Category: tv

Life is great

Damian Lewis on LifeYou’re a brave TV studio calling a new show ‘Life’.

Obviously if the series works, the critics can be awfully banal and write a headline much like the one I’m using for this post.

However, if it falls flat on its arse, then you get quips like ‘Life Sucks’.

Fortunately, Life is actually pretty good. Now showing in the UK on ITV3, it’s quickly become one of my favourite new shows to watch and Brit actor Damian Lewis is very watchable.

I can’t help noticing similarities between his character and another notable redhead cop, Horatio Kane – aka David Caruso – on CSI: Miami.

The other similarity, for me, is with Michael Dibdin’s Italian detective Aurelio Zen – the surname giving away the common denominator.

The weird thing is, though, that the more we watched Life the other night, the less red Lewis’ hair seemed to be. What happened to his crowning glory? Surely the producers didn’t turn round and demand he toned the colour down.

By the end of Episode 1, he was almost dark brown – and a long way from his strawberry blonde roots. I mean, it’s not as if the studio bosses could act surprised by his hair colour, could they?

Anyway, that is a minor distraction – the rest of it was highly enjoyable.

Here’s a clip from the opening of Life – where he still looks quite ginger. But I can assure you, it’s not always the case!

What’s in a (company) name?

Jack and Vera Duckworth

We’ve all read about Iceland going into meltdown, but This news story from last Sunday’s Observer amused me no end.

An Icelandic company called Arev is going down the tubes. Nothing particularly surprising about that during this time of recession, but what’s amusing is that Arev and its sister company Kcaj are named after Coronation Street veterans Jack and Vera (Duckworth).

To make it even more hilarious, a new company that was set up after the buy-out of Aspinal, the leather-goods brand, is called Yerrt – which just happens to be an anagram of Terry, the Duckworth’s wayward son.

Of course, there is a history of people using part of their name or initials to come up with the name of their company.

Famously Alan Sugar named Amstrad after standing Alan Michael Sugar TRADing.

Tesco is named after the two founding partners, TE Stockwell and Jack COhen.

Trebor Mints is, of course, the reversal of the first name of founder Robert Robertson.

However, Arev takes the biscuit. The Icelandics named their company after two people who they liked in a TV series originally shown in another country. A little nutso, dontcha think?

Is Gok Wan on the way down?

Gok WanGok Wan, currently more ubiquitous than a toff at a Tory Party conference, was back on TV last night with his latest foray into making women and himself feel better about themselves, Miss Naked Beauty 2008.

He always seems like a fairly OK bloke, but my god isn’t he everywhere all of a sudden? No sooner has Gok’s Fashion Fix finished than this latest show hits the screens.

And inevitably to publicise his show, he’s been interviewed everywhere. In fact, he’s now been featured in the Guardian and Observer, which is proof positive that his star is waning!

He’s also regularly dispensing fashion and beauty advice in a host of women’s magazines at the moment. In fact, wherever you turn, bloody Gok is there.

I guess as a bloke I don’t quite get the ‘you go, girlfriend’ thing he’s got going on, but it starts to grate after a while.

I also don’t care that he used be 21 stone – well done for losing the weight, but don’t keep telling us all the time. It’s almost as bad as when fat people tell you that they ‘used to be slim’.

My final irritation about Miss Naked Beauty was the sanctimony of the people involved. If Gok and Myleene are so into looking natural, why don’t they go in front of the camera for the entire programme without any make-up?

Now that really would make it interesting viewing!