Comic Relief does the Apprentice

I caught the first part of the Comic Relief version of the Apprentice tonight. The boys lined up with Jonathan Ross, Jack Dee, Alan Carr, Gok Wan and Gerald Ratner and the girls team lined up with Ruby Wax, Michelle Moone, Fiona Phillips, Patsy Palmer and Carol Voderman. The guys team looked pretty solid despite being filled with comedians!

The task set this time round was a little different, rather than raising funds from their celebrity friends, the teams had to design and market a new toy. The girls picked Lingerie boss Michelle Moone as their project manager and the boys picked Gerald Ratner as theirs but I think Jonathan Ross really wanted to take the lead.

The guys went with Ross's idea of having a belt with hooks on, with attachable characters to be collected seperately. The girls team went with a velcro body suit with a dice to create a 'Twister' type game. Patsy had a spat with Michelle, because she didn't like being told what to do, although it just made her look like an idiot for walking out and then coming back. The guys seemingly got on well despite Jonathan's best efforts to wind up Jack.

The guy's presentation was far superior, although their product was weak and their add was a little amateurish. The girls had a superior product concept, although the design looked a little cheap, their advert was a lot better than the boys but still lacked quality.

In the boardroom Sir Alan decided quizzed the two teams, Patsy mentioned that she thought Michelle was a bad project manager, hmmm still a bit bitter? Jack came out with the line of the night when he said "Sir Alan, if you are in the mood of firing someone, may I suggest the person who counts the chairs". The girls won the task and one of the boys gets fired on tonights Comic Relief special. I'll take a guess and say Jonathan gets it!

Death Race

Jason Statham has taken a a lot of flack recently, mostly due to how rubbish his Transporter Trilogy was. Personally I liked him in The Bank Job and any bloke who has shagged Kelly Brook is alright in my book! Back to the flick, set in 2012, a bleak future where corporations run the prisons for profit (OK I stole some of that wording from the title sequence!) and Terminal Island Penitentiary hosts the ultimate in voyeuristic destruction - Death Race. The premise is simple, kill all your opponents and be the last man standing, do it 5 times and you're free. Our man Jensen Ames (Statham) is framed for murdering his wife and sent to Terminal Island, it soon becomes apparent that his only way out of jail is to take part in the Death Race as the masked favourite Frankenstien, the original having died in the previous race. Ames soon discovers that the outcome of the Death Race is in the hands of Governess Hennessey and she'll do whatever it takes to make sure Ames stays locked up.

The film isn't great, but it's not awful either and tatham needs to be commended for using that growly voice for the entire film, he must have had a sore throat by the end! There's plenty of action, a fair bit of blood and guts and lots of men standing around admiring their cars. If you want action, a simple to follow story and some testosterone fuelled racing violence then this is the film for you. Easy time pass violence!

House of stars...

Some very familiar faces are popping up in the first Series of House! Some of these characters are from my favourite shows so I thought I'd keep a bit of a tally!

So far we've had;

Robin Tunney (Veronica Donovan - Prison Break)
Dominic Purcell (Lincol Burrows - Prison Break)
Sarah Clarke (Nina Myers - 24)
Lester Carbonell (Richard Alpert - Lost)

And the new character Edward Vogler reminds me of Big Mike from Chuck!

Death at a Funeral

If you’re looking for a mad cap British comedy to watch, check out Death at a funeral. It’s ..... father’s funeral and things aren’t going too well, but with the arrival of a mysterious (short) stranger, things go from bad to worse. There are plenty of familiar faces including Daisy Donovan, Kris Marshall and Keeley Hawes, not to mention a few pooh gags!

Gavin & Stacey

I watched the Gavin and Stacey Xmas special without ever seeing the actual show which had come on and gone on BBC Three. I did find it rather amusing so I decided to check out series one and I wasn’t disappointed! The British don’t seem to churn out quality comedies in the way the Americans seem to, so this was a joy to watch. Not since the days of Men Behaving Badly and Only Fools and Horses have we had such a great show to chuckle along to. The best thing about this brand of comedy is how subtle a lot of the gags are because everything is played out so realistically.

The basic story for the show is the relationship between Gavin and Stacey, Gavin who lives in Essex and Stacey in Barry, Wales. Their love life blossoms on the phone and in the first episode we see the two lovers meet for the first time in London. By the second episode Gavin has proposed to Stacey and she has accepted, the rest of the series follows their journey to their wedding day. The other major plot line is the relationship between Smithy (Gavin’s best mate) and Nessa (Stacey’s best mate), after a one night stand it turns out that Nessa is preggers and Smithy is the father, which would not have been a problem, had the two not hated each other!

The characters Gavin and Stacey are fine, it’s nice to see Matthew Horne move on from his bit part role in the Catherine Tate Show to bigger and better things, but it’s the supporting cast that make this show, what it is. First off we have Smithy, he’s fat, brash and loud but still has an air of cheeky charm about him, his opposite number, Nessa is a big burly welsh lass with a mysterious past. The chemistry between the two is brilliant (which it should be seeing as though they are both co producers for the show!), especially in the first episode when Smithy meets her for the first time and thinks she’s a minger! Even bit part characters like the warring couple Pete and Dawn have me cracking up. But my favourite character by far has to be Bryn played by Rob Brydon. Bryn is an exact copy of Brydon’s previous incarnation, Keith Barrett, who seemed to vanish from our screens all of a sudden. Brydon play’s Stacey’s Uncle who is fascinated by technology and manages to bore anyone and everyone! His refusal to speak to Jason (Stacey’s gay brother) is awkward and hilarious at the same time and we are all desperate to find out what happened between Bryn and Jason on the fishing trip!

I can’t wait to find out what happens in the second series and news coming from Ruth Jones and James Corden is that a third series is a strong possibility!

Hustle

I caught the first two episodes of the latest series and thought they were alright but not as engrossing as previous seasons. Although it was great to see the return of Mickey Briggs, what happened to Stacey and Danny? They were barely mentioned, not to mention the fact that Albert is stuck in prison! I hate it when characters are just dropped without proper explanations like that. The new brother and sister duo are OK but will they fill the void left by Danny Blue and Stacey? The girl looked familiar but I couldn’t recall where I had seen her before, IMDB informs me that she played Mickie in Casualty! I’ve got the rest of the series somewhere so I’ll give it another go soon.

House

I've started to watch the first season of House starring Hugh Laurie. Having been used to seeing him on British TV in the 90's on shows like Smith & Jones and Blackadder, it's a little weird seeing the actor adopting an American accent!

The first three episodes have been interesting and the character played by Laurie is fantastic! I especially liked the scene where he gave a hypocondriac a bottle of sweets claiming them to be pills! His relationship with Dr Cutty is fun, it's so obvious that they are going to hook up at some point! Looking forward to seeing how this season progresses.