AS coursework review

Come Dine With Me, Gavin and Stacey, Eastenders and Doctor Who. Come Dine With Me (Channel 4, Documentary) Gavin and Stacey (BBC ONE, Comedy) Eastenders( BBC ONE, Drama) Doctor Who(BBC ONE, Sci – Fi) There won’t be a bat of an eyelid when Come Dine with Me producers finally decide enough is enough. The final straw for me was 2 weeks ago when the show produced a ‘Halloween special’ of the outdated, uninteresting and simply dreary TV series where the public all over the country sat anxiously waiting for something relatively entertaining to creep in. The show is normally made up of 4 or 5 ‘celebrities ’whom the public may or may not know one or two of. The episodes without celebrities are a lot more amusing! They all host dinner parties and rate each other’s. At the end the winner receives £1,000 cash. This particular night, the show involved the Nightmare on Elm Street horror films actor Robert Englund, psychic medium Sally Morgan, cross – dressing cage fighter Alex Reid and English glamour model, Nicola Mclean. So at least the show managed to live up to its theme of ‘Halloween’. The atmosphere could have been cut with Freddie Kruegers (Robert Englund’s) razors. Especially when Nicola told Robert ‘You’re literally my worst nightmare.’ She also accused Alex of being ‘self-indulgent’. To which he then just shrugged his shoulders. Yes, the costumes, cutlery and company looked relatively frightening like intended… But the food did too. It seems to be as more and more episodes are created, more and more questions are being asked as to what is the point? What does the show even aim to do? It’s the biggest waste of TV time and also about as hopeless as a plant without water. Come dine with me is a pathetic excuse to dress up stupidly and tear pieces out of each other. However BBC ONE’s comedy, Gavin and Stacey has the reverse effect. It just keeps on getting better and stronger. So, Gavin and Stacey relates to a wide audience with characters of all ages. The program revolves around Gavin and Stacey’s families getting together for different events such as birthdays, Christmas’ and weddings. However, the show’s creators James Cordon and Ruth Jones, who play Smithy and Nessa, Gavin and Stacey’s best friends, steal the show every time. The series is fun, family - friendly and simply hysterical. The characters play off each other and are likeable whilst using each other’s flaw to create complete comedy. Time after time I’m drawn in. In series 3, episode 1, Gavin from Essex, played by Matthew Horne and Stacey from Wales, played by Joanna Page move to Barry Island after their wedding and by now Nessa and Smithy have had a drunken night and created baby Neil whose christening is in this episode. Of course this is another opportunity for the families to reunite and celebrate. In the christening scene, there are lots of laugh out loud moments and even a chance to sing along to ‘Strong’ by Labi Siffre as this is what Uncle Bryn, (Rob Brydon) as the godfather chooses to sing at baby Neil’s christening as if this is the most suitable song. Like in this scene, Uncle Bryn constantly creeps in and hits the viewers with the best bits along with Smithy and Nessa. The parents of Gavin are Pam and Mick Shipman (Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb). Pam adores her only son and is continuously calling him her ‘little prince’ so it’s extremely entertaining when Gavin first tells her he will be moving to Barry with Stacey. Whereas Mick is a fairly laid back and calm character who is happy for Pam to wear the trousers, unlike his controlling role in Eastenders back in 2010 as Archie Mitchell. In the episode on the 9th of November 2012, Award winning Shane Ritchie who plays a Alfie Moon, forgets he has arranged a poker night at his place, above the pub and through guilt lets the brothers Max, Jack and Derek, (Jamie Foreman, Scott Maslen and Jake Wood) who are all known for various crimes stay at his to play whilst he’s goes out on a surprise date with his wife Kat moon. It has been hinted to the audience that Kat is having an affair with one of the brothers but we are still clueless to which one. This creates great tension. Whilst on their date at the local b and b Alfie finds a mouse, but this surprisingly doesn’t put him off. Instead he chases Kat with it saying he’s playing ‘cat and mouse’. However much that makes us cringe, it does bring a few cackles into the living room. When being asked by Kat if she made him happy, Alfie just replied with hmm’s, if’s and ah’s but quickly recovered from this by saying she was ‘different, interesting and fun’. Maybe a little bit like ‘Dimensions in Time’. ‘Dimension’s in Time’ was created back in the early nineties when Eastenders joined forces with Doctor Who. This was for Children in need and involved elements of both programmes. ‘Dimensions in time’ did its job and provided great entertainment because it was very ‘different, interesting and fun’. However, Doctor Who doesn’t manage to provide that. In fact, one thing that it does provide is the complete opposite. Tediousness. One the 5th October, 2012, episode 5, series 7 showed on BBC ONE. The episode was called ‘The Angels Take Manhattan.’ The storyline was so basic; it insulted the average adult’s intelligence and simply consisted of a 1930’s New York setting with lots of random monsters running about needlessly. Rory Williams (Arthur) is a companion of the doctor and dating Amelia Pond (Karen Gillian) who is an even closer companion of the Doctors. Rory is sent back to the 30’s by the ‘weeping angels’. There, he finds Manhattan has become their hunting grounds and the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amelia must find Rory before time runs out. However, they realise that it is not always possible to change time which results in the Doctor having to say goodbye to Amelia, the thing he had been dreading the most. The episode was simply the most mind numbing yet and is battling for successful rivalry against Come Dine with me for most Monotonous programme on TV to this day.