Two weeks since my last blog and my fingers are jittery with blogging cold turkey. I've done nowt cultural since the festive period (I don't think munching on pork scratchings down the pub on New Year's Day counts - you can take the girl out of the north etc). And I don't want this blog to be banal bletherings about what I ate for breakfast. I'd like it to be entertaining and informative and focused on all things poppy, arty and music-y (I could write about my dating disasters for instance but they're so numerous that I would end up blogging only about dating).
So, back to the entertainment news of the day. Jonathan Ross is now touting himself about for business (join the club) having left/lost his £16.9m BBC contract. Poor Graham Norton has taken a £1m pay cut to stay on (times are tough). And über-film critic Mark Kermode (if you've never heard his ace film reviews on 5 Live then download his podcasts here) is rumoured to be taking over Film 2010/11. Hooray!
As an ex-Beeb journo I came across both Wossy and our Graham due to the nature of my job. Graham Norton is as delightful and funny off-screen as he is on. But then the magazine I worked for were paying him an absolute fortune (five figures) to host their posh annual celebrity event so he was hardly going to tell us to F-off backstage. Funnily enough Ross had hosted the very same event a couple of years earlier but was deemed to be too expensive and not enough value for money. Funny that.
And when Ross threw his toys out of the pram a few years ago (well, sent a narky email to the editor of said well known national magazine) because Terry Wogan was on the esteemed cover for a radio feature in which they both took part, well that was it. No one was bigger than The Togmeister on radio. Wossy's reputation was going downhill in media publishing circles. And that was before the Andrew Sachs/Russell Brand debacle.
There was the feeling in the BBC and the wider industry that he was getting too big for his boots (fuelled by his "I'm worth more than 1,000 BBC journalists" comment). Sachsgate was seen as his comeuppance. And we all know how the British media like to bring those in the public eye down. The higher the climb, the greater the fall.
It appears his final comeuppance is losing his £17m contract. Having been to recordings of his chat show I've seen what a professional, funny and talented broadcaster he is. Ross rarely needs to retake interviews unlike many other chat shows where you leave with red-raw hands from so much over-clapping. While his banter and wit were consistently excellent on Saturday mornings on Radio 2 (his show was so much funnier than Russell Brand's ever was).
It's a shame Ross occasionally lets his ego get the better of him. Let's hope he's now humbled and bounces back - à la the excellent Chris Evans - perhaps on a more suitably risk-taking channel like C4, where his career began. And the man's an entertaining tweeter too.
But did you not find on Ross's TV chat show that the interview was always as much about him as it was about the guest? The radio show I could listen to (though didn't care for his sycophant sidekick) but the TV show I found was mostly unwatchable.
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ReplyDeleteYes I do indeed. Much preferred him on his film and radio shows for that very reason. He didn't seem to have the need to big himself up, probably because he didn't have the opportunity to impress Hollywood stars as much. There's no denying he's very very good at what he does, despite his ego though. He's just a natural, engaging broadcaster (if only he'd lose his ego). I do think he'd like to have made it in America like his mates Gervais and Brand are doing. Reckon he might try that next. Where do you think he'll go?
ReplyDeleteExactly. He knows his stuff and his film knowledge is very impressive. But his own ego on the chat show ruined it. Did no one at the BBC have the courage to tell him to dial down the ego??
ReplyDeleteIf he goes to the U.S. he'll give Jay Leno a run for his money....
Ha. Well, no one at the BBC would dare say anything as long as he was bringing in the viewers and remained popular. Plus his production co. Hot Sauce TV makes it so I'm pretty sure he would have had full editorial control (a suit would check it to make sure it didn't breach editorial guidelines on taste and decency - sadly, over-inflated egos aren't considered a breach of taste). Even after Sachsgate his ratings didn't drop as massively as expected, so any potentially offensive quips would have been monitored but that's all.
ReplyDeleteAnd now there's talk of him taking over from The Hoff on America's Got Talent which could be interesting as Ross and Piers Morgan get along like a house and a tornado.