Television & radio – Newswire Report

Did RuPaul just announce he has a fracking empire on his ranch?

March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 NewsEditorEnvironment, Fossil fuels, Fracking, npr, RuPaul, Television & radio, US news, Wyoming

The host of RuPauls Drag Race revealed recently that he leases the mineral rights of the 60,000 acres he owns in Wyoming to oil companies RuPaul, of the beloved RuPauls Drag Race television show, said in a recent interview that he leases the mineral and water rights of his land in Wyoming to oil companies. In an interview with NPRs Terry Gross on her show Fresh Air (the irony), Gross asked RuPaul about the 60 acres of land he owns in Wyoming. Oh, no, no no. No, no, no. Sixty…

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Lena Dunham: Caroline Flacks death hit me with a sickening power

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020 NewsEditorCaroline Flack, Celebrity, Culture, Lena Dunham, Life and style, Love Island, Television & radio

I adored the former Love Island host, and wish we could have shown her a more hopeful reality: that women who err and fail are worthy of love My adoration for Cher) and the empathy she brought to a bloodless and occasionally unkind television format lent her an air of approachable glamour, a local-girl-done-good sheen, aspirational but earthy. Not since I saw Storm I C Cup, and took comfort in her durable, bounce-back brand of vulnerability. Her quotes about heartbreak (I feel at my most calm, in control and happiest…

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The diehards of doom! Why Doctor Who is the show fans love to hate

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020 NewsEditorCulture, Doctor Who, Fantasy TV, Television, Television & radio

For 56 years and counting, Whovians have been railing against the wheres, whys and, well, everything about their beloved series. Will anything quell this rage? WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE MAGIC OF DOCTOR WHO? This was the question posed in full caps by the president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in its magazine, TARDIS. The year was 1977, and the story under scrutiny was The Deadly Assassin. Today, this Manchurian Candidate-riffing conspiracy thriller is regarded as one of Doctor Whos all-time greats, from the height of Tom Bakers stripy…

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Katy Perry offers no respite for the embattled royals

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 NewsEditorCelebrity, Culture, Duchess of Sussex, katy perry, Life and style, Meghan, Monarchy, Music, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Television, Television & radio, UK news

Another blundersome week for the royal crew who, still reeling from Harrys exodus and revelations about Andrew, now find out that the singer has no Asian heritage Over the past few years, the royal helicopter took off comparatively infrequently from the field by Kensington Palace. Over the past month, however, it has been like an Oliver Stone movie out there. Its the Platoon of ribbon-cutting, the Nam of nursery visiting. Since Harry and Meghan decided to step back from their royal duties, the general stepping forward of other royals has…

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Saturday Night Live: Adam Driver hosts a third time and outdoes himself

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 NewsEditorAdam Driver, Comedy, Culture, Saturday Night Live, Television & radio, TV comedy

Show takes on impeachment trial and for the first time in about two years delivers a great cold open Saturday Night Live returns from holiday hiatus with Republican Senators Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) and Susan Collins (Cecily Strong) discussing their desire for a fair Alan Dershowitz (former cast member Jon Lovitz). Despite their protestations, he compares Trump to some of his famous former clients: rey Epstein, Claus von Blow. Suddenly, Dershowitz suffers a heart attack and wakes up in Hell, where a star-struck Satan (Kate McKinnon) fawns over him and…

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Aaron Hernandez: how did a $40m NFL star become a convicted killer?

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 NewsEditorCulture, Documentary, Factual TV, Netflix, nfl, Sport, Television, Television & radio, US sports

In a Netflix docuseries, the shocking true story of a much-loved athlete convicted of first-degree murder is placed under the microscope Even by the standards of Americas obsession with stories of spectacular falls from grace, the trajectory of Aaron Hernandez, a star New England Patriots football player turned convicted murderer, was particularly steep and unusually compelling a senseless, horrific collapse unfolding in real time. Three years before fake news became an ominous catch-all, Hernandezs summer 2013 arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd at his mansion in North Attleborough, Massachusetts…

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Streaming: all eyes on the Netflix crown

January 5, 2020January 5, 2020 NewsEditorApple TV+, Culture, Film, Media, Netflix, Television, Television & radio, tv streaming

Apple TV+, Britbox and the long-awaited Disney+ are circling, but one streaming giant continues to reign supreme Last year was transitional for the streaming scene, at least in the UK: the promised avalanche of major new outlets to dent mixed reviews, punched through into public consciousness, while Apples plans to take on Netflix in the prestige film stakes got off to dropped from thewarily regarded in some quarters. Why pay a monthly subscription for the free-to-air content covered by my licence fee, runs the argument not helped by a The…

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The decade that broke me! Could anyone keep up with TV’s golden age?

December 28, 2019December 28, 2019 NewsEditorCulture, Television, Television & radio

Forget prestige television the real glory days were back when there was nothing on. No wonder people fib constantly about what they watch. Heres how to do it convincingly Speaking as someone who writes about television for a living, the 2010s have absolutely broken me. It all used to be so simple. There were five channels, three of them good, and you watched whatever they decided to show you. It didnt matter if it was rubbish, either. Soap operas. Game shows. So many documentaries about the British Transport Police youd…

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Moral of the story: 2019’s boldest culture asked what it means to be good

December 28, 2019December 28, 2019 NewsEditorBig Little Lies, Books, Booksmart, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Culture, Film, Fleabag, Greta Gerwig, Kanye West, Knives Out, Little Women, Music, Television, Television & radio

At a time when deceit is trumping decency, artists from Kanye West to Greta Gerwig and Phoebe Waller-Bridge have taken it upon themselves to pose questions about virtue and privilege In Little Women, a haughty publisher dismisses Jo Marchs stories as unfashionable. Morals dont sell nowadays, he tells the aspiring author. People want to be amused, not preached at. Hopefully the statute of limitations has expired on spoiling a 151-year-old story: March an avatar for her creator, Louisa May Alcott proves him wrong. As has Gerwig, reviving Little Women in…

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Clive James remembered by John Simpson

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 NewsEditorClive James, Culture, Poetry, Television, Television & radio

The BBC world affairs editor on a charismatic wit and gifted poet who elevated British life with his televisual panache He came into my life in the same way, I imagine, as he came into everyone elses: with a joke and a certain amount of bounce, but also with a degree of authority that meant you took him seriously, even while you were laughing. Jesus, what do you do here put on Wagner? It was Clives, and my, last year at Cambridge University, and I was living in a medieval…