england

A lot of stories are popping up about the scene in the most recent episode of South Park that shows the Queen of England putting a pistol in her mouth and blowing skull fragments and brain matter all over the wall behind her. These stories, mostly coming from the UK, tell of the "controversial" scene and how it "shocked viewers."

And yet, not a single one of these stories, from what I can tell, gives any real evidence that the scene in question stirred up any controversy whatsoever. The stories merely suggest that, given the series' knack for courting controversy, people were probably bothered by the Queen's suicide, as well.

I'm not from the UK, but I am a South Park fan, and as I said in my review of the episode, the Queen's suicide was so quintessentially South Park I hardly batted an eye. If anything, the whole sequence seemed a little too easy, especially by South Park standards. I'll admit I'm not easily offended, but South Park hasn't shocked or surprised me in several years. That's not a slag against the show, it just means I'm tuned into its sensibility.

HBO has plans to launch its HBO SVOD service in the UK, marking the first time the cable channel has launched its own channel in the UK market. The new on-demand service will be available on BT Vision, Tiscali TV and Virgin Media and will feature original miniseries; television series, comedy specials and documentaries. No dates have been set just yet as to when the new service will be available.

Here's a question for the UK readers: what do you think of this new service? The press release reads that HBO programs are popular in the UK, and I'm curious as to which shows you like and which ones you don't. Or, if you even give a flying fig newton* about HBO at all.

*Please excuse my language.

The final episode (episode? movie? miniseries) of PBS' acclaimed series Prime Suspect will air tonight (and conclude next Sunday - it's a two-parter, four hours). Tim Goodman over at The Bastard Machine has a review.

It's titled Prime Suspect: The Final Act and chronicles detective Jane Tennison's last case before retirement (she's almost 60 now), involving the search for a missing 14 year-old girl, a case that's a lot more complex than she first realizes. It also involves Tennison's heavy drinking and blackouts and sadness. OK, so it's not the most uplifting drama.

Actually, Helen Mirren has always given fantastic performances in these shows (she has won an Emmy for Best Actress and the show itself has won three Emmys), and Goodman says that this one is no exception. The state of Florida even figures into this last episode.

Last night at Royal Albert Hall in London, the National TV Awards, in which British viewers voted for their favorites in various categories, were handed out. Doctor Who won a bunch of awards: David Tennant won Most Popular Actor, Billie Piper won Most Popular Actress, and the show won Most Popular Drama; the show swept the three awards last year, as well (Christopher Eccleston won the actor award in 2005, of course). Little Britain won Most Popular Comedy -- one of the nominees was Will & Grace! -- and The X Factor won the Most Popular Entertainment show.

The entire list of winners and nominees are here, provided by Digital Spy. It's interesting how the mix of nominees combines both British and American shows, but the winners are all from British shows. And yes, that picture above is of Kelly and Jack Osbourne, who hosted the show with Sir Trevor McDonald. Kelly must have followed her brother's lead and dropped a bunch of weight. They look almost as distinguished as Sir Trevor in that picture.

Tomorrow, the UK's Channel Five will broadcast Five's Birth Night Live, a two-hour special during which one woman will give birth, or so the creators of the program are hoping. This is the first time a live birth will have been captured on British television, but while Channel Five and host Gabby Logan insist they'll remain unobtrusive, the series has caught a lot of flak from experts who insist the mother should be in a calm and unobtrusive environment, a situation they feel is impossible with a camera crew filming every moment. The folks behind the special say they'll withdraw if any problems arise for the mother or child, but that wasn't much assurance to those who feel they shouldn't be there in the first place. Perhaps one of out UK readers can fill me in on this, but I assume the mothers have to give permission before they can appear on camera? Whether or not you agree with this seems like a moot point if the one giving birth has agreed ahead of time.

When Tom & Jerry was in its 1940s and 1950s heyday, everyone smoked. Your parents smoked. Pregnant women smoked. TV stars smoked on the air. Heck, I even think I saw a picutre of a dog smoking. So it wasn't that unusual to depict Tom the Cat smoking, especially if he was attempting to be suave with the opposite sex.

But Ofcom, the British version of the FCC, doesn't care about that bit of cultural history. They've asked the Boomerang channel to delete scenes that depict characters smoking from two T&J cartoons. The cartoons in question are "Texas Tom," where Tom rolls a cig to impress a girl, and "Tennis Chumps," where Tom's tennis opponent smokes a cigar. Ofcom felt that, despite the knowledge that people smoked a lot more back then, it might give kids watching it the wrong idea. Boomerang complied with the order.

Here's the kicker: Ofcom made the request after receiving one complaint. One. Out of 60 million people. Makes the FCC look sensible in comparison, doesn't it?

A British study of 69 children ages 7 to 12 found that the kids, when having blood samples drawn, experienced less pain if they were watching cartoons than when their own mothers tried to soothe them. My first inclination, which was also echoed by Dr. Brenda McClain of Yale University, is that when a parent is obviously trying to console a child, the child becomes more anxious because they believe something must really be wrong. Kids tend to be smarter than people give them credit for, and they pick up on things like that. Nevertheless, other researchers insist that this means television is having more of an impact on kids than their own parents. I don't see it as anything so dramatic, but what do you guys, especially those of you with kids, think? I just wonder when the kids get to have their revenge and jab the researchers with sharp objects. It seems only fair.

[via Lost Remote]

"Terrour Plot": Senior Carryonologist John Oliver elaborated on the foiled terrorist plot over in England, live from Heathrow Airport. He contemplated the degree of seriousness in the airport security's new "no liquids" rule. Is yogurt a liquid? What about custard? And 75% of the human body?! John Oliver's fitting in pretty well. I wonder if he's going to do filmed reports any time soon. It'd be interesting to see what those are like.

David Walliams, one of the stars of Little Britain, is going to attempt to swim the 21 miles of the English Channel. This feat is all in the name of a charity called Sport Relief, where half of the proceeds are spent in the UK to help families in disadvantaged communities and the other half is for children and young people in the world's poorest countries. You can go on the Sport Relief website and sponsor David before he takes on this tremendous task (less than 10% of people actually make it across the other side).

I can't help but wonder if he would get more money if he agreed to swim in costume.

Hey there, X-Files fans! Do you miss Dana Scully? Me too. And Mulder. They may be reuniting sometime in the future, but in the meantime you can get your Gillian Anderson fix soon on PBS. And it may be your last chance to see her in a television series. In interviews for this new six-part, Masterpiece Theatre program called Bleak House, Anderson says she's happy with her career in London as a stage and film actress (she lives there with her husband and daughter, Piper, who is now eleven!). In London, she says, she's considered an actor. She's done a lot of theatre there since leaving The X-Files in 2002. In America, she says, people think of her as a one-hit wonder.

Dave Chappelle is coming to the UK, bee-yotch. I mean, repeats of his show are coming to the UK in eleven days, as evidenced by the countdown clock on this site. The site has a few video clips for your viewing pleasure, but since I've seen most but not all of Dave's show, the Gay USA clip was entirely new to me, and quite hilarious. I'm not sure if it's from the show itself, a special, a DVD outtake, or what. It really doesn't matter because it's there and it's funny. Also, the phrase "The Tyranical Tea Bagger" is going to be stuck in my head all day. Damn you, Dave Chappelle.

Sodoku seems to be sweeping the world, isn't it? There seems to be a puzzle in every newspaper in the country now, becoming more popular than the crossoword, word find, and Jumble, all at once. Well, in England, the craze has graduated to the next logical step: Sodoku is getting its own TV show! ITV2, the UK's most watched digital channel, will air an audience-participation Sodoku game, where viewers call in to a toll number (the call will cost 60p) and give their solutions to the 9x9 number puzzle, with the chance to win cash prizes large and small.

Sounds scintillating. Reminds me of the video game program that was on Channel 11 here in New York (WPIX), where kids would call in and yell "PIX! PIX! PIX!" in order to move the gun/shooter/runner/etc. on an Intellivision video game. All that show did was make me want to buy an Intellivision and play the game myself. But I was stuck with an Atari. Ah, well.