Behind The Screen!

Another week another column!

Celebrity stalkers were hit this week when Twitter was hacked in a ‘co-ordinated attack’ according to the BBC. Typical BBC going over the top isnt it? Making a story of a social networking site which went down for – get this – two hours, sound like a terrorist attack. Oh no, I might’ve missed Steven Fry post something clever which in turn would make me feel cleverer for reading; or worse still an A-list celeb posting where theyre getting a coffee from on the other side of the world. I reckon its more likely that since the Iranian people used Twitter to protest against their election results, President ‘Im a dinner dog’ tried to shut it down. Although the hacking he’s usually involved in is a lot more severe…

Also Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is being released due to ill health. Good luck to the guy, but I’ve got a problem with ‘Great Train Robber’ – he robbed a train once, and was caught. He’s a pretty pathetic train robber if you ask me. Apparently he’s suffered a few stokes in prison, got off lightly if you ask me, they’re usually much more brutal in the showers than that…

Ok, time for my serious face..

I’m putting up my favourite story first – legendary Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen will make a cameo appearance on the September 21 season premiere of CBS’s ‘Two and a Half Men‘ according to The Hollywood Reporter! The guitar legend will play himself in the episode executive producer Chuck Lorre. Lorre approached the Van Halen while on his honeymoon after learning he was a big fan of the sitcom. “He was gracious enough to do a cameo, which is really cool,” Lorre said.

Van Halen’s scene is expected to tape this week in Burbank, CA. And yes, promises Lorre, Van Halen will play the guitar. Awesome. Im doind the rock horns as we speak!

In other kind-of music/tv news, comedian Leigh Francis is to bring back ‘Bo Selecta’ for a one-off Michael Jackson special, Channel 4 has said. That’s gonna be in classicaly bad taste surely?

‘Bo Selecta Presents Cha’Mone: A Tribute to Michael Jackson‘ – what an awesome title! – will be a spoof “chronological look at Michael Jackson’s life”.

Francis will don rubber masks to portray Jackson as well as some of his friends – including Uri Geller and David Gest – for the one-hour special. Is anyone else cringing by now!?

There will also be celebrity guests on the show(their PR people must be mental), and is due to air on E4 this autumn.

Too soon?

Not for me of course, I’ll love it, but you’ll get slaughtered!! The do-gooders have stopped us laughing at pretty much anything vaguely risqué which is why I’m communicating to you here, like John Conner under the radar of the T4′s.

“We’re thrilled to have Leigh resurrect Bo Selecta for a very special send-off and send-up,” said E4 controller Angela Jain.

“This national treasure and icon will be making an affectionate and, no doubt, hilarious tribute.”

Francis said Jackson’s death was “like the death of Superman, or the realization that there was no such thing as Santa Claus“.

Francis’ spoof version of Jackson was featured throughout the three series of ‘Bo Selecta’, which ran from 2002 to 2004.

I applaud E4 for giving it air time when they couldve easily passed on it.

E4 has also picked up the rights to a new sketch show starring comedian Demetri Martin. Now Demetri Martin is one of my favourite kind-of-unknown comedians so I’m pretty excited to see this show feature over here, as as he’s not really a big name as yet I didn’t think it would make it. If you’ve not seen him just check out youtube, the guy is good.

‘Important Things With Demetri Martin’, which aired on Comedy Central in the US earlier this year, is billed as “part stream-of-consciousness sketch show, part stand-up”.

“I’ve been a big fan of Demetri for a long time,” said E4 head Angela Jain. “He is an extremely talented comedian who I’m sure will further enhance E4′s reputation for smart and funny comedy.”

The seven-episode first season will play out on E4 in the Autumn. Once again, big pat on the back for E4 for taking another risk!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBcxwrNTpGg

E4 has also commissioned a third series of ‘The Inbetweeners’ to run in 2010! No I’m not plugging them – they’ve just done particularly well this week.

Head of E4 Angela Jain said of the show: “[It has] some of the most beautifully crafted puerile and funny jokes ever seen on British television but also moments of crushing heartbreak, which are all testament to the brilliance of the writing and acting.”

Earlier this year, the second series drew almost 1 million viewers in its opening episode, and continued along the same vein.

James Buckley, Jay in the series, seemingly wasnt aware that the show was heading for a new series. Writing on his Twitter page, the 21-year-old asked a fan who sent him a congratulatory message: “Where has Inbetweeners 3 been announced? Genuinely haven’t been told.”

He then wrote: “Sending a few text messages to see if there really is a third series.”

And he soon got the answer he was looking for, confirming: “Green light on series three, just didn’t get round to telling us boys!”. Ok, so I stalk celebrities on Twitter, but its all research, honest…

The Television Critics Association Awards were this past week in LA, and science fiction drama ‘Battlestar Galactica‘ has been named program of the year – impressive for a sci-fi show I hear you say! The program has now ended after four series and will be replaced by prequel show ‘Caprica‘ on US cable network Syfy; as reported in my earlier columns.

HBO led the networks with three awards, including outstanding new show for vampire drama ‘True Blood’.

Bryan Cranston won the award for outstanding actor in a drama for AMC’s and FX’s ‘Breaking Bad’ , which is massively deserved in my opinion for the excellent black comedy.

The ‘Big Bang Theory’ won the comedy prize, while Jim Parsons won the comedy actor award for his role as the neurotic geek Sheldon Cooper in the CBS/E4 sitcom.

The career achievement prize went to Betty White, 87, star of sitcom ‘The Golden Girls’.

The season finale of Joss Whedon’s ‘Dollhouse’ brought in 152k (0.8%) on Tuesday night, according to early ratings figures.

The episode, shown at 9pm, beat last week’s effort of 111k (0.7%), but failed to top the first in the series, which logged 263k (1.3%). The bonus not broadcast in the US will air on Sci Fi this coming week – a quick heads up for all ‘Dollhouse’ fans. Elsewhere Charlie Brooker’s ‘You Have Been Watching’ attracted 1.2m (6.6%) during the 10pm hour, hitting a new series high.

Check this little chestnut out – Giraffe-faced-sluttette rich-girl Paris Hilton is going to guest star in episode five of ‘Supernatural’ this season!

No real details for you as yet as to the role she’ll be playing, but rest assured she’ll fucking ruin the episode.

‘Supernatural’ season five premieres Thursday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. on the CW, then shortly after on Living TV in the UK – dates etc when i know.

‘But Darren, what pray tell will you be watching this week?’ I hear you ask. Well, here are a few….

• Sunday at 9pm on BBC2 sees Louis Theroux return with ‘The City Addicted To Crystal Meth‘, where he visits Fresno in California which has a massive drug addiction problem. Ok, not the most comic of subject matters, but his interviewing style and insight is always entertaining.
• Also on Sunday the Bio Channel is having a rock all-dayer with biographies of rock legends such as Metallica, Motley Crue etc, – a must for hangover sunday!
• UFC 101 will air live at 3am Sunday morning on the new ESPN channel and for free! At least for this month anyway. Hopefully I wont stupidly stay up til 6am drinking like I did last time for UFC 100. In a similar vein at 10pm on sunday evening on ITV4 sees a new series ‘Fight Science’ which analyzes fighting techniques from all over the world to see which is the best.

Ok, thats me for another week – have a good weekend!