Busy For Fun Blogs: August 2009

Which was your favourite summer movie?

Tomorrow marks the end of the summer blockbuster season, for all intents and purposes. I thought it would be interesting to see which movie everyone enjoyed the most, so here is a snazzy poll for you to vote in. The most notable "summer movies" released in the UK between May and August have been included, so that unfortunately doesn't include the likes of Pixar's Up (which has been pushed back to autumn here in the UK.) Anyway, get voting and check back on Sunday for the final result!

LUCY BUTLER WEEK! DAY TWO - EXCLUSIVE DVD COMPETITION

Time for a little competition methinks. As we are spending a week in the nefarious, yet utterly alluring, company of Lucy Butler it is my pleasure to give you all the chance to win a copy of The Entrance that Sarah-Jane Redmond starred in, along with a healthy contingent of X-Files and Millennium cast members I might add, and it's a movie I confess to having watched over and over again. Sarah-Jane is simply brilliant in it but kudos must also be given to her co-stars for such an enjoyable outing.

THE ENTRANCE begins when a young drug dealer (Michael Eklund) seeks out Detective Porhowski (Sarah-Jane Redmond) to tell her about a deadly game that he has been forced to compete in. Further investigations uncover a portal into a deadly netherworld, which is inhabited by an unholy entity who is out for blood. Be on the look out for other Ten Thirteen Alumni in the shape of Ron Sauvé, C. Ernst Harth, Jerry Wasserman, Frank Cassini and more besides.

Please Note: This competition is now closed. The winner has been notified by email and a copy of the DVD has been mailed to them. Congratulations to the winner and my thanks to everyone who took the time to enter.

To listen to love is blue as you peruse our Blog this week use the 'Love Is Blue' cassette links that will feature on every 'Lucy Week' blog post. Just click the link and a new window will open which will play the tune. Oh, and keep looking over your shoulder in the process eh?

BBC One & Three: autumn/winter schedules

BBC1 and BBC3 have released their autumn/winter line-up. For BBC1 that includes: five-part drama Criminal Justice starring Maxine Peake; Doctor Who's The Waters Of Mars special; four-part Jane Austen adaptation Emma; 18th-century legal drama Garrow's Law; a six-part romcom set in the world of fashion called Material Girl, starring Dervla Kirwan; Tamzin Outhwaite-starring sci-fi cop show Paradox; WWII romantic drama Small Island; Big Top, a sitcom set in a circus starring Amanda Holden; a third series of Gavin & Stacey; John Culshaw and Debra Stephenson in Impressions Show; the return of Hole In The Wall, The Graham Norton Show, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, QI, Live At The Apollo, and Merlin; the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing; this year's Children In Need telethon; and Around The World In 80 Days with teams of celebs. Read full details here.

BBC3 have new shows that include: a six-part drama about the sex lives of Glaswegians called Lip Service; Russell Howard fronting satirical news shows Good News; and a six-part series consisting of interwoven monologues on modern British life called Mouth To Mouth.

TV Picks: 31 August - 6 September 2009

Pick of the Week: "The Fixer" -- ITV1, Tue @9pm

It's September tomorrow, so the television schedules are about to fill out considerably as many TV shows return. Here are my picks of the best new stuff airing in the UK this week:

Box-Eyed: Shooting Stars & The X Factor

After a short summer break, my Box-Eyed column is back over at Newslite.tv. This week, there are capsule reviews for the return of comedy quiz Shooting Stars and talent show The X Factor.

"Time hasn't been kind. There's something a little tragic about Reeves and Mortimer peddling their brand of surreal comedy now they're both 50. It's difficult to keep a youthful, anarchic streak alive when you're middle-aged (ask Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson), so watching two crinkled men beckoning down "The Dove From Above" or singing in a "club style" wasn't funny, or even pleasantly nostalgic, it just felt tired and stale." Continue reading...

The Apprentice: Karren Brady, you're hired!

Following the departure of Margaret Mountford as one of ~~Sir~~ Lord Alan Sugar's "eyes and ears" in The Apprentice, it's just been announced that Karren Brady will be her replacement. Brady is already familiar to Apprentice fans as one of the business people who grill candidates during the infamous interviews task. 40-year-old Brady, the chief executive of Birmingham City Football Club, also captained the women during the 2006 Comic Relief celebrity special. She's set to make her debut, alongside her returning male counterpart Nick Hewer, in next year's sixth series.

Lucy Butler Week Begins: Love is Blue!

Allow me to introduce you all to a week of devilry and debauchery (maybe not so much of the latter) in honour of Frank Black's most memorable nemesis, the Devil's liege herself, Lucy Butler. I am a huge admirer of that character and of the outstanding work that Sarah-Jane Redmond contributed to our beloved show and it is an honour to be spending a week in her nefarious company (Lucy that is, not Sarah-Jane of course.)

In time honoured tradition we kick off our week of themed Blog entries with the music video we know you have all been waiting for. Josef has crossed the abyss and braved the foul stench of Hades itself in order to assemble this infernal cinematic offering. Grab the Apple Spiced Pancakes folks, it's time for Lucy Butler!

Now I know I say this every week, and mean it, but this is undoubtedly Josef's finest work to date and I do hope you waited right to the end of the credits? You didn't? Time to view it again methinks. So here's hoping you will share you comments with Josef as always, every new video he makes brings a potential new Millennium fan to our attention so we value, highly, his contribution. If he doesn't deserve kudos for one of the most mesmerising video intros I have ever seen then I don't know who does frankly.

So, here's looking forward to a week of fun, competitions, an exclusive interview and more besides. Till then, well, love is blue isn't it?

Mark

To check out Josef's Myspace page and to hear some of his original music compositions click here!

To see details of a competition to win a signed photograph of Sarah-Jane as Lucy Butler, click here!

To listen to love is blue as you peruse our Blog this week use the 'Love Is Blue' cassette links that will feature on every 'Lucy Week' blog post. Just click the link and a new window will open which will play the tune. Oh, and keep looking over your shoulder in the process eh?

Box Office Charts: w/e 28 August 2009

Glourious Box Office

Top 10 TV Downloads

Here's an interesting article from Broadcast, about the latest research into the most popular TV shows being file-shared online. The top 10 from this year, in ascending order is:

New Comments

As you may have noticed, Disqus have updated their commenting software, resulting in a nicer, slicker design. It's definitely an improved look and the behind-the-scenes functionality is much nicer, but... for some strange reason, my computer at work doesn't agree. A quirk of the new coding means I can no longer comment from work, so don't look puzzled if I'm a lot quieter around here...

Hopefully it won't impact your enjoyment of DMD too much, as I'll be sure to comment sometime after 5pm, but don't expect lightning quick responses from me during working hours. Out of interest, is anyone else having problems using the new Disqus -- at home, or work? If it's a widespread problem, I'll be sure to raise the issue with Disqus themselves.

Sky: autumn/winter lineup

Stuart Murphy, Sky's Director of Programmes, has unveiled the autumn/winter lineup for Sky1, Sky1 HD, Sky2 and Sky3. Full details can be read here.

Friend or foe? Introducing Lisa Sikorski...

It is always a pleasure to welcome new campaigners to the fold and this time is my pleasure to introduce Lisa Sikorski to you all. Pharmacist, artist and writer by heart. Take a few pinches of literature, a little dose of cute and add to it comic books, watching SyFy and Chiller channels, “Torchwood”, wicca, metaphysical studies, all things goth, being sarcastic and pondering the sanity of the human race after 20+ years of working in retail and the end result is a very entertaining and thoughtful Blog writer worthy of anyone's attention.

Did I mentioned that Lisa is a Millennium fan? Well she is, in spades and took time out of her busy, and wildly eclectic, schedule to support this campaign and bring it to the attention of her readers and we are indebted to her support. You can see the end result here and I'm sure you'll agree with me it is a welcome effort on this campaign's behalf.

So please do pay her a visit and extend to her a warm welcome to the family. Once again, our thanks to Lisa for such a generous donation of her time which we are only to happy to repay 'cos this is who we are (yeah, I know you saw that one coming.)

Mark x

To visit Lisa's Blog click here!
To view her deviantArt page click here!

More4 get Hung

More4 have secured the UK broadcast rights to HBO's comedy-drama Hung, starring Thomas Jane as a Detroit P.E teacher who decides to become a gigolo because of the impressive size of his manhood. The show will start in October, a month after the ten-part season ends in the US. I reviewed the pilot here.

The Fixer: ITV'll fix it?

Do you remember The Fixer? The ITV1 drama starring Andrew Buchan as a prisoner released to become a state-sponsored hitman? The first series debuted to 6.3 million viewers and remained fairly strong in the ratings, so it's a little strange another series has taken so long to reach us. Well, it's back next Tuesday (1 Sep @9pm), 16 months after the last run finished, so it'll be interesting to see if and how they've improved it.

TRAILER PARK: The Wolfman

Overshadowed by Avatar last week, here's the first theatrical trailer for The Wolfman remake, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. Worryingly, it's had a troubled production history (notably, original director Mark Romanek left and was replaced by The Rocketeer's Joe Johnston.) I don't mind Johnston, but I was more psyched for Romanek's take. It felt that the studio just wanted a safe pair of hands, so maybe Romanek's version was going to take some unusual deviations they weren't happy with?

Avatar Vision Proudly Presents: The Sound of Tears!

Well Music Monday™ has finally made its appearance as Tuneful Thursday™ (myself and Josef were actually hoping for Wednesday but we can't reveal the mooted name of that day, it's far too rude) and we know a number of you have been eagerly awaiting this. Today's cinematic outing is proudly dedicated to M.R. Sellars in honour of his endearing Catherine Black appreciation and after a week of ribbing him that this would be something of a tear jerker, it will finally get to see it isn't as maudlin as I have made it sound.

As always, we thank our resident video alchemist Josef for taking this campaign and continuing to plug it in the vast abyss that is Youtube and we hope you will feel in some way inspired to follow in his footsteps and donate a little video magic of your own. Remember this, reading an interview will not get this movie made, nor will listening to a podcast or watching one of Josef's superb creations. Lending your voice to ours, publicly, is what is needed. Write those letters, record those videos, send in those polaroids and lets bring this one home.

Dont forget to leave a comment or two for Josef, he really appreciates all the feedback he receives for his sterling work and keep your eyes peeled (ouch) for next weeks video it will blow you away!

Mark x

To visit Josef's Youtube page and check out his own collection of videos, click here!
To check out his myspace page and listen to some of his original compositions, click here!

Bye-bye, Big Brother!

Big Brother's days are numbered. Channel 4 confirmed today that their long-running reality show will come to an end after its eleventh series next summer. Celebrity Big Brother is also being axed after its next series in January. The channel stand to free up £50 million to spend in other areas, which they'll need to fill a 200-hour gap in its summer schedule...

CHUCK 2.12 - "Chuck Versus The Third Dimension"

[SPOILERS] Originally shown as part of a 3D promotion in the US, "Chuck Versus The Third Dimension" suffers from the distracting nature of anaglyphic 3D, which doesn't give a satisfying experience because it requires a bit of effort to accept its slightly warped views.

TWIN PEAKS 1.6 - "Realization Time"

[SPOILERS] Thursday 2 March 1989. Currently, there are three separate investigations attempting to find Laura Palmer's killer: Agent Cooper (Kyle Maclachlan) and Sheriff Truman's (Michael Ontkean) official murder investigation; Audrey Horne's (Sherilyn Fenn) plucky attempt to solve the mystery; and the trio of James (James Marshall), Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and Madeleine (Sheryl Lee), who here probe into Dr. Jacoby's (Russ Tamblyn) relationship with their murdered friend. What's interesting about this penultimate episode is how this triptych of sleuthing all result in undercover missions...

Free podcast! Millennium Group Sessions X(-Files)Over!

BacktoFrankBlack: The Millennium Group Sessions, hosted by Troy Foreman and co-hosted by Jim McLean is now available for free download via our website AND on ITunes!

MILLENNIUM GROUP SESSIONS SPECIAL: X-FILES/MILLENNIUM
X-FILESNEWS.COM PANEL DISCUSSION

Listen to the Mp3 on the BacktoFrankBlack Stream or download using the links below!

To download from BacktoFrankBlack.com

For the enhanced image podcast (with photos relating to the topics from a variety of sources - occasionally exclusive ones) for Itunes and Ipod lovers: C lick here! 25MB 104 mins)

For a high quality podcast (no images embedded into this one): Right click here and select "save link as.." (approx 95MB 104 mins)

To download from ITUNES

To subscribe to the Itunes podcast, simply load up the Itunes store on your Itunes application, search for BacktoFrankBlack and wait for the podcast to pop onto the list. Then click "subscribe" - you will need to sign up to a free Itunes account to do this - but Itunes does run a great service for podcasts of all types (including our friends ThaDarkSideVibe and Spooktalkular)

BacktoFrankBlack: Millennium Group Sessions SPECIAL: X-Files/Millennium

In this special episode of the Millennium Group Sessions series, Troy and Jim speak to the spearheads of Xfilesnews.com and XF3 Army, Avi Quijada and Tiffany Devol. They discuss the controversial X-Files episode, "Millennium", look at the differences with fandom, and just have a long chat about the two shows. A lot of fun and a great way for fans of both franchises to come together!

This free podcast is available on a weekly to fortnightly basis via ITUNES and BacktoFrankBlack.com. We'll naturally update you all on information on the podcast from this blog as well.

With ITUNES, anyone who has an Itunes friendly account will be able to subscribe easily and download the podcasts as they are released. We recommend the ITUNES friendly enhanced podcast because each episode will have its unique set of images to accompany the chatter!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG!

Strictly Come Dancing 7: Meet The Stars

The 16 celebrities participating in the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing were revealed at today's press launch. Click below for details:

TRUE BLOOD 2.10 - "New World In My View"

[SPOILERS] I'm not sure what to make of "New World In My View". It was enjoyable, but it felt like we'd leapfrogged a few episodes of credible escalation, and it contained many dumb moments. The Dallas-set storyline is apparently over, despite the fact the Newlin's still pose a threat to vampire-kind, as Sookie (Anna Paquin), Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) return to Bon Temps and find it's become a den of iniquity...

Lights, camera, caption: LUCY BUTLER!

Here at BackToFrankBlack we are pleased announce that a week of devilry dedicated to the one and only Lucy Butler will soon unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses (you!) To get the ball rolling we are giving away a fantastic signed photograph of Sarah-Jane Redmond as Lucy Butler that she has very kindly donated to the cause. To be in with a chance to win this Millennium goodie, all you have to do is create a caption to fit a scene from A Room With No View and the funniest entry from those we receive will win!

PLEASE NOT THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL OUR ENTRANTS AND CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER!

Mark x

PLEASE NOTE:

The Editors reserve the right to change the rules applicable to the competition at any time and for any reason.
There is no cash alternative to the prize offered.
BacktoFRANKBLACK can offer no guarantee on the delivery of prizes. There is no compensatory offer for any prize that fails to be delivered by the delivery services.
This competition is non-profit making.
No email addresses or postal details sent to BacktoFRANKBLACK will be given out to third parties.
Failure to comply with any of these rules may result in the disqualification of the entry. Editors reserve the right to disqualify any entry at their absolute discretion.
By emailing us your competition entry, you accept the terms and conditions of this competition.
Editors' decisions are final in all matters concerning a competition. It is a condition of entry to any competition that the entrant agrees to be bound by these rules whether they be published in the relevant online blog or not, and that the decisions of Editors and judges on any matter whatsoever arising out of or connected with the competition are final.

Fringe: Season 2 Poster

It took awhile to settle in, but Fringe became one of the best new shows last year, shortly after it started concentrating on its own mythology (ironic, given the fact Fringe was designed to be more standalone than other J.J Abrams-created shows.) Fox have just released a new poster to promote season 2 (see above), which includes lots of tiny clues if you look closely. Click the image for a bigger version, then be sure to check out FringeBloggers.com for the "answers".

Fringe returns to Fox on 17 September.

Doctor Who: David Tennant & Russell T. Davies interviewed

I know there are perhaps too many interviews with David Tennant and Russell T. Davies online right now, with the pair saying much the same thing as they travel around America on their "victory tour" to celebrate/commisserate their final year working on Doctor Who... but, this one from Boing Boing is worth watching. Mainly because it's a substantial 20-minutes long and in glorious HD. So jump in.

Richard Armitage strikes back; Skins USA

Richard Armitage was undoubtedly one of the best things about the BBC's fun-but-flawed Robin Hood, and now the actor has agreed to star in Sky1's Strike Back, a six-part drama adapted from the novel by ex-SAS soldier Chris Ryan. The series will co-star Andrew Lincoln, Jodhi May, Orla Brady, Laura Greenwood and Nicola Stephenson.

Are reports of Kröd Mändoon's death premature?

It was reported last week that Kröd Mändoon & The Flaming Sword Of Fire had been axed by the BBC, after Comedy Central dropped out of co-funding the series. However, it now appears that the show's future isn't so bleak, as long as Hat Trick Productions manage to find another partner to share the financial burden.

Jimmy Mulville, Hat Trick's boss, speaking to Broadcast:

"There is a bit of misinformation going on. Not for a moment would I say the BBC has problems with communication, [but] as far as the writers and the controller of BBC comedy, and the controller of BBC2, and Matt Lucas are concerned, we are developing a second series."

Mulville also suggested that Kröd Mändoon's budget could be slashed to help make another run viable, and that the BBC are behind its return "because it did well, it is a very unusual piece, and it’s got ambition -– and it’s got Matt Lucas in it."

TV Picks: 24-30 August 2009

Pick of the Week: "Shooting Stars" -- BBC2, Wed @9pm

My personal pick of the most notable TV shows debuting in the UK this week:

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