Alex Polizzi - The Fixer, BBC Two

Family business rescue show that's as addictive as a dose of reality TV

The arts are in a bit of a state just now. Okay, we all knew that. The money that was there in the past - and where it was coming from - just isn’t the same any more. Finding a new way of doing things is the buzz. Looking outside the box.

Panorama: Jimmy Savile - What The BBC Knew, BBC One

PANORAMA: JIMMY SAVILE - WHAT THE BBC KNEW, BBC ONE Extraordinary television as the Corporation turns its guns on itself

Extraordinary television as the Corporation turns its guns on itself

From 10pm last night to around 11.40, the BBC did what no other broadcaster in the world would have the stomach for. It turned its guns with maximum lethalness on itself. The result was extraordinary television. “Crisis at the BBC,” chimed News at Ten, “as one flagship of its journalism investigates another.” (The opportunity to visualise the scenario with Play School graphics was for once passed up.) By the time Newsnight kicked in at the bottom of the hour, Jeremy Paxman was deploying a poker face to flag a story about his immediate boss.

Emmys 2012 bring lean times for Team GB

EMMYS 2012 Star turn from Damian Lewis in Homeland as Sherlock and Downton disappoint

Star turn from Damian Lewis as Sherlock and Downton disappoint

In time-honoured fashion, hope sprang eternal for the British contenders in the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, held last night in Los Angeles. Downton Abbey had picked up seven major nominations (and 16 in all, including various behind-the-scenes categories), while there were also high hopes for the multi-nominated Sherlock and gongtastic possibilities for the BBC detective series Luther and its star Idris Elba. 

3D: A First for the Last Night

3D: A FIRST FOR THE LAST NIGHT How a British broadcasting institution acquired an extra dimension

How a British broadcasting institution acquired an extra dimension

During an orchestral rehearsal, it’s tense in a TV scanner at the best of times. A scanner is one of the huge vans parked outside the Royal Albert Hall with a wall of screens showing the shots from the cameras within. There’s a large huddle of BBC radio and television vans for the whole season. But there was another outside broadcast encampment on Saturday for the Last Night of the Proms, which was being broadcast in 3D for the first time.

Good Cop: From Page to Screen

GOOD COP: FROM PAGE TO SCREEN The creator of the BBC's new police drama outlines the ABC of screenwriting

The creator of the BBC's new police drama outlines the ABC of screenwriting

On Thursday the BBC will screen the opening episode of the television drama Good Cop. I finished writing it back in August 2010, and on the strength of that story and ideas for a total of four episodes, the series was green-lit in February 2011. We completed filming (pictured below) by the end of December 2011, then came post-production. Now at last we have our transmission date and it will be broadcast to the world.

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Kinks

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: THE KINKS Important celebration of a great British institution's BBC appearances

Important celebration of a great British institution's BBC appearances

The Kinks at the BBCThe Kinks:  The Kinks at the BBC

Kieron Tyler

The Voice: The Final, BBC One

THE VOICE - THE FINAL: Climax of singing show showcases BBC awkwardness at its very best

Showcasing BBC awkwardness at its very best

I love the BBC. “Auntie Beeb” really is the appropriate nickname for the Corporation, at least when it comes to television, because you just know when they try and get involved with any kind of pop culture it's going to be with all the gaucheness of a very enthusiastic auntie trying to adopt kids' tastes. This goes double with Danny Cohen – a man who gives the impression that he starts every sentence with “hey guys” and thinks “mega” is the latest street slang – at the helm of BBC One. And it's precisely this which has made The Voice such compelling viewing.

Tales of Television Centre, BBC Four

Stars and staff recall the inner workings of one of Britain's most iconic buildings

“It’s like Big Ben. It’s like the Houses of Parliament. It’s like St Paul’s,” observed Susan Hampshire, reflecting on the iconic properties of Television Centre, the BBC’s 52-year-old nerve centre. Steady on, Susan, you thought, let’s not overdo it. But that was before we’d seen some of its most long-serving and frankly terrifying employees, Paxman, Attenborough and Bakewell among them, getting all misty-eyed over this unprepossessing lump of concrete and glass, and mourning its imminent demise.