Blog Posts by Paul Johnston

  • The Hothouse – Review

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Thu, May 16, 2013 18:23 BST

    The Hothouse - Trafalgar Studios

    Fresh from his success at the TV BAFTAs last weekend, Simon Russell Beale leads the cast in a revival of Harold Pinter's dark comedy 'The Hothouse' at London's Trafalgar Studios.

    Here he stars as Roote, the flustered head of an unnamed institution, who finds himself with both a birth and a death on his hands on Christmas Day.

    'Life On Mars' star John Simm co-stars as the menacing Gibbs, who relishes in Roote's growing anxiety as the situation begins to spiral out of control.

    The play's bleaker moments are punctuated with plenty of uneasy laughs and the strong cast also includes Harry Melling, who will be familiar to fans of the Harry Potter movies.

    'The Hothouse' is the second in the Trafalgar Transformed season following James MacAvoy's star turn in 'Macbeth'.

    Director Jamie Lloyd's ingenious staging means that a select number of audience members get to witness the whole thing from the stage itself. Though that's possibly not the best place to be when the Christmas cake makes an

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  • Beautiful Thing – Review

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Mon, Apr 22, 2013 14:15 BST

    We're huge fans of 'Scott And Bailey's Suranne Jones so we couldn't wait to see her back on stage in 'Beautiful Thing' at London's Arts Theatre.

    Suranne Jones and Jake Davies

    The play, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is described as an 'urban love story' and follows two teenage boys who fall in love on a council estate during a very hot summer in the early '90s.

    Jones is brilliant as feisty single mum Sandra, particularly in her ongoing feud with Mama Cass-obsessed next door neighbour Leah (played by 'Waterloo Road's Zaraah Abrahams), firing off some fantastic putdowns that are much too rude to write about here.

    Young actors Jake Davies and Danny-Boy Hatchard give sensitive portrayals as Jamie and Ste, while 'Hollyoaks' star Oliver Farnworth provides comic relief as Sandra's hippy lover Tony.

    There are some excellent one-liners here, which is no surprise as playwright Jonathan Harvey also brought us BBC sitcom 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' and is best known these days as a regular writer on 'Coronation Street' (he

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  • Watch live: Behind-the-scenes on Emmerdale live episode

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Wed, Oct 17, 2012 17:45 BST

    'Emmerdale' goes live on Wednesday 17 October at 7pm with a special hour-long episode to mark the show's 40th anniversary.

    Various cast members have already spoken about the challenges of filming such a complex episode with actors having to dash between sets and bad weather potentially throwing a great big spanner in the works.

    ITV are offering fans the opportunity to see exactly that with a specially-placed cameras capturing the possible 'chaos' going on behind-the-scenes.

    You can see for yourself by watching below:

  • Soaps preview – 10 September

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Mon, Sep 10, 2012 13:58 BST

    It's a tough week for Izzy and Gary in 'Coronation Street', plus find out what's coming up in 'EastEnders', 'Emmerdale', 'Hollyoaks', 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away' in our soaps preview...

  • Revamped Daybreak attracts just 100k extra viewers

    By Paul Johnston | Yahoo! TV News – Tue, Sep 4, 2012 16:12 BST

    TV ratings have revealed that an average audience of 600k watched the revamped 'Daybreak' yesterday morning.

    The ratings were up just 100k from the audience who watched Kate Garraway and Dan Lobb present together for the final time last Friday.

    Aled Jones having just seen yesterday's viewing figures (Credit: ITV)


    This week's much-hyped relaunch saw Lorraine Kelly and Aled Jones taking over as the ITV breakfast show's main hosts, with Lorraine also continuing to present her own segment from 8.30am onwards.

    An ITV spokeperson told BBC News that they were happy with the revamped show and looked forward to building on initial ratings.

    'Daybreak's average audience of 600k on Monday was no match for 'BBC Breakfast', which attracted an average of 1.4 million viewers.

    ITV's breakfast show has struggled in the ratings since 'GMTV' was axed in favour of 'Daybreak' in September 2010.

    High-profile signings Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, poached from BBC's 'The One Show', failed to attract viewers and Read More »

  • Soaps preview – 8 August

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Wed, Aug 8, 2012 14:33 BST

    Tyrone lashes out in 'Coronation Street', Shirley makes a life decision in 'EastEnders' and Chas starts to flirt with Dan in 'Emmerdale'. Plus, find out what's coming up in 'Hollyoaks', 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away'...

    Plus, read the rest of this week's soaps news

  • Soaps preview – 1 August

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Wed, Aug 1, 2012 12:49 BST

    Kirsty walks in on Tyrone as Tina quizzes him about his mysterious bruises in 'Coronation Street', Lauren reveals the truth behind Ian's disappearance in 'EastEnders' and David confesses that his wedding was fake in 'Emmerdale'. Plus, find out what's coming up in 'Hollyoaks', 'Home & Away' and 'Neighbours'.

    Watch our soaps preview video:

    Plus, check out the rest of this weeks' soaps news

  • Soaps preview – 25 July 2012

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Wed, Jul 25, 2012 11:23 BST

    Check out our soaps preview video which sees baby drama for Izzy and Gary in 'Coronation Street' plus all the latest soaps news from 'EastEnders', 'Emmerdale', 'Hollyoaks', 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away'...

    - Plus, read more of this week's soaps news

  • The Hump limps home second from last in Eurovision

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Sun, May 27, 2012 00:10 BST

    The United Kingdom has paid the price for opening the show at the Eurovision Song Contest, with Englebert Humperdinck coming second-from-last in the voting.

    Englebert HumperdinckEnglebert Humperdinck

    Favourites Sweden won the annual competition, with Loreen's Euphoria picking up 372 points - way ahead of Russia's Buranovskiye Babushki on 259 points in second.

    Irish entry Jedward failed to make a splash (despite having a fountain on stage), notching up just 46 points and finishing well down the rankings.

    And only Norway's entry polled less than The Hump from the 42 nations who took part in this year's Eurovision.

    But it was Loreen's shiny trance-pop track Euphoria which stole the night, taking an early lead and gradually pulling away from Russia's novelty entry Party For Everybody as the votes piled in.

    Serbia's Željko Joksimović was a solid third with the classy and restrained song Nije Ljubav.

    There had been speculation before the contest that going first could damage 76-year-old Humperdinck's chances, but his song Love Will

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  • Gypsy Brides US is coming to the UK!

    By Paul Johnston | TV Editor's Blog – Tue, May 8, 2012 17:46 BST

    The yanky cousin of our very own 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' arrives in the UK this week with more of the ridiculous dresses and wedding day bust-ups we've come to expect from the original series.

    Having premiered recently in the US, one critic described it as "horrifying, bizarre, and [as] compulsively watchable as the original".

    Watch the video below as one nervous bride flees to the toilet to quell her big day jitters.

    Gypsy Brides US premieres on Discovery Real Time on Wednesdays at 10pm

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