8 posts tagged “channel 4”

Any clues on how “mentalist” Derren Brown did this trick on live television last night?
   I’m really hoping it’s not some lame split-screen gag, where the left of the screen is freeze-framed and someone comes along and plonks the correct numbers in. Rather easy to do on telly.

Here’s a thoughtlet for this morning: if violent TV programmes lead to more violence in children, how come we aren’t seeing kids give away their fortune now that The Secret Millionaire has been on for a few years, including a US remake of it?
   ‘Why is Billy giving away money to the poor kids at school?’
   ‘It’s that darned Secret Millionaire show. We need to stop him watching that.’
   Actually, I do believe TV does influence child behaviour, but this little example points to deeper issues about human selfishness, and how it takes a pretty special person, whether the millionaires in the show or everyday people, to give away something without condition.

Ten years ago: Rory Bremner was imitating Bill Clinton, in an interview with Juliet Morris. The show was Channel 4’s Beware of Imitations. The man was a genius then, and still is today. Apparently he spends a long time perfecting his voices and mannerisms.

One of my favourite scenes from Black Books (there are Manny, I mean, many).

I can normally explain some of these Derren Brown specials (e.g. his use of suggestion, clever reading of faces), but when we are predicting a newspaper article from the future, right down to two names, it gets outside what I can rationally suggest.

This was from 2006 but still: damn, they look good! From Richard & Judy.

   Glynis Barber and Michael Brandon recall their first kiss and what their son thinks of the two-hour pilot on the series where they met, Dempsey and Makepeace.
   A later interview with Glynis Barber appeared on This Morning, where she discusses the prospect of a TV reunion special.

I saw this movie, Sexy Beast, years ago and again last year when staying with my friends Amanda and Paul in Christchurch. It stars Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley. If you are used to Ben Kingsley playing rather dignified roles, this will be a surprise. He plays a psychotic East End hood.
   I was trying to find his ‘No no no no no no no’ line only, but this is the closest YouTube has. Excessive swearing: be warned, and don’t play this around your kids (if you have any).

New Zealand is a year behind on Life on Mars, and I note from a TV One ad just now that Derren Brown’s Séance will air next week. I know we are necessarily behind the UK on British programmes, but I don’t remember us being this far behind since the 1970s. A three-year-old show? What is happening? Now with Cold Case, Without a Trace and other American shows on One, is this the end of the British influence on our networks?
   And people wonder why TVNZ as a whole is doing so poorly. It’s simply not delivering what people want. I can say that with some more authority, having been an insider.
   Incidentally, having left Good Morning, my theory has been proven right: my profile is up. The results are in: May saw eight press mentions across the company—up on 2006, but down on some months in 2003–5 where we were seeing something written about us at least daily. (The idea that appearing on TV regularly enhances your profile is, I can now say, bollocks.) It is reaching the levels (measured in column inches and mentions) it was at before I began on the show; indeed, we seem to be returning, as a company, to pre-2004 levels, before we made some bad hiring decisions. I do seem to have rid myself of the negative influences in my life—and Good Morning, and whatever sickness TVNZ has, were the last.
   I love being proved right—it was a good lesson, reminding myself to stick to my guns, remembering that sort of magic that helped us get an international clientèle to begin with, and exposing me to seeing a bad organization that wasn’t paying me to fix it. It’s not every day I have that opportunity: while I have seen ill organizations, I am usually called in after they have realized they need help. TVNZ has not got there yet and, in recent memory, is the only first-hand example I have of an organization I got to see over a period that wants to stay in its funk. It had more often been a management-textbook theory.
   As to my personal profile, I believe the slip in press mentions was due to an energy mismatch here at work in 2005–6 and the fact that appearing on Good Morning took me away from building my media appearances doing the things that mattered to me as a CEO. From a personal-brand standpoint, it was not authentic, to coin a phrase from Johnnie Moore. Not that that was the intent: I had been promised by the network that I could promote Lucire, most of all, through the show. That promise, as those of you who listened to my voice post last month, was not kept.
   Furthermore, I cannot see, with hindsight, how the ‘You’ve Got Male’ segment was a dignified forum for a company leader. I say this with respect to men like Paul Sinclair, with whom I regularly stay in contact.
   When I think of interviews I have had with CNN or the BBC, the show went against the image I had built up as a businessman.
   As each week passes, I feel more comfortable with my decision to leave Good Morning, and the positive consequences are coming up more frequently.
   My main regrets are endorsing the show to friends, getting caught up in it. I should have recommended that Laural and Sharaine Barrett not appear, though it was a good excuse to catch up in Wellington. Jennifer Hamilton of Avidiva reports no increase in profile, bookings or ‘Oh, I saw you on …’ since appearing on Good Morning.
   You may see me on C4 in mid-July (to be confirmed), and there may be some news that could net some television attention in late June–early July. The key is to not get sucked in to negative organizations or be around negative people as part of my routine—and if I have to appear on a TVNZ network, then it must be totally in line with my real job and personal mission.