Play on...well most of the time (Play UK)

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	Play UK
Date:	07/01/01 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Familiar and funny

Disadvantages: D.J.s thick on the ground

UK Play is is one of the ever expanding UK.. TV channels joining the vapid Style,the'The Bill'obsessed Gold and the dull Braindead,sorry Victoria Wood made up the last one!.It's on Sky Digital and some if not all cable services.It is the pick of the UK channels and concerns itself solely with music and comedy.

The channel is run by the BBC and it's shows have mostly been on BBC2 although they do have some original programming.During the day the programmes are mostly musical with lazy stuff like 'Top of the pops@Play' which is basically an extended version of the BBC1 show with preformances from the show padded out with studio banter and viewer video requests.Other music shows include 'DJ Anthems','Superstar DJ' and no doubt the soon to follow 'DJ Changing rooms'.Not a DJ worshipper I tend to avoid the music part of the channel although the rolling pop videos at the weekends make for good background music.

In the evenings comedy takes over and they even have a bored Paul Whitehouse doing prerecorded links.The shows are sheduled in a similar fashion to that of the Paramount comedy channel in that the same show is usually on in the same slot each night.This is handy if you can't find those TV pages but it also means that the same episodes pop up on a regular basis.The shows are all pretty good with 'The League of Gentlemen','The Fast Show' and the underrated 'Hippies' all regulars along with 'Big Train' and 'Stella Street'.Shows are now popping up soon after their BBC airing with 'The Last Fast Show' on two weeks after it first ran.Suits you...etc.

Quite often the channel abandons the shedule and treats us to six or more episodes of the same show.This is fine is the show is 'Larry Sanders' not so good if it's 'Goodness Gracious me'.The channel is on 24 hours a day although through the night they simply rerun the shows seen e
arlier that day.

Of their home grown shows the best is 'Rock Profile'.This is a spoof show where a straight faced Jamie Theakson interviews some rock star or group,who are played by Matt Lucas and David Williams.The interviews are intercut with the artiste's actual videos which have funny comments trailed alond the bottom.Highlight episodes include a very bitter Bucks Fizz and a slipper wielding Maurice Gibb who terrorises the younger BeeGees.This show is a treat and is on weekdays at 9.30pm.

On the whole an enjoyable channel that usually delivers a tasty titbit if you've thirty minutes to kill.On the downside the shows are getting a bit familiar and the same trailers run at every ad break without fail.Give it a try.

Summary: