TV classics (or rejects!) - The Premiership

IN THE summer of 1999, smooth talking Des Lynam made the shock decision to leave the BBC, to take the role as lead football anchor for ITV Sport.  He would front live FA Cup and UEFA Champions League football, alongside shared coverage of major international tournaments.  Just over two years later, he was back in his traditional role of presenting Saturday evening Premier League highlights.  However, ‘The Premiership’ turned into one of the biggest flops in ITV’s distinguished history.

     There was big surprise when ITV outbid the BBC for Premiership highlights in the summer of 2000.  The three-year contract cost the commercial broadcaster £185million.  The BBC’s MOTD team was left devastated by the news and trundled through the remainder of their Euro 2000 coverage looking depressed and downcast.  In fact, when watching Gary Lineker that summer, it felt like we were about to watch a funeral procession, let alone a major football match!  Always critical of late starts, Des Lynam wanted the new programme to be an early Saturday evening show, rather than the traditional 10.30pm slot, feeling it would appeal to all audiences.  He aimed for 6pm at first, but this idea was scrapped due to Sky’s curfew time lock it had on Premier League rights.  9pm was too late, due to ITV’s compact Saturday evening entertainment line-up, so the decision was taken to screen ‘The Premiership,’ at 7pm every Saturday evening.  It would turn into one of the most horrendous timing misjudgements of all time!

     U2’s Grammy-award winning track ‘Beautiful Day’ was selected as the music theme and although it has no comparison on the Match of the Day theme tune, it was still a brilliant choice of music for football.  Major drinks giant Coca Cola was signed up to sponsor the programme, using ‘Leggsy,’ (its mascot) in some hilarious break bumper parodies.  Alongside lunchtime show On The Ball and the doomed afternoon results show, The Goal Rush – ITV was the new place for Saturday football entertainment.

     On Saturday August 18 2001, ‘The Premiership’ debuted with Middlesbrough v Arsenal, Liverpool v West Ham United and Sunderland v Ipswich Town being chosen as the three featured games.  ITV would send its four main commentators; Clive Tydlesey, Peter Drury, Jon Champion and Guy Mowbray out to featured matches, whilst reporters such as Ned Boulting, Russ Williams and Gabriel Clarke would cover the less featured matches.  Terry Venables and Ally McCoist would be the main pundits alongside Des in the studio, with Robbie Earle and Ron Atkinson also being used on occasion.  ITV decided to pioneer two new technology pieces which failed miserably.  The ProZone programme saw Venables hopelessly being able to keep up with technology and had to rush through key moments of games, struggling to explain what this new data meant.  Also, Andy Townsend, former Chelsea and Aston Villa midfielder would be at a key match from the weekend in a pathetic ‘Tactics Truck!’  If lucky, Andy might be joined by a Premiership player who had nothing else to do on their Saturday evenings to analyse a game in better depth, but this experiment was quickly abandoned.  It worked for Channel 4 with Test Cricket and Channel Five for their live UEFA Europa League coverage, but this format simply didn’t work for highlights.  Townsend’s Tactics Truck was torn to shreds by avid football fans and journalists, calling it “totally inept and excruciatingly painful.”

     Despite getting critical acclaim on the opening weekend from the News of the World, the viewing figures were disappointing.  Only five million watched the opening 7pm show, two million lower than The Weakest Link, which was BBC’s head-to-head competition.  The Daily Mirror was a strong critic of The Premiership’s lack of match action and ITV’s determination to show those annoying commercial breaks whenever they could.  A week later, viewing figures dropped to 3.1million; ITV’s worst Saturday night viewing figures for a decade and although the average slightly picked up, the 7pm experiment was a doomed failure.  Under pressure from the likes of Cilla Black, who was concerned about the later time for her show Blind Date and advertisers, ITV’s controller of sport, now FA chief executive Brian Barwick had little alternative but to shove the show back to a traditional 10.30pm slot from November 2001 onwards. 

    Afterwards, the show never really recovered and in 2003, the BBC won back the highlights rights from the 2004/05 season onwards.  The Goal Rush ended in December 2003, after spectacularly dismal ratings and in May 2004, both On the Ball and ‘The Premiership’ made a quiet and tame exit after three failed seasons.

     You have to give ITV some credit for attempting such a bold move, but this was a gamble that spectacularly backfired.  The Premiership will always be remembered as a ‘Desater!’  

Corrie celebrates 50 years not out

FOR some people, it may not be their favourite show – but Coronation Street is a national treasure all the same.  This week, it reaches the staggering achievement of its 50^th anniversary.  It might be a celebratory week, with behind-the-scenes footage, a countdown of classic Corrie moments and a special celebrity quiz on ITV.  However, it will be far from celebrations in the Street itself, as a devastating tram crash changes the lives of those on the cobbles forever.

BURNS: The Joinery fire starts a nightmare chain of events

The action begins on the stag do of Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne).  Peter is getting married to Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson), unaware that she has been having a sizzling affair behind Peter’s back, with her former lover Nick Tilsley (Ben Price).  Just as Nick is about to reveal all to Peter, an explosion rips through the Joinery bar, trapping Peter, Nick and Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) in the rubble.  This sets off a chain of events that puts the lives of many in danger.

TRAPPED: Mollie and baby Jack are flattened in the rubble

The Joinery explosion sends debris flying to the ground, and leaves Leanne, Ken Barlow (William Roache) and Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) in anguish, as they are blown off their feet by the blast.  Also caught in the Joinery blast is Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns) and her baby Jack, along with Sunita Alahan (Shobna Gulati), as Dev Alahan’s corner shop is devastated by the carnage.  Seconds later, a tram from the viaduct above Weatherfield crashes off the track and smashes down onto the Street, leaving The Kabin collapses around beloved newsagent Rita Sullivan (Barbara Knox) and Fiz Stape (Jenny McAlpine).  With Fiz six months pregnant, how much damage will it do to her unborn child? 

The crash also sees flames rip through the Peacock household, with Jason Grimshaw (Ryan Thomas) braving his life to try rescuing the Peacock children and Simon Barlow (Alex Bain) from the blast.  Corrie producers are keeping tight lipped about who dies on this fateful night, but there will be at least four of our favourites who will not survive.  The aftermath will continue throughout the week, with Thursday night at 8pm, seeing the show have a one hour live episode to celebrate the anniversary.  Can they outdo EastEnders outstanding job of their live episode back in February.

ICONIC: The Corrie Cat

Coronation Street is the world’s longest-running soap and has gone from strength to strength as the years have gone on.  Despite healthy competition from the likes of EastEnders and Emmerdale, the Street has always remained in the hearts of many worldwide, as it is broadcasted in over sixty countries.  Whether it be the historic Rovers Return, the classic theme tune or the iconic Corrie cat, that has featured on the opening titles ever since 1976, all of us probably have a memory from its fifty years that we will never forget.

Some of its storylines are amongst the best to have ever graced the popular serial drama genre.  First,  there was the Ken/Mike/Deirdre love triangle in 1983 which captivated the nation.  Vile Alan Bradley meeting his maker in 1989, being hit in Blackpool by a tram!  How ironic is that!  Katy Harris killing her dad Tommy with a spanner in 2004!  Sarah Platt ending up pregnant in the year 2000 at the tender age of 13, and of course, Richard Hillman (a.k.a Tricky Dickie) and his killing spree in 2002/03 that had the nation gripped.  He killed three people, tried and failed to murder Emily Bishop, then drove a car into the canal, with wife Gail and her kids into the water.  We now know why David Platt turned out so evil then!

FREE: The 'campaign in 1998, even the PM was involved!

It’s not just the tense, gripping plots – but the crazy characters and storylines that the Manchester soap has manage to achieve.  Deidre’s crazy specs, two deaths via a fridge freezer and hairdryer, Gail’s constant moaning, Blanche Hunt’s statements, Sally Webster’s pushiness towards her kids, believable villains, Ken Barlow still around, as he was in episode one on December 8, 1960 and the free Deirdre campaign in 1998, that even had Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for her release, after being wrongly imprisoned for fraud.

After the first episode of Corrie was broadcast, the Daily Mirror ran a scathing review, claiming it was ‘doomed’ and would only run for three weeks!  How wrong were they, as it is still going strong 49 years and 49 weeks later. 

Happy birthday Coronation Street, here’s to the next 50 years!

CORONATION STREET IS ON ALL WEEK ON ITV1, WITH two episodes on Monday (7.30pm and 8.30pm), Tuesday (8.00pm), Wednesday (7pm), Thursday (8pm – The One Hour Live Episode) and two episodes on Friday (7.30pm and 8.30pm)

The Independent Launches Spin-Off Paper

LAST Tuesday saw the launch of the new daily national newspaper for the first time in over 25 years.  Despite the wave of electronic technology, that has restricted the role of a newspaper impact in recent times; the Independent has decided that there is room for more newsprint in this world.

The new paper has simply been called i.  All the articles from this paper will come from its parent source, but they will be shorter and carry a far more populist approach.  With the Independent’s daily circulation dropping well below 200,000 readers, some are saying that this is a desperate last throw of the dice by its under-fire owner.  Unlike the Evening Standard and Metro newspapers, those who want to read i will have to pay 20p.  This could be seen as vital revenue for its Russian owner Alexander Lebedev.

This daily newspaper will be 56 pages in length, and is the first paper to be launched in a generation.  The last were The Independent itself and Eddy Shah’s Today newspaper, both born in 1986.  Despite its early success, Today disappeared in November 1995 and with the Independent having changed its strategy on several different occasions in the last twelve years, it seems to indicate the newer newspapers simply can’t last with the established generation, such as The Sun, Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph. 

This gamble could pay off, but if it doesn’t work off, then the Independent doesn’t have a Plan B and could well totally disappear off the market.  Then again, if i becomes very popular and starts taking readers away from the parent version, then it could make things even worse for the Independent.  Whatever way you look at this, it is a brave and bold gamble, one that looks incredibly risky, especially in this economic climate. 

Rooney Plays Away - Why Are Footballers Caught Cheating?

Wayne Rooney answered some of his doubters last night, with an excellent performance in England’s 3-1 Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland.  The Manchester United striker scored his first goal for the Three Lions in over a year and after a miserable summer in South Africa and a lacklustre start to the new Premiership campaign with his club, he looks to be back to his best.  However, it’s his scoring off the pitch that is making the headlines.

Tabloid newspapers the Daily Mirror and the News of the World reported on Sunday that Rooney had been playing away and sleeping with another woman, allegedly a prostitute in Spain.  It is also alleged that Rooney had paid this mysterious woman over £1,000 for steamy sessions, whilst his wife, Colleen was carrying his child.  True or not, this latest escapade adds to the list of high-profile footballers who have been caught out in their private lives this year.

First in January, the then England captain John Terry was reported to be having an affair with model Vanessa Perroncel, who was involved with Terry’s former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge.  In March, Bridge decided to retire from international football, as he couldn’t play in the same team as Terry.  England boss Fabio Capello had little alternative in sacking Terry as England captain, replacing him with Rio Ferdinand.  Soon after this news broke out, Terry’s high-profile team-mate at Stamford Bridge, Ashley Cole had a barrage of tabloid reports, suggesting he’d had sexual relations with at least five women.  This was the final straw of his tense four-year marriage with the X-Factor judge and Girls Aloud sensation Cheryl Cole and a divorce was granted last week in the High Court.  Last month, it was Tottenham’s lanky striker Peter Crouch who came under fire for having relations with several women in Spain.  Although still together, it has severely damaged Crouchie’s previously clean reputation and his relationship with the model Abbey Clancy.  Now, with Rooney under the spotlight, you begin to wonder how many more footballers will have their private lives turned under the screw before the end of the year.

Capello and Rooney’s personal sponsors, Nike, Coca Cola and EA Sports have all backed Wayne publicly, insisting that it is just a ‘private matter.’  Surprisingly, his club manager Sir Alex Ferguson has remained quiet under the matter, and he is bound to face a grilling from the journalists at his traditional pre-match press conference at United’s training ground, Carrington on Friday morning. 

Some of the blame has been shifted onto the media, and news spreads fast nowadays, especially with the social networking generation.  Also, clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and especially Chelsea need to draw a line under these issues and tighten their policies when it comes to their highly-paid superstars going out to posh restaurants and flashy nightclubs in town.  Then, there’s the matter of the women involved, some seem to be in the game for having a good time and even launching ‘a career’ out of these saucy stories.  However, it is the footballers who need to trend a tight line.  One step out of line and the media have the capability of blowing the whole story out of proportion.  It takes two to tango, and maybe footballers should be setting a better role model to their idols, such as young children.  If these kids see these stories, they are going to think it is okay for them to do at an older age.  There can be no doubt that these are distasteful stories and they will get people interested, but it does set a very bad example for younger generations.

Rooney may have got through the initial stage with flying colours, but it will be interesting to see how Ferguson handles his troubled star, especially as Rooney is bound to get an absolute pasting this weekend.  Manchester United only head down to Merseyside on Saturday lunchtime to play his former club, Everton, who have never forgiven Rooney for his move to Old Trafford for £27million six years ago.  It could well be a spicy occasion and a very tricky afternoon for Rooney to keep his discipline in check.

Oliver Fury As Junk Food Looks Set To Return Into Schools

Reports suggest that schools look set to start serving junk food again as an alternative option, which have infuriated Chef Jamie Oliver.  The education minister for the new coalition government, Maurice Gibb has told some of his close allies that the limited amount of content in fat, salt and sugar will be eliminated.

Although there is still encouragement from many independent school bodies that they will follow the recommended nutritional levels, they won’t be obliged to stick to these levels by the ConDems government.  Many heads will probably stick to the healthy option, but Labour are furious at these plans, especially as they worked very hard with Oliver to dismiss the unhealthy primary school stereotype of junk food culture and hyperactive vending machine products. 

Some experts feel that this change in food culture could be down to the necessary cuts required to reduce the growing deficit levels, but others think that it is abuse of the healthy eating campaign.  Since the 2004 Feed Me Better Campaign, which was set-up by Oliver and backed by the Labour government, supermarket giant Sainsbury’s and the Daily Mirror, there have been significant rises in the amount of children passing English, Maths and Science exams over the last five years.  This unhealthy culture could therefore spearhead the return of the unhealthy Turkey Twizzlers – which was made by Bernard Matthews but was removed by the company in January 2005 after it was revealed that it contained just 34% of turkey levels, yet a dangerously high 21.2% amount of salt.

I am not the healthiest person around when it comes to food, I do like my fizzy drinks and snacks, but I think it is essential that the healthy option remains as a compulsory option, especially for younger children, who need to stay fit and healthy in their growing up years.  Let’s hope that Maurice Gibb has a change in heart.