Will Moving Wallpaper have a short-lived Renaissance?

I was tempted to entitle this post “watching paint dry”, but that would have been a cheap headline.

The first series of Moving Wallpaper went out on ITV1 on Friday nights last year. An ambitious twin programme strand. Moving Wallpaper, the dramatised behind-the-scenes show about the disastrous production of Echo Beach (an Australian-looking soap set on a Cornish beach) which was shown immediately afterwards. Echo Beach never really stood on its own as a show. It was propped up by the wittier and darker Moving Wallpaper. Neither show performed well in the ratings charts.

In the end, ITV ditched Echo Beach, but bravely recommissioned Moving Wallpaper. And so on Friday night, the first episode of the second series started with the production team being told that their show Echo Beach had been cancelled. But thanks to the unfortunate death of a struggling writer, and a clause buried in the minutiae of the insensitive producer’s (Jonathan Pope, played by Ben Miller) contract, they have a new show to pilot ... a well named zombie show called Renaissance.

The film Five Minutes of Heaven starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt - which premiered in the cinema a week or so ago and will appear on BBC1 NI fairly soon - includes scenes where a TV production company display selfish and insincere qualities. Scenes that may well upset real journalists and producers who dislike the portrayal and feel it undermines their genuine and professional approach.

However, Moving Wallpaper takes industry discomfort and misrepresentation to a whole new extreme level. It is now for the television industry what Drop the Dead Donkey was for the newspaper trade ten years ago. A cutting look at the worst behaviours and practices of the media.

Quite fun to watch if you’re not easily upset. Quite short to watch - only 22 minutes of show when all the ads squeezed in. It’s not quite watching paint dry, but it does need a few more jokes and visual gags squeezed in to keep it moving. And must have been quite cheap to produce given the tiny cast and small number of sets.

But perhaps like Drop the Dead Donkey, it should have found its home on Channel 4 and not ITV1. Available on ITV’s catch-up service if you can bear the ads. Given Friday night’s ratings (Moving Wallpaper was the least watched terrestrial show with just 2.1 million viewers, a 9.1% share), ITV’s accountants may have the final say on whether the show survives in its 9pm slot until the end of the series.

And if you look on the show’s ITV webpage, the banner has the timeslot overlaid on a blank box instead of hard coding “Fridays, 9pm” into the graphic. Planning ahead in case it becomes stripped and replaced wallpaper!

ITV round-up

Every new year, following all the festive specials, TV channels serve up a selection of winter dramas to keep our interest in the box in the corner on the long cold evenings.

For a change, ITV seem to be having some success. After the frustration of a series I liked being cancelled mid-series (despite all the episodes having been completed) – Making Waves which sank without trace – I was slightly reluctant to engage with this year’s fare.

On Monday nights The Palace is a mischievously light-hearted comedy drama, starting with the pretext of the King dying and the sudden coronation of his eldest son Richard. Young, brash, but not quite as drunken as his younger brother George, his new role is proving a stretch for the new monarch. Plenty of upset loyalties, a bit West Wing but with a lot more “downstairs” views of life serving in the palace, and not just the “upstairs” world-changing decisions. It would be a shame if viewing figures dropped off and it was cancelled. But it’s probably not worth a second series.

Sticking with ITV, the pretend behind-the-scenes Moving Wallpaper started strongly, and is still keeping ahead of the less than engaging soap Echo Beach that follows it on Friday nights. (Well actually, more likely to pick this up on ITV Catch Up as there’s no way you’d be bothered watching it live.) An interesting twist on Drop the Dead Donkey, but with both shows so tightly tied together, but only one swimming, I predict Echo Beach pulls Moving Wallpaper underwater and they pair don’t resurface.

Such a pity that Primeval on Saturday evenings can now be summed up in one word: awful. Gave it a second chance, but it's truly woeful. Time to fall into its own anomaly, despite the good international sales.

Update - Friday 22 - Coincidentally, Media Guardian has run a related story this morning under the headline ...

ITV ditches Rebus amid cull threat

ITV1 crime show Rebus has been axed - and talks are under way over whether a number of the commercial broadcaster's new - and underperforming - drama series will return.

ITV executives have been holding talks this week with the producers of a slate of new ITV1 dramas launched last month which have failed to pull in big ratings, including the Amanda Redman series Honest, royal drama The Palace and the linked comedy Moving Wallpaper and soap Echo Beach.

It is understood no decisions have been taken on whether the series will return, although not all of them are expected to survive.

Honest, which pulled in 4 million viewers for its final episode last week, is thought to be the most likely to return as it attracted the best results on the audience appreciation – or AI - index.

The Tony Jordan-penned comedy Moving Wallpaper, which attracted 2.4 million viewers last week, and its linked soap Echo Beach, which dipped to a low of 1.9 million on Friday, are not expected to return.

The ITV spokeswoman added: "As many of this year's 9pm dramas are still on air no decisions have yet been made on recommissions.

Despite this uncertainty, a ten episode dose of Taggart has been commissioned for transmission at the end of 2008.

Update - 25 February - "ITV has confirmed it has recommissioned comedy Moving Wallpaper for a second series, although it has not yet decided what to do with its linked soap Echo Beach." Media Guardian

Update - 10 April - The Palace has not been recommissioned, and Media Guardian hints that Echo Beach will return beside the already confirmed Moving Wallpaper.

Fairy Tales - Echo Beach / Moving Wallpaper - Shameless - Grand Designs - Torchwood - Primeval

Quick TV round-up for those who care!

Last night saw the airing of the first of four Fairy Tales on BBC One, with Rapunzel finally letting her hair down at the tennis. The anthology of tales with a contemporary retelling were all shot in Northern Ireland by Hat Trick. The Daily Telegraph were uncharacteristically upbeat in their review:

“Cross dressing, cod lesbianism and idiocy on the international tennis circuit probably wouldn’t be most people’s idea of the perfect background for a modern reappraisal of a classic fairy tale. But unlikely as it may seem, BBC1’s reworking of Rapunzel as a slapstick comedy, in which a failing East European tennis pro is persuaded to bluff his way into a UK ladies’ tournament in a desperate bid to win some cash, was an unexpected hoot.”

Also started last night was ITV’s new soap Echo Beach (Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon based in sun-kissed Cornwall) immediately preceded by the behind-the-scenes show Moving Wallpaper which takes a fictional look at the production process and stars Ben Miller as the series’ producer. Didn’t catch it live last night, but it’s got mixed reviews in this morning’s press.

The twelve episodes of Echo Beach and its associated mockumentary are made by Kudos, who rarely (if ever?) pick up commissions from ITV and are better known for their BBC and Channel 4 fare: Life on Mars, Hustle, Spooks, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Pleasureland.

Update - having caught up with the first week's run, I'd comment that Moving Wallpaper was reasonable viewing - and it made Echo Beach bearable (standalone it would have been pretty naff). Worth taping and giving it a chance for at least the next couple of episodes in it's 12 week run. Suspect it'll be a terrific success - but won't be recommissioned. Update - Second episode of MW was worth it purely for the Casualty joke - tripping on the mint imperials and landing headfirst on a fork stuck in blutack!

The latest series of Shameless snuck on Channel 4 on New Year’s Day and continues on Tuesday nights at 10pm. If like me you missed the first few episodes of the sixteen-part series, they’re available for free on C4’s catch-up service 4oD.

Kevin McCloud is dusting off his hard hat and optimism in the face of doom to present another series of Grand Designs starting at 9pm next Wednesday (16th) with a house that is being built 60% underground to meet planning restrictions. The half hour Grand Designs Trade Secrets sister series over on more4 immediately afterwards is often worth a watch to find even wackier examples of crazy architecture.

Update - Given that the couple's architect wasn't retained during the build, his/her design must have been very detailed and well thought out for the build to have completed so successfully. Felt nearly too straight-forward and drama light for the first in the new series? Property shows = watching other people make mistakes at their cost. Interesting that C4 didn't seem to trail the more4 Trade Secrets show as part of the closing credits - preferring to promote Jamie Oliver.

And making the assumption that the audience for property shows doesn’t significantly overlap with those who will tune in for sci-fi, BBC Two have scheduled the new series of Torchwood in the same Wednesday 9pm slot (repeated on BBC Three at 11pm). Available in high def on the BBC HD satellite channel. The promised family friendly repeat looks to be at 7pm the following Wednesday evening, immediately followed by the Torchwood Declassified behind-the-scenes spinoff.

Update - Thank goodness for iPlayer having Torchwood available to stream (and download) immediately after the show finished on BBC Two. Great opening, with the real life comment that Cardiff residents make about the show's filming - "Bloody Torchwood!" worked into the script. A show that didn't take itself too seriously, but had pace, tension and enough confusion to get the viewer through to the end (where they neatly summarised the background to Torchwood for anyone unfamiliar). And good to see that Gwen's life hasn't become any less complicated!

And if Russell T Davies doesn’t provide enough beasts and monsters, the second series of Primeval starting on ITV at 7pm on Saturday night (12th) will surely quench your thirst for dinosaurs and other animals that had to be CGIed as they were too dangerous to be taken out of their cages.

If you care that you can’t remember what happened at the end of the first series of Primeval, ITV are helpfully showing the last episode at 1.45pm on Saturday - just in time to put young kids off their lunch - sandwiched in-between a Coronation Street Omnibus and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Guess which scheduler wants to win this Saturday’s ratings war!

Update: Primeval failed to achieve the balance between levity and taking itself seriously. The fact that massive creatures could come through a time anomaly and eat up human civilisation isn't really that terrifying ... or funny. So unlike Doctor Who with its doom-laden yet jokey plots, it didnt really engage me. Besides, weren't dinosaurs boring by the second Jurassic Park film?

The Passion - gets the Gareth McLean treatment

The Guardian's Gareth McLean reviews this evening's (third) episode of The Passion in today's paper in his inimitable style:

The Passion
9pm, BBC1

While there are no prizes for guessing what occurs in tonight's instalment — and Sunday's final episode is Dallas's Bobby stepping out of the shower at the end of season nine all over again — the familiarity of the story by no means detracts from its power. Even for nonbelievers, Frank Deasy and Michael Offer's vision of the Passion — from Jesus's journey to Gethsemane, the trial before Pilate and the brutal journey to Golgotha — is wrenching stuff.

Pity it also clashes with Torchwood and the last episode of Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach. Time to set the video.