Exciting news! Adam and Joe return back to their Saturday morning time slot from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm on BBC 6 Music, with a twelve week run starting in April.

The award-winning radio show at the Big British Castle is one of the most popular programmes on digital radio with witty views from Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish.

I have to admit that I miss hearing Doctor Sexy and Count Buckules on the air ways. I even had to re-listen to some past podcasts to re-experience the surreal banter. With the news that the duo are back, this bring happiness!

This is what Adam had to say:

“I can’t wait to get back to our show on Saturdays, I’ve really missed doing it. Not that I haven’t been every bit as busy as Joe. I’ve created several new filing systems for my CD’s and DVD’s, successfully reunited over 20 odd socks with their partners and learned to understand the language of ants (though I’m finding Decs more of a problem). It’s been fun but I’m looking forward to talking rubbish and playing brilliant music with Joe again.”

Looking forward to hearing the show. Welcome back Adam and Joe!

Yes! My favourite radio show from the Big British Castle is back in podcast form. To celebrate the spirit of Christmas, BBC 6 Music have re-release twelve classic podcasts featuring Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish.

Over the next three weeks, starting today (December 7th) and running from Tuesday to Friday, we can join in all the fun with the award-winning radio team.

Download the podcast with this link or listen to the full hour-long show (including music) thanks to the BBC’s excellent iPlayer.

In addition, a brand new Adam & Joe show will be broadcast on Christmas Day! See video below. Boggins will be proud.

Last night on Sky1 was the final episode of Day 8 and after nine years in the life of CTU agent Jack Bauer, the hit real-time drama has come to an end.

It has been an emotional ride with thrills and spills over the course of 192 episodes/hours. From losing his wife Teri in season one plus the constant kidnapping of daughter Kim, not forgetting losing his colleagues one-by-one in the following seasons, it’s been a tough life for Kiefer Sutherland’s character in 24.

Guardian writer Charlie Brooker has posted his view on the show and what the creators can do with a plausible idea of a spin-off!

Jack Bauer is no more

So. Farewell then, Jack Bauer. CTU agent and terrorist-botherer extraordinaire. You thwarted countless unspeakable plots. Apart from the ones perpetrated by your own writers. In those you were sadly complicit. Now your time has finally ended. But even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. Unless it’s using the 24-hour format. Which yours, ironically, didn’t.

Apologies to EJ Thribb. Anyway, that’s enough poetry for one column. By the time you read this Bauer will be dead. Well, not dead exactly, but gone from our screens. The former hit series 24 has ground to a halt due to public indifference; the final episode, broadcast on Sky One this evening, culminated in surprisingly low-key fashion. Jack said goodbye to Chloe and shuffled off into the sunset, limping a bit because he was moderately wounded (“moderately wounded” by his standards, at any rate: anything less than a full lung dangling out of his chest cavity is a minor inconvenience to Bauer). He now exists only in the minds of fans and the creative team planning his first spinoff movie, which presumably will last precisely 240 minutes if there’s to be any notional continuity at all.

It’s a fairly inauspicious end to a series that, let’s not forget, was groundbreaking when it first appeared, back in 2001 when season-long story arcs were still a rarity rather than the norm, and the “real time” concept was an arresting gimmick. Furthermore, its sheer brutality was shocking. Not many hit series end their inaugural season with the hero cradling the corpse of his pregnant wife. It certainly didn’t work for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The audience choked on its Ribena. But 24 pulled it off. Which made it all the more disappointing that, having established an exciting new form, the show proceeded to repeat itself ad nauseum, until it all became so predictable that Jack was visibly yawning during some of the later torture scenes, and sometimes had to splash himself in the face with cold blood just to stay awake.

The real-time format was partly to blame, of course: it eventually turned the series into little more than a string of preposterous deadlines. Sometimes it felt like watching an adaptation of a paperback spy thriller as recounted by a six-year-old boy, who’s regurgitated a rough storyline from memory in one breathless sentence: “And then Jack stops the bomb but the man runs away so Jack chases him in a car but the car crashes into the sea and then a shark comes to eat Jack but Jack kills the shark with a sword and then Jack builds a helicopter out of some reeds and a coathanger and then Jack flies the helicopter into the terrorist’s head THE END.”

Come to think of it, rather than cancelling the series, Fox should be incredibly bold and recommission it using that system for next year: get a six-year-old boy to recount the plot of season one from memory, and then force everyone involved to shoot a word-for-word re-enactment of whatever he says, no matter how absurd. Don’t know about you, but I’d definitely tune in to watch Jack on the trail of a man with funny arms who stole his Lego. In episode four he rides a horse up the side of a building. In episode nine he climbs inside a robot and blows up everyone in the war. In episode 12 he eats some spaghetti and hides from a giant with a purple beard. It is, without question, the finest television series ever made.

Failing that, the “ticking clock” format is too good to leave alone. If CSI and NCIS can spin themselves off into independent mutations, why shouldn’t 24? How about a Sex and the City/24 hybrid in which Samantha has 24 hours to conceive? With anyone – man or beast? Potentially pornographic. OK, more sensibly: what about a version of 24 set during the second world war? Or in the middle of a Towering Inferno-style disaster? Or by a wall somewhere in or near Plymouth? Admittedly, that last concept needs work.

Best of all, they could create the ultimate mind-mangling edition by setting the whole thing 20 years in the future. Halfway through the series, a group of futuristic terrorists (white hair, silver bodysuits) set off a time-reversing pulse-bomb that makes events unfold in reverse. Fiendishly, they detonate it on the last Sunday in October, at the precise moment when the clocks go forward an hour. In the immediate aftermath, 10 members of Jack Bauer Jr’s team die of confusion trying to synchronise watches. It’s down to Jack Jr himself to save the day, but since the detonation of the timebomb moves further away with each passing second, his task gets harder and harder, and the series carries on way beyond its allotted 24 episodes, all the way back through the passage of time until it reaches the big bang, at which point it is revealed that the universe itself was created by a similar explosion – an explosion Jack’s great great great great great great great great forefather somehow manages to thwart, thereby cancelling the formation of time and space itself.

“The following takes place between now and never o’ clock.” Come on. It’s got a ring to it.

Source: The Guardian

One of my favourite movie website – other than IMDb – is Empire Online. The site recently added a new feature, Empire Blog, and I’ve noticed a post that talks about on how to improve the hit real-time drama that is 24.

Being a fan of the series, I was reading with much interest on how to make the show better. Here is Nick de Semlyen’s blog in full, amusingly written and I must admit some of the points he made are really good, in particular moving the action away from LA and introducing better villains.

The unprecedented lameness of the latest season of 24 has got me thinking about ways the writers can save my favourite show…

1. Stop with the torture. Jack Bauer has now electrocuted, stabbed or injected agonising truth serums into his girlfriend, his brother, 80% of his workmates and the entirety of LA’s Muslim community. It’s not only getting old, but implies that torture is a good thing, especially in that dodgy episode where Jack beat up an amnesty organisation spokesperson.

2. Move the action out of LA. Six seasons, six terrorist conspiracies, and they ALL go down in Los Angeles? Die Hard managed to spice things up by using three different cities — why not take Jack to China, London or Brazil during Mardi Gras? Recent rumblings suggest that this will indeed be the case with Season 7 — though producers nixed moving Bauer to Africa for budgetary reasons, it’s hinted that he’ll spend his next horrible day somewhere on the East Coast.

3. Keep things focused on CTU, or — even better — at some new government agency with all-new characters. Cut all the political crap, which worked when David ‘Gravitas’ Palmer was President, but not with Wayne ‘Soul Grooves’ Palmer in the hot seat. Forget nukes, dirty bombs and White House take-overs. Concentrate on making the story smaller, more intimate, on agents doing some actual agent-work, and their personal stories. Which brings us to…

4. Make the characters cool again. Hands up who misses Tony? Nina? Hell, even twin slimeballs Ryan Chappelle and George Mason were more likeable than the non-entities that passed for major characters in Season 6. Arse-chinned Milo “dropping the pressure” on that Muslim chick was the final indignity. Have the cougar return to eat the whole CTU office and then bring in some great character actors who have more to offer than being young and mildly photogenic. Scary-voiced Powers Boothe was a good start.

5. Kill Jack. A hugely risky move, that might backfire, but it would at least restore some of the show’s dangerous feel from the early days, when it felt like the writers would do anything — and off anyone — in the service of the story. There’s no tension when Jack goes into an operation anymore, because we know he won’t get killed. (He’s actually died at least once already, and been brought back to life). So surprise us – make him actually dead. I was hoping they were setting up Curtis, aka Black Jack, as his replacement, but that’s obviously not going to happen now.

6. Send Bill Buchanan into the field. With a shotgun. Ideally two, strapped to his back, Ash-from-Evil-Dead-style. The Silver Fox has brooded in his office long enough — it’s time to set him loose on the mean streets of LA. Ratings would instantly double.

7. Better bad guys. 24′s most long-standing problem is with its villains. Season 1: Dennis Hopper with dodgy accent. Season 2: can’t even remember. Season 3: Rent-a-Mexicans and well-spoken Brit baddie (so 1990s). Season 4: The bloke from The Mummy. Season 5: Okay, the exception, Logan rocked. Season 6: The bloke from The Mummy’s nephew. Probably. Come on, bring in someone who can give Bauer a run for his money. Like Jet Li!

8. Make the characters get tired. Only Season 1 had a scene where Jack napped for a bit. Since then, there’s been almost no indication that people stop functioning at full capacity after staying up for hours and hours and hours. It would up the tension considerably.

9. Bring back Aaron Pierce! Properly, not in a five-minute scene involving kiwi fruit (shame on you, Season 6 writers!) Preferably with shotguns.

10. Introduce Chuck Norris as Jack’s new partner. This would be the most awesome thing in the history of the universe, and the terrorists would have no chance.

I can imagine Chuck Norris as CTU’s new field agent. He would definitely kick some serious terrorists arse! One point I like to add to this list, make Jack Bauer use blue language. “DAMMIT!” lacks the power compare to full explicit swearing… Jack is truly angry when he loses his cool…

During the European Grand Prix coverage on ITV, I saw this amusing advert featuring the McLaren Formula One drivers.

This new Mercedes-Benz commercial entitled ‘Anything you can do” reveal the rivalry between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. But unlike the action on the track, this was done with humour and a bit of fun.

I particular like the twist at the end with Mika Hakkinen!

See the advert below with a special behind the scenes video attached.

The longest-running animated television show, The Simpsons, celebrated their 399th episode by creating a stylish and amusing parody of hit ‘real-time’ drama 24.

The episode entitled ’24 Minutes’ features guest appearances from none other than Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) as the hard-ass CTU agent who never sleeps or goes to take a break in the comfort area, and his CTU assistant, the know-it-all computer wizard Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajkskub).

Sample these two video clips below with Kiefer providing the familiar intro to the show plus edited highlights of 24 references!

It’s quite amusing to see the famous ticking clock and the split-screens.

Probably the most amusing news story on Kiefer – the star of ‘real-time’ drama 24.

Kiefer Sutherland has only himself to blame for the delay of his Jack Bauer action figure. The Emmy Award-winning actor set fire to the prototype model during a drunken night out…

The action figure had been developed by McFarlane Toys and would have hit the retail stores sooner, but the ‘real’ Jack Bauer decided to destroy it.

Sutherland explains, “They tried to come out with one a couple of years ago and they had sent me the doll for my approval… We took the doll out for a night to have some fun and we’d had some drinks. We sat it on the corner of the table. We started torturing him around 11 o’clock at night, and, by two o’clock in the morning, we had set him on fire in the parking lot.

“We got up the next day and there was just this puddle of wax. His clothes didn’t burn, which I thought was pretty cool… and then I got a call the next day saying, ‘Did you like the doll?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it was great.’ And they said, ‘Well, OK, good, you gotta send it back to us because that was the prototype… It took that guy a year to make it.’ I said, ‘Well, let me look for it, I think I left it in the trailer.’ This went on for about a week and then I had to just kinda come clean.”

To be fair, the model of the all-American action hero doesn’t even look like him. So did Kiefer do the right thing?

Source: andPOP

After all the hard work recording and editing, I’m proud to announce the official eMagi Podcast are ready to download.

Two shows are available: the Pilot and Episode 1.

The pilot episode features Walking Leaf, NeoBladeFX, Emily, and a small role played by Yas and Janus. The podcast editing and production was done by Yas.

The topics on the first show include: Dino Love making, Chase HQ: The Movie and general news.

In Episode 1 entitled ‘David Blaine Must Die!’ the podcast features the usual cast. In addition, special guest appearances from Luna and Rob.

The topics discussed on that show are: How eMagi was created, Snakes On A Plane, David Blaine’s next trick and Josh’s ‘Misplaced’.

You can download the first two shows on eMagi.co.uk or via the direct links:

Pilot Episode

Episode 1

Warning: These podcasts do contain strong language and themes of a sexual nature. You have been warned!

The film is a video game adaption of ‘Chase HQ’. It features three main characters. Two bent cops who have special feelings towards one another. They drive around in Detroit looking to ram into people from behind… The villain is the driver in a getaway car waiting to be bang.

The show format involves me making fake phone calls. I pulled off my silly voice (to get into the character) and Yas couldn’t stop laughing! It was quite enjoyable as we improvised the scene and hopefully this podcast episode will be release soon.

Despite being around 15 minutes long (after recording one hour worth of material – the karaoke bit was cut out…), it was a pleasant experience to hear it. The topics we talked about were surreal and my sense of humour made it very memorable and amusing.

Yas mentioned that this is only a rough cut and that sound effects were needed. I wrote him an email back providing my feedback on the podcast. Hopefully other members enjoyed it as well.

Anyway, we are now working on recording a new one immediately. And I have already submitted some new topics to talk about in the next podcast. Should be fun!