RTE is launching a new series dealing with multiculturalism in contemporary Ireland in early April. Mono is a 10-part, half-hour magazine show produced inhouse, which the blurb claims will cover a wide range of issues and profiles, stories and personalities, cultures and countercultures. The show will feature three or four items each week and among those in production are pieces on female circumcision, the Chinese community in Belfast, Dublin's black actors and the changing face and skin-tone of Irish-America. Mono will be presented by Bidi Adigun, a Nigerian dramatist and filmstudies graduate, and Shalini Sinha, a Canadian-born Indian woman who lectures in race and race awareness at UCD. The show faces stiff competition as it will go head-to-head with Coronation Street - the programme slot is 7.30 p.m. on Wednesdays from April 4th.
The BBC is to drop its flagship Saturday-morning children's programme, Live and Kicking, after a major relaunch failed to win back viewers from ITV's rival shows, SMTV Live and CD UK. Live and Kicking is the Beeb's longest-running Saturday morning show, but its eight-year run will come to an end this autumn. The programme used to be the most popular kids' show on British TV, reaching a peak when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston. But it has been losing the ratings war with ITV since the seemingly unstoppable presenters, Ant and Dec, began hosting the channel's Saturday morning shows. The BBC has confirmed the show will be replaced, but has given no details. Saturday morning broadcasting warfare isn't new territory for the two British channels - anyone out there remember Tiswas doing battle with the Multicoloured Swap Shop?
Gameshow prizes have been getting more extravagant over the years. Now a US show is offering a star prize that could bring its winner to the final frontier. In a controversial move, the US TV network NBC has confirmed that the winner of the reality TV show Survivor will be launched into space. The producer of the show is in talks with the Russian Space Agency about sending the winning contestant to the International Space Station. Survivor was a massive hit for rival network CBS last year, with more than 50 million viewers tuning in to watch the behaviour of 16 castaways on a South Pacific island. Each week the contestants voted one person off the island, with the remaining winner scooping the $1 million prize. The rights for the new version of the reality TV programme are reported to have cost NBC about $40 million.
Comedian Graham Norton has picked up yet another award for his Channel 4 chat show, So Graham Norton. Norton took the Best Presenter award at the British Royal Television Society Programme Awards this week, beating off competition from Davina McCall for Big Brother and Chris Tarrant for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
A leading British safety organisation has blamed home improvement TV programmes for a sharp rise in accidents in the home. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said popular shows, such as Changing Rooms and Ground Force, were partly responsible for new figures showing a big increase in DIY-related accidents in Britain. A spokesperson for the organisation said, "These shows make everything look so easy and people watching them at home forget they are watching experts at work . . . People should remember that not everyone has the skills of `Handy Andy'." The statistics show that falling off ladders and getting electric shocks were the most common accidents for DIY enthusiasts. But other casualties included a man who fractured his hand when he punched a wall in frustration while trying to put up shelves. Maybe it's time for the presenters to appropriate the "don't try this one at home, folks" mantra.
Maire Kearney can be contacted at mkearney@irish-times.com