'Terry and Mason's Great Food Trip' – On the Box

Sir Terry Wogan is living the good life, and he knows it. He’s worked his way up the tv and radio schedules to the lofty status of national treasure and jolly decent chap. He’s the sort of presenter it’s absolutely categorically impossible to dislike, with his warm tones, his charming manner and his often repeated jokes. He’s perfect for happy little interviews with the general public and asking tradesmen and restauranteurs “What is it that you do?”. Over the years he’s perfected his jovial, warm, interested style. He’s happy for you to know he’s on easy street and in this series he doesn’t even have to worry about the driving. Mason McQueen (sadly not called June) is a London cabbie and adventurer, thanks to A Cabbie Abroad which was shown on BBC2 last year. He’s not afraid to leave the confines of the M25 and, like Terry, seems genuinely interested in meeting people and learning about their trade.
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'The Daily Show with Trevor Noah' – On the Box

Last night there was a sea change in American late-night comedy. Young South African comic Trevor Noah took over at The Daily Show from the esteemed Jon Stewart. There’s been a lot of chatter about whether he was the right appointment (he’s not a woman, he’s black, he’s not American, he has a funny accent, he’s made some crappy jokes on Twitter) since it was announced 6 months ago, but last night was the one night that mattered.
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'The Gamechangers' – On the Box

A few words on The Gamechangers (BBC2) – a drama that I was pretty excited about. It was awful.
I’d heard that Rockstar Games, the makers of Grand Theft Auto and the subject of the show had nothing to do with the script and hadn’t signed off on it. They’d also taken to Twitter to slag it off calling it a rubbish new Rentaghost and asking “What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?” Oooh, I thought, maybe this drama hits a nerve, maybe it’s too close to home and they just can’t take the criticism.
Nope.
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'Country Strife: Abz on the Farm' – On the Box

In my very earliest post on this blog, just two months ago, I promised you that I wasn’t interested in the ways of celebrity. Despite the subject of today’s post, I swear this is still true. Yes, this is a reality show about a 90s boy band star – Abz Love of 5ive fame – and his girlfriend Vicky Fallon but there’s more to this little series than meets the eye.
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'Inside Amy Schumer' – On the Box

I’m coming late to the party on the hottest name in American comedy. Amy Schumer is a household name in the States and with Comedy Central UK advertising her stuff every two minutes she’ll soon be well-known here.
And she totally deserves it.
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'Hunted' – On the Box

Hunted was trailed hard by Channel 4. Almost as hard as the fugitives were trailed by the all-powerful surveillance team in the control centre and their operatives on the ground. I’d been really looking forward to the show but found the first episode a bit disappointing. There wasn’t enough preamble about the format or why or how they’re doing it. I understand they’re trying to make the viewer feel something of the chaos the participants are thrown in to, but the speed and the panic of being forced to flee their homes with only 60 minutes notice (Go!Go!Go!) was exciting enough. A proper introduction would have been fine. Thank goodness the production team decided each set of participants needed a proper trained cameraman with them. If this was all filmed on shaky GoPros like a British Blair Witch Project I’d have turned off inside the first 10 minutes.
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'This is England '90' – Seeing the Future

A quick post to add my voice to the many thousands of other fans delighted that This is England makes its return on Sunday 13 September (9pm on Channel 4). Reviewers have said that Shane Meadows’ semi-autobiographical film and follow-up tv shows have been so successful because this is a gang we all want to be part of. I remember being nervous in the council estates in my home town. Even as a child I realised I wasn’t a part of it. It all seemed alien to this emotionally repressed middle-class kid – the close-knit families who did enormous favours for each other with no complaints, calling your Mum’s friends Aunty, kids playing out in the street until all hours, shouting, swearing, crying, sometimes private tensions bubbling over into violence made public. You’d never have gotten anything like that on my street. When we were really cross we might tut.
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'Hunted' and 'The Gamechangers' – Seeing the Future

Spoilt for choice this week, and probably for the rest of the month. I love September and the new season of tv shows.
Hunted (10 September – Channel 4, 9pm) looks like it could be brilliant. 14 ordinary people go on the run from a team of expert ‘hunters’ led by an ex-Head of Counter Terrorism for City of London Police. I guess they’ll have to go totally off the grid as it’s so much easier these days to track an individual using mobile phones and the internet. Slightly worried though as Channel 4 has a history of putting ordinary people into extra-ordinary situations, and sometimes that situation is Big Brother. If it’s good I predict viewers getting properly over-excited and yelling at the screen like we’re all suddenly espionage experts. And I will almost definitely be one of them.
Also looking forward to a one-off drama The Gamechangers (15 September – BBC2, 9pm). All I know is that it’s Daniel Radcliffe as the video game designer behind Grand Theft Auto. Looks like it could be pretty good. And many congratulations to Danny Radz on the fabulous facial hair. Hagrid would be proud.

'Cradle to Grave' and 'The Goldbergs' – On the Box

I find Danny Baker (radio DJ, talking head and Twitter dick) and Peter Kay (kitchen sink nostalgia-peddling comic) pretty annoying. They both seem to have peaked years ago and now they’re trading on past success. So Cradle to Grave featuring both was something to be avoided. Mr H was a big fan of Peter Kay’s last tv outing Peter Kay’s Car Share and the classic Phoenix Nights (Chorley FM – coming in your ears!) so we watched it anyway and it was surprisingly enjoyable.
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'An Evening with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse' – On the Box

An Evening With Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse (BBC2)

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I love Harry and Paul and often find myself singing their Ruskie theme tune in the shower with gusto. They’ve got some excellent comic creations with accompanying catch phrases and they don’t shy away from uncomfortable subjects (racism, poverty, loneliness, stupidity). But this review celebrating 25 years in comedy fell short of their own mark. I could see what they were trying to do – when I told Mr H the title of the show he asked “Is that on ITV? – but it didn’t work. They impersonated celebrities and undermined the luvvie culture of these awful ‘An Evening With’ shows, and used the questions to spoof, mock and criticise their own work. I don’t think it was racist or sexist as other reviews have suggested, but it did make me feel uncomfortable, mainly because it just wasn’t very funny.