Did You See That

Did you see that? Well the good news is that even if you didn’t see that, you most likely still can thanks to the TV catch up services now offered by the main terresterial broadcasters.

BBC - The BBC has iPlayer, which lets you download selected show from the last week and keep them for a further week. The software and various logins are clunky and it only works on XP, but once you start using it and find your feet, it’s really useful.

ITV - ITV.com has an integrated Flash based video player which lets you watch live TV or selected shows from the ITV archives.

Channel 4 - Channel 4 has launched 40D, which is similar to iPlayer except you get 30 days to download programs and you can also pay for movies and classic show downloads.

The theme for this week’s X Factor was love songs, and the calibre was very high with great performances from all of them.

Rhydian knocked it out of the park as usual with a brilliant rendition of Somewhere, from West Side Story.

Louis criticised Hope for performing a solo artists song (Hurt by Christina Aguilera), with Phoebe on lead and the rest just ooh-ing and aah-ing. Of course the irony of this criticism was that his group Westlife have just covered a solo artist’s song (Home by Michael Buble) with Shane on lead the rest just ooh-ing and aah-ing.

Beverly - despite giving a great performance obviously doesn’t have the same fan base as the rest as she finished in the bottom two -along with Hope - and after a deadlock in the judges voting, it turned out she finished last in the public vote. Being the first act up probably didn’t help her either.

Next week’s theme is Best of British, and Duran Duran will be performing.

Casino Royale star Daniel Craig appeared on the Jonathan Ross chat show last nite (BBC1). Craig has revitalised the Bond franchise and Jonathan Ross is movie buff, and presenter of BBC’s “Film” programme, so it should have been a fascinating conversation - except it would have been if Daniel Craig had anything to say… at all. What a let down - the guy was virtually monosyllabic.

Thanks to Jonathan Ross, there’s always a few funny moments though. On talking abot green screen acting, Craig said it was hard to talk to an empty space. “Are you talking about me?” asked Jonathan… “at least I’m keeping my end of the conversation up!”

I wonder if he’s just painfully shy, or maybe objected to the ribbing he got (Ross labelled his face “craggy”) or didn’t care for being the object of Russell Brand’s desires. It’s a shame because he’s clearly a great actor… so maybe he should have tried to act like an entertaining chat show guest?

It was Week 5 on the X Factor and I was suddenly hit by the realisation that Dannii Minogue is actually incredibly annoying. Her post performance comments all seemed to trail off into some odd voices she was putting on. I wish she’d just give a straight comment without trying to play to the gallery or turn it into a performance.

But back to the performances themselves. Well, it was Disco week which meant there was a massive pool of fantastic tracks available, but somehow some of them still managed to get some duds. Rhydian performed the Village People’s “Go West”. Bit of a boring song in my personal opinion. Dannii said it was hard to find a big Disco track for a male vocalist, but I’d loved to have seen him do something like “MacArthur Park”.

Leon got his first positive comments from Simon with his take on “Relight My Fire”. I don’t think he’s a winner, but the fact I could watch him dancing without putting my head in my hands and cringeing was at least an improvement.

Niki also had to tackle her dancing issues and made a good fist of “Hot Stuff”, which went down well with all the judges except for Simon who said it was a bit “Mum-at-a-wedding”. Niki challenged to get up there if he thought he could do any better - sorry love, that’s not quite how it works. Louis’ other act Beverley again proved she has a great voice with a powerful “I’m Every Woman”.

Alisha should have been on safe ground with a classic track like “Young Hearts Run Free” but I think she just didn’t have enough about her to make it a standout performance. In fact, so little was there to say about her that the judges ended up arguing about her roller skating dancers.

For the groups, Hope did a very credible job with Abba’s “Man After Midnight” and Same Difference did “Blame It On The Boogie”.

After the results had been counted, Hope and Alisha were in the final two and the judges decided to keep Hope. It was sad because Alisha seems really nice but she has never really shone, although her version of Valerie was probably her finest moment.

So Sharon lost her final act. Next week the theme is Motown.

It was week four of the live finals and the theme was songs of the 21st century.

Hope gave a good performance of Back To Black. With reports of infighting, was Dannii being a stirrer by singling one of them out for praise and saying she carried the group?

Same Difference were enjoyably crazy with their rendition of “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing”. I was suprised Sharon took such umbrage at the eccentric staging. As Simon said, “it’s called entertainment”.

Alisha did a very passable homage to Corinne Bailey Rae and could easily pass for a minor pop star herself.

Leon proved yet again that he can’t dance. Give the boy a stall and tell him to stay on it. Louis told him we don’t need another Michael Buble. That’ll be why Westlife have just released a completely pointless cover of Michael Buble’s “Home” then?

Rhydian’s performance of “You Raise Me Up” was certainly the standout performance of the evening.

When the results came in, Andy and Beverley were in the bottom two.

What was up with Andy’s performance? About half way through some weird voice, like an extra terrestrial, to sing some key lines over him. I had no idea if that was deliberate or a malfunction but it sounded awful. His second performance in the showdown seemed a lot better but it was probably never going to sway the judges.

Louis Walsh was shocked Beverley was in the bottom two. I don’t know why - he picked an awful song for her. “Your Beautiful” was number one for a long time. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a well loved song. I think it’s more likely to mean it’s a song we’re all sick of.

What did you think of X Factor?

This was a fascinating drama for a Sunday night in front of the box. Award winning writer and director Stephen Poliakoff brought together a fantastic cast including the incredible Michael Gambon and the impossibly handsome Rupert Penry Jones. The story from seen through the eyes of Joe - a simple, naive boy recruited to man the door of a massive, unused Mayfair house.

Its billionaire owner, Elliot Graham, played by Michael Gambon, had inherited the house and his wealth from his father, but was paralysed by not knowing how his father had made his money. Richard (Rupert Penry Jones) - a charming government minister - ingratiates himself with Joe and begins to use the luxurious house to conduct an affair. The visits from Richard and his mistress, played by the beautiful Kelly Reilly, become the highlights of Joe’s time at the house and he increasingly looks forward to their visits, but is confused when Richard brings another mistress.

Honestly, it wasn’t entirely clear what the point of the story was, but it almost didn’t need a point. The characters themselves made compelling viewing without the need of any over bearing narrative. One theme was certainly loneliness. The loneliness for Joe in looking after an empty house was evident. Elliot Graham’s loneliness came from being a reclusive figure, awkward around others and with the nagging doubts he had about all the origins of his wealth.

Elliot eventually discovers the source of the riches left to him, and Joe plays an important part in the dramatic conclusion. I definitely enjoyed this and am looking forward to seeing the sister production, Capturing Mary, starring Maggie Smith and also centering around the eerie Mayfair house where Joe works.

It was Big Band week on X Factor, and usually that means the usual selection of swing standards, and that was there to some extent but also they threw in some curve balls like Pink’s “Get The Party Started” (performed by Rhydian)  and Madonna’s “Hanky Panky” (performed by Hope).

FutureProof performed “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which according to Simon is an Andy Williams classic. Hello? How about some credit for the original recording artist to have a hit with it, Franki Valli.  Louis was in particularly scathing mood, saying the middle three of the five-piece group were OK but he didn’t like the “two book-ends”.

Rhydian’s performance was magnificently over the top. Sounded to me like a few bum notes but I’m probably not qualified to say for sure. Alicia at last managed a performance that had some life about it and was rewarded by not being in the bottom two for the first time.  Same Difference were their usual happy selves with a rendition of “Reach”. They’re always bright and bubbly so its hard form an emotional connection with their performances. Louis said they were destined for panto. I’d say Butlins would be closer to the mark.

Andy did a great job with the Bacharach classic, “This Guy’s In Love” - which Louis oddly called “obscure”. He seems more and more detached from reality each week.

Beverly and Niki made sure the over-25s were well represented with two great performances although Beverly got the better comments from the judges.

Simon said earlier in the night that Rhydian’s performance has the best series so far, but then went on to say Hope’s Hanky Panky was his favourite of the night, which must have meant that was his new favourite of the series. It seemed the public didn’t share his enthusiasm for it because Hope were in the bottom two along with Simon’s other group, FutureProof.

Louis and Sharon both voted to keep Hope before Dannii voted to keep FutureProof. Call me cynical but I’d suggest she did solely to put Simon in the position of having to choose between the groups. He looked like the decision pained him but I think he knows this about making a good TV show more than anything else, and he eventually came down in favour of Hope, thus consigning FutureProof to the history books.