An opportunity to find out more presents itself in the form of Ian Maxtone- Graham, a head writer on the show since 1995, taking a break in London. I know what to look for: the Very Tall Man character, who appears in the episode “22 Short Films About Springfield”, is based on him. I spot him immediately – he is indeed long-limbed, scrawny, too, with froggy blue eyes and a wryly helpless manner “Hi,” he says, “the PR woman wants to come along. Just in case I do a diatribe about Sky.”
Such casual irreverence is typical of The Simpsons style. Though owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Network, the show regularly presents Fox executives as morally-retarded “jerks” and has Murdoch popping up as “an evil billionaire” in an upcoming episode. Over here, The Simpsons is virtually Sky’s sole claim to fame and, despite duff scheduling, it is BBC2′s second most popular show, with an audience of about 4 million.
But how much do we really know about The Simpsons? Not a lot. Yellow-hued, three- fingered, dysfunctional, the Simpsons family still rule the TV waves. The next biggest audience was the 370,000 for The Rock on Sky Movies Screen 2. Thank God for The SimpsonsPROGRAMME TOTAL1 The Simpsons (Sun, 6.30pm) 0.832 Friends 0.773 The X-Files 0.714 Stargate SG-1 0.665 The Simpsons (Tue, 7.0pm) 0.626= The Simpsons (Mon, 7.0pm) 0.596= Star Trek: Voyager 0.598 The Simpsons (Wed, 7.0pm) 0.579= The Simpsons (Thu, 7.0pm) 0.569= The Simpsons (Sun, 6.0pm) 0.56CHANNEL 5This may come as a surprise to those who cannot get Channel 5 (and to those who can).PROGRAMME TOTAL1 Them! (film) 1.582 It Was Him Or Us 1.533 Against Their Will 1.534 Armed And Innocent 1.485 The Surrogate 1.406 Family Affairs (Tue/Wed) 1.077 Family Confidential 1.048 Family Affairs (Thur/Fri) 1.039 Family Affairs (Wed/Thur) 0.9810 The Courtyard 0.91Copyright: BARB. The women’s faces were fixed in a rictus of glee as they motored through the steps but they weren’t fooling anyone Only Sylvie Guillem seemed worthy of her variation.
In the pas de deux Jonathan Cope gently batted her back and forth into a languid series of two-way pirouettes as if playing with a miraculous new toy. Monday’s gala was an over-generous three-and-a-half hours, but Guillem was worth the wait.Louise Levene. TERRESTRIAL
No surprises here – though it’s strange to see a chart that doesn’t contain an antipodean soap offering
PROGRAMME TOTAL (MILLIONS)1= EastEnders (Tue/Sun) 16.981= Coronation Street (Mon) 16.983 Coronation Street (Wed) 16.594 Coronation Street (Sun) 15.845 EastEnders (Thu/Sun) 15.786 EastEnders (Mon/Sun) 14.707 Coronation Street (Fri) 14.358 Diana: Secrets (ITV) 12.799 Emmerdale (Tue) 12.2910 Where The Heart Is (ITV) 11.83 NON-SOAPSPROGRAMME TOTAL1 Diana: Secrets (ITV) 12.792 Where The Heart Is (ITV) 11.833 World’s Dumbest Drivers (ITV) 9.094 Stars In Their Eyes (ITV) 8.965 News At Ten (ITV, Mon) 8.506 Children’s Hospital (BBC1) 8.557 Eye Spy (ITV) 8.478 Wheel Of Fortune (ITV) 8.299 Wycliffe (ITV) 8.2710 Lloyd-Webber (ITV) 8.13SATELLITE AND CABLEAll on Sky 1. Unfortunately, Page’s confrontational and doggedly humourless ballets noirs only skim the surface of this couple’s emotional and stylistic range.For pudding, we got Frederick Ashton’s ravishing, but pitiless, pastiche Birthday Offering, from 1956. The smouldering Mukhamedov powered through the slicing leaps and furious turns with masterly ease.
Veteran Page-watchers were getting numb bums after 10 minutes. The 14 dancers perform against Anthony McDonald’s backcloth, depicting a road heading off to a vanishing point in the MidWest. There are some tall huts for drying fishing nets which glide about the place and at one point the seating area upstage bursts into flames. The twin scores are by David Lang and Michael Gordon and the whole thing is dressed fit for a catwalk: navy blue capri pants twinned with matching see-through blouses (and that’s just the men).But, but – the work does provide a vehicle for Irek Mukhamedov and Viviana Durante, one of the few exciting partnerships the Royal Ballet has forged in recent years Both were superb.