Latest news with #HouseofGames
Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Alison Spittle brings new solo show 'Big' to Edinburgh Fringe
Irish comedian and writer Alison Spittle is set to return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer with her brand-new solo show 'Big', running at Monkey Barrel 1 from the 29th of July to the 24th of August. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Known for her work on stage, screen and radio, Spittle's latest hour takes a bold and candid look at body image, self-worth and identity, drawing on a turbulent and transformative year in her life. After a chance encounter on a train triggered a serious health scare, Spittle began an unexpected weight-loss journey—now the subject of this heartfelt and hilarious new show. Big explores what happens when the world treats you differently because of your body, and whether changing yourself can ever really be the answer. Spittle reflects on her experiences as a working-class fat girl trying to fit into a middle-class, mid-sized world. With her trademark mix of honesty and humour, she asks how much of ourselves we're willing to lose in order to feel accepted—and whether it's possible to love who you were as much as who you're becoming. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Audiences can expect sharp, relatable storytelling as Spittle navigates everything from missing trains to fitting on rollercoasters, alongside moments of emotional insight drawn from a year that changed everything. Alison Spittle (c) Matt Stronge A familiar face from Pointless Celebrities, Richard Osman's House of Games, and Celebrity Gogglebox, Alison is also the co-creator of the popular BBC Sounds podcast Wheel of Misfortune, and has written and starred in her own sitcom Nowhere Fast. Big marks her highly anticipated return to the Fringe following two successful back-to-back runs with her previous shows Wet and Soup. Alison Spittle: Big runs at Monkey Barrel 1 from 29th July to 24th August (not 12th) at 4.45pm.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sleep Token are "the least metal thing I've ever heard" says TV host Richard Osman
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scoring a number one album on both the UK and US charts, as Sleep Token did earlier this month with Even In Arcadia, will naturally boost an artist's profile, and bring it to the attention of 'normies', people who previously would have had zero knowledge of the act's existence. Even so, we doubt that Sleep Token frontman Vessel was expecting to find his band discussed this week by TV presenter and author Richard Osman (Pointless, Richard Osman's House of Games) and Guardian newspaper columnist Marina Hyde on their popular podcast The Rest Is Entertainment. He might have been even more bemused to find his band described by Richard Osman, the brother of Suede bassist Matt Osman, "as the least metal thing I've ever heard". The subject arose following a discussion about the rescheduling of daytime television shows on British TV channel ITV, with Osman and Hyde then turning their attention to an analysis of Sleep Token, throwing in a mention of Ghost along the way."To be number one in America, number one album in America is huge," Osman stated by way of an introduction to the band. "It's a huge deal. And that's exactly what Sleep Token have just done with their fourth album, which is called - and this will give you an idea of the type of band Sleep Token are - Even in Arcadia." "Now, Sleep Token are one of those bands, nobody knows who they are, because they are always masked, at all times," he continued. "The lead singer is called Vessel - probably not his real name - and the other members of the band are called, in Roman numerals II, III, and IV."The idea of a public figure using a pseudonym to mask their true identity shouldn't have come as a huge surprise to Marina Hyde, to be fair, given that she too uses a pseudonym. Born Marina Elizabeth Catherine Dudley-Williams, the daughter of Sir Alistair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams, 2nd Baronet, the journalist adopted the surname 'Hyde' while working for The Sun newspaper. But we digress... "It's hard rock," Hyde tells the podcast's viewers/listeners, to which Osman replies, "It's not hard rock, this is what shocked me.""It's the least metal thing I've ever heard," he continues. "Basically, you could put this in your hand luggage and it would go through the scanners." "Genuinely, if you've not listened to them, go on to Spotify or, you know, buy an album and have a listen, because it's sort of everything all at once. There's some nu metal there, there's EDM in there, here's alt. pop, there's pop-rap, there's a bit of shoegaze... it's a very, very peculiar sound."For the benefit of the podcast subscribers, Hyde adds, "Their live shows are called 'Rituals', the singles are 'Offerings'. For older listeners there's a very, very strong sense of Spinal Tap Stonehenge to this." If you want to hear more of the discussion, the tone of which should be familiar to any professional musicians who've had to endure family members asking annually if they're "still doing your little band thing", the full conversation is below, with the Sleep Token chat beginning around the 22 minute mark. In the 400th issue of Metal Hammer, we uncovered Sleep Token's secret origin story, via those who were there. From their first producer, to publicists and promoters, we revealed what Vessel was really like, and how his vision developed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'What cuts to GMB and Loose Women mean for the struggling TV industry'
Daytime television is usually where you watch people discuss everyone else. At the moment, however, it feels like the opposite is true. Earlier this week ITV announced swingeing cuts to its daytime schedule. From January 2026, Loose Women and Lorraine will air only 30 weeks a year, compared to the all-year round schedule we're used to. Lorraine will be cut back from 60 minutes to 30 minutes an episode, with Good Morning Britain expanding into its time slot, while GMB itself will lose its independence and be produced by the ITN news division instead of ITV Studios. Viewers will also notice changes in the way that these shows look and feel too, with all of ITV's daytime programmes moving out of Television Centre. The White City studio has been the home of ITV daytime programmes since the BBC moved out over a decade ago. Reportedly, more than 220 out of 440 staff who work across all of these programmes will lose their jobs. It's a very tough situation for those who work there. These changes also represent how much television itself is changing because of our changing viewing habits. Linear television growth has seen a record decline in viewership for a second consecutive year, according to Ofcom. Interestingly, there have been declines with older viewers too, who until now had remained loyal to traditional television because it has been part of their routine. At the same time, the streaming service ITVX has continued to grow (up 14% in monthly active users according to its annual report) as online advertising continues to grow with it, while traditional advertising on television continues to remain sluggish. The types of shows that we watch on streaming tend to be very different from the ones we watch on traditional television too. Our viewing habits on streaming tends to favour dramas, documentary series and reality shows, which we can catch up on at any point during the day. Daytime chat and discussion tends to only be watched live, when it happens. Traditional television also continues to do well with breakfast television news shows and quiz shows, hence the upcoming launch of ITV Quiz, a whole dedicated channel to just that. That's why, sadly, there feels a sense of inevitability with what is happening with these cutbacks during daytime. Yet it is also important not to get too ahead of ourselves. Daytime television will continue to run for many years to come. Television channels are not going anytime soon either, as they serve as a shop window for shows you watch online. It is also pretty easy to be snobbish about daytime television, particularly when at first glance it can feel like presenters walking around cold empty flats. I was a judge for the daytime category at the Bafta Television Awards early this year and was impressed by the quality and the ambition of shows that were nominated, everything from House of Games to Morning Live. It has a public service ethos at its heart, covering everything from the dangers of online scams and fraud, to the recent Loose Women campaign on domestic abuse. While it's important to adjust television to our changing viewing habits, making changes too quickly and too recklessly will naturally affect shows elsewhere in the schedule. Daytime serves an important part of the television ecosystem; training ground for many shows that then do well in primetime, such as Repair Shop. It also serves as a training ground for those behind the camera, but also presenters too, who use these shows as a stepping stone to bigger shows in the evening schedules, with Alison Hammond's rise to Bake Off just one such example. There's also no avoiding the fact that at a time when many within the TV industry are already out of work, the news of such redundancies are another crushing blow.
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Magnificent: The Deep Blue Sea, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, reviewed
Richard Bean appears to be Hampstead Theatre's in-house dramatist, and his new effort, House of Games, is based on a 1987 movie directed by David Mamet. The script sets up a rather laborious collision between two vastly different cultures. A gang of small-time crooks in Chicago are visited by a beautiful, high-flying, Harvard-educated academic who wants to investigate their lives. The catalyst for this unlikely set-up is therapy. Dr Margaret Ford is a successful shrink whose latest book has become a bestseller and she needs a new theme to write about. She speaks to a troubled young patient who owes $2,000 to a betting syndicate and when she visits their seedy gambling den she's welcomed by the crooks and given an integral role in the team. Just like that. Her job is to observe a drunken card player and to raise the alarm if he gives a 'tell' by touching his crucifix during the game. Margaret performs her role brilliantly and she's embraced by the thugs like a long-lost sister. Despite her chic clothes, perfect hairdo and educated manners, she fits in perfectly with the druggie hoodlums. She even persuades them to let her write about their criminal hustles in her next book. By this stage, Margaret has started to dispense sexual favours to certain members of the gang and this may explain their readiness to accept her as a colleague. To prove her worth she helps them persuade a couple of strait-laced bankers to join a corrupt game of Texas hold 'em. This daft narrative keeps throwing up more and more twists that seem barely credible.
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
It's time for the ABC to ditch the forgettable fluff
At a sold-out session at the Sorrento Writers Festival in late April, ABC chair Kim Williams concisely and convincingly outlined his priorities for the 'network of networks' he heads. 'How can there be a future in timidity?' he said. 'There's no future in bland.' Questioned further at the festival by ABC icon Kerry O'Brien, Williams observed that 'an agency under never-ending ferocious attack' can become defensive and inclined to 'self-censorship'. He also noted, in relation to ABC TV, that there's 'massive work to be done in documentary and also in drama and comedy'. This conversation between Williams and O'Brien was part of a broader discussion about the future of the ABC between the pair that began at last year's Byron Writers Festival. It was there that Williams, who is not one to mince words, noted that funding cuts had made the organisation 'more timid'. The ABC is reliant on government funding for most of its money and political displeasure can have a significant impact. But these remarks will come as some small comfort to viewers who, for years, have watched those key departments of drama and comedy shrink to depressing lows. Locally produced documentaries have virtually vanished; drama is sporadic and too often uninspiring; and, while the comedies can be a shining asset, there's not nearly enough of the good stuff. Loading Referring to the ABC's audio output, Williams declared at Sorrento, 'We need to constantly be thinking, 'How do we make this service distinctive?'' In that light, it's instructive to consider a couple of recent TV premieres, both adapted from UK formats and sitting squarely in the light-entertainment realm. The more successful of the pair, The Piano (Sundays, 7.30pm and iview), hosted by a well-cast, warm and slightly too effusive Amanda Keller, invites amateur musicians to perform on publicly placed pianos. Unbeknownst to them, their performances are assessed by judges Harry Connick Jr and Andrea Lam. Each episode, a winner is selected, and a recital is planned to conclude the six-part series. Amid the broad range of performers, touching backstories are revealed. One of those uplifting, hard-to-resist productions that tug knowingly and hard at the heartstrings, it celebrates the unifying and transformative power of music. Less satisfying is Claire Hooper's House of Games (weeknights, 6.30 and iview), an uncomfortably static, studio-based game show in which the host and the players try hard to look like they're having fun. The strain shows and the series would fit comfortably into what O'Brien observed had been 'the creep of mediocrity' at the ABC.
