Produced by Ash Atalla, (The Office and The IT Crowd) Trollied is a slice of life populated by the characters we all see every time we go shopping – the bored kids on the checkouts, the ineffectual managers and the irate and often bizarre customers.

The show boasts a stellar cast list including Bafta and Golden Globe® nominee Jane Horrocks along with Mark Addy and Rita May.

The first series of Trollied starts on Thursday 4th August on Sky1 & Sky1 HD.

Season Two also guest stars Paris Hilton and Weezer.

Last season, fans watched as RJ (Paul Iacono) left the girl of his dreams, Jenny Swanson (Amber Lancaster) at the winter formal, to lose his virginity to his stalker-ish friend Lily Miran (Kara Taitz), as she lay in her hospital bed moments before flat lining.  Will Lily live or die–and if Lily lives, will RJ choose her or Jenny?  With a possible new love triangle, fresh faces and guest appearances by Paris Hilton, popular rock band Weezer and Jersey Shore’s Vinny Guadagnino, season two is sure to bring more outrageous moments and antics from RJ and his peers at Pinkerton High.

The Hard Times of RJ Berger orbits the hilariously-hellish lives of a deeply unpopular 15 year-old (Paul Iacono) and his scheming, sex-obsessed best friend, Miles Jenner (Jareb Dauplaise). Other than pining after the girl of his dreams, Jenny Swanson (Amber Lancaster), receiving daily beatings from the meanest jock in school, Max Owens (Jayson Blair), and evading the stalker-ish advances of Lily Miran (Kara Taitz), there really isn’t much excitement in RJ’s life. That is, until his anatomical gift is accidentally exposed to the entire school.

In a single moment, RJ goes from anonymous to infamous, and for the first time in his life, he feels a tiny sliver of confidence. Swept up in this man-sized wave of recognition, The Hard Times of RJ Berger returns for season two with another full-frontal assault on Pinkerton High. In the wake of Lily’s accident, we’ll follow RJ and Miles as they navigate the treacherous waters of sophomore year. Whether GTL-ing with Cousin Vinny (Jersey Shore’s Vinny Guadagnino), jamming with Weezer, lusting after Jenny Swanson, or simply coping with his parents’ divorce, one thing’s certain: for RJ Berger, this semester just got bigger… and a lot harder.

Bellamy's People

The self obsessed. The big questions. The tiny minds. Endless inane chatter to try and construct a safe framework for life. All of these statements could be applied to the student stereotype. And with red-caped shame I must raise my hands and admit they probably applied to me. So, when Whitehouse and Higson shot to speedy TV fame with The Fast Show I sniffed and carried on reading Bill Hicks, Jim Morrison and Guru Shifti’s Answers to Life (on the Back of a Postcard).

Fast forward 17 years and it’s the self-obsession, big questions and tiny minds that make Bellamy’s People such a giggling treat. The show was born of Down the Line, Whitehouse and Higson’s spoof Radio4 chat show, where award-winning DJ Gary Bellamy talked to the ordinary people of Great Britain about their everyday issues.

Translating this award-winning format to TV, Whitehouse and Higson remove Bellamy from the safety of the studio, give him a makeover and send him on a trip round the country in his Triumph Stag personality vehicle, in a cracking send up of the celebrity travelogue.

Bellamy’s mission is to try and define what it is to be British, tackling key issues including crime, class, culture and religion on the way. As you’d expect from a Whitehouse/Higson production, the ensuing fast-paced montage is packed with finely rendered characters.

Some, such as the ubiquitous Martin Hole – racist, violence-sprung white-van-man – are high street reality. Then you’re introduced to the Combe sisters, who worship opposing totalitarian regimes in a ridiculous split-world of Stalin versus Hitler. But in a heart twinging way they worship each other.

This is the beauty of Whitehouse and Higson’s creations. They twinkle with nonsense but, when the writers hit the bone, you know you’ve met a part of each of these characters. You might cringe but you know it’s on your doorstep…and maybe even have a foot beyond the hearth.

And at the heart is the pseudo-intellectual Bellamy; the pleasantly coiffed but ultimately irritating vacuous twat who is self-obsessed, tiny-minded and stuffed with surface-big questions. When questioning a young woman with a Muslim upbringing he’s so desperate to introduce controversy that, on the matter of pork, he dribbles the marvellous line “Doesn’t it undermine the Koran, that there’s no mention of frazzles in it?”

Down The Line fooled many in its first few weeks, with the serious-eared complaining that such a programme was given time on Radio4. Then the penny dropped and the knowing could laugh unknowingly. Sadly, the same fools have decreed that the TV translation didn’t quite work. Well, good satire was never meant to be stuffed with Satre.

Buy it now and trot off with the DVD equivalent of the apocalyptic grand national. Watch those horsemen go. Clippedy clop…clop…clippedy…clop, clop.

Eric & Ernie - TV Film on DVD

Eric and Ernie is a television film produced by BBC Wales. It premiered on BBC Two on 1 January 2011. It lovingly tells the story of how one of Britain’s most loved comedy double-acts, Morecambe & Wise, first met and began working together.

A chance meeting between precocious child-star Ernie Wiseman (Wise) and reluctant performer Eric Bartholomew (Morecambe) on the children’s variety circuit during the war saw the start of an unlikely friendship. ‘Big head, short legs’ is Eric Bartholomew’s first impression of Ernie Wiseman, but their friendship endured for several decades to come.

Victoria Wood was an Executive Producer for the drama, having first thought of telling the story of the double-act before they were famous over ten years ago. Victoria Wood also stars as Eric’s mother alongside Daniel Rigby as Eric Morecambe and Bryan Dick as Ernie Wise. Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) plays George Bartholomew, Reece Shearsmith is Harry Wiseman, Ernie’s dad; Emer Kenny is Joan, Eric’s wife and Hannah Steele stars as Doreen, Ernie’s wife.

The drama also highlights Morecambe’s mother as being the driving force, not only behind Eric, but for the comedians to remain as a double-act when Ernie was offered a solo career.

Encouraged by his well-meaning but determined mother Sadie, because, “You aren’t good at anything else,” Eric became the funny man to Ernie’s “feed”. After the successful stint in children’s variety, they worked their way up the ladder of live performance. But, after a disastrous television debut in the series Running Wild, which nearly caused their professional demise, Morecambe and Wise learned to trust their own instincts and just make people laugh – and laugh they did.

Eric & Ernie is full of great performances especially Daniel Rigby as Eric Morecambe and Victoria Wood as his pushy mother.  The drama perfectly captures the humour, mannerisms and friendship of Morecambe & Wise.

Eric & Ernie is released on BBC DVD on 28th March 2011 priced £10.20

In court papers filed on Thursday, Sheen claims producer Chuck Lorre spent years “harassing and disparaging” him. He also alleges that Mr Lorre, “believes himself so wealthy and powerful that he can unilaterally decide to take money away from the dedicated cast and crew”.

Sheen claims that he was only fired after publicly criticising Warner Bros and Mr Lorre, who he says were ‘quite happy to line their coffers’ while he was in rehab and only fired him to satisfy the producers ‘egotistical desire to punish’ him.

“Charlie Sheen is not only seeking payment of his own compensation for the series, he is also pursuing claims for the benefit of the entire cast and crew [of Two and a Half Men],” court papers also stated.

Talk about the Pot calling the Kettle black!

I was further amused when searching for ncaa basketball odds for an American friend and came across an entertainment channel offering odds on what Charlie Sheen might be arrested for next, as well as odds for when he will actually be arrested!

The list of arrestable offences includes gun possession, rape, cocaine possession, assault, tax evasion and more. My own favourite would be public nudity with its long odds of 9/1 or maybe public urination at 15/1.

Police carried out a search of the actors home on Thursday, believing that he may be in violation of a temporary restraining order issued last week. They are believed to have searched for firearms, although only an antique gun was retrieved and the fallen star is said to have co-operated fully with the search.

Fans of TV’s FaceJacker comedy series will recognise the face of Brian Badonde, the eccentric art critic at large as he attempts to find out more about the lastest technologies available in this hilarious series of clips made with the help of Bing.

In a quest to learn how technology can further enrich his already extravagant life, Badonde embarks on a journey that takes him to London’s Science Museum where he discovers the Babbage Analytical Engine – the first fully automatic calculating machine.

In his own crazy mind Badonde decides that this is actually the worlds first search engine and talks the engineer at the Science Museum into letting him have a go at cranking the handle only to jam the machine, much to the engineers annoyance.

Watch the first episode of the series here in Brain Badonde & Technology – Brian Badonde does Science

Future episodes include Brian causing more mayhem and he takes over an internet and computer class and learning to ride and race on a Segway vehicle in Los Angeles in his mischievous quest for life enhancing technologies.

Brian Badonde, comments: “Filming the Bart of Bechnology was in many ways a biritual journey for me. Never before have so many people so generously allowed me to binkle with bechnology with such freedom of bexpression. I hope my fans, bart critics and bart lovers from around the world will join together, in one bollective bonsciousness to bembrace the new series and that it helps them see the true beauty that blies at the very beart of bechnology.”

Visit You Tube’s Art Of Technology to see the whole series of video clips.

This post is sponsored by Bing

Julie Waters - The Wife Of Bath

Julie Walters has starred in many feature films but is possible even more well known for her appearances on British television.  But her talent is so incredible that she can take on such different roles as the wonderfully funny Mrs Overall on the Victoria Wood Show and her more mesmerising performances as the late Labour MP Mo Mowlam and Mary Whitehouse.

By continuing to work on television she has been more freely allowed to move between high comedy (Julie Walters and Friends, Victoria Wood – As Seen on TV, Dinner Ladies) to drama of immense emotional power and depth (My Beautiful Son, Wide Eyed and Legless, A Short Stay in Switzerland). It is this ability to move between genres and to age up or down as the part requires, that has ensured her a remarkable and special place within the acting hierarchy and earned her the respect of so many of her peers.

In 1999 the BBC devoted an edition of Omnibus to her in which Miriam Margolyes describes how Walters manages to combine not only the eccentricity and quirkiness we associate with ‘character actresses’ but also a sexiness. While Rupert Graves describes her unique ability to combine both tragedy and comedy at once in the same character.

After an Oscar nomination for Educating Rita and the huge success of that film in the United States, Hollywood beckoned, but Julie Walters chose to stay in the UK: ‘I couldn’t exist in Hollywood. Their films are about escape, whilst ours are about looking at something’. Drawn to parts that require her to mine the extremes of physical and emotional endurance, Walters sums this up nicely – ‘I play ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, which brings out the extraordinary in them’.

Whether it be the heroic tragedy of Wide Eyed and Legless, the comic genius of Julie Walters and Friends or the strength and inspiration of Mo and Ahead of the Class, the forthcoming Julie Walters season showing at the BFI Southbank in London highlights the many qualities of this extraordinary British actress.

One of the season’s highlights will be a personal appearance at BFI Southbank by Julie Walters herself in which she will talk about her remarkable career, focusing largely on her work for television, and illustrated with clips of her many roles.

FREE COMPETITION

PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED

We have two pairs of tickets to any showing within the Julie Waters Season at the BFI Southbank London (subject to availability).  To enter just answer this simply question:

Q: Which late Labour MP did Julie Walters play in a recent television drama?

a: Mo Mowlam
b: Claire Short
c: Margaret Thatcher

Submit your entries to comps@buzzinmedia.co.uk with the subject line: ‘Julie Walters Comp’ (other subject lines will not be entered) with your full name, address & contact number.

This Buzzin Media Competition ends on 30th January, 2011.

The editor will randomly choose 2 winners. The editor’s choice is final.

Julie Walters BFI Southbank Season

Ahead of the Class
18 Feb 18:30 Studio
26 Feb 16:00
The true story of how Lady Marie Stubbs took over a school’s headship after the previous head teacher was murdered.

Julie Walters in Conversation
9 Feb 20:30
TV critic and journalist James Rampton talks to Julie Walters about her remarkable career in British television.

Mo
9 Feb 18:30
A remarkable portrayal of Mo Mowlam’s fight to bring peace to Northern Ireland alongside a battle with her health.

My Beautiful Son
11 Feb 18:20
20 Feb 16:20
When a psychiatrist discovers he has leukaemia, his mother is forced to tell him that he is adopted.

Unfair Exchanges + Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath
12 Feb 18:00
Julie Walters’ first major screen role after her breakthrough in Educating Rita, plus a contemporary take on a Chaucer classic.

Walters & Bennett
3 Feb 18:00
25 Feb 17:50
A compilation of Julie Walters’ TV work with Alan Bennett.

Walters & Comedy
15 Feb 20:30
A series of TV specials showcasing Julie Walters’ versatility and comic range.

Wide Eyed and Legless
5 Feb 15:20

Dara O Briain: This Is The Show DVD

Dara O Briain is a well respected and much loved comic, best known for his sharp dressing and sarcastic wit as the host of the BBC One television comedy quiz show, Mock The Week; and also more recently, presenter of BBC Two’s The Apprentice You’re Fired.

Dara O Briain: This Is The Show was recorded in September at London’s Hammersmith Apollo during a nine-night residency.  The DVD highlights O Brian’s intelligence as a quick-thinking comic with a sublime off-the-cuff delivery as he blends hilarious anecdotes and witty audience interaction with topical story-telling with a relentless delivery.

Fast approaching middle-age, Dara O Briain shows how getting older has provided him with a wealth of new comedy material as he injects humour into such stories as a recent high cholesterol scare, visiting chiropractors and the horrors of childbirth to amusing routines about playing video games and over-the-top disaster movies. He even manages to throw in a surprise ending to the show.

The DVD bonus material includes a full extra show filmed live in Dublin at the much more intimate Vickers Street Theatre.  Dara O Briain introduces the show by suggesting the Hammersmith Apollo is good for the large spectacle but the Vickers Street gig gives the viewer a sense of how the show is received in much smaller venues.  I enjoyed this bonus live stand-up but it was spoilt by the fact that most of the material was the same as I had already viewed on the main show.

Other extras include part of a pirate recording by a 14 year old who is spotted in the front row of the Hammersmith show by Dara; and a drinking game where Dara O Briain is joined by fellow comedians Ed Byrne and Andy Parsons who have to drink every time a certain thing happens while watching the Hammersmith show.

Dara O Briain proves why he is a well respected stand-up comedian in this very funny live comedy DVD. Dara O Briain: This Is The Show is now available as a DVD, Blue ray, CD and digital download.

An Idiot Abroad Karl Pilkington DVD

At the height of the success of the groundbreaking TV comedy The Office, writers Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant had a regular radio spot on XFM every Saturday lunch time and it was there that I first came across the hapless Karl Pilkington.

Karl was the producer of their radio show and Ricky and Steve lost no time in introducing him to their act, adding a new dimension to their ‘piss taking’ style of comedy with Karl as the stooge.

Now some ten years on Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant continue to trade on the humour of this odd friendship and this year they thought it would be a great idea to send Karl abroad to visit the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Despite having never been abroad, unless caravan holiday’s in Wales count, somehow they got him to agree.

If he had thoughts of travelling in Michael Palin style he was in for a big surprise! This is a trip of a lifetime, but for all the wrong reasons as Gervais and Merchant are intent on arranging the worst hotels, food, entertainment and travel experiences that are known to man.

While it is easy to laugh along with his tormentors back in England handing out orders by mobile phone, it is difficult not to feel the discomfort of the ordeal for Karl as he stays in some of the worst conditions known to man and is fed, penis, testicles, toad and god knows what else on his travels.

That the Seven Wonders are a disappointment for him is no surprise at all, but the laughs and misery along the way make for some great entertainment for the viewers back at home in their comfy armchairs.

Philosopher Karl says “They say travel broadens the mind, but I don’t think it does. It buggers it up – I’m knackered!”

And what did he learn? “Babies in China, a lot of them have square heads.” Asked why, “I don’t know, perhaps it is to stop them rolling out of the cot.”

An Idiot Abroad Karl Pilkington is a two DVD boxed set contain 347 minutes of laughter, near tears, tantrums and total stupidity that really should be seen by every aspiring traveller. It is produced by SKY and extras include deleted scenes and photo gallery.

An Idiot Abroad is available in stores now.

For a chance to win one of three copies of this DVD being given away as prizes take part in the simple to enter ‘An Idiot Abroad competition‘ on British Comedy Classics.

Sean Lock Lockipedia Live DVD

Sean Lock started life as a stand-up comedian and won a British Comedy Award for Best Stand-up in 2000, though today is best known for being a resident captain on the very popular comedy panel quiz show, 8 Out Of 10 Cats where he is known for his quick ad-libs and sarcastic banter with opposing captain Jason Manford and the host Jimmy Carr.

He is also a regular panellist on the excellent QI quiz show and has appeared on Live At The Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

Lockipedia Live is a brand new stand-up DVD from the brilliant Sean Lock.

Lockipedia is what Sean ‘knows’ about stuff. The show was filmed for DVD in front of a sell-out audience at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, during Sean Lock’s 100-date, total sell-out, 2010 UK tour.

Sean Locke’s Lockipedia Live is available on DVD priced £19.99 rrp.

Special features contain over an hour of exclusive extras including Sean Lock’s stand-up television appearances on Live At The Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Extra Lockipedia and Sean’s Lockipedia Slideshow.