Digital TV Blog

Terry Wogan has said that he intends to continue presenting the BBC’s Children In Need show “until hell freezes over”.

The 71-year-old, who recently announced he would step down from presenting his Radio 2 breakfast show next year, says he has no plans to retire from the annual programme.

“They’re going to have to shoot me to get me off that,” he told BBC News.

Wogan was speaking at the launch of the single All You Need is Love, which will raise money for Children In Need. The group of performers includes Paloma Faith, Andrea Corr, Lee Mead, Peter Gabriel and Wogan himself. The single will be released on Monday.

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The presenting duo Ant and Dec say they are “delighted” to have signed a new golden handcuffs contract with ITV.

The exclusive contract is reportedly worth £20 million to the pair, representing a 10% cut in pay compared with last year. ITV declined to comment.

“We are delighted to sign with ITV for another two years,” said 33-year-old Anthony McPartlin.

Declan Donnelly, 34, added: “We’re particularly excited about the new media opportunities, which will allow us to make fresh and exciting content for online.”

The hosts of Britain’s Got Talent also revealed they will be presenting a new show, called Push the Button. The games show will pit two families against each other in a series of timed challenges, according to the trade magazine Broadcast, with each episode beginning with Ant and Dec surprising contestants in their own homes.

The duo, who rose to fame as teenage actors on the children’s soap Byker Grove, joined ITV in 1998 on the Saturday morning shows SM:TV Live and CD:UK. They have worked exclusively for the channel since 2000.

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Channel 4’s head of programming, Julian Bellamy, has warned of a “culture of compliance” in British television. He said that the industry was becoming less creative, and that there was “less surprise and variety” than there should be.

In particular, he criticised the BBC for being “increasingly conservative in its editorial decision making”.

“After a string of scandals about taste and decency, it seems to avoid disruptive, potentially controversial ideas like the plague,” Bellamy told an audience at the Royal Television Society last night. “Time and again producers tell me this. And I believe it.”

He added that the recent culture of restraint was an “unintended consequence of the BBC’s method of funding” and the unrivalled public scrutiny that came with it.

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Today’s digital switchover in North-West England has contributed to a massive rise in the number of dumped analogue TVs, environmental campaigners have said.

Figures from Cumbria County Council, which serves nearly half a million people, reveal a 70% rise in the number of TVs dumped in landfill in the region over the past year. This year, the council dealt with over 50,000 TVs, of which 30,000 could have been converted to digital with a simple set-top box costing as little as £20.

Devon County Council, which switched over to digital earlier in the year, saw the number of dumped televisions nearly double between April and September.

Around 7 million viewers in Cumbria, Manchester, Liverpool and the rest of the Granada TV region had their analogue signal for BBC2 turned off in the early hours of this morning.The permanent digital switchover of BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five will take place on 2nd December for all households served by the Winter Hill transmitter.

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Former This Morning presenter Fern Britton has landed her series on BBC1, it has been announced.

Over the course of the four-part series, called Fern Britton Meets, Britton will talk about faith with high-profile figures in the run-up to Christmas.

Confirmed guests include Tony Blair, who converted to Roman Catholicism shortly after stepping down as Prime Minister; Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa; and the country singer Dolly Parton.

The final episode will see Britton interview the actress Sheila Hancock, who is currently playing a nun in the West End version of Sister Act, but is herself a Quaker.

“All of the interviewees come from very different backgrounds but what binds them together is the fact that although their faith has been challenged, they’ve emerged with strong spiritual beliefs,” said Britton.

Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC’s first Muslim head of religion and ethics, added: “This Christmas offers an exciting and diverse range of programming across BBC TV and Radio, from thought-provoking documentaries to traditional music and live worship.

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Jeremy Clarkson has said the only way to avoid offending Top Gear viewers would be to broadcast a silent episode of the BBC show.

“One day we’ll do an episode of Top Gear in which none of us speak. It’s the only way they will have nothing to complain about,” the controversial presenter joked. “I don’t think I’ve done anything naughty this year, though, have I?”

The 49-year-old, who presents Top Gear alongside Richard Hammond and James May, regularly sparks complaints from viewers with his close-to-the-wire comments.

In a 2005 Top Gear episode, Clarkson caused widespread offense when he gave a mock Nazi salute and referred to the German invasion of Poland whilst describing a “quintessentially German” car.

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The culture secretary Ben Bradshaw has warned that Britain’s cultural figureheads are “sleepwalking” into being ruled by a Conservative government that would threaten the BBC’s impartiality, as well as the production of controversial plays such as Enron.

Speaking to an audience of Labour Party members, Bradshaw said that Tory media policy pandered to the interests of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, and predicted that the traditional principle of keeping government and media “at arm’s length” could be abolished under a Conservative government.

“There are far too many people sleepwalking towards the next election, too many people thinking lazily it might have to be time for a change without realising you cannot have change to the Conservatives without negative consequences,” he said, adding that the Conservative leader David Cameron was keen to promote the commercial interests of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

During his address to the Labour Party pressure group Progress, Bradshaw claimed that the Conservatives’ pledge to “tear up the multi-annual charter and licence fee represented an unprecedented assault on the BBC’s independence that no previous government, not even Margaret Thatcher, had contemplated”.

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The BBC has announced it will tighten up the procedure for dealing with complaints about party election broadcasts, in anticipation of an outcry from viewers over airtime given to the British National Party ahead of next year’s general election.

New rules will require complainants to clearly state their objections and back them up with evidence. Previously, people who made complaints were not required to meet these requirements as part of a formal process.

Today the BBC Trust published a consultation paper on the proposed changes, which it expects to put into effect before the 2010 general election.

Following the huge furore provoked by the appearance of BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time, the BBC is expecting a large volume of complaints about the amount of air time given to BNP election broadcasts.

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Gordon Ramsay is to be a producer on a new US remake of MasterChef. He will also appear on the series from US network Fox in a yet unspecified role.

US independent producer Reveille, a subsidiary of Elisabeth Murdoch’s UK-based Shine, will co-produce with Ramsey. Fox, which also owns the Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmare brands, is expected to order between 12 and 15 episodes of MasterChef.

“This is a huge, nationwide search for the best amateur cook in America,” said Howard T Owens, executive producer of Reveille.

“It’s about people who are lawyers, construction workers and stay-at-home mums but whose real passion is to make great food. This is their shot to prove they have what it takes.”

Contestants will compete for a place in the semi-finals by cooking for a panel of three judges. The semi-finalists will then compete in a series of cooking challenges until the winner remains.

Ramsay will also host an hour-long special for Fox, called Gordon Ramsay Cookalong Live, on 15th December.

Rebecca Adlington’s agent has said the BBC Trust did not do enough to discipline comedian Frankie Boyle over comments he made about the 20-year-old swimmer on Mock the Week.

Boyle made derogatory jokes about Adlington on the satirical BBC2 show shortly after she won two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics last year.

He said that the swimmer looked like “someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon” and compared her appearance unfavourably with that of her boyfriend, adding: “From that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty.”

The remarks provoked 75 complaints from viewers and the BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee ruled they were “offensive and unacceptable for broadcast”.

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