Thursday night's Panorama pulled in one of its biggest audiences in recent years, overnight data has revealed. The Honeymoon Murder, examining the death of Anni Dewani in South Africa, was watched by 4.62m in the 9pm hour, beating BBC1's slot average for the past twelve months by not a little bit. Panorama, normally watched by around two to two and a half million punters on Monday nights, built to a peak of 5.1m as Jeremy Vine's investigation came to a close. 
ITV's miserable failure of a drama the three-part Love Life concluded with a modest 3.22m, while Mary's Bottom Line held a steady 1.51m for Channel Four. Nine hundred thousand watched BBC2's under-performing-despite-all-those-trailers White Heat. Later, Sarah Millican's Television Programme got 1.33m for BBC2 at 10pm. The BBC was solid against ITV's soap onslaught in the 8pm hour, with One's Watchdog drawing 3.87m, and Two's Natural World interesting 1.4m. Elsewhere, Channel Five's Europa League football coverage scored nine hundred and thirty seven thousand between 8pm and 10pm. Overall, BBC1 retained its lead over ITV with 22.3 per cent audience share against twenty one per cent.
David Gyasi has reportedly won a role in the next series of Doctor Who. The White Heat actor will appear in the BBC's popular family SF drama, according to the Evening Standard. Gyasi's past credits include episodes of Waking the Dead, Silent Witness and Law & Order: UK. He also played a minor role in a 2006 episode of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.
Joanne McQuinn is also listed by Spotlight as playing a character called Sadie in episode three of the new series. Joanne is best known as Sally Moore in the BBC series Mistresses. She also appeared in Little Miss Jocelyn, The Bill and Our Friends in the North. In addition, she appeared in the film Fierce Creatures. Other guest stars confirmed for the next series of Doctor Who include Ben Browder, Rupert Graves, David Bradley and Mark Williams. The next series of Doctor Who will also see the return of the Daleks, it has now been confirmed. The militaristic aliens that can't climb stairs made their last major appearance in the drama's 2010 finale. A post on the the show's official website has confirmed that several different versions of the creatures will appear, teasing: 'The Daleks are being wheeled before the cameras once again. But which design? The answer is all of them!' Friday evening saw a read-through for the current filming block, covering episodes one and five (the Amy and Rory farewell episode). As previously reported, the production team are to take their second international trip of the year next month when they film in New York as part of the production for episode five which features the return of The Weeping Angels. Meanwhile, production has continued in studio for episode one, the series opener that will feature the return of the Daleks. The teaser trailer this week included a brief glimpse of the Doctor's old adversary in the snow (believed to have been filmed in Spain as part of the shoot there earlier in the month). And finally, here's a picture of Matt and Arthur being silly. Which is always good for a laugh!
Beryl Vertue, the founder and chairman of the independent producer responsible for BBC1 hit Sherlock, has accused the television industry of 'focusing too much' on failure and urged it to ignore overnight ratings and to concentrate on other measures of success including audience appreciation. Sensible advice. Of course, nobody will take the slightest bit of buggering notice of it. Vertue, the founder and chair of Hartswood Films, blamed newspaper coverage for much of the focus on 'ratings winners' and singled out the Daily Scum Mail for particular criticism for what she regarded as its 'negative coverage' of the BBC. The paper had 'lost the plot', she said. Did it ever have the plot, Beryl? Well, possibly back in the 1930s when they were such big fans of Oswald Mosley and Hitler. Vertue was speaking at the thirty eighth Broadcasting Press Guild awards on Friday, where she collected the Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. 'The ones with the bigger numbers are the winners,' she said, of what she claimed was an excessive focus in the industry and in newspapers on overnight ratings figures. 'The public see one that wins over another and they say "I won't watch that then." Audience appreciation is very valid when there's so many channels, it's not a competition,' she added, saying that the phrase 'niche audiences' should not necessarily be considered a 'negative' one. 
'We should be cheering and talking up the good news and not talking about winners and losers,' Vertue said. She added: 'British TV is in a great state and I think we [give recognition to] TV from abroad more than we do ourselves. It may be a British trait to be modest but there's a difference between being modest and never praising people,' Vertue said. 'People always say that US telly is brilliant but it's because they chuck money at it. We don't do one million pound pilots [in the UK].' She added that the British tradition of making shorter six-episode series meant that this country produced 'authored' pieces. 'I think people are looking a bit on the negative side, a bit cup half empty, rather than than half full,' Vertue said. She started her career as a typist before becoming an agent to writers Johnny Speight, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as well as Spike Milligan and Tony Hancock. Hartswood was founded by Vertue in the 1980s and its successes over the years have included the sitcoms Men Behaving Badly and Coupling and the recent drama hit Sherlock.
Gillian Anderson has said she would be open to appearing in another X Files movie 'if the script was right.' Which is odd because it's usually David Duchovny who says that each time that his career takes one of its periodic lulls. Anderson played Dana Scully in the popular FOX series also played the character in two movies - most recently in 2008's dreadful I Want to Believe. Unfortunately the movie didn't win over the critics - or, indeed, many fans, including this author - and was a genuine, twenty four carat box office flop which put the future of the franchise in doubt. Despite the poor performance of I Want to Believe some fans are still hopeful that further X Files films will be made to continue the storylines started in the television series. Others, aren't that bothered and reckon it was a good thing in its day but its day was nearly twenty years ago and it's probably best to let it lie now. 
In a new interview with The Daily Beast Gillian has that revealed she would be prepared to reprise her role. 'If a good script comes along for another film, then I'm up for it, and so is David So is Chris. I don't see any reason not to do it if the script is good and FOX wants to go ahead and put the money behind it. I don't know if there's a script, I don't know whether FOX is even remotely interested, so it's completely out of my hands. But I'd be up for it.' Since The X Files ended Anderson has carved out a fine career for herself, largely in British appearing in a wide range of TV dramas like Any Human Heart, Bleak House, Moby Dick, The Crimson Petal and the White and mostly recently BBC1's Great Expectations as Miss Havisham. The actress also appeared in the critically acclaimed 2006 movie The Last King of Scotland.
Sir Tom Jones has hit out again at The X Factor, claiming the judges on the ITV talent contest are 'cruel to people needlessly.' Yeah. And, your point is, Tom? I mean, everybody knows that, that's the reason why many people watch it. Indeed, it's the reason why a certain number of spectacularly masochistic people go on it!
The veteran singer, now a coach on BBC's rival talent show The Voice, disagrees with the way Wee Shughie McFee, the scowling faced Scottish chef off Crossroad's format apparently pokes fun at unsuccessful acts. He told TV Buzz: 'It upsets me when, on The X Factor, the judges are cruel to people needlessly. All of us on [The Voice] panel think that way. We've all been through that sort of rejection, whereas people on other shows haven't - they're just hearing it from a commercial or a punter's point of view.' The seventy one-year-old has already criticised X Factor for its 'freak' contestants as well as the focus on 'pictures rather than the quality of sound.'
Meanwhile, Louis Walsh had confirmed that he will return as a judge for The X Factor's forthcoming ninth season. Walsh was among the original line-up of judges when The X Factor launched in 2004 and is the only one to have appeared in every series of the ITV show. Walsh has also, seemingly, confirmed that Gary Barlow and Tulisa Contostavlos will be back for the new series. Walsh is quoted by the Mirra as saying 'I am so happy to have signed up for another year. It's my ninth year, I'm the only person to be in it for nine years. I know for definite that Tulisa is back and Gary is back. I'm not sure if Kelly is back, but I hope she is, because she worked really hard last year.'
Lenny Henry has compared the works of William Shakespeare to hip-hop. With the bippin' and the boppin' and the baseball cap on backwards.
Y'muddyfuggin' bee-atch and all that malarkey. Word. Which would be perfectly shocking if he'd said it anywhere that people might, actually, take some notice. But, he didn't, he said it on Daybreak. So, fortunately, hardly anybody heard him.
Patrick Duffy has suggested that more characters from the original series of Dallas could be return for the new TNT revival. Duffy reprises his role of Bobby Ewing on TNT's continuation of the iconic 1980s drama alongside Larry Hagman as JR and Linda Gray as Sue Ellen. Also reprising their roles for the update are Charlene Tilton, Steve Kanaly and Ken Kercheval as Cliff Barnes. While appearing on Daybreak earlier this week to discuss the new Dallas - so, again, nobody was watching this - Duffy claimed that more characters from the original series could return in the future.
'Anybody who's still alive, the options are on the table to come back he sad. Producers have previously alluded to more characters, bar those already announced, returning during the course of the new Dallas. However, producers have - for now - ruled out the possibility of Victoria Principal returning. Principal played Pam between 1978 and 1987 when her character was written out following a horribly disfiguring car crash.
STV Productions has won its first ever commission for BBC3, which will see the company produce a new panel show pilot for the channel. T4 presenter Matt Edmondson will present Fake Reaction which will see six alleged 'celebrities' do battle with the aim of hiding their natural reaction as they face an array of unusual situations that test all of their senses. Sounds horrible. If they can conceal their real reaction and fool the rest of the panel, they win a small novelty prize. Gary Chippington, Head of Entertainment for STV Productions, said: 'We're thrilled to be working with the team at BBC2 on this enormously exciting project.'
The snot has significantly thickened in the legal action over who came up with the idea for reality show The Only Way is Essex, after it emerged that a senior ITV executive admitted the show was almost called Totally Essex. Although, quite why anybody would want to take 'credit' for creating such a horroshow is, massive amount of coin aside, unknown. Personally, if yer actual Keith Telly Topping had come up with the notion, he'd've gone and hid on an island in the Shetlands in utter shame. Former Big Brother winner Brian Belo is currently suing ITV and Lime Pictures, the producer of The Only Way is Essex, claiming they lifted the format for the show from an idea he developed. Bello alleges that The Only Way is Essex infringes copyright and is a breach of confidence. Belo claims that he developed a programme idea called Totally Essex, along with Sassy Films and Massive TV, and has a teaser video promoting a show that features many of those involved in the subsequent ITV2 reality programme. ITV and Lime have said that The Only Way Is Essex is 'an original concept' that they developed on their own and that Belo's claim is 'totally without foundation.' However, in a session at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last summer Claire Claire Zolkwer, the ITV entertainment executive who commissioned The Only Way is Essex, admitted that the show was 'almost called' Totally Essex.
'It was called Project Essex for the longest time,' she said, speaking as part of a panel on the series hosted by ITV breakfast flop Daybreak presenter horrible Kate Garraway. 'We went through a few titles that we weren't able to use or that weren't quite right. It was about to be called Totally Essex.' Zolkwer added that she subsequently went through songs on her iPod for inspiration and came across Yazz's 1980s song 'The Only Way is Up', which provided the kernel of the eventual name. All3Media, parent company of Lime Picture, said The Only Way is Essex is an 'original concept created and developed by an award-winning team at Lime Pictures.' It's also a pile of diarrhoea but, sadly, you can't sue them over that. On the Edinburgh panel Ruth Wrigley, co-creator of The Only Way Is Essex, admitted that the idea which was first pitched to ITV did not have anything to do with an Essex location. Before ITV took it on Lime Picture pitched it to Channel Four, as 'a cross between Big Brother and Hollyoaks,' but the idea was rejected. Along with the title Big Holly. 'At the time it was set in Bournemouth,' she said. 'It was set on the beach in a surfy resort. It was Claire [Zolkwer] who said "if you set it in Essex I might be interested."'
The BBC has announced that Sir Mervyn King, one of the most powerful financial figures in the country, will deliver the second Today Programme Business Lecture. King, the governor of the Bank of England, follows Barclay's chief executive Bob Diamond in delivering the lecture about current issues facing the global economy. On 2 May he will address an invited audience of three hundred Today programme listeners at an event hosted by Evan Davis, who will also interview King on the following morning's Today on Radio 4. The lecture will be covered by BBC News and broadcast in full on BBC Radio 4 from 9pm on Wednesday 2 May. As well as being interviewed by Davis, King will answer questions from the audience. The speech is not expected to be very long. 'Help, we're all effing buggered! Buy fuel and pasties and start building an ark' is likely to be the general theme of the thing.
Today editor Ceri Thomas said: 'I'm delighted that Sir Mervyn King has agreed to give the 2012 BBC Today Lecture. He's been at the centre of public life in this country through some of the most difficult economic times we've ever known. This is a great opportunity to hear his views and put directly to him some of our listeners' concerns.' King added: 'I am delighted to have been asked to give the 2012 BBC Today Lecture and to have the opportunity to speak directly to a national radio audience.' And tell them just exactly how deep the clarts we're all in is. Details on how to apply for tickets to the event will be published on the Today website closer to the time, said the BBC. Also this week, King warned that the UK economy is likely to 'contract' between April and June this year due to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee bank holiday. Speaking at the House of Lords' Economic Affairs Committee, he forecast a repeat of what happened last year, when the Royal Wedding bank holiday caused a blip in economic output.
David Tennant and Sir Richard Branson are to star in a new Virgin Media advertising campaign highlighting the firm's 'Collections' bundles, featuring superfast broadband and the TiVo service. Launching in April, Collections marks a complete revamp of Virgin Media's consumer bundles of broadband, landline and television. It is intended to better highlight recent upgrades in the cable operator's broadband infrastructure and the growth of TiVo. The company has created new Essential, Premiere and VIP Collections featuring different service combinations, including the first time integration of TiVo, which has attracted almost half a million subscribers since its launch as a standalone upgrade in late 2010. To promote the launch, former Doctor Who star Tennant has agreed to help Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson 'conquer time travel' in a new marketing campaign. The first advert, due to premiere on Saturday night during Britain's Got Talent on ITV, features Tennant using the TiVo service to explore his own back catalogue, while Sir Richard 'makes a time travel discovery of his very own.'
That he should've signed The Clash when he had the chance in 1977, perhaps?! Further adverts feature the two stars in a calm, meditative state due to the fact that Sky content such as Sky1 and Sky Anytime is included in the Collections as standard, while another has Tennant showcasing the high definition channels available on Virgin's TV platform by going underwater. Virgin Media director of advertising and sponsorship Richard Larcombe said: 'Building on the huge success of our recent TiVo campaign and Usain Bolt and Richard in our superfast broadband ads, the new Collections creative brings together the best of both in a fully integrated offering. The new work uses the superiority of our products to deliver on value, simplicity and choice, all signed and sealed with a Virgin sense of humour!' Well, they're sponsoring yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though still unsellable) Magpies so they must have a sense of humour.
The government has changed its advice to motorists to top up petrol tanks after two days of panic buying. It says that this is 'no longer urgent' after the Unite union ruled out a strike by its tanker drivers over Easter. Meanwhile, several Labour MPs have called for Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude to resign for earlier advising storing petrol in jerrycans. A York woman, who suffered severe burns while decanting petrol at her home from just such a jerrycan, remains critically ill in hospital. On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron told motorists to 'top up' their tanks in case of a strike, leading to long queues at petrol stations across the country. And much annoyance amongst motorists. Up to a third of garages were reportedly forced to turn people away after stocks ran out. Which anybody with half-a-frigging-brain in their heads could have predicted would happen. Unfortunately, having half a brain in their collective head would be giving the government far too much credit. The GMB union said that some ambulance drivers were having problems getting fuel - the government, though, insisted services were 'continuing as normal.' But a spokesman from the London Ambulance Service said this was a total load of tripe, noting: 'We are not experiencing any particular difficulties in refuelling vehicles at the moment.' He added the service was 'holding reserve fuel' in case of any future industrial action. Although, hopefully, not in jerrycans. Demand for petrol now seems to be waning - down from a one hundred and seventy two per cent rise on Thursday to a twenty eight per cent rise on Friday, according to independent retailers' group RMI Petrol. The AA described 'a rapidly improving picture at fuel stations.' A spokesman said: 'The advice for drivers is to resume your normal buying patterns and to adhere to regulations on how much fuel you can carry and store.' However, the BBC had reports on Saturday of queues and shortages continuing at petrol stations in Leeds, Tonbridge in Kent, Egham in Surrey, Bromley, Finchampstead in Berkshire and St Albans in Hertfordshire. There are also reports of stations increasing fuel prices, and limiting sales. In Guildford, one petrol station is reported to be refusing to sell motorists any more than twenty five smackers worth of fuel. Which, at current prices, is about enough to get a car from one end of the street to the other. Motoring experts now warn of a two to three day backlog as hauliers attempt to refuel petrol stations. A BP spokesperson also said there had been a reduction in demand on the forecourts but it still had a few sites which had completely run out of stock and were awaiting deliveries.
In the meantime, Unite would need to give seven days' notice if they plan to strike after Easter. A political row has broken out in response to Maude's comments earlier in the week. Senior Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin said that he thought the government may have been trying to divert peoples' attention away from a difficult week for the Tory party and the coalition. 'Really there should not have been any move to encourage people to buy more than they normally buy without consulting the industry first, and I think that was the mistake,' he said. John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, Karl Turner, MP for Hull East, and Labour Lord Toby Harris are among those who have called for Maude to resign if it turns out his comments contributed to the burns accident suffered by forty six-year-old Diane Hill. She was seriously injured after petrol ignited as she poured it from a jerrycan into another in her kitchen. The cooker was on and the petrol fumes ignited. She was treated for forty per cent burns at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. Mann said: '[Francis Maude] was whipping up hysteria, which caused the queues as well. But he went further, and gave out advice that was wrong.' Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi responded angrily to the calls for Maude to stand down and accused Labour of attempting to score 'political points' out of a 'personal tragedy.' Which, of course, is something no Tory politician has ever done. Oh, no, very hot water. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that the government had 'mishandled' the row between the tanker drivers and their employers and there should have been more attempt for talks between the parties involved. 
'Starting to say instead fill up your tank, causing panic, getting out the jerrycans, has led to the queues, to the shortages, to the running out of petrol.' Adair Lewis from the Fire Protection Association told the BBC that Ms Hill's accident was a 'wake-up call to us all,' adding: 'Petrol should only ever be bought in proper containers made for that purpose. There is no place for petrol inside your home.' The Department for Energy and Climate Change said: 'There is no urgency to top up your tank, a strike will not happen over Easter.' The rules on fuel tanker drivers' hours have been temporarily relaxed to help the transport of supplies to filling stations. Under EU rules, drivers are limited to nine hours on the road each day, but this has now been raised to eleven hours. The new rules will apply until Thursday and have been introduced after requests from the fuel supply industry. Unite's drivers, who deliver fuel to Shell and Esso garages and supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, have called for minimum working conditions covering pay, hours, holiday and redundancy. Some ninety per cent of UK forecourts are supplied by Unite's approximately two thousand members involved in the dispute.
David Yates has insisted he is still working on the proposed Doctor Who movie but doesn't expect it to materialise at cinemas any time soon. Last year the press got itself all excited and discombobulated when it was revealed that the BBC were developing a Doctor Who movie and that Yates would helm the project. The fact that the BBC were developing a Doctor Who movie shouldn't really have come as a surprise to the press - the BBC have been pushing in that direction for many years but the project had become been stuck in 'development hell.' Indeed, as one fandom wag noted at the time, you can always tell how long someone has been a Doctor Who fan by the number of Doctor Who movie proposals have become public - and, briefly, a major news story - since they started watching the show. In yer actual Keith Telly Topping's case, I think I'm up to seven. Possibly eight. When Yates's name became associated with the project the press began speculating - based on a stray comment that Yates made at the time - that the movie would be a reboot of the television series rather than a spin-off and would not star Matt Smith - or whoever the current doctor was at the time of its filming. Predictably the press began to speculate as to whom would be cast in a big-screen version. With - usually - hilarious consequences.
However, in the several months since news regarding the project has all but dried up. In a new interview with Bleeding Cool Yates who made his name of the superb BBC drama State of Play before going on to direct several Harry Potter movies - has revealed he is still working on the project but, crucially, he expects it to take five or six years to develop. 'I'm definitely doing a Doctor Who movie. But I think where everyone got confused was that we're not making it for five years, or six years — it's a very slow development. I've got projects backed up between now and about 2015, and it's something I'm very passionate and excited about.' Yates praised Doctor Who's current show-runner Steven Moffat. 'Stephen's [sic] a genius. I love his work, I think he's incredibly clever. I love what he's done with Doctor Who, love his Sherlock Holmes. He's such a gifted man. But this is something that's a very slow burn and I'm hoping to sit down with him at some point and have a chat. It's just something that we've been talking about for a little while.'
Like most other half way decent football supporters with a heart beating in their chest (you know, apart from the scum that post racist comments on Twitter), yer actual Keith Telly Topping was horrified to hear about Aston Villa's Stiliyan Petrov being diagnosed with leukaemia. Once again, as we've noted a few times this last few months, its at times like this that it's really worth reflecting that football, genuinely great game that it is, is still only a game. Petrov attended Saturday's home Premier League clash with Chelsea - the day after being diagnosed. 'Football is over, this is the end,' the Villa midfielder has been quoted as saying in the Bulgarian sports daily Tema Sport. 'I am now beginning to fight for my life and I will fight.' Petrov, thirty two, who has been capped over one hundred times by Bulgaria, revealed that he felt a strange headache during the first half of Villa's 3-0 defeat by Arsenal last Saturday and the team doctor had even suggested a half-time substitution. 'I lost my energy early in the second half and it was very unusual for me,' Petrov said. 'But this is life. And I also would like to thank everyone for the support from all over.' An avalanche of support has poured in for the player from all parts of the world. Bulgaria national team doctor, Mihail Iliev, said Petrov would be examined in London today and treatment for the illness will start on Monday.
Paul McCartney is to purchase John Lennon's old art college building. Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, plans to buy the former Liverpool College of Art for £3.7m to 'expand its teaching space.' The Grade II listed building is adjacent to LIPA's Mount Street site. LIPA opened in 1995 in Liverpool city centre in what had been Liverpool Institute for Boys, the school attended by Sir Paul and George Harrison in the 1950s. It currently trains almost seven hundred degree and sixty two foundation certificate students as well as offering part-time performing arts classes for young people. Well-known alcoholic wife-beating Scouse junkie Lennon (occasionally) attended the adjacent The Liverpool College of Art in the 1950s along with his future wife, Cynthia Powell and Stuart Sutcliffe, The Be-Atles' original bassist. The building is currently owned by Liverpool John Moores University. LIPA plans to use the additional space for dance tuition and a studio theatre. Mark Featherstone-Witty, LIPA CEO and founding principal, said: 'There are sound business reasons why we are buying the building next door, but there's no denying the romance of bringing together two buildings where three Beatles once did their learning.
I'm glad that this historic building will not become yet another boutique hotel or, yet again, be turned into flats. It'll be used for what it was intended: learning. I've mentioned this to Paul, who is supportive. The Liverpool College of Art developed historically from The Liverpool Institute for Boys, when the art classes outgrew their allocated space. Now, for the second time, both buildings are united and we'll ensure this unity will last.'
And, speaking of yer actual Macca his very self, he was joined onstage by Paul Weller, Rolling Stones' guitarist Ronnie Wood and The Who's Roger Daltrey during his set at London's Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night. The former Be-Atles bassist, who was playing the show as part of this year's run of Teenage Cancer Trust gigs, was joined by the trio of Goddamn rock legends for a rendition of 'Get Back'. Skill. You can see video footage of the onstage collaboration here.
It was the second time in recent months that Rockin' Ronnie has performed the song live with McCartney, after he joined him onstage at London's O2 Arena in December last year. The full set, which featured thirty songs in all, drew from across McCartney's career and included a cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady'. He played twenty Beatles tunes as well as songs from Wings, The Firemen and 'My Valentine', from his latest studio album Kisses On The Bottom.
And, still on the subject of the The B-Atles, a West End show, featuring several of their hits, is to be staged to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the band's first single. 'Love Me Do' was released, of course, in October 1962 ) Red Parlophone label - now worth about twenty notes a throw in mint condition, apparently), reaching number seventeen in the UK chart.
It was, two years later, a US number one. Let It Be will open for a limited period from September at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. It is said by various press outlets to be the first time that the theatrical rights to The Be-Atles' back catalogue have been granted for a West End show although, I'm not actually sure that's true. Didn't Beatlemania get quite a lengthy West End run in the late 1970s? Video footage will be used to to tell the story of the band's rise to fame, alongside performances of some of their most well known hits, such as 'Yesterday', 'Come Together' and 'Hey Jude'. But, probably not 'Helter Skelter'. Or, indeed, 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. Let It Be will run from 14 September until 19 January 2013.
After three stories about The Be-Atles (popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them), I suppose we'd better have today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day and make it something from the, ahem, Merseybeat oeuvre. Play them Rickenbackers, boys. And remember, kids, it's quite possible one of these women is your grandmother.
ITV's miserable failure of a drama the three-part Love Life concluded with a modest 3.22m, while Mary's Bottom Line held a steady 1.51m for Channel Four. Nine hundred thousand watched BBC2's under-performing-despite-all-those-trailers White Heat. Later, Sarah Millican's Television Programme got 1.33m for BBC2 at 10pm. The BBC was solid against ITV's soap onslaught in the 8pm hour, with One's Watchdog drawing 3.87m, and Two's Natural World interesting 1.4m. Elsewhere, Channel Five's Europa League football coverage scored nine hundred and thirty seven thousand between 8pm and 10pm. Overall, BBC1 retained its lead over ITV with 22.3 per cent audience share against twenty one per cent. David Gyasi has reportedly won a role in the next series of Doctor Who. The White Heat actor will appear in the BBC's popular family SF drama, according to the Evening Standard. Gyasi's past credits include episodes of Waking the Dead, Silent Witness and Law & Order: UK. He also played a minor role in a 2006 episode of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.
Joanne McQuinn is also listed by Spotlight as playing a character called Sadie in episode three of the new series. Joanne is best known as Sally Moore in the BBC series Mistresses. She also appeared in Little Miss Jocelyn, The Bill and Our Friends in the North. In addition, she appeared in the film Fierce Creatures. Other guest stars confirmed for the next series of Doctor Who include Ben Browder, Rupert Graves, David Bradley and Mark Williams. The next series of Doctor Who will also see the return of the Daleks, it has now been confirmed. The militaristic aliens that can't climb stairs made their last major appearance in the drama's 2010 finale. A post on the the show's official website has confirmed that several different versions of the creatures will appear, teasing: 'The Daleks are being wheeled before the cameras once again. But which design? The answer is all of them!' Friday evening saw a read-through for the current filming block, covering episodes one and five (the Amy and Rory farewell episode). As previously reported, the production team are to take their second international trip of the year next month when they film in New York as part of the production for episode five which features the return of The Weeping Angels. Meanwhile, production has continued in studio for episode one, the series opener that will feature the return of the Daleks. The teaser trailer this week included a brief glimpse of the Doctor's old adversary in the snow (believed to have been filmed in Spain as part of the shoot there earlier in the month). And finally, here's a picture of Matt and Arthur being silly. Which is always good for a laugh!
'We should be cheering and talking up the good news and not talking about winners and losers,' Vertue said. She added: 'British TV is in a great state and I think we [give recognition to] TV from abroad more than we do ourselves. It may be a British trait to be modest but there's a difference between being modest and never praising people,' Vertue said. 'People always say that US telly is brilliant but it's because they chuck money at it. We don't do one million pound pilots [in the UK].' She added that the British tradition of making shorter six-episode series meant that this country produced 'authored' pieces. 'I think people are looking a bit on the negative side, a bit cup half empty, rather than than half full,' Vertue said. She started her career as a typist before becoming an agent to writers Johnny Speight, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as well as Spike Milligan and Tony Hancock. Hartswood was founded by Vertue in the 1980s and its successes over the years have included the sitcoms Men Behaving Badly and Coupling and the recent drama hit Sherlock.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast Gillian has that revealed she would be prepared to reprise her role. 'If a good script comes along for another film, then I'm up for it, and so is David So is Chris. I don't see any reason not to do it if the script is good and FOX wants to go ahead and put the money behind it. I don't know if there's a script, I don't know whether FOX is even remotely interested, so it's completely out of my hands. But I'd be up for it.' Since The X Files ended Anderson has carved out a fine career for herself, largely in British appearing in a wide range of TV dramas like Any Human Heart, Bleak House, Moby Dick, The Crimson Petal and the White and mostly recently BBC1's Great Expectations as Miss Havisham. The actress also appeared in the critically acclaimed 2006 movie The Last King of Scotland. Sir Tom Jones has hit out again at The X Factor, claiming the judges on the ITV talent contest are 'cruel to people needlessly.' Yeah. And, your point is, Tom? I mean, everybody knows that, that's the reason why many people watch it. Indeed, it's the reason why a certain number of spectacularly masochistic people go on it!
The veteran singer, now a coach on BBC's rival talent show The Voice, disagrees with the way Wee Shughie McFee, the scowling faced Scottish chef off Crossroad's format apparently pokes fun at unsuccessful acts. He told TV Buzz: 'It upsets me when, on The X Factor, the judges are cruel to people needlessly. All of us on [The Voice] panel think that way. We've all been through that sort of rejection, whereas people on other shows haven't - they're just hearing it from a commercial or a punter's point of view.' The seventy one-year-old has already criticised X Factor for its 'freak' contestants as well as the focus on 'pictures rather than the quality of sound.'Meanwhile, Louis Walsh had confirmed that he will return as a judge for The X Factor's forthcoming ninth season. Walsh was among the original line-up of judges when The X Factor launched in 2004 and is the only one to have appeared in every series of the ITV show. Walsh has also, seemingly, confirmed that Gary Barlow and Tulisa Contostavlos will be back for the new series. Walsh is quoted by the Mirra as saying 'I am so happy to have signed up for another year. It's my ninth year, I'm the only person to be in it for nine years. I know for definite that Tulisa is back and Gary is back. I'm not sure if Kelly is back, but I hope she is, because she worked really hard last year.'
Lenny Henry has compared the works of William Shakespeare to hip-hop. With the bippin' and the boppin' and the baseball cap on backwards.
Y'muddyfuggin' bee-atch and all that malarkey. Word. Which would be perfectly shocking if he'd said it anywhere that people might, actually, take some notice. But, he didn't, he said it on Daybreak. So, fortunately, hardly anybody heard him. Patrick Duffy has suggested that more characters from the original series of Dallas could be return for the new TNT revival. Duffy reprises his role of Bobby Ewing on TNT's continuation of the iconic 1980s drama alongside Larry Hagman as JR and Linda Gray as Sue Ellen. Also reprising their roles for the update are Charlene Tilton, Steve Kanaly and Ken Kercheval as Cliff Barnes. While appearing on Daybreak earlier this week to discuss the new Dallas - so, again, nobody was watching this - Duffy claimed that more characters from the original series could return in the future.
'Anybody who's still alive, the options are on the table to come back he sad. Producers have previously alluded to more characters, bar those already announced, returning during the course of the new Dallas. However, producers have - for now - ruled out the possibility of Victoria Principal returning. Principal played Pam between 1978 and 1987 when her character was written out following a horribly disfiguring car crash. STV Productions has won its first ever commission for BBC3, which will see the company produce a new panel show pilot for the channel. T4 presenter Matt Edmondson will present Fake Reaction which will see six alleged 'celebrities' do battle with the aim of hiding their natural reaction as they face an array of unusual situations that test all of their senses. Sounds horrible. If they can conceal their real reaction and fool the rest of the panel, they win a small novelty prize. Gary Chippington, Head of Entertainment for STV Productions, said: 'We're thrilled to be working with the team at BBC2 on this enormously exciting project.'
The snot has significantly thickened in the legal action over who came up with the idea for reality show The Only Way is Essex, after it emerged that a senior ITV executive admitted the show was almost called Totally Essex. Although, quite why anybody would want to take 'credit' for creating such a horroshow is, massive amount of coin aside, unknown. Personally, if yer actual Keith Telly Topping had come up with the notion, he'd've gone and hid on an island in the Shetlands in utter shame. Former Big Brother winner Brian Belo is currently suing ITV and Lime Pictures, the producer of The Only Way is Essex, claiming they lifted the format for the show from an idea he developed. Bello alleges that The Only Way is Essex infringes copyright and is a breach of confidence. Belo claims that he developed a programme idea called Totally Essex, along with Sassy Films and Massive TV, and has a teaser video promoting a show that features many of those involved in the subsequent ITV2 reality programme. ITV and Lime have said that The Only Way Is Essex is 'an original concept' that they developed on their own and that Belo's claim is 'totally without foundation.' However, in a session at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last summer Claire Claire Zolkwer, the ITV entertainment executive who commissioned The Only Way is Essex, admitted that the show was 'almost called' Totally Essex.
'It was called Project Essex for the longest time,' she said, speaking as part of a panel on the series hosted by ITV breakfast flop Daybreak presenter horrible Kate Garraway. 'We went through a few titles that we weren't able to use or that weren't quite right. It was about to be called Totally Essex.' Zolkwer added that she subsequently went through songs on her iPod for inspiration and came across Yazz's 1980s song 'The Only Way is Up', which provided the kernel of the eventual name. All3Media, parent company of Lime Picture, said The Only Way is Essex is an 'original concept created and developed by an award-winning team at Lime Pictures.' It's also a pile of diarrhoea but, sadly, you can't sue them over that. On the Edinburgh panel Ruth Wrigley, co-creator of The Only Way Is Essex, admitted that the idea which was first pitched to ITV did not have anything to do with an Essex location. Before ITV took it on Lime Picture pitched it to Channel Four, as 'a cross between Big Brother and Hollyoaks,' but the idea was rejected. Along with the title Big Holly. 'At the time it was set in Bournemouth,' she said. 'It was set on the beach in a surfy resort. It was Claire [Zolkwer] who said "if you set it in Essex I might be interested."'The BBC has announced that Sir Mervyn King, one of the most powerful financial figures in the country, will deliver the second Today Programme Business Lecture. King, the governor of the Bank of England, follows Barclay's chief executive Bob Diamond in delivering the lecture about current issues facing the global economy. On 2 May he will address an invited audience of three hundred Today programme listeners at an event hosted by Evan Davis, who will also interview King on the following morning's Today on Radio 4. The lecture will be covered by BBC News and broadcast in full on BBC Radio 4 from 9pm on Wednesday 2 May. As well as being interviewed by Davis, King will answer questions from the audience. The speech is not expected to be very long. 'Help, we're all effing buggered! Buy fuel and pasties and start building an ark' is likely to be the general theme of the thing.
David Tennant and Sir Richard Branson are to star in a new Virgin Media advertising campaign highlighting the firm's 'Collections' bundles, featuring superfast broadband and the TiVo service. Launching in April, Collections marks a complete revamp of Virgin Media's consumer bundles of broadband, landline and television. It is intended to better highlight recent upgrades in the cable operator's broadband infrastructure and the growth of TiVo. The company has created new Essential, Premiere and VIP Collections featuring different service combinations, including the first time integration of TiVo, which has attracted almost half a million subscribers since its launch as a standalone upgrade in late 2010. To promote the launch, former Doctor Who star Tennant has agreed to help Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson 'conquer time travel' in a new marketing campaign. The first advert, due to premiere on Saturday night during Britain's Got Talent on ITV, features Tennant using the TiVo service to explore his own back catalogue, while Sir Richard 'makes a time travel discovery of his very own.'
That he should've signed The Clash when he had the chance in 1977, perhaps?! Further adverts feature the two stars in a calm, meditative state due to the fact that Sky content such as Sky1 and Sky Anytime is included in the Collections as standard, while another has Tennant showcasing the high definition channels available on Virgin's TV platform by going underwater. Virgin Media director of advertising and sponsorship Richard Larcombe said: 'Building on the huge success of our recent TiVo campaign and Usain Bolt and Richard in our superfast broadband ads, the new Collections creative brings together the best of both in a fully integrated offering. The new work uses the superiority of our products to deliver on value, simplicity and choice, all signed and sealed with a Virgin sense of humour!' Well, they're sponsoring yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though still unsellable) Magpies so they must have a sense of humour. The government has changed its advice to motorists to top up petrol tanks after two days of panic buying. It says that this is 'no longer urgent' after the Unite union ruled out a strike by its tanker drivers over Easter. Meanwhile, several Labour MPs have called for Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude to resign for earlier advising storing petrol in jerrycans. A York woman, who suffered severe burns while decanting petrol at her home from just such a jerrycan, remains critically ill in hospital. On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron told motorists to 'top up' their tanks in case of a strike, leading to long queues at petrol stations across the country. And much annoyance amongst motorists. Up to a third of garages were reportedly forced to turn people away after stocks ran out. Which anybody with half-a-frigging-brain in their heads could have predicted would happen. Unfortunately, having half a brain in their collective head would be giving the government far too much credit. The GMB union said that some ambulance drivers were having problems getting fuel - the government, though, insisted services were 'continuing as normal.' But a spokesman from the London Ambulance Service said this was a total load of tripe, noting: 'We are not experiencing any particular difficulties in refuelling vehicles at the moment.' He added the service was 'holding reserve fuel' in case of any future industrial action. Although, hopefully, not in jerrycans. Demand for petrol now seems to be waning - down from a one hundred and seventy two per cent rise on Thursday to a twenty eight per cent rise on Friday, according to independent retailers' group RMI Petrol. The AA described 'a rapidly improving picture at fuel stations.' A spokesman said: 'The advice for drivers is to resume your normal buying patterns and to adhere to regulations on how much fuel you can carry and store.' However, the BBC had reports on Saturday of queues and shortages continuing at petrol stations in Leeds, Tonbridge in Kent, Egham in Surrey, Bromley, Finchampstead in Berkshire and St Albans in Hertfordshire. There are also reports of stations increasing fuel prices, and limiting sales. In Guildford, one petrol station is reported to be refusing to sell motorists any more than twenty five smackers worth of fuel. Which, at current prices, is about enough to get a car from one end of the street to the other. Motoring experts now warn of a two to three day backlog as hauliers attempt to refuel petrol stations. A BP spokesperson also said there had been a reduction in demand on the forecourts but it still had a few sites which had completely run out of stock and were awaiting deliveries.
In the meantime, Unite would need to give seven days' notice if they plan to strike after Easter. A political row has broken out in response to Maude's comments earlier in the week. Senior Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin said that he thought the government may have been trying to divert peoples' attention away from a difficult week for the Tory party and the coalition. 'Really there should not have been any move to encourage people to buy more than they normally buy without consulting the industry first, and I think that was the mistake,' he said. John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, Karl Turner, MP for Hull East, and Labour Lord Toby Harris are among those who have called for Maude to resign if it turns out his comments contributed to the burns accident suffered by forty six-year-old Diane Hill. She was seriously injured after petrol ignited as she poured it from a jerrycan into another in her kitchen. The cooker was on and the petrol fumes ignited. She was treated for forty per cent burns at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. Mann said: '[Francis Maude] was whipping up hysteria, which caused the queues as well. But he went further, and gave out advice that was wrong.' Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi responded angrily to the calls for Maude to stand down and accused Labour of attempting to score 'political points' out of a 'personal tragedy.' Which, of course, is something no Tory politician has ever done. Oh, no, very hot water. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that the government had 'mishandled' the row between the tanker drivers and their employers and there should have been more attempt for talks between the parties involved. 
'Starting to say instead fill up your tank, causing panic, getting out the jerrycans, has led to the queues, to the shortages, to the running out of petrol.' Adair Lewis from the Fire Protection Association told the BBC that Ms Hill's accident was a 'wake-up call to us all,' adding: 'Petrol should only ever be bought in proper containers made for that purpose. There is no place for petrol inside your home.' The Department for Energy and Climate Change said: 'There is no urgency to top up your tank, a strike will not happen over Easter.' The rules on fuel tanker drivers' hours have been temporarily relaxed to help the transport of supplies to filling stations. Under EU rules, drivers are limited to nine hours on the road each day, but this has now been raised to eleven hours. The new rules will apply until Thursday and have been introduced after requests from the fuel supply industry. Unite's drivers, who deliver fuel to Shell and Esso garages and supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, have called for minimum working conditions covering pay, hours, holiday and redundancy. Some ninety per cent of UK forecourts are supplied by Unite's approximately two thousand members involved in the dispute.David Yates has insisted he is still working on the proposed Doctor Who movie but doesn't expect it to materialise at cinemas any time soon. Last year the press got itself all excited and discombobulated when it was revealed that the BBC were developing a Doctor Who movie and that Yates would helm the project. The fact that the BBC were developing a Doctor Who movie shouldn't really have come as a surprise to the press - the BBC have been pushing in that direction for many years but the project had become been stuck in 'development hell.' Indeed, as one fandom wag noted at the time, you can always tell how long someone has been a Doctor Who fan by the number of Doctor Who movie proposals have become public - and, briefly, a major news story - since they started watching the show. In yer actual Keith Telly Topping's case, I think I'm up to seven. Possibly eight. When Yates's name became associated with the project the press began speculating - based on a stray comment that Yates made at the time - that the movie would be a reboot of the television series rather than a spin-off and would not star Matt Smith - or whoever the current doctor was at the time of its filming. Predictably the press began to speculate as to whom would be cast in a big-screen version. With - usually - hilarious consequences.
However, in the several months since news regarding the project has all but dried up. In a new interview with Bleeding Cool Yates who made his name of the superb BBC drama State of Play before going on to direct several Harry Potter movies - has revealed he is still working on the project but, crucially, he expects it to take five or six years to develop. 'I'm definitely doing a Doctor Who movie. But I think where everyone got confused was that we're not making it for five years, or six years — it's a very slow development. I've got projects backed up between now and about 2015, and it's something I'm very passionate and excited about.' Yates praised Doctor Who's current show-runner Steven Moffat. 'Stephen's [sic] a genius. I love his work, I think he's incredibly clever. I love what he's done with Doctor Who, love his Sherlock Holmes. He's such a gifted man. But this is something that's a very slow burn and I'm hoping to sit down with him at some point and have a chat. It's just something that we've been talking about for a little while.' Like most other half way decent football supporters with a heart beating in their chest (you know, apart from the scum that post racist comments on Twitter), yer actual Keith Telly Topping was horrified to hear about Aston Villa's Stiliyan Petrov being diagnosed with leukaemia. Once again, as we've noted a few times this last few months, its at times like this that it's really worth reflecting that football, genuinely great game that it is, is still only a game. Petrov attended Saturday's home Premier League clash with Chelsea - the day after being diagnosed. 'Football is over, this is the end,' the Villa midfielder has been quoted as saying in the Bulgarian sports daily Tema Sport. 'I am now beginning to fight for my life and I will fight.' Petrov, thirty two, who has been capped over one hundred times by Bulgaria, revealed that he felt a strange headache during the first half of Villa's 3-0 defeat by Arsenal last Saturday and the team doctor had even suggested a half-time substitution. 'I lost my energy early in the second half and it was very unusual for me,' Petrov said. 'But this is life. And I also would like to thank everyone for the support from all over.' An avalanche of support has poured in for the player from all parts of the world. Bulgaria national team doctor, Mihail Iliev, said Petrov would be examined in London today and treatment for the illness will start on Monday.
Paul McCartney is to purchase John Lennon's old art college building. Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, plans to buy the former Liverpool College of Art for £3.7m to 'expand its teaching space.' The Grade II listed building is adjacent to LIPA's Mount Street site. LIPA opened in 1995 in Liverpool city centre in what had been Liverpool Institute for Boys, the school attended by Sir Paul and George Harrison in the 1950s. It currently trains almost seven hundred degree and sixty two foundation certificate students as well as offering part-time performing arts classes for young people. Well-known alcoholic wife-beating Scouse junkie Lennon (occasionally) attended the adjacent The Liverpool College of Art in the 1950s along with his future wife, Cynthia Powell and Stuart Sutcliffe, The Be-Atles' original bassist. The building is currently owned by Liverpool John Moores University. LIPA plans to use the additional space for dance tuition and a studio theatre. Mark Featherstone-Witty, LIPA CEO and founding principal, said: 'There are sound business reasons why we are buying the building next door, but there's no denying the romance of bringing together two buildings where three Beatles once did their learning.
I'm glad that this historic building will not become yet another boutique hotel or, yet again, be turned into flats. It'll be used for what it was intended: learning. I've mentioned this to Paul, who is supportive. The Liverpool College of Art developed historically from The Liverpool Institute for Boys, when the art classes outgrew their allocated space. Now, for the second time, both buildings are united and we'll ensure this unity will last.'And, speaking of yer actual Macca his very self, he was joined onstage by Paul Weller, Rolling Stones' guitarist Ronnie Wood and The Who's Roger Daltrey during his set at London's Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night. The former Be-Atles bassist, who was playing the show as part of this year's run of Teenage Cancer Trust gigs, was joined by the trio of Goddamn rock legends for a rendition of 'Get Back'. Skill. You can see video footage of the onstage collaboration here.
It was the second time in recent months that Rockin' Ronnie has performed the song live with McCartney, after he joined him onstage at London's O2 Arena in December last year. The full set, which featured thirty songs in all, drew from across McCartney's career and included a cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady'. He played twenty Beatles tunes as well as songs from Wings, The Firemen and 'My Valentine', from his latest studio album Kisses On The Bottom. And, still on the subject of the The B-Atles, a West End show, featuring several of their hits, is to be staged to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the band's first single. 'Love Me Do' was released, of course, in October 1962 ) Red Parlophone label - now worth about twenty notes a throw in mint condition, apparently), reaching number seventeen in the UK chart.
It was, two years later, a US number one. Let It Be will open for a limited period from September at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. It is said by various press outlets to be the first time that the theatrical rights to The Be-Atles' back catalogue have been granted for a West End show although, I'm not actually sure that's true. Didn't Beatlemania get quite a lengthy West End run in the late 1970s? Video footage will be used to to tell the story of the band's rise to fame, alongside performances of some of their most well known hits, such as 'Yesterday', 'Come Together' and 'Hey Jude'. But, probably not 'Helter Skelter'. Or, indeed, 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. Let It Be will run from 14 September until 19 January 2013.After three stories about The Be-Atles (popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them), I suppose we'd better have today's Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day and make it something from the, ahem, Merseybeat oeuvre. Play them Rickenbackers, boys. And remember, kids, it's quite possible one of these women is your grandmother.
