Da Ali G Show

Da Ali G ShowLygo spotted Ali G on the late-night satire programme, The 11 O’Clock Show, in 1998 and immediately gave him his own series. Lygo said he knew straightaway that Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of Ali G, was going to be a star. “But nobody could have realised that he was going to be as big as he has become.”So Graham NortonGraham Norton began life on Channel 5, but he came to fame after being snapped up by Channel 4. His show, with its camp banter and mischievously rude internet encounters, is now the most highly rated show on Channel 4.

Lygo has helped dissuade him from moving to the BBC.Trigger Happy TVA kind of updated Candid Camera, its star Dom Joly emerged from the Comedy Lab ­ set up by Lygo ­ to nurse talent His inspired wind-ups are rapidly winning viewers. The slight handicap of new series is that audiences are beginning to recognise Joly.ChalkLygo was the executive producer on this disastrous comedy from 1997 set in Galfast High School and starring David Bamber as Eric Slatt, the headmaster. The Sun said: “After a faintly promising start, the comprehensive school comedy was at least consistent ­ it got worse every week.”Something For The WeekendDenise van Outen hosted this lewd show in which the audience was encouraged to participate in sex games. In one game, female contestants were invited to identify their boyfriend’s penis from an array “disguised” as fictional detectives. “It gets the ratings,” Lygo said.DotcomedyThis internet comedy starring Gail Porter was abandoned after just one series for failing to raise enough laughs in its exposure of oddball internet sites and rude web pages The show’s ratings barely topped two million. Lygo told the independent producers it simply wasn’t good enough.. The man responsible for bringing Ali G, Dom Joly and Smack the Pony to national prominence on Channel 4 is switching roles to organise the programme schedule for the rival Channel 5.

The man responsible for bringing Ali G, Dom Joly and Smack the Pony to national prominence on Channel 4 is switching roles to organise the programme schedule for the rival Channel 5.Kevin Lygo, Channel 4’s head of entertainment and music, has quit three months after launching the E4 entertainment channel and having just clinched a reported £3m deal to prevent Graham Norton defecting to the BBC.He steps into the position previously occupied by Dawn Airey, who took over from David Elstein as chief executive last October. She had been searching for a programmer to allow her the time to develop the Channel 5 business. Mr Lygo’s move comes as the channel is beginning a subtle shift in focus away from the soft-porn and general naughtiness that won it the sobriquet Channel Filth. But it still retains an image based on what Ms Airey once described as the three Fs ­ “film, football and f***ing”.Ms Airey said: “Kevin Lygo is an exceptional talent who has been at the forefront of commissioning some of the most innovative and widely viewed entertainment formats of the last few years.”Mr Lygo, who is reported to be joining on a salary of £250,000-plus, said it was a marvellous opportunity.

“I am leaving Channel 4 at a high point and I am very excited by this chance to be a part of the growing success story that is Channel 5.”He began his career in television as a scriptwriter on The Two Ronnies and Not The Nine O’Clock News before becoming a BBC trainee. He returned to entertainment as a producer on Russell Harty’s shows and was a senior producer on the team that launched the thrice weekly Wogan show for BBC1 a decade ago. He subsequently instigated programmes including They Think It’s All Over and Never Mind the Buzzcocks as well as commissioning Men Behaving Badly and Fantasy Football League.Since joining Channel 4 three years ago, he has overseen a reinvention of British comedy with the all-female Smack The Pony, Da Ali G Show and Trigger Happy TV.The departure will come as a blow to Michael Jackson, Channel 4’s chief executive, who has recently fended off criticisms that his channel was losing its edge. He said: “Kevin has completely revitalised Channel 4 entertainment and unearthed a phenomenal array of new comic talent. It has been a brilliant achievement.”The appointment surprised the world of television, coming just days after Mr Lygo faced colleagues and media at the Montreux television festival to announce the deal to keep Graham Norton ­ with no whisper of his own imminent move.The shy, quietly spoken Mr Lygo is very different in manner to the outgoing and brazen Ms Airey. But he, too, retains a mischievous sense of humour and was more than happy to run programmes such as Denise Van Outen’s Something For The Weekend, a late-night sex game show that would not have looked out of place on Channel 5. He will have a budget of £146m, a sizeable increase on Channel 5’s £120m budget of last year, to help him increase audiences.

Channel 5 gets about 6 per cent of the television audience even though it is not available in much of the country Shareholders are said to want it to achieve 10 per cent.. A millionaire is to donate £2m to one of the Government’s new flagship City Academies in memory of the murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor. A millionaire is to donate £2m to one of the Government’s new flagship City Academies in memory of the murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor.
The new school in Peckham, south London, will be sponsored by Lord Harris of Peckham, chairman and chief executive of Carpetright, who grew up on the estate where ten-year-old Damilola lived.The money will be used to convert Warwick Park comprehensive, a recently “failing” school, into a City Academy for pupils aged 11 to 18 specialising in the arts and business.The school, one of 11 being set up by the Government in inner-city areas, will receive a total of £10m funding. It will be renamed the Peckham City Academy and be completely refurbished before opening its doors in September 2003.. Schools must pay compensation to children who have been sexually abused by teachers, even if the school has not been negligent, the House of Lords ruled yesterday. Schools must pay compensation to children who have been sexually abused by teachers, even if the school has not been negligent, the House of Lords ruled yesterday.
In a landmark judgment that could cost schools and children’s care homes up to £100m, the law lords ruled that the employers of a house warden at a Doncaster boarding school for difficult children were liable for his actions after he was convicted of child abuse.The law lords held that although the directors of Hesley Hall Ltd, which run Wilsic Hall School, were not negligent in employing or monitoring the house warden, they were still liable for the actions he committed during his employment.Elizabeth Henry, a solicitor representing one of the two boys in the case, estimated there were hundreds of similar cases pending the outcome of yesterday’s decision. “This is a very important case for the future settlement of child abuse claims in this country.”Hesley Hall employed a husband and wife as warden and housekeeper to take care of 18 boys.