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Hey Duggee at the Cinema! review – CBeebies earns its movie badge

An hour-long compilation of favourite preschool TV episodes brings simple pleasures for toddlers and in-jokes for the grownupsAs regular viewers of the BBC’s preschoolers channel CBeebies will know, Hey Duggee is an animated series about a friendly dog…

An hour-long compilation of favourite preschool TV episodes brings simple pleasures for toddlers and in-jokes for the grownups

As regular viewers of the BBC’s preschoolers channel CBeebies will know, Hey Duggee is an animated series about a friendly dog who runs Squirrel Club, an activity group for assorted youngsters of all species: mouse, crocodile, hippo. (Everybody’s welcome in this inclusive, anthropomorphic utopia.) Alexander Armstrong narrates in plummy, jolly tones, animator andassistant director Sander Jones does Duggee’s droll “woofs”, while young actors voice the rest of the cast.

This package, assembled for theatrical release, collates several of the show’s best episodes and it’s not hard to see why the series is so treasured by fans of all ages. Much like Peppa Pig, which it resembles a little too closely, the character design, supersaturated colour palette and highly stylised animation have an easily decipherable, eminently replicable simplicity, all the better to appeal to young minds and spawn a million items of merchandise. Every plot revolves around an effort by the troop to win badges, like Cubs or Brownies. Troop leader Duggee awards them to those who have completed tasks such as running an obstacle course.

The Grand Tour review – Clarkson and co skid ever further into irrelevance

The three petrolheads return with more of the same old cars, rants and bants – on Amazon, where they can be safely ignoredAh, Jeremy Clarkson. Remember? We used to talk about him all the time, whether we wanted to or not. Then he punched his producer a…

The three petrolheads return with more of the same old cars, rants and bants – on Amazon, where they can be safely ignored

Ah, Jeremy Clarkson. Remember? We used to talk about him all the time, whether we wanted to or not. Then he punched his producer and had to leave Top Gear, Piers Morgan replaced him as the nation’s foremost choleric millionaire troll, and the world moved on. Wherever did he go? Into the lucrative but fragmented realm of internet TV, where since 2016 Amazon has been employing Clarkson, along with his sidekicks Richard Hammond and James May, to front a different cars-and-bants show called The Grand Tour.

This arrangement suits everyone. Last year, leaked internal figures showed how Amazon measures the worth of an original programme by estimating how many new subscribers it attracts. On that metric, The Grand Tour laps everything else. It’s visibly expensive to make, and Clarkson and co earn even more than they did on Top Gear. But for Jeff Bezos, they’re worth it. That The Grand Tour is hardly ever mentioned by anyone who doesn’t watch The Grand Tour is of no concern.

Academic who defined news principles says journalists are too negative

Exclusive: preoccupation with conflict fosters insecurity, populism and trust deficit, says Johan GaltungThe academic who first defined the essence of news journalism has said the media have misconstrued his work and become far too negative, sensationa…

Exclusive: preoccupation with conflict fosters insecurity, populism and trust deficit, says Johan Galtung

The academic who first defined the essence of news journalism has said the media have misconstrued his work and become far too negative, sensational and adversarial.

Johan Galtung, a Norwegian professor who wrote a key scientific paper more than 50 years ago that listed a series of factors including conflict and immediacy as the hallmarks of news reporting, said his work was intended as a warning, not a guide.