"Dishing The Dirt"

Microwave TV is now off air. No Sky pay channels can be shown due to a court order enforced last month. Canal Digital took all pirate broadcasters to court for showing Sky channels illegally and won. Don’t listen to what suppliers may tell you. The Sky channels are off for good. Europa Digital are swiftly coming to the rescue. Anyone wishing to return to the Sky official system and have installed a new dish and Sky digibox will receive a 100 euro discount until the first day of the new premiership football season (approx mid. August). With the official system you can choose to have no subscription or any package you wish right up to the new full high definition service. Please call our offices on 950 133 233 for more details. Another great service from Europa Digital.

A new survey has found that women rush through sex so they don't miss their favourite TV shows. According to a poll conducted by telecommunications firm Tiscali, 17% of women between the ages of 16 and 24 confessed to speeding through sex or putting it off completely so they didn't miss TV appointments. More than half the women in this age range also admitted to watching episodes of their favourite programmes a minimum of five times. Of all the 1,600 people questioned, 12% claimed that watching TV is more pleasurable than spending time with friends and family. "Loyal fans let little stand in the way of seeing their favourite show," said Tiscali TV director Simon Hunt.

English Heritage has requested that the Blue Peter garden be recognised with listed status. The body has urged the government to reward the cultural and architectural importance of the site at BBC Television Centre, reports the Daily Star. Peter Beacham, Heritage protection director, commented: "This building is not just architecturally important. "As one of the first purpose-built television studios in the world, it represents the moment when Britain led Europe into the television age. "We all feel we know areas such as the Blue Peter garden and the studios where people have watched significant moments in broadcasting over the last 50 years - from early Doctor Who to Top Of The Pops, Terry Wogan and Children In Need." Beacham has asked for the garden to be granted Grade II listing.

Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley of BBC's The One Show have revealed that they initially struggled to get on. Bleakley, who replaced Myleene Klass as the show's presenter last year, told the Radio Times that Chiles thought she was a "nonentity". She said: "It's no secret that I didn't like Adrian at all to begin with. I found him intense. And I think, as far as he was concerned, I was a nonentity. But I gave as good as I got and eventually that created a chemistry. I had to prove myself to him." Chiles, who fronted The One Show when it aired as a trial broadcast in 2006, confessed that Bleakley did not make a good first impression. He said: "At first, I thought she was a dippy, nice-looking bird from Northern Ireland, and she thought I was a miserable old fart. But we eventually just clicked. Christine's technically brilliant. "She crosses the 'i's and dots the 't's. What tends to happen is that I put us in trouble, and she gets us out of it." Chiles also revealed that he turned down a lucrative offer to front ITV's football coverage because The One Show was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. "I suppose that if I hadn't had this, I would have gone," he said. "But you can't beat a show like this. They come along once in a lifetime."

Brian May has slammed ITV for cutting Queen's performance at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert. The gig, which took place at London's Hyde Park last Friday, closed with Queen and vocalist Paul Rodgers performing a set of their hits. However, broadcaster ITV decided to cut most of the band's performance out, something that angered Queen guitarist May. On a posting on his official website, he wrote: "It baffles me how, given the privilege of televising an internationally significant event, a TV company can miss the point so badly. "All [they] had to do was televise the whole event, with no insertions from them. Well, it seems they largely failed. I wonder who's responsible for these bad decisions?"

Former 999 host Michael Buerk had to be rescued by lifeboat crews after his yacht broke down. The 62-year-old was left drifting off the coast near Lymington, Hampshire, on Friday after the boat's engine failed. Buerk said: "The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) provides a wonderful service and, while getting into difficulty at sea can never be a good thing, I’m pleased that at last I have been able to use the life-saving service that its volunteers provide." Buerk is one of the stars taking part in BBC reality show Celebrity Masterchef.

Noel Edmonds has revealed details of a new series he believes is "potentially the most significant" of his career. The primetime entertainment show for Sky One has the working title Noel's HQ and is billed as "TV's response to what many see as broken Britain". The show will tell the stories of people in need and match them up with offers of help in the form of cash, time or expertise, some of which will be presented from a wall of deposit boxes. Edmonds identified gangs, family breakdown, "crazy" health and safety rules, speed cameras and CCTV as symptoms of "broken Britain". "There is a realisation that what is going on in Britain has to be addressed at a fundamental level - that is our level," he said. "My whole career has been built on broadcasters giving me the opportunity to attract audiences - this is a completely different challenge. "If this fails to attract interest at every level we have a very serious problem... On a daily basis I feel less secure and I see people who are quite clearly unhappy."

Top Gear scenes showing Jeremy Clarkson and James May drinking while driving "could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol", the BBC Trust has ruled. The presenters were seen sipping gin and tonics while travelling in the North Pole for last summer's Top Gear: Polar Special. The Trust's editorial standards committee (ESC) partially upheld a complaint from a viewer who said the scenes were "irresponsible".

The committee said: "Whilst the programme was not primarily made for children, it had been shown pre-watershed and... given that some children would have regarded the presenters as role models, the scene relating to driving while drinking could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol. "The scene of drinking whilst driving was not editorially justified in the context of a family show pre-watershed." However, the Trust rejected other points made by the complaint, including one about the use of frostbitten genitals. "There was a clear editorial purpose for the inclusion of an image of a frostbitten penis," said the ruling. "Its use had been for a medical rather than a sexual purpose." The Trust did not uphold complaints about an edition of Question Time in which Kelvin MacKenzie called Gordon Brown a "socialist Scot who wants to spend every single penny you earn", or about scenes of a sexual nature in BBC Two drama The Tudors.

The first instalment of new BBC Three reality show Britain's Missing Top Model drew decent ratings for the digital-only channel last week. The programme, in which disabled girls attempt to make it as fashion models, was watched by 475,000 (2.5%) from 9pm to 10pm last night - a 24.3% improvement on BBC Three's slot average. Model led the multichannels in the hour, with the closest competition coming from the first of a new series of Ghost Whisperer, drawing 425,000 (2.2%) to Living. BBC One led the 9pm slot overall though, with the second instalment of crime drama Criminal Justice. The show drew 4.8m (22%) - 700,000 down from yesterday, when the opener had a strong lead-in from an Andy Murray Wimbledon match. Gordon Ramsay's F Word supplied another decent audience for Channel 4, attracting 3.3m (15.4%) from 9pm, and Big Brother followed at 10pm with 3.5m (20.5%) Five took fourth place in the 9pm slot with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation winning 1.5m (7.1%). In the 8pm slot 1.2m (5.9%) watched widely-trailed documentary Was Dr Crippen Innocent? and from 10pm 1.2m (7.1%) saw CSI: NY. BBC Two's schedule was dominated by Wimbledon tennis, with an average of 1.2m (7%) watching live coverage from 5.45pm until 8pm. An hour of highlights followed, drawing 1.5m (7.4%), then 1.4m (6.3%) tuned in for campaigning documentary Duncan Bannatyne Takes on Tobacco.

Apprentice winner Lee McQueen has missed his first day at work for Sir Alan Sugar due to illness. The reality TV contestant, 30, reportedly angered his new boss by calling in sick yesterday. "This will make Sir Alan really cross because he hates being let down," a source told The Sun. "Lee was really keen to start work but he felt he wasn't up to it and had to stay at home." McQueen beat 15 contestants to a £100,000-a-year job helping develop digital display advertising last month. A spokesperson for Sir Alan Sugar's holding company Amshold said: "Lee is at home with a virus. He'll be at work as soon as he is well."

If you would like me to answer any question you may have on satellite TV or to expand on anything I have written about please call me on 678 332 815 or email on richard@europa-digital.com I look forward to your comments and questions. Don´t forget to listen to my two radio shows every week, on Tuesday at 11.30am on Spectrum Radio (92.6fm) and on Thursday on Trust Radio (89.0fm) where you can hear the latest news and views from the world of satellite television.