The first official trailer for the new Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, was released on the net today. It looks brilliant, and looks at first glance reminiscent of Licence To Kill where Bond has to go solo to get his revenge. It will be released in the UK in October.
Have you seen that advert for Toyota that has a song called “Join With Us” by The Feeling? It goes “ring-ring, beep-beep aha”. First time I heard it, I thought that’s a cute little song. Now I’m so sick of it, I want to cut my ears off everytime I hear that awful, absurd lyric. What were they thinking? Did The Feeling write a song aimed at Teletubby fans or something? I pray I never have to hear that again.
A star is born! Raef from the Apprentice was a guest on the first episode in the new series of “8 Out Of 10 Cats” and he was mostly pretty funny, but quite simply hilarious when he was asked who he would least like to share a car with and he simply said, “a rapist”. Funniest moment on TV all week! Check it out on the clip below at about 4 min 35.
In the penultimate episode of the Apprentice, five remaining candidates faced absurdly tough interviews from Sir Alan’s usual henchman, with the addition of Karen Brady. Most of them wilted to some extent, and some embarrassingly so, under the harsh questioning. There seemed to be no clear winner but there did seem to be a concensus that Lucinda was a good team leader but not a team member, and on balance Sir Alan decided she was a little “too zany” for him and gave her the boot. Rather than fire another two he decided to keep four for the final next week, with two teams of two. It’s probably fair to send all four in as I think it’s difficult to pick any stand out candidates from those four, although possibly Helene is the weakest link remaining based on her track record although she performed ok in the interviews, notwithstanding her slightly potty mouth.
The “interviews” episode is one of my favourites from the whole series and this was certainly no let down. One thing I wasn’t impressed with how Karen Brady was featured. Her entrance was by way of some teasing shot of her leg as she got out of her car. When she came to talk about Alex, her first comments were about how good looking and charming he was. I don’t know if I really think the programme makers or Brady herself represented woman in business very well.
It was a night of finals last night. Over on ITV, George Sampson won Britain’s Got Talent, and on BBC1 , Jodie became Nancy on I’d Do Anything. I haven’t really followed I’d Do Anything but did get into it over the last two weeks.
I wasn’t sure who I wanted to win - but was probably learning towards Jessie. It seemed like she could have been a unique Nancy, and her duet with the Oliver last night was really great. Samantha, who went out first last night, seemed almost too strong to be Nancy. Stunning to look at, she has a kind of icy determination, and such poise that I wondered if perhaps she couldn’t capture Nancy’s vulnerability. Later on in the show, there was a collaboration between Samantha and the other runner former contestants as they performed Never Forget by Take That. All the rest had a look on their faces like “I hope you’re looking at me”. The look on Samantha’s face is more “I know you’re looking at me”. I actually think she could easily be a successful pop star.
Coming down to Jessie vs Jodie, I did think Jessie would edge it and she had the support of both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh, who described Jodie as the “film Nancy” (and Jessie as the “Dickens Nancy”). And maybe it was being the “film Nancy” that swung it for her as we’ve all seen the film and maybe we just saw Jodie as being able to slot into that role more easily. Anyway, well done to Jodie who should be on the West End stage later this year.
Well, that was a turn up for the book - I did not expect little George Sampson to come out on top, but the rain soaked dancer scooper the prize after the public vote. Ant and Dec asked him how he would feel performing for Prince Charles. I doubt this 14 year old really cares too much about dancing for the heir to the thone - this isn’t the 18th century - but I suspect he might be a little more interested in the £100,000 prize money which they had been curiously coy about that mentioning until that point.
Andrew Muir flopped a bit in the final with a fairly uninspiring version of Imagine. There’s no really soaring parts to that song and he didn’t convey emotion very well, so it was all a bit of a disaster and he got a strong slating from Amanda and Simon. Andrew hinted that he had been told to sing that song though which certainly adds a bit of intrigue. I don’t think we will be seeing much of Andrew Muir though.
I’d liked to have seen Gin and Kate win, as that dog might be the most amazing animal I’ve ever seen. I can see Gin being the star of TV adverts for sure, so hopefully it’s not the last we’ve seen of him.
Do you think the right act won Britain’t Got Talent?
I’m a bit of a Neil Diamond fan so was looking forward to this “Audience with” on Saturday night. Diamond didn’t disappoint with a superb mix of classic hits and his newer, critically acclaimed material. I’ve never really seen him in conversation before so it was interesting to see him answering questions. He came across as intelligent, charismatic, intense, funny and sensitive. The show was polished and even the programme titles seemed a tad classier than the usual ITV fayre.
I did feel a bit sorry for Neil Diamond though, as he was probably led to believe his audience would be celebrities - and there were some proper ones - but for the whole, it was some very low ranking celebs. Here’s a run down of some of the faces that stood out, in descending order of their celebrity status in my eyes…
I’ve given Richy Neville and Kris Akabussi joint last place. No offence to them, but maybe ITV should consider a smaller venue if those two warrant an invite.
