deconstructing the chatshow format

Video YouTube has launched an area for television and films. It would be remiss of me not to point to some classics and whatnot:

The Quatermass Experiment: As live production created for BBC Four featuring Jason Flemyng in the titular role. Also Mark Gattis and one David Tennant, who found out he was going to be playing Doctor Who during the rehearsals for this.

This is Dom Joly: It is indeed. Joly's attempt at deconstructing the chatshow format in much the same way he did with hidden camera thingies. The number of views it currently has on YouTube also reflects the number of people who tuned into its TV broadcast, which is a shame because parts of it are very good indeed.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Cheney Vase: A rare outing for the director in the series which to which he gave his name. Surprisingly cinematic considering the studio constraints and budget, which rather reflects his talent.

Jupiter Moon: Fire Of IO: Before Defying Gravity, there was. The original sci-fi soap opera created for the Galaxy Channel on the soon to be defunct and merged with Sky squarial satellite service BSB. Early emergence of Anna Chancellor. See if you can watch it without expecting a cut to TARDIS materialisation scene.

Highlander The TV Series: Though only the patchy first season mainly consisted of Duncan McCleod slaying some immortal or other on a weekly basis and me trying to work out what accent Adrian Paul was using.

NOVA: For a while PBS's NOVA and the BBC's Horizon series included repurposed documentaries flying back and forth across the Atlantic. That seems to be less of a case now, what with the BBC series relying on a more presenter led format.

Doctor Who: Curse of the Fatal Death: Rowan Atkinson and bunch of other people play the Doctor for Comic Relief using a script written by new nu-Who supremo Steven Moffat. In 1999 this looked like a viable option for the return of the series to television. Features in Hugh Grant, for a few seconds, one of the greatest performances ever in the role.

Classic Doctor Who: Sporadic stories, some of which stretch the description of "Classic" to breaking point. At present, Edge of Destruction, The Krotons, Carnival of Monsters, Planet of the Spiders, The Masque of Mandragora, The Awakening, The Caves of Androzani, and if you'll pardon my language, fucking The Twin Dilemma, voted in a recent poll as the worst story of all time.

Know Your Meme: One of the benefits of creating content for an online audience is that you can create content that only an online audience would be interested in. And thank goodness. Hilarious and informative.

North Square: Much of 4oD's content has pitched up on YouTube (including Dennis Potter's posthumous Cold Lazarus), which gives me another opportunity to recommend this rare lawyer drama from the turn of the decade featuring Rupert Penry-Jones, Kevin McKidd, Phil Davis, Helen McCrory and the underutilised since Kim Vithana. Scheduled properly this would have been a massive hit.

Slacker: The film section is a bit of a jumble but I have spotted Richard Linklater's narratively freewheeling first release in which the young population of his home town of Austin talk about everything and nothing for an hour and a half. Captivating. Watch out for that pap smear!

ASTONISHING X-MEN MOTION COMIC: GIFTED - Episode 1: Joss Whedon and John Cassaday seminal comic turned into something that resembles a cartoon. Effect is like watching Waltz With Bashir but instead of a Lebanese massacre it's about mutants and the cure plotline that was ruined in X3.