Posts Tagged HBO

Television | September 26th, 2010 | by Chris Day

Review: The Special Relationship

The Special Relationship

Following in the critically acclaimed footsteps of The Deal and The Queen, The Special Relationship is the third film in Peter Morgan’s “Blair trilogy.” It charts the tumultuous relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton as they strive to overcome terrorists in Northern Ireland, war criminals in Kosovo, and most dangerous of all, 22-year-old interns in Washington who don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. (No pun intend… oh forget it.)

The Special Relationship is well written and features some fantastic performances, but sadly as the credits rolled I felt as though the last 90 minutes represented something of a wasted opportunity.

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Radio, Ricky Gervais | July 5th, 2010 | by Chris Day

Play a Record – The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM

The Ricky Gervais Show

When The Guardian began hosting The Ricky Gervais Show back in 2005, no one predicted what a phenomenon the podcast would become. And how could they, the premise – comedy writers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant talk to some guy called Karl Pilkington for 30 minutes – was hardly earth shattering. Yet here we are, after five years and several million downloads, with an HBO animated version being broadcast on both sides of the Atlantic.

But before the animated version, before the spin off books, before Karl’s TV career and before The Guardian podcasts, there was The Ricky Gervais Show on London radio station XFM. Every Saturday Londoners were treated to a show that was, it’s fair to say, an utter shambles. The show exhibited no signs of planning, outright contempt for its listeners and was often downright incomprehensible. And it was glorious.

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