February 2009 Archives

It takes a lot to make me watch adverts instead of switching channels or fast-forwarding through them, but there are a few good ones on at the moment.

I laughed out loud at the 118 Ghostbusters ad, when they introduced farm animals to the scenario and sang 'I ain't afraid of no goats'.

Equally silly and amusing in the pun stakes is the meerkat telling us not to confuse meerkat with market in the ad for Comparethemarket.com - let's face it, animals are usually entertaining.

I even quite like the new Halifax ad, with the human pyramids handed out fivers. At least no-one sings in it.

I want to go to work in a water slide like the Barclays ad, which by the way features actor Robert Wilfort who plays Stacey's brother Jason in Gavin & Stacey.

But what about the bad ones? I can't stand all the bingo adverts. They do absolutely nothing for me and I wonder if they can persuade anyone to indulge in a game.

The Sainsbury's credit crunch family are patronising, and then of course there's the perennial 'you buy one, you get one free' yelled slogan for double glazing, which is just horrendous.

Saturday night and two new entertainment shows.

On ITV1 we had The Colour Of Money - or, put it another way, Deal Or No Deal with Chris Tarrant.

Both game shows involve boxes or machines that dispense different amounts of money, and both shows are all about luck and deciding how much of a risk-taker you are.

I can never understand why presenters talk about the contestants of these shows "playing a good game", when it has nothing to do with any strategy they have. They may pick a number because it's their birthday or a colour because it means something to them - predictably, the soldier's wife went for khaki - but that doesn't change what monetary figure is involved.

Poor Ryan from Birmingham missed out on winning £66,000, which meant his girlfriend Claire missed out on a marriage proposal. Maybe that was for the best, as you want someone to pop the question because they really love you and not because you're on TV.

Over on BBC1, we had Let's Dance for Comic Relief. A leather-clad Biggins and Nicki Chapman trying to do Grease were just embarrassing, but Robert Webb doing Flashdance, complete with welding torch, curly wig and leotard, was fantastic.

It was entertaining enough but, like most reality shows these days, had far too much padding and recaps. We could have had as much enjoyment in 60 minutes, not 90.

Thank goodness for Julian Clary! He brought the extra sparkle that was needed to the first night of the Birmingham leg of the Strictly Come Dancing tour.

And he did it by making the NEC audience laugh with his hilarious ripostes to the judges. That, and doing a spirited samba while wearing a bright yellow, ruffled shirt and shaking diamond-encrusted maracas.

He tried to get local support by claiming (falsely) to be a Brummie.

"I'd really like to win because I've never won anything in my life, since I was born in Birmingham 28 years ago," he claimed, before attempting a terrible local accent.

"I was born in Ladywood, a lovely spot."

That seemed to tickle presenter Kate Thornton, who kept repeating "Ladywood?" as if he'd invented the area for his own comic purposes.

We were with Julian when he called judge Craig "a miserable old trout", as he looked like he was sucking a lemon most of the time. And was it just me, or was Craig wearing eye shadow?

It reminded me how amusing Julian can be. Why don't we see him more often on TV?

SO Jade is our representative at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

She's a good enough singer, but I'm not sure she'll have any more luck than recent UK efforts in her bid to get more than 'nul points' in this ridiculously partisan competition.

She's a bit too normal. The twins might have been a better bet as at least they had a novelty factor. Don't forget, Eurovision was won last year by a man warbling while a champion ice skater twirled around him, and two years ago by Finnish heavy metal flesh-eating zombies.

What chance has a pretty girl on her own with no gimmicks?

But she does have Andrew Lloyd Webber's amazing song. Umm, about that...I've heard It's My Time three times now and I'm not liking it much more than the first time. It's not that catchy, is it?

The lyrics are a bit duff, too. "There's nothing I'm afraid of. I'll show you what I'm made of" is one of the better lines.

Mind you, perhaps that's what is needed for Eurovision. Last year's winner sang "I hope you're standing strong like a tree in the wind", so maybe cheesy lyrics are the way to go.

Good luck Jade, but I really don't think it is our time.