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Total Wipeout Axed
Richard Hammond's Saturday night TV series Total Wipeout is being axed.
The BBC One show, which balances athletic ability and slapstick comedy, will be dropped after one last series.
Contestants are flown to Buenos Aires in Argentina to take part in a series of challenges including the "big red balls" during the qualifier round. The fastest round the final "wipeout zone" collects a £10,000 prize.
It is understood the show has been dropped to free up cash for other programmes.
Viewers saw Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards triumph last weekend in a celebrity version of the contest, which is co-hosted by Amanda Byram.
The BBC said: "After four very successful series of Total Wipeout and one series of Winter Wipeout, the BBC has taken the decision that the next series, due to transmit later this year, will be the last."
Vintage DJs Join Magic
Magic has announced that DJs Mike Read and Tony Blackburn will start work with the radio station from Sunday April 1, joining Dave Lee Travis who is already heard on the network.
Read will host the weekend breakfast show on Saturdays and Sundays between 07:00 and 10:00, followed by Dave Lee Travis and his sidekick “Dangerous” Dan with the DLT Show until 13:00. Blackburn’s show will air on Sunday afternoons from 16:00 to 19:00.
Mike Read said: “I’m going to love being back on breakfast, playing great music to our listeners as they get up in the morning. We’re all really looking forward to working with Magic, and having all three of us together every Sunday is going to be a blast.”
Tony Blackburn said of his show: “[It] contains three hours of great music, all from my personal collection covering the 60s, 70s and 80s… 4-7 is such a great time to be on air and with summer around the corner, I look forward to playing the best summer tunes to our listeners.”
Cath Ellington, managing director of Magic Network North, said: “These are three of radio’s biggest and most respected broadcasters and we’re delighted that they’re on board with Magic… I think we must have the most celebrated DJ line-up in the country."
Nudist Sitcom For Jason Manford
Jason Manford is set to star in a new family-oriented ITV sitcom.
The stand-up comedian looks set to take the lead role in Naked House, a sitcom pilot for ITV1 revolving around the topic of naturism.
A pilot episode of the sitcom will be filmed at BBC Elstree Studios at the end of April. Producers describe the show as a warm-hearted family sitcom, in which Manford plays the role of the husband and father of the family.
The show is being created by Leftbank Pictures, the production company behind programmes like the 2008 sketch format School Of Comedy and the forthcoming E4 sketch show Cardinal Burns.
Johnny Vaughan Joins Absolute
Former Capital FM breakfast presenter Johnny Vaughan is joining Absolute Radio to present the station’s Olympics coverage for two weeks this summer.
The former Big Breakfast presenter, who left his £1m-a-year Capital FM role in November 2011, will join Absolute in the build-up to the Games.
He said: "For two weeks this summer we're celebrating the two greatest things Great Britain has given the world – sport and music. So I'm really looking forward to celebrating both."
From the day of the Olympics opening ceremony, Friday July 27, Vaughan will broadcast a daily two-hour show at 5pm, “specifically scheduled to appeal to audiences as the country travels home for the duration of the Games."
The programme will feature interviews with famous Olympians, presenters, musicians and comedians about the “day's talking points on and off the track” and will be syndicated across Absolute’s network of digital stations.
X Factor Winner In Coronation Street Musical
Joe McElderry is to appear in the Coronation Street stage musical Street Of Dreams.
The former X Factor winner will be a guest star for the climax of the show during the Newcastle dates at the Metro Radio Arena on May 29 and 30.
He said: "I'm a massive fan of the show so it's really exciting to perform the finale song."
The 20-year-old singer added: "I've seen bits and pieces at meetings to discuss the project. It's kind of like Moulin Rouge meets Coronation Street. It's really good. It's a little dip into musical theatre for me, I suppose."
McElderry - crowned the winner of ITV's Popstar To Operastar in 2011 - will join an all-star cast, including Paul O'Grady, Julie Goodyear, Kevin Kennedy and Kym Marsh. They will perform the closing number, Ghosts - Take My Hand.
"I haven't met them all yet - I've met Paul before and get on really well with him - but I will do soon. They're all amazing and it will be brilliant to work with them," he continued.
"It will be different for me. I'm used to performing on my own in my own shows so it will be nice to be part of a big production with such talented people."
waveguide.co.uk
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