Graham Kibble-White

The Extras Christmas special (most probably the last ever episode of the series) is on BBC1 Thursday, December 27. I watched it on preview disc last night - and kind of enjoyed it. Worry not, interested parties, I shan't spoil plot details. However, it is overlong, too keen to grab at pathos (Maggie's circumstances dramatically reduced - cue lots of shots of her cleaning urinals for a living) and culminates in a very odd speech from Andy Millman/Ricky Gervais about the nature of celebrity, which brought to mind - shudder! - Jimmy Corkhill/Phil Redmond's 10-minute rant in the final Brookside ... should that comparison mean anything to anyone.

I'm here at work, snowed under with things I need to get done, when I discover I've got a copy of The Generation Game: Now and Then - which starts on UKTV Gold Thursday 22 November - tucked under a load of other stuff. Well, that's it, I'm screwed, because I have to watch this. And from the off, my colleagues are interested too, keen to check out the reworked theme song which, I have to say, is ace. Bruce trilling away over an amped-up version of that familar theme. In short, they haven't ruined it. (Shame about the boring ITV1-style logo and set, though).

My mind is boggling about the upcoming CITV show, Emu ("The eponymous puppet with a penchant for pecking", says the wonderfully written press release). It's to hit screens in October and - get this - "is essentially 'Emu the early years' with a flapping fresh, young and brilliant blue Emu taking centre stage." Better yet, Toby Hull is going to be playing a young version of his dad Rod!

That two people could write a sketch which involves Steve Coogan saying, "Don't press that red button", and then Matt Lucas pressing that red button (and that was it) boggles the mind. Can you imagine getting up from the computer desk and saying to your colleague, "Right, that's that one finished, let's take a tea break"? Talk about insubstantial ... This was a terrible, terrible comedown for a show that I'm still happy to admit once loving.

Yep, it's winter, and time for a less ebullent Simon Shaps to take to the stage - with no applause - and lay out the ITV1 stall at the season press launch. With an agreeable degree of humility, he touched upon the fact the channel's dramas have been much of a muchiness in recent years, and claimed that now things were going to change. And based on the trail that followed, he could be right, with a Jane Austen season, a political satire (Confessions of a Diary Secretary) and a sex comedy (Bonkers) in the works.

So, I'm back from the C4 autumn season launch, and I'm kind of not sure what the big story should be ... if anything. [...] Funnies-wise, the main "narrative comedy" (sayeth Lygo) is Star Stories, which seems to be Rock Profile writ large.

The good news now is, on Thursday, I came home to find my DVD of Joking Apart series one had arrived. And, what can I say? A thoroughly professional job, including a very enjoyable documentary on the making of the show. More than that, even if we ignore the fact the muscle behind the release is really a one-man-band (cos, essentially, that is what Replay DVD is) the packaging, dispatch-time ... everything, was fantastic.

Fool If You Think It's Over (Link expired)

Off The Telly reports on the struggle to bring Joking Apart out on DVD in this excellent article. Includes interviews with Robert Bathurst, Steven Moffat and Craig Robins, the man who organised the DVD release.

So I've got sat here two preview DVDs with all eight episodes of Grown Ups on it. It's the new BBC3 sitcom "from the creator of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps", no less, which transmits on 9 May. On the basis of the ep I've watched, Susan Nickson isn't going to become famed for her versatility any time soon. The writer is pretty much replaying the same old Two Pints preconceptions and ticks. In short, that's childish twentysomethings obsessing over sex and sherbet Dib Dabs.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie is coming out on DVD. Fantastic news. [...] Of course, as each series arrived it got progressively worse, culminating in the unwatchable fourth season (and see here for some quotes on that), with Peter's Friends-rank guest stars lurking around Hugh's piano. Nevertheless, at its peak it remains the finest comedy ever seen on British TV. Fact.