Glastonbury 2009

Once again, the BBC's wall-to-wall coverage of the Glastonbury Festival brought the mud, music and mayhem of Worthy Farm's annual hoedown to our front rooms. Fans of Neil Young, Blur and the law-breaking Bruce Springsteen couldn't fail to be disappointed with the extended highlighs of their respective headlining sets, while live performances from Lily Allen, Lady Ga Ga and Jack Penate offered the nation's yoof an alternative to hoary old rockers.

The problem with the Beeb's Glastonbury love-in, and one that has been an issue for a number of years, is the choice of presenters assigned to be our festival guides throughout the weekend. Apart from Mark Radcliffe and Lauren Laverne, the rest of the team - Jo Whiley, Edith 'indie starfucker Bowman, Reggie Yates and Zane Lowe - are allowed far too much airtime to look smug and self-satisfied while sporting the latest festival chic and saying absolutely nothing of interest as they attempt to fill time while waiting for The Wombats to take to the stage (note to Jo Whiley: you have four children and are the wrong side of 40 - hotpants are not a good look. Grow up!).

Take Friday night for example. Twenty minutes into the BBC's first broadcast of the weekend, we had managed to see some brief highlights from Lily Allen's set, a roving reporter speaking to a guy with a loud hailer and Reggie Yates telling us how fucking excited he was to be at Glastonbury! Now I'm not sure how much the BBC spend on having the likes of Whiley and Lowe holed up in their 'treehouse' throughout the weekend, but surely the money would be better spent having more cameras around the festival to record some of the action at the lesser known areas such as the Park Stage. With over twenty stages in operation at the festival, surely it's not beyond the BBC to be able flit from one to another, and therefore avoid having to return to Bowman and her pink Hunter wellies every ten minutes.

My only other gripe about this year's Glastonbury? The flags! Enough already!

The Chaser's War on Everything

Having hit paydirt with shows such as Kath and Kim, Summer Heights High and The Flight of the Conchords, this week the BBC introduced their latest import from down under to the TV schedules. The only problem with the Beeb's new acquisition, The Chaser's War on Everything, compared to these other shows, is that it's a crock of shit!

Started by Candid Camera and finished by Dom Joly's Trigger Happy TV, I thought 'prank' shows had been assigned to the television history vaults along with Top of the Pops and Brookside. Perhaps our Australian cousins missed that meeting.

There are two main problems with the show:the team of pranksters and the pranks themselves. In anyones book, this is not a good start. The pranks - including one set-up where a member of the CWoE team attempts to have a conversation with a member of the public whilst turning their back on them - are so puerile, that even Noel Edmonds would never have considered them for his House Party. My main gripe, however, is with the CWoE team and the cringe-inducing links that they deliver as way of introducing the next segment to the show. A bunch of smug, self - satisfied pricks I have not seen on TV since Richard and Judy were last allowed some air-time.

Avoid in the same way you steer clear of the Fosters beer deals in your local Tesco Express, as both will leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

Pulling - Auntie Knows Best?

The BBC’s decision, not to re-commission a third series of the superb sitcom, Pulling, is another example of Auntie not realising what they have got until it’s gone. The Simpsons, 24 and for a brief period, Match of the Day, have all slipped through the Beeb’s fingers in recent years, and when you start to think about what they have kept hold of – Two Pints of Lager, My Family – it makes the loss of these and other exceptional programmes a bitter pill to swallow.

Written by and starring Sharon Horgan, Pulling followed the fortunes of Donna, facing up to single life after ditching her fiancé on the eve of their wedding. Rude, crude and containing more visual comedy in one half hour episode than there is in a Mr Bean box-set, the short-lived series was a hidden gem awaiting to be unearthed.

However, Just like Julia Davis’ Nighty Night and Sean Lock’s 15 Storeys, two series was all we were going to get, and Pulling sadly passed over to TV afterlife otherwise known as Dave.

Get on Amazon now and buy the DVD box-set, you won't be disappointed.

Psychoville - Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Half way through the Beeb's new Thursday night comedy, Psychoville, I started to wonder how viewers would react to the show if they had stumbled upon it while flicking through the channels looking for 'My Cat Has Two Scrotum's' or whatever else is offered up as light entertainment these days. Fans of Psychoville's creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, will have been well aware what to expect through their previous work alongside Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson as The League of Gentleman, and will have been lapping up the dark comedy and creepy goings on during this opening episode. But what of the newcomers? The casting of Dawn French as midwife, Joy Aston, may well have attracted viewers accustomed to her homely role in The Vicar of Dibley, but how would they react to her character's relationship with surrogate baby, Freddie? And if we're talking relationships, what about the dynamics between the serial-killer obsessive, David Sowerbutts, and his 'caring' mother, Maureen? For those of us who have followed the journey of The League of Gentleman from radio to TV onto stage and the silver screen, Psychoville's collection of oddballs will feel strangely familiar,as if they were ex-pats from village of the damned, Royston Vasey.

Alongside unhinged childrens entertainer, Mr Jelly, an ex-pornstar dwarf and a blind eccentric with a penchant for cuddly toys, the show's six main protagonists are linked by a mystery letter dispatched from the local post office by a shadowy figure with exquisite handwriting.

Fans of The League of Gentleman will be well aware that Psychoville ain't going to be an easy ride, but for anyone just discovering the dark genius of Shearsmith and Pemberton's work, I urge you - even if you're having to watch from behind the sofa - to stick around until the end, you'll be glad you did.

The Flight of the Conchords - We Have Lift Off

After a sluggish start, and with a little help from French director Michel Gondry and 'Inbetweeners' script-jockeys Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the second series of 'Flight of the Conchords (BBC4, Tues) finally took off this week. Centred around Jermaine's blossoming romance with his new Australian girlfriend, Keitha, the episode was bolstered by two fabulous musical interludes that also acted as a reminder of what the new series has been sorely missing.

Honed over a number of years, the songs from series one acted as the focal point to the adventures of Flight of the Conchords - New Zealand's 4th most popular folk parody duo - as they attempted to break the big time in New York. With obvious nods to artists such as Bowie, Prince and The Pet Shop Boys, these songs said more in three minutes about the perils of living and working in the Big Apple, than anything released by the City's favourite sons, The Strokes.

Despite having its moments - Murray's friendship chart being one of the few series highlights so far - the songs this time around have yet to match the sheer genius of numbers such as 'Think About It' and 'Business Time' from the debut series. So it was great to see the show finally hitting its stride this week, with the 21st century disco of 'Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor' and a hilarious parody of Paul Simon's 'Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover' where Gondry's music-video past really came to the fore.

And all this without an appearance from uber-stalker, Mel.

The Conchords are finally airborne.

Big Brother 9

Summer has finally arrived with tonight's launch of Big Brother 9. Introduced into the house by BB matriach, Davina MacCall - looking like Cynthia Payne - the geeks, freaks and wannabes were welcomed by the now traditional crowd of braying donkeys. Anyway, if you were fortunate enough to miss the show, here's this year's motley crew:

Freddie - Matthew McConaughey
Lisa - Lisa Stansfield
Sophie - Paris Hilton
Kris - Susan Boyle
Noirin - Ronaldinho
Cairon - Pharrell Williams
Angel - Edward Furlong
Karly - Donatella Versace
Marcus - Waltzer operator
Beinazir - Pete Burns
Sophia - Gary Coleman
Rodrigo - David Platt
Charlie - Will Mellor
Saffia - Mother of the Year
Sree - Ben 10
Siavash - Tanita Tikaram

Roll on September!