Death In Venice Review: Mama Miaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

DEATH IN VENICE: Saturday 7th November, LIVING, 9pm ALERT ME

When Paul O’Grady’s agent called him about a TV show in Venice, he probably thought the job would involve a couple of hours on the Rialto Bridge followed by a weekend of bolognese and bellinis.

But going on holiday with Yvette Fielding is far less relaxing than it used to be.

Suffice to say, there wasn’t a gondola in sight when the nation’s favourite ghost hunter and her new accomplice set off to investigate a Venetian island, thought by many experts to be “the most haunted place on the planet”. Read More…

Campus Review: Vice-Chancellor Brent

CAMPUS: Friday 6th November, Channel 4, 10pm ALERT ME

As they sat in the union bemoaning a seven hour-a-week schedule, pretty much every student must have decided to write a sitcom about their hilarious life at university.

Great nights out and lazy days watching Countdown – such an existence seemed ripe for comedy.

For some reason, they never considered writing about the lecturers themselves, which is odd because you really couldn’t hope to meet a stranger group of people than the collection of post-grads who fumbled between seminars wearing inexplicable jackets. Read More…

Nature Shock – Death Fog Review: Natural Disaster

NATURE SHOCK – DEATH FOG: Tuesday 5th November, Five, 8pm Alert Me

Death Fog. Now there’s a title.

This season, Five’s Nature Shock is pulling out all the stops. This time it’s a natural born invisible assassin.

Essentially, back in 1986, a loud bang was heard from Lake Nyos in Cameroon, followed by a “white cloud” traveling across the landscape at 44 miles per hour. Thousands of cattle dropped dead while grazing. Villages as far as 15 miles away were enveloped. And by dawn, the “death fog” had vanished. Read More…

The Schoolboy Who Sailed The World Review: The Little Seaman Who Could

THE SCHOOLBOY WHO SAILED THE WORLD: Thursday 5th November, Channel 4, 9pm Alert Me

I am not going to lie. I got a little weepy.

Everyone knows about Michael Perham, the 16-year-old who became the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

But only Cutting Edge provides the video footage of Perham’s perilous journey from start to finish. Read More…

The History Of Christianity – The First Christianity Review: Lacking Viewer Faith

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY: Thursday 5th November, BBC Four, 9pm Alert Me

After Jesus Camp, a documentary dedicated to “what it means to be a Christian” is enough to make you cringe.

The History of Christianity, a new series, features a middle-aged professor dashing from continent to continent in search of Christianity’s forgotten origins and proving once again that religion-based entertainment is no easy feat.

In the first of a six-part series, we are introduced to Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, allegedly one of the world’s leading historians. Read More…

Spooks Series 8 Review: High MI5

SPOOKS SERIES 8: Wednesday 4th November, BBC1, 9pm ALERT ME

Critics of Spooks will tell you that the show bears no comparison to 24, its American counterpart.

But the trouble is that not many TV shows do, and of those that don’t quite measure up, this is one of the finest.

It’s always been an intelligent (if slightly action-lite) drama and fans of the programme will be pleased to hear that the eighth series plunges the MI5 employees straight back into the spy-mire we left them in last time out. Read More…

The Family Review: Happier Families

THE FAMILY: Wednesday 4th November, Channel 4, 9PM ALERT ME

After watching last year’s first series of The Family, we began to understand why there were reports that Macaulay Culkin tried to divorce his parents.

The Hughes household was at best a chaotic, at worst it was a place in which people argued incessantly and stormed from on a daily basis.

I understood the concept, but watching people shout at each other for an hour isn’t really my idea of fun – besides I get enough of that in the OTB office. Read More…

Gordon Ramsay’s F Word Review: The Eggs Factor

GORDON RAMSAY’S F WORD: Tuesday 3rd November, Channel 4, 9pm Alert Me

So after getting his face botoxed on the orders of Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay is back on TV – and there’s still not a swear-jar in sight.

The Scottish chef has obviously grown tired of shouting at American novices and has recruited his old friend Janet Street-Porter to help him step back into his own kitchen.

But as we all know, these days you can’t make a normal cooking show, you have to go on a road-trip, buy a cottage by a river or declare war on Tescos before channel bosses will even take you seriously – Gary Rhodes never saw it coming. Read More…

Is It Better To Be Mixed Race? Review: Racist Relations

IS IT BETTER TO BE MIXED RACE?: Mon 2nd November, Channel 4, 8pm Alert Me

The race debate.

Who in their right mind would want to tackle that?

Well, Dr. Aarathi Prasad, for one. She is the fearless helmer of Science’s Last Taboo’s Is it better to be mixed race?

A geneticist and mother of a mixed race child, Prasad seeks scientific proof for hybrid vigor, a provocative claim that there are biological advantages to being mixed race. Read More…

Pamela Anderson At Home With Joe Review: What A Boob

PAMELA ANDERSON AT HOME WITH JOE: Monday 2nd November, Living, 10pm Alert Me

Joe Swash meets Pamela Anderson. What gets more entertaining than that?

Living’s two-part series follows the North London boy live out his fantasy of not only making his acquaintance, but spending an entire week with his 14-year-old fantasy. Pamela Anderson, “the woman running down the beach with these big breasts”– in his own words, of course.

At 41, Anderson is still as sexy as ever, despite Read More….

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