Season four of Breaking Bad starts in the States today meanwhile we’ve not had season three yet! I know Braking Bad has a reputation of the “best show you’ve never seen” but this is getting ridiculous! Can somebody please make a deal to show the series in the UK.

Source: The Guardian.

Something to look forward to Jo Brand’s NHS comedy drama “Getting On” has been recommissioned for a second series – if you’ve not seen the first – I recommend you watch it now.

Source: The Guardian.

If you’ve not been watching BBC4’s Danish thriller The Killing then you’ve missed a real treat. Sadly the first episode is no longer available on BBC iPlayer although it’s available to buy at Amazon.

For those of us that have been watching the good news is the second series has been purchased by the BBC and will be screened later this year. So we won’t be at the mercy of Sky Atlantic which has outbid the terrestrial broadcasters for the top series like the Boardwalk Empire – which to be honest despite the accolades doesn’t do it for me – maybe it’s something to do with costume drama’s they just don’t do it for me.

The Culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has approved News Corporation’s plan to spin off Sky News, clearing the way for its proposed £8bn purchase of the 61% of BSkyB it does not already own.

Under the deal, the loss-making news subsidiary will be spun off into a new publicly listed company called NewsCo, and will be independently funded for 10 years. News Corporation is to license the Sky News brand to the operation for seven years, providing an incentive to renew a second funding deal.

News Corporation will have a 39.1% stake in the venture with the other shareholders made up of existing investors in BSkyB. Mark Sweney, The Guardian

.

So Murdoch get’s more-or-less all he wants admittedly he’ll have to wait seven-years to feed us Fox News – but that’s supposing the loss making spin off company lasts that long – not likely is it?

Outcasts is the new BBC sci-fi drama starring Hermione Norris whose previous acting roles I’ve always enjoyed. I’ve got the first two episodes on Sky+ and haven’t yet watched them. However when a besotted sci-fi fan describes how feeling half-way through the first episode that the script had been written with crayons but by the end thought no not crayons they must have used potato’s to print it – now you know it is time to press the delete button.

Charlie Booker makes a point or two over Sky’s hypocrisy.

Aside from the flabbergasting hypocrisy of Sky Sports dismissing a man for sexism when its own Saturday morning Soccer AM lad-fest regularly includes a sub-Nuts item in which a young “Soccerette” writhes onscreen for the delight of a baying mob perpetually on the brink of a wank, the most sinister aspect of the story is that Gray’s and Keys’ original comments were made off-air. Cavemen they may be, but they were advanced enough to know what was suitable for broadcast and what wasn’t. Ultimately, they were tarred and feathered for holding a private conversation.

…

No one said anything illegal on tape. They weren’t debating how to massage civilian casualty figures or conspiring to nuke Swindon. They were chatting among themselves, talking shit like we all do. You could bring down absolutely any public figure in the land simply by following them around with a concealed microphone long enough.

Everyone says stupid and objectionable things in private. I say nothing BUT stupid and objectionable things in private. That’s the point of private conversation. It’s why we get annoyed when someone puts us on speakerphone without warning us first. Charlie Brooker.

So when are we going to see the back of the sexist tosh broadcast?

The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that he intends to refer News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

But he has given News Corp extra time to address concerns he has regarding “potential threats to media plurality”.

These concerns were identified in a report by the media watchdog Ofcom, which also recommended referring the merger to the Competition Commission. BBC.

Hunt it seems is doing everything he can to ensure Murdoch gets his way in his bid to take over BSkyB.

We’ve had HD, 3D and now Samsung unveils ultra-definition 3D TV – me I’m still using an old fashioned CRT TV.

Armando Iannucci creator of one of my favourite political satires, The Thick of It, is to turn his hand to US politics producing a pilot episode of a series titled Veep, for HBO which centres on a female US Senator who becomes Vice-president. Let’s hope it’s better than his attempt to convert the Thick Of It for an American audience which Iannucci described as terrible.

Vince Cable has issued an intervention notice under the Enterprise Act ordering Ofcom to investigate the proposed transaction, which would see News Corporation take control of the 61% of the satellite broadcaster it does not already own, on public interest grounds. James Robinson and Mark Sweney, The Guardian.

I don’t know much about the members of Ofcom but I suspect we’re about to become intimately acquainted with their private lives – unless of course they find they’ve no concerns over News Corps take over then expect to find members of Ofcom finding lucrative employment at Sky.