Catch up TV review: Cold Feet, Go 8 Bit, Paralympics
David Farnor | On 11, Sep 2016
What’s available on-demand on Freeview? Keep up-to-date with our weekly catch-up TV column, including reviews of shows on ITV Hub, new releases on All 4 and a guide to My5.
(For BBC TV reviews and round-ups, see our weekly Best of BBC iPlayer column. Or for reviews of the shows on All 4’s Walter Presents, click here.)
Cold Feet: Season 6 (ITV Hub)
“Have you lost weight?” “No. Have you got more hair?” “No.” Who says reunions are always a bad thing? Read our full review
Available until: 5th October (Episode 1)
Photo: Big Talk Productions / ITV
Dara O Briain’s Go 8 Bit (UKTV Play)
It’s 2016 now and video games are officially a thing. But so are YouTube and Let’s Play videos, so do we really need an old-fashioned telly box show about them? Anyone who watched Challenge’s Videogame Nation, cancelled earlier this year, would say yes – and you’re likely to get the same response from those who try out Go 8 Bit too.
Dave’s latest original commission surprisingly proves one of their best, as it combines the small screen’s familiar panel show format with the age-old fun of frantically pressing buttons in your living room with your mates.
The people pressing buttons here are a wonderfully odd couple of celebrities: comedian Susan Calman and goalkeeper David James. She really likes Chuckie Egg and he likes Tekken. Watching them geek out sincerely (“Don’t get me started on Street Fighter”) makes for a hugely likeable atmosphere, as the show makes it clear that it’s not there to mock or deride gaming. The fact that they’re joined by Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilo, who came up with the show, is testament to that positive attitude – rather than replace them with more well-known faces, the duo are made team captains and both prove entertaining.
Fresh from hosting Robot Wars, O Briain is in his element here, with excellent games journo Ellie Gibson also bringing laughs (and nerdy knowledge) to the table. The result is a fun balance of watching people play games (badly) and watching them talk about them. For people who aren’t Let’s Play lovers, this is well worth booting up.
Available until: 4th October (Episode 1)
Photo: UKTV Play
Rio: The 2016 Paralympics (All 4)
The Paralympics are officially underway and, like the Olympics, the best way to keep up-to-date with events is by watching on-demand. All 4’s got you covered with handy 30-minute highlight videos every day, presented (of course) by the omnipresent Clare Balding. That gives you a concentrated dose of impressive sporting action, such as Jonnie Peacock winning the 100m in a record 10.81-second sprint and Ellie Simmonds competing in the pool, but also means you can sample their “We’re the Superhumans” string of shorts, which offer an equally inspiring window onto some incredible true stories, from Bartek Ostalowski, a professional racing driver without arms to Johnathan Bastos, a pianist without fingers.
