Will 2009 be the year that Andy Murray blossoms into our greatest tennis player for a generation?

It wasn’t a bad beginning to the season for Andy Murray. Successive wins against James Blake, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meant that he has three top ten scalps in his pocket before the season had barely began. Along the way he scooped the Capitala World Tennis Championship trophy and the Qatar Open before he headed towards Australia for the first slam of the year as white hot favourite.

But a fourth round defeat to Fernando Verdasco meant that Murray was dumped out of the competition before the action had really begun. Admired turned critics over night. They questioned whether Murray is ready, or good enough to compete at the very highest level alongside Federer, Nadal and Novak Djorkovic.

Murray is already generating as much excitement in British tennis as Henman did a decade ago. Then, with a clutch of near-misses at Wimbledon, Henman made British tennis exciting again for a generation that scarcely knew what the third round of a tournament felt like.

Murray certainly has the potential to be even better, and whilst the tabloids will indulge in sensationalism: playing him up and dismissing his chances in equal measure, the more intelligent can comfort themselves with the prospect of a decade’s worth of match-winning from the young Scot.

It’s easy to remember that Andy Murray is still just 21 years old. Can he win one of the slams? The answer from all quarters is a confident ‘yes’. But with Nadal and Federer about, it isn’t going to be easy.

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Image Credit: chascow on Flickr

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We’ve now got HD channels by the bucket load. Sky Box Office HD, Sky Sports, Sky Premier, Sky One, BBC and Channel 4 are just a short collection of these, each of them available in glorious high definition.

The number of channels is testament to the big step forward the technology has taken. Launched in May 2006, the longest subscribers to the Sky HD service will now have been enjoying the service for around three years, and in the next three years the service is set to grow quickly.

The UK’s two biggest broadcasters, Sky and the BBC, are both committed HD enthusiasts, and by the time the London Olympics arrive in three summer’s time they aim to have a vast majority of the British public hooked onto their network.
One of the key draws is price. The Sky HD service is now available for well under £100. At the time of launch a subscription would have only been possible after the £299 initial fee was paid. And with the appropriate technology, BBC HD can be received for free.

So, whether Bond is your bag – or you’d prefer to put your feet up to the sound of the Premiership, it could be time to jump onto the HD wagon, because it’s already off downhill and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

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Image Credit: fmc.nikon.d40 on Flickr

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Twenty years after Sky first launched their broadcasting service, the landscape is quite different

The Berlin Wall was still standing 20 years ago when Sky television was launched, effectively doubling the number of channels that we have available in an instant. And Sky heralded a revolution of a very different kind, bringing a whole range of television channels to households around the country that ran in addition to the existing four.

Twenty years along the line, Sky is firmly established as one of the nation’s top broadcasters. Sky One has made inroads into the BBC’s monopoly of topical news programmes and Sky Movies and Sky Sports have become flagship stations in their own right.

In the last few weeks Sky have drastically reduced the price of their Sky+ HD boxes to an impressive, and dangerously accessible £49 – meaning that within weeks, viewers can be settling into their sofas to enjoy the final stages of the Premier League, Oscar night, or the very latest from Sky Box Office all in glorious, unprecedented quality.

To celebrate today’s anniversary, Pocket-lint has dedicated a list of five Sky facts. To discover more about Sky’s range of HD offers, visit

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Image Credit: erin MC hammer on Flickr

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Football, football, football.

The football season is now in full, elegant flow. Tottenham and Manchester United will contend the Carling Cup final in the next few weeks, and in the Premier League things are tougher than ever. Here is a short update on upcoming football fixtures that can be found on Sky Sports and Setanta Sports. So, set yourself horizontally upon the sofa, and enjoy:

FA CUP Fourth Round

Key January Events:

23rd - Derby vs Nottingham Forest
25th - Cardiff vs Arsenal
25th - Liverpool vs Everton

FA Cup Fourth Round Derby vs Nottingham Forest – January 23rd

A derby from Pride Park as Nigel Clough leads Derby, one of his father’s former clubs into battle with another, Nottingham Forest.

FA Cup Fourth Round Cardiff vs Arsenal – January 25th

On Sunday the 25th, we have Arsenal’s tough trip to Wales to face Cardiff City in a repeat of the 1927 final with Aaron Ramsey facing his old club.

FA Cup Fourth Round Liverpool vs Everton – January 25th

4th round derby from Anfield as Liverpool and Everton commence battle once again. Followed by the live draw for the 5th Round.

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Marie Kemplay returns for another look at the Sky Player

A few months ago I wrote that Sky was introducing an online viewing platform, Sky Player. Well it’s here and I’m impressed to say it’s definitely exceeded expectations.

When I first read about the service it wasn’t at all clear what Sky actually be showing on Sky Player, all they were able to confirm was that it would show content from Sky Sports, which to be frank left me feeling it was all a bit half baked. But I was wrong, if you go to the website -https://skyplayer.sky.com/vod/page/home.do - you can watch content from 25 channels, as well as Sky Sports you can watch Sky and BBC news, National Geographic and History Channels to expand your mind, Sky One and Box Office for entertainment and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel for the ‘kids’.

Not bad at all, especially when as well as offering you content on demand you can also stream live programmes this is unique for an internet viewing platform. If you’re not bothered about watching on a massive screen you can forego the whole installation of a digibox business and still watch live Sky programmes!

Sky Player has also impressed me with how affordable it is, again when I first wrote about Sky Player prices had not yet been decided, leaving the impression that they could charge almost anything for the service.

But despite my fears it’s perfectly reasonable, usually £1 per programme, £5 per month for a sports highlights package and for existing Sky customers it’s completely free!

Honestly, it’s not quite what you might describe as DVD quality viewing but neither is it Youtube, to say its being transmitted over the internet it’s excellent. The only real issue I can see with Sky Player is that you can only install it on one computer per subscription, not such an issue for non-sky customers but say you live in a household which already subscribes to Sky with multiple computers and several techo-sevvy people, there’s going to be fisticuffs at dawn over who gets to watch it free on their laptop.

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Peter Moore remembers the sudden disappearance of Mourinho, the darling of the tabloids

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It was an aberration when Jose Mourinho left Chelsea two and a half years ago, almost unnoticed in the dark of a September night. He was Chelsea’s most successful manager; a darling of the press and a public pantomime villain in equal measure.

Any logic would have had him trumpeted out of the London by the Lord Mayor’s brass band aboard the Queen’s own carriage. Either that or being chased down the Mall with pointed sticks flying past his ears. As it was, ‘The Special One’ disappeared into the night. Before the press knew it, he was gone.

Journalists had cause to be aggrieved. Rarely had a figure appeared with a greater talent for controversy than Mourinho. Amongst his most famous incendiary quotes were claims that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was a ‘voyeur’, that Alex Ferguson unfairly used his prestige to influence referees and that Tottenham’s defending reminded him of a bus parked in front of the goal.’ With Mourinho around, the sports paper of any national newspaper wrote themselves.

It’s apt to remember Mourinho a couple of years on. Managerial spats remain about as common as squabbles in a nursery school, but with Mourinho around they always had an extra glimmer of comedy and eloquence. In comparison with a snippet of one of Mourinho broadsides, Benitez’ attack last week upon Ferguson looked quite tame. A little like a donkey off Scarborough beach stood next to Gandalf’s Shadowfax.

So, for a touch of Monday morning amusement, and with Mourinho’s Inter Milan proudly stood at the top of Serie A, let’s bask in a bit of retro-Mourinho. Here are a few quotes from our dearly missed Portuguese friend:

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‘I’m not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don’t. Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.’ (June 2004)

‘As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it’s not fair for the football we played.’ (September 2004)

‘This is nothing against Sir Alex whatsoever. After the game on Wednesday we were together in my office and we spoke and drank wine. Unfortunately it was a very bad bottle of wine and he was complaining, so when we go to Old Trafford for the second leg, on my birthday, I will take a beautiful bottle of Portuguese wine.’ (On Alex Ferguson, January 2005)

‘During the afternoon it rained only in this stadium - our kitman saw it. There must be a micro-climate here. The pitch was like a swimming pool.’

‘The moral of the story is not to listen to those who tell you not to play the violin but stick to the tambourine.’

‘If he helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt!’ (On Roman Abramovich)

‘I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.’ ( On Arsene Wenger, October 2005)

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Image Credit: dphuonq

• These quotes are taken from a BBC electronic article, entitled, The World According to Mourinho

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January’s Choice

Nominated for 4 Golden Globes
8.7 rated on IMDB
94% on Rotten Tomatoes
Nominated for Best Picture from the Producers’ Guild of America

“Slumdog Millionaire” is this year’s aesthetic achievement to rival last year’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” in quality. From start to finish this is, pardon the use of a rather silly and frequently used expression, a ‘visual feast’. The editing, digital cinematography, and Danny Boyle’s direction (with co-director Loveleen Tandan) create a fascinating aesthetic which is perfect for the material.” (The Cinema Journal)

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Marie Kemplay laments a downturn in silly television to accompany the economy

I always have such fun explaining to my boyfriend that while I think Clarkson (I don’t need to mention his first name) is a fool, I find him hugely entertaining, whereas my boyfriend just thinks he’s a fool. So I’m gutted to learn that that the Top Gear budget for the next series is being cut to the extent it will visibly affect show quality.

What? No more pointless explosions!?! I completely accept that Top Gear is frivolity in excelsis but my God I certainly need a bit of frivolity with Robert Peston beckoning the apocalypse at every turn. My recommendation to anybody who does not enjoy Top Gear is simply to mute it and allow the pictures to speak for themselves. Or failing that to consume a few glasses of wine, upon which you’ll be transported to a state of uncontrollable giggling.

Nobody can even remotely claim the programme is about seriously road testing cars anymore, we’re talking the most outlandish stunts you can possibly get. Take the other night where they had to cross from one end of Vietnam to the other on scooters. Not only is this pretty ridiculous in itself, considering Vietnam is 1,650km long, but they then proceeded to start attaching large objects to their scooters like model galleons and paintings. Then they had to convert them into amphibious craft and ‘sail’ across Ha Long Bay to their final destination. Ridiculous, but, quite frankly, equally brilliant.

But all is not lost Top Gear’s executive producer, Andy Wilman wrote on a Top Gear Fansite that they have a plan for combating the budget cut: “Basically instead of trimming back a little bit on every show – losing a helicopter here or a truck crash there – we’ll endeavour to make 13 of our 14 shows as per the usual Jerry Bruckheimer standard, and then the last one, when we only have a tenner left, will be utter, utter sh*te.” Hey maybe the final episode may see them actually return to the shows roots and actually seriously test some cars. Although it may not be as funny, I’m sure serious road buffs would like it.

But all of this got me thinking, how will other shows start to be affected? Strictly Recession Come Dancing? No sequins? Gavin and Stacy will have to stop hopping between Essex and Wales and just pick one or the other. Maybe all the news studios will have to sell their vast stockpiles of glass and plasma screens and go back to their plywood-esque desks that look like they’ve been stuck together with tape. I realise I’m not treating this issue with the gravity it deserves but seriously where will it end? Producers surely know that if they keep cutting budgets programming will become so dull and unimpressive that viewers will simply stop watching, eliminating the whole raison d’etre of TV programmes in the first place. The BBC is already slashing its programming budget by as much as 30 per cent in some areas after admitting it is facing a $293 million funding shortfall caused by inflation and rocketing utility bills, and it’s likely other broadcasters are facing the same predicament.

This may sound flippant but on a serious note maybe much like the universe (bear with me) after the big bang of digital television maybe the number of digital channels will stop growing exponentially and as revenues dwindle we will see the number of channels contracting until once again we are left with a few good ‘quality’ channels and the rest showing either garbage or just repeats? We’ll see in a few years. Personally, I wouldn’t really miss the vast majority of the hundreds of channels, I hardly ever venture out of the mainstream channels except to occasionally watch repeats of Top Gear on Dave, something I’ll be forced to do more often post-budget cut if I want my fill of pointless explosions.

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Image Credit: Podknox

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