TV Questions that Chig is asking this week:

Why is Brookside now in Dirtyvision™?
Yuk! They’ve changed the film (or the filming technique) on Brookie since I’ve been away. It’s now brown. Not quite as bad as the ‘film soaked in iodine’ look that seems to prevent Family Affairs from having any viewers, but still murky. One of the appealing things about Brookie was that it looked brighter than, say Eastenders. Now they’ve spoilt it.

Why has TOTP2 been cut down to 25 minutes?
It used to be 45. Give us back our nostalgia immediately, BBC!

Does anyone care that Mandy from Crossroads is dead?
If ever there was a mercy killing in TV land, this was it. Since Crossroads (re)opened for business twelve months ago, the poor girl’s acting has spanned the whole range from wooden to expressionless. She had to go. The actress involved clearly didn’t want to go though, if her final scene was anything to go by. “She’s dead!”, cried Mandy’s Dad. Camera pans to a very pasty faced Mandy, lying there in bed. Her eyes move. Credits roll. She couldn’t even bloody well play dead properly.

Is David Paisley the most gorgeous gay thing on TV?
Quite possibly. Hurrah for the return of Tinsel Town this week. It seems like ages since series one finished, the drama which featured possibly the most erotic gay sex scene since…well certainly since Queer As Folk, and possibly ever. That was the young Ryan and the older police officer. It was better than soft porn, and all the more so because of what it didn’t show, rather than what it did. Very horny. This week’s new series started with an indication that the horniness is going to be cranked up to another level; a gay threesome (twice), and lots of ‘underpants only’ scenes. It all seems so much fun when you know that David Paisley who plays Ryan (and the gay midwife in Holby City) is happily out and gay in real life too. He must be having a whale of a time on set (although he has a boyf)! The storyline didn’t really get going in ep one, but it’s early days. We still had the usual drugs, party, parents smoking drugs, etc. Plus ace music again and interesting filming techniques (slo-mo and monochrome scenes), which really grab your attention. Hurrah for Monday nights!

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