(The stage of the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Adam Vaughan/EPA Images) This week, Liverpool stages one of the world’s largest live televised events, the Eurovision Song Contest. I grew up watching it as an annual family get-together. Now, as a lecturer in Continue Reading
TV
How to win Eurovision: the secret code of the contest’s winning lyrics (curated article)
(The Eurovision Song Contest stage. Review News/Shutterstock) The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few remaining examples of event TV – and UK audiences lap it up. With 8.9 million viewers in 2022, Britain formed the largest audience of all Eurovision markets. And this time around, there’s even a Continue Reading
Rift made good or is it? Platonic explores the hilarious landscape of a renewed, all-consuming friendship (trailer and poster)
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTPlatonic follows a platonic pair of former best friends approaching midlife (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who reconnect after a long rift. The duo’s friendship becomes all consuming—and destabilizes their lives in a hilarious way. Platonic is a series created by writer / filmmaker Nicholas Stoller (aka Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023: British sitcom Extraordinary
When it comes to people getting superpowers, we are habitually used to two key constants: Looks like, rather happily it should be added, that no one sent the memo to Extraordinary, which explores a world in which superpowers have magically been dispensed to everyone and they are so much a Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2023: Week 7 – The Big 6 – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and United Kingdom (Grand final)
What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading
Sitcom round-up 3: Schmigadoon! S2 (E1-5) and The Big Door Prize (S1, E5-7)
Schmigadoon! (S2, E1-4) After the frothy small town warmth and romance, with some ne’er-do-well plotting in there too of course, of season one of Schmigadoon! (a delightful send-up of the musical film Brigadoon, the fondly-realised homage to musicals return with a second season that takes a decidedly darker turn. Now Continue Reading
Shoot for the moon: Thoughts on Hello Tomorrow!
People, by and large, are not great fans of reality. Oh, we’re stuck right in the middle of it, like a ’50s movie serial character stuck in quicksand at a cliffhanger moment, but we don’t much like it; while we watch epic love and thrilling action and huge twists and Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2023: Week 6 – Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, San Marino and Slovenia (Semi-final 2, part 3)
What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Paper Girls volumes 1 & 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Cliff Chiang (artist)
Time travel is always a compelling element to add to the narrative mix. There’s the inherent upsetting of the linear natural order, the frisson of excitement that comes from wildly unpredictable parts trying to fit into a whole to which they don’t organically belong and the confusion/thrill of characters grappling Continue Reading
Get ready for a “different vibe”: Heartstopper season 2 drops a teaser trailer and release date
SNAPSHOTNick and Charlie navigate their new relationship, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) face unforeseen challenges and Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to Continue Reading