing on shows like The West Wing, 24, The Simpsons, Buffy etc. they are intelligent, well written and clever / sophisticated in a way that I can't think of many UK shows...

As a final aside - it was interesting to note that Stephen Moffat, the writer of Coupling - first shown on BBC Two here, and then briefly adapted in the US this Autumn - is married to a woman called Susan... and the names of the two leads in Coupling, Steve and Susan.... hmmm.... not something I had spotted before - a case of life imitating art or the other way round?

Monkey Dust on BBC Three (Tues 9:30pm)
Several people told me to watch this, and I'm glad I did. It's witty, sharp and irreverant - by far the funniest thing on TV. Has the ability to shock, make you gasp and laugh outloud, all in in the privacy of your own home. If you do nothing else this week, watch Monkey Dust!

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Living TV (Thurs 9pm)
The makeover show that took the US by storm. It's basically a combination of 'Would Like to Meet' and 'What Not To Wear' as 5 gay men seek to "improve" a single male so that he's more fashionable, datable and generally less useless. The experts are camper than a row of tents, but they get results!

Perfect Match USA - E4 (Weds 9pm)
The best of the current crop of imported dating shows - more straight forward and honest than 'Joe Millionaire' et al - this has much more real human drama. Each week a panel of three select three suitors, each of whom gets to live for seven days with the girl/guy featured in that episode, before one of the the three suitors is picked to go on holiday with the aforementioned guy/girl. A fascinating insight into the NY singles scene - fast paced and plnety of romantic intrigue.

Also recommended:

Little Britain (BBC Three - 9pm Tuesdays) - characters and sketches which owe a lot to The League of Gentleman. Good for 10 mins, then gets a bit samey.

Celebrity Five Go Dating (E4 - 6pm weeknights) - utter crap, and most of the celebrities are decidely E-list. But I find it curiously addictive.