ITV’s behind the scenes comedy kept one TV addict laughing, admits David Knox.
I really don’t often give much attention to the HD channels. Most of the line up is repeats, crap, or the networks never send out a preview. I figure if they aren’t going to take it seriously, why should we?
The truth is they apparently still haven’t worked out what HD is for. TEN uses it to screen cult shows it ripped off the SD channel (Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Smallville), Seven treads water with faded lifestyle shows (the aptly titled Room for Improvement), Nine is trying to deliver most of its mainstream shows in a HD format – not a bad idea – and the ABC has completely alternative programmes. Two of these comprise the bold British soap duo: Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach.
This pairing aired back to back in the UK, but while one is a traditional soap, the other is a bitingly-scripted comedy about ‘the making of’. In Moving Wallpaper we watch fictional characters creating the fictional soap of Echo Beach. Got that? The latter, set by the beaches of Cornwall, is a vapid clone of Home and Away. Amusingly, it even has Jason Donovan in it. But it’s played completely straight and as a result is as bland as batshit.
But what a gem is Moving Wallpaper! Stuck in the production office, we watch soap hacks argue and defend the merits of their work. When new producer Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) is brought on board, he’s ruthless in his pursuit of ratings. He wants motorbikes, surfboards, actors with hair, shirtless boys, busty girls – whatever it takes to hit the demographic.
The results are like Ricky Gervais meets Summer Bay. The dialogue is swift, cutting and self-referential. Pope even tosses out casting plans and snares Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon. “I told Jason we were going for Kylie and I told Martine she could sing,” he sniggers.
When you then view Echo Beach you can actually see all the changes made by the writers as a secondary gag. But watching it with ‘educated’ eyes it loses all meaning. Unsurprisingly, Beach has been axed in the UK, while Moving Wallpaper has been renewed (art imitates ‘art’).
Moving Wallpaper is hands down the funniest thing of its kind since Darren Star’s short-lived 90210 send-up, Grosse Pointe. Sob! I still miss that!
Moving Wallpaper/Echo Point premiere 8:30 Friday May 30 on ABC2.
TV Guide
FRIDAY MAY 23
[SBS/7:30pm] Eurovision. Your SBS weekend starts here, with the First Semi Final, this year imposed to break up voting by neighbourly blocs (especially amongst Eastern Europe). It’s followed by a torturous doco about a washed up Norwegian Popstars winner, Solo: Decline Of A Pop Star. Tomorrow night it’s the Second Semi Final plus the kitsch Abba: The Movie (AUS 1977) – look for local actors in bad cameos! Sunday it’s the Eurovision Final with Terry Wogan’s inimitable commentary. Will Ireland’s dreadful turkey puppet win? Russia’s Dima Bilan is the fave, and one of several Enrique clones (see also Switzerland and Belarus), but I dunno about using a ladder and ice skates. I’m liking Poland’s American import Isis Gee, while Sweden’s Charlotte is pure pop-tastic.
SATURDAY 24
[Nine/1:00pm] Movie: North By Northwest (US 1959). As well as this Hitchcock classic, there are some great flicks tonight, including the early Spielberg road movie The Sugarland Express (US 1974) and Citizen Kane (US 1941) both on ABC1; the original Stepford Wives (US 1975) late on SBS and the occasionally-gay themed thriller Deathtrap (US 1982) at 12:55am on Nine.
SUNDAY 25
[SBS/10:45pm] Movie: Foon (France 2005) Following Eurovision is another camp offering in this one-joke, high school prom movie that kinda mashes Grease with Carrie. There’s even a nod to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane with the principal Miss Smokingkills and her wheelchair-bound lieutenant, Miss Ashtrey.
MONDAY 26
[Seven/9:30pm] Boston Legal. Four eps in and it’s the third flag-waving storyline. Tonight, a senior army general sues the forces over ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Candice Bergen gets all the best lines in her defence to a judge who has some private issues of his own; and poor old Denny Crane keeps mugging as he comes to terms with his friend’s disclosure. “As in GAY, gay?” Yes, Denny…
[SBS/10:00pm] Skins. The focus shifts this week to Sketchie, a girl with a crush on Maxxie. The rest of the gang are swept into the high school musical –which is nothing like that Disney crap, thank God.
[Seven/10:30pm] Louis Theroux. Tonight Louis ventures behind the bars of San Quentin, where he encounters more than his share of tattooed, shirtless thugs, a 40 year old trans woman who has a meaningful relationship with her 30 year old cellmate, and a former Nazi supremacist now having a ‘homosexual companionship’ with a Jewish gay man. Louis sure gets the scoops.
WEDNESDAY 28
[Oprah/7:30pm] Oprah & The Sex And The City Reunion. The gals get together to plug the movie, but it’s a chance to hear Cynthia Nixon address her same sex relationship. Though she dated men most of her life, Cynthia says when she met her girlfriend, Christine, it didn't matter to her if she was male or female. She was in love.
THURSDAY 29
[Seven/10:30pm] Family Guy. If we really can’t have Lost I guess this Star Wars parody is the next best thing. Could Stewie play Princess Leia?
[SBS/11:50pm] Clara Sheller: Looking For Prince Charming (France) A journo lives with a closeted accountant who meets his boss's son, who might also be of the same persuasion. Hope he’s not an accountant too.
ITV’s behind the scenes comedy kept one TV addict laughing, admits David Knox.
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