Not really music news, but a fun story anyway. The legend that is Tom Baker will be introducing the programmes on BBC 1 on Thursday night as the channel celebrates the launch of series three of Little Britain. Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who recruited Baker to do the comedy narration on their acclaimed sketch show, have reportedly helped to write the continuity announcements that Baker will deliver, which will begin at 7pm with: "Hello telly viewers, you're watching the BBC One. At nine o'clock it's Little Britain - the greatest show in the history of broadcasting... but first it's time for The Great Big Bid. Oh mah sweet potatoes!" He will then introduce Eastenders with the line: "In half an hour, Jenny Dickens' classic serial Bleak House. But first let's see what the poor people are up to in the first of two visits this evening to the Eastenders."
Hearing Tom Baker introduce the shows will make a welcome change - given that BBC continuity announcers seem to be following that disturbing trend of becoming ever more informal and chatty between the programmes. Am I alone if finding this incredibly irritating - why do TV channels think we want continuity announcers to be our friends? Why can't they just introduce the programmes? And what's with this chatting over the end titles of shows all about? Shouldn't the musicians who write the theme music to our TV shows be complaining about this more? TV themes are a much underrated part of our musical heritage - and these days they are not only underrated, but often unheard, as irritating continuity presenters tells us how much they've just enjoyed that show, and that if we press our red buttons now we can access something incredibly tedious.
Anyway ... back to Little Britain, and David Walliams has apparently sent a preview copy of the new series to Kylie Minogue. He heard that Kylie, currently in Paris undergoing cancer treatment of course, was a fan of the show, and thought she might like to watch the new editions while recovering from her illness. The Sun quote the comedian as saying: "Kylie professed herself to be a big Little Britain fan, which meant a lot to us. We sent her the DVD because I knew she needed something to watch to raise her spirits. She will see the third series before anyone else."