Charlie Brooker

**SiHart** · 20th Jan 2011, 9:18 AM

Damn my typing to hell!

Si xx

**Perry Vale** · 21st Jan 2011, 2:42 PM

Well, it was a nice way to spend an hour and five minutes, and one of the best ideas C4 has commissioned for a while, but I fail to see any real reason for it to be 'live'.

**Zbigniev Hamson** · 21st Jan 2011, 3:44 PM

Because it was reacting to the news perhaps?

**Perry Vale** · 21st Jan 2011, 4:28 PM

I don't think 'the news' changed much between 10.00pm and 11.05pm though...

**Alex** · 21st Jan 2011, 5:08 PM

Originally Posted by Perry Vale

Well, it was a nice way to spend an hour and five minutes, and one of the best ideas C4 has commissioned for a while, but I fail to see any real reason for it to be 'live'.

I thought it was all a bit of a mess. There were some nice moments (largely involving David Mitchell) and a couple of the interviews were interesting, but I thought Jimmy Carr was pretty average and Lauren Laverne was awful - that sketch she was in made me cringe so much!

I'd jettison both Carr and Laverne, and replace them with someone more suited to this sort of show - Mark Thomas would be perfect on the political side of things, as would Mark Steele. I'd also cut it down to 30 minutes, and get rid of the incredibly annoying audience who seemed to laugh OTT and whoop and clap at absolutely everything.

But this is 2011 Channel Four, not 1995, so these things are never going to happen.

**Zbigniev Hamson** · 22nd Jan 2011, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by Perry Vale

I don't think 'the news' changed much between 10.00pm and 11.05pm though...

No... but then I don't even know what that means. I just meant that, by being live, it can react to up to the date news. Like it did with the Alan Johnson resignation.

**Perry Vale** · 23rd Jan 2011, 12:53 AM

I don't see how that's so hard to understand....Alan Johnson resigned earlier in the day, he didn't resign during the period of 10.00pm - 11.05pm....

They could have filmed the same basic show a couple of hours earlier, and edited it to cut out all the bits that weren't funny. Which was most of it.

**Zbigniev Hamson** · 23rd Jan 2011, 1:03 AM

What if he'd resigned later? Or if something else monumental happened at 9:30pm? I don't see how THAT's so hard to understand.

**Perry Vale** · 23rd Jan 2011, 1:28 AM

What if he'd resigned later?

It would have been a funnier show.

Or if something else monumental happened at 9:30pm?

That is not a good reason to make a tv show, full stop. What if, as is most likely, it doesn't?

**Zbigniev Hamson** · 23rd Jan 2011, 8:09 PM

It's just that it's meant to be some sort of topical news programme as well as funny. You wouldn't criticise Newsnight for going out live (I assume), and it's basically the same sort of format, but with more jokes. It might not have been all that funny, but I didn't think that was because it was live, more just because it wasn't all that funny for the most part. Recording it and doing all the same sketches and interviews wouldn't have made it any funnier. If you were having a go at The Million Pound Drop being live, or Film 2011, then that would make more sense to me (or just having a go at Lauren Laverne

)

**SiHart** · 26th Jan 2011, 8:14 AM

oh bum, I've just realised I missed the new series on BBC 2 last night.

Si xx

**Perry Vale** · 26th Jan 2011, 12:05 PM

Orlov was superb!

**Paul Monk** · 26th Jan 2011, 12:23 PM

I had no idea that Pipkins dealt with such deep subjects either.

**Zbigniev Hamson** · 24th Mar 2011, 6:49 PM

[although this isn't strictly a 10 O'Clock Live thread...]

Has anyone else stuck with 10 O'Clock Live? I know it got quite a panning when it started, but either it's improving or it's just growing on me. Lauren Laverne is completely pointless of course and, although he can be funny, Jimmy Carr's rather well-rehearsed and scripted brand of comedy might not be the best fit to live TV. But Charlie Brooker's segments are as good as anything else he does, and David Mitchell not only delivers funny monologues, but is also a very good interviewer. I've even managed to learn a few things that don't seem to have been covered or explained very well in the mainstream news, such as what the "budget deficit" actually IS.

**Perry Vale** · 24th Mar 2011, 9:26 PM

Originally Posted by Zbigniev Hamson

Has anyone else stuck with 10 O'Clock Live?

Nope, gave up a few weeks ago. It's not that it's terrible, or anything, just nothing there to get me excited enough to keep bothering. Odd really, as I won't miss anything with Brooker in usually.

**Perry Vale** · 6th Dec 2011, 10:54 PM

So, anyone else watch last sunday's first episode of Brooker's 'Black Mirror'?

I thought it was excellent, and very interesting. A wonderful cast too, although they were a bit underused as I felt it was slightly too short in running time.

Two more to come, an X-Factor style one this sunday (after the actual X-Factor finale, iirc) co-written by Konnie Huq, and a third written by the guy who wrote Peep Show and Four Lions.

**Awesome Wells** · 7th Dec 2011, 12:16 AM

Loved it. Ep 2 on at 9.30 on Sunday.

**Nyder** · 7th Dec 2011, 7:14 AM

It certainly had me gripped with the central premise - would be actually do it???

**Nyder** · 7th Dec 2011, 7:14 AM

I meant HE

**Rob McCow** · 7th Dec 2011, 9:12 AM

Is it really dark and depressing? I don't want to watch it if it's going to make me utterly miserable about the utter futility of existence on this miserable diseased slimeball of cockroach-ridden crap where the humans are cockroaches too that we call a planet. [/brookerisms]

**Perry Vale** · 7th Dec 2011, 9:47 AM

Originally Posted by Rob McCow

Is it really dark and depressing?

Ever so slightly.

**Paul Monk** · 7th Dec 2011, 1:42 PM

Its on my To Watch list!

**Alex** · 8th Dec 2011, 9:48 PM

Originally Posted by Rob McCow

Is it really dark and depressing? I don't want to watch it if it's going to make me utterly miserable about the utter futility of existence on this miserable diseased slimeball of cockroach-ridden crap where the humans are cockroaches too that we call a planet. [/brookerisms]

It is and it isn't. The central concept is incredibly disturbing without a doubt, but it's really a very human story, which shows the good and bad in the people featured. I certainly think it's an important piece of drama as it examines the impact of the internet / television has on major events and those involved in them, and the performances are pretty amazing in it too.

I've always been very fond of Brooker, but however good his comedy / satire pieces were, it does seem that when it comes to drama (and I include Dead Set as that) it's when he's at his best.

It certainly had me gripped with the central premise - would he be actually do it???

I guess it was viagra that he was given, so it was physically possible. But would David Cameron do it? I reckon not...I know I bloody well wouldn't, either. Which sounds harsh, but it's the kind of thing which is going to scar you for life.

**Richard Brinck-Johnsen** · 9th Dec 2011, 2:55 PM

I haven't seen this yet and I really enjoyed Deadset but I gave up on "How TV ruined your life" because it was actually making me feel genuinely depressed eah time I watched it which is a shame as some of the archive stuff on it was quite interesting but I got so upset at the last episode I saw that I ended up deleting all the previous episodes that I'd recorded to keep with it!
That said if there's a 2011-wipe around Christmas/New Year I probably will watch that.

**SiHart** · 9th Dec 2011, 2:57 PM

That said if there's a 2011-wipe around Christmas/New Year I probably will watch that.

There is- Friday 30th I think on BBC 4.

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