2008 and all that

That's 2008 then. The Bright Ambassador highlights:

• Guitar Hero 3 - how to kill weekend afternoons during a crap summer


• Dexter


• Nottingham Forest's promotion


• Mad Men


• Metallica back on form


• Charlie Brooker's print and TV tribute to Oliver Postgate


• Fleet Foxes


• The sitcom Pulling - deliciously filthy


• Word magazine's Prog edition


• Danny Baker back on 606


• Rebecca Romero


• Son of Rambow


• The rise of Christine Bleakley


• Dead Set


• Jez using a £20 note as a masturbatory visual aid on Peep Show


• The Ting Tings


• Seeing Peep Show's Isy Suttie in the flesh (pictured)


• Elbow finally getting the recognition they deserve


• Kristen Schaal in The Flight of the Conchords


• Armstrong and Miller's Timeghost podcast


• Terry Wogan leaving Eurovision - how about him leaving Radio 2?


• Watson and Oliver at Edinburgh
  

What didn't float my boat:

• Sam Allardyce not coming to Nottingham Forest


• Graham Norton joining Eurovision


• The way newspapers, especially The Sun and Daily Mail, use the slightest thing as a stick with which to beat the BBC. I'm surprised I haven't seen a headline along the lines of 'Man's disgust at getting papercut from the 1985 edition of Radio 1's Which Way Now? pack. Fat cat Beeb bosses laugh themselves unconscious at the news during the Christmas party WE paid for'.


• The film PS I Love You


• The Ting Tings


• Nottingham Forest playing like a steaming pile of poo from August onwards


• Ashes to Ashes (the telly show, not the Bowie song)


• Dirty Sexy Money - the biggest waste of talent since ELP


• The upward curve of Frankie Boyle's career


• Hole in the Wall

What to look forward to in 2009:

• Guitar Hero: Metallica Edition


• Seeing Metallica in February for the first time in sixteen years


• Anything else Metallica-related

That's me done for this year. Happy Christmas - whether you like it or not. As Geddy Lee says, with alarming regularity immediately pre-interval, I'm 'going to take a break for some brain surgery.' Things are out of my control a little work-wise in the new year, so whether I'll be back sooner rather than later is yet to be seen.

To quote Derek Batey, be good to each other. Ta-ra.

Songs that should NEVER be covered no.1

Oh dear. Those of a nervous disposition and small children should look away now. New Zealand, how could you do this to us after the genius of the Finn brothers and The Flight of the Conchords?

Band meeting

Now I can take or leave comedy songs; in my book they're either hilarious or tedious. But I have to say that I'm really loving The Flight of the Conchords on BBC4 at the moment. I think it's on a repeat run, I didn't see it the first time around for two very big reasons. The reasons being that a) as I already said I can take or leave comedy songs and b) I heard the awful sitcom they did for Radio2 a few years ago. Now sitcoms on the radio I definitely can leave*, there's no ifs or buts about it. I used to listen to it late at night when I was doing shift work and just didn't 'get it'. Besides, it had a very annoying narration by Rob Brydon.
Since then they've relocated to New York and bagsied themselves a contract with HBO, and mightily pleased I am to boot. If you're unfamiliar with The Conchords, the premise is that they're a musical duo from New Zealand trying to make it in America with their hapless manager, Murray, who works for the New Zealand tourist board. They also constantly try and spurn the advances of their only fan and groupie, Mel (played to perfection by Mad Men's Kristen Schaal*, who I'm becoming slightly obsessed with, I'm a Mel to Kristen Schaal. I love a woman with a divvy favce). As well as trying to get gigs and convince Americans that they're not English.
Anyway, watch it, I haven't 'done' an American sitcom since Cheers finished, but this is incredibly subtle and 'unwisecracky'. Constant wisecracks and smartarseness are what put me off most American sitcoms. It probably helps that the Conchords aren't American in that respect.
Check out their brilliant Pet Shop Boys pastiche.




And another thing, what gives with giving celebs road trip series at the minute? We've got Charley Boorman, Russell Brand (in which we were 'treated' to the sight of everyone's favourite sex addict desperately trying to get into a girls undercrackers outside a bar, while his mate was inside on his Jack Jones), Stephen Fry and even Paddy 'No Discernible Talent' McGuinness all taking trips around various parts of the world. So, I thought I'd do my own road trip, if any TV commissioning editors are looking in. The idea is this: I go around the world sampling the finest five and six star hotels available. But there's a catch - there's always a catch in these types of telly shows - the only forms of transport I'm allowed to use are first class seats on scheduled airlines or by Aston Martin. That's it. I'm tentatively going to call it Emptying The World's Swankiest Mini Bars with Bright Ambassador. I can almost smell the tie-in book deal...

*I mean, have you heard Miranda Hart's Joke Shop? I presume the title's meant to be ironic given the severe shortage of jokes on offer.
**Isn't Kristen Schaal the most American name you've ever heard?