Gok Wan showed his extremely strange face in Liverpool last week, where he’s filming for his latest TV series, rumoured (by me) to be called How To Look Good Ugly.
Red and Blues premiere
Here’s an image of Suzanne Collins, Stephanie Davis and The Craig at the premiere of Reds and Blues at the Liverpool One ODEON the other night.
Film in Liverpool and Under the Mud
I eventually managed to see The Thing at Picturehouse at FACT last week, despite a crowded social calendar last weekend that involved three consecutive boozy dos.
I was grateful for the opportunity, and it goes to show the value of having FACT in Liverpool. The last four times I’ve been to the flicks there I’ve seen Antichrist, Moon, District 9 and The Thing – and I doubt Liverpool One would have given me the opportunity.
Tim Smit at Liverpool Philharmonic – Eden, Tony Bradshaw and positive liberty
I went to see Tim Smit last night at the Phil, part of a series of lectures arranged by the University of Liverpool as part of Liverpool’s Year of the Environment theme.
I’ve followed Smit ever since I read his book on Eden, an extraordinary, inspirational book about one man’s fight with nature, administrators, economics, common sense and received wisdom.
The end of The Street, says Jimmy McGovern
It seems like Jimmy McGovern’s award-winning show The Street is finished, following an interview with the Liverpool writer in which he said he was not interested in producing the series anywhere but the axed Granada Studios.
ITV has closed ITV Productions studios at Manchester, where The Street is made as part of the latest round of cuts. ITV has been badly hit by falling ad revenues and some fairly hopeless decision-making over recent years, with Michael Grade now on the way out too.
The last edition of Black
+White was to have featured an interview with Jimmy as its centrepiece, but our own round of cuts and poor decisions meant we didn’t have the cash, so it now lives on the web, though I also managed to get it in Tribune.
I’ve never printed an interview as a Q&A before or since, but the answers Jimmy gave were so interesting, frank and personable I didn’t feel I had anything to add.
Anyway, the Jimmy McGovern interview is here, along with a fair bit on the genesis of The Street.
Dave's Back to Earth Red Dwarf trailers
A lot of people come to the site looking for information on Dave’s new Back to Earth Red Dwarf episodes, showing this Easter.
A number of trailer are currently playing on Dave, so I thought I’d round them up. Here’s hoping it’s not rubbish.
Hush – new Brit thriller film
I’ve just been to see Hush – the latest film that’s got ‘The best British thriller in years’ written across it, written and directed by Mark Tonderai.
It’s actually really good, and without resorting to a list of adjectives like taut, efficient, claustrophobic and nerve-shattering it’s well-shot and pacy enough to keep adrenalin levels up, without descending into action-slasher farce.
The first 15 minutes are actually pretty bad, and calling the lead character Zakes is a bizarre choice that grates immediately, but stick with it. The film get better and better as it progresses.
Liverpool fan goes nuts over 4-1 Man U thrashing in Sky FanZone
Any Reds disgruntled by my reporting of Comscore’s rather mishievous figures regarding LFC and EFC’s website visitors may be placated by this Youtube video of Sky’s Fanzone from Saturday 14 March, the date of Liverpool’s dismantling of Manchester United in a 4-1 win.
Football fans are unlikely to change their opinion of Liverpool fans – whatever they may be – based on this video, which is marginally more reatrained than Sky’s awful panel on Soccer Saturday hosted by Jeff Stelling.
Still, at least they managed to find a Liverpool fan who’s actually from Liverpool, eh?
Scouse humour…
I’m reminded of scouse humour. Cheeky, funny and driven by a vague sense of righteousness. To a point. Beyond that it’s increasingly hard to separate from cruelty and bullying.
Twitter: A warning
There are probably a hundred articles about how Twitter is a fertile breeding ground for spammers, scammers, paedophiles, swingers, socialists and Jonathan Ross. I haven’t experienced any of these but received quite a shock when Noel Edmonds started following me.