Torple

I was initially quite saddened by the news, but then I realised I couldn't remember the last time they actually managed to come out with anything approaching the classics they were pumping out 20 years ago. They must have realised the same.

COME ON MAZZY STAR. Oh so painfully close to that top 40...

Still Oops! for me. I'm no Britney fan, but even casting that aside it's a pretty lazy and uninspired retread of her earlier hits.

Well be fair to the lad, it's not as if Joe Swash has done much in the way of acting since he left EE originally. It's been all reality shows and the odd spot of ITV2 presenting. You're hardly going to be the next Dame Judi Dench after months of cavorting around with the likes of Caroline Flack are you?

Oh so that's what's done it! I had wondered. I would LOVE for this to climb and climb and climb. Absolute perfection.

It's being used in a film that's out at the moment; Friends With Benefits I believe.

I ADORE this, but I can't think of why it's made a sudden return to the chart?

I'm going to try and join the Oops! bandwagon. It's essentially a novelty track.

A Christina Milian GH? What the heck would you fill it up with? You might as well go and release a Girls Can't Catch GH.

9 Crimes is an absolutely stunning record. It was never going to be a hit single but nevertheless...

Yes I think I'd agree with you on the Captain Jack backstory - it's one of the worst offenders for pointlessly filling up airtime. They could have come up with a much more effective and quicker way of introducing the three families, without having the audience sit through a whole episode of Jack's big gay love affair. Beyond that one twist of Angelo betraying Jack (which as you say could have been explained in five minutes), Angelo himself felt really quite irrelevant. It felt very shoehorned in, almost as if John Barrowman has something in his contract that stipulates that he MUST get to spend at least an hour of the series time having naked time with male castmates. Jilly's FABULOUS, but I get the impression that if she does appear in the next series, she'll be heading down a path of genuine EVIL rather than mere fabulous cuntishness.

I think this is a fair summary. The first episode was probably the best of the bunch. I've seen a lot of people comment that the series was too long and they didn't have enough material to fill the ten episodes. I don't think this was the case; I think the basic plot of what-happens-if-no-one-died in itself should have provided enough source material for YEARS. The problem was that they didn't really know what to focus on. The big strength of the previous Children Of The Earth series wasn't the explosions or the aliens or the action sequences; it was the human drama. Like I've said before, the most chilling moments didn't come from the alien reveal or even Ianto's death. They came when really awful decisions and choices had to be made - how would a government decide which of their nation's children would be sacrificed (that immortal line "If we can't identify the lowest achieving 10% of this country's children then what are the school league tables for?"). Could Captain Jack really bring himself to send his own unwilling and innocent grandson to the slaughter to save the world? It was a sci-fi show that excelled with the HUMAN drama. I think that's something that this series sometimes remembered, and at other times completely forgot. They did the odd cursory bit of social commentary with Dr Vera's scenes in the first few episodes, but from episode 5 onwards that was very much done and dusted. It almost felt anti-climatic. We kept on being told the whole world had changed and been thrown into chaos, but beyond the medical camps, we didn't really get to see much of that at all. There was no exploration of the political consequences, or the effect on food and water supplies, or how the general public reacted to the development (surely if people became immortal, we'd see an outpouring of BIZARRE behaviour with everyone testing their new limits and pushing every boundary going?) Instead we get whole episodes dedicated to Katya Kinski from Neighbours being a bit of a c**t and Gwen conducting a Blue Peter style science experiment on a plane. There were SO many drawn-out sequences that really didn't actually contribute to the development of the overall story at all. Vera's death for example - very sad, but that whole thing with the insane administrator was just unnecessary, there was no long-term consequence on the plot, and it took a LOT of airtime out that could have been put to far better use. Even up until the last episode, you were left wondering where on earth everything was heading to. It felt like a very aimless story with lots of red herrings and dead-ends.

A lot of Hollyoaks' problem the past year has been that never seemed to have any idea of the direction they wanted to go in. Paul Marquess really f***ed the show up I think. Those few months with the fire and Steph's death were completely muddled. It seemed that they were literally making things up as they went along and changing things on the day that the episodes were due to air, and it very much showed. All the last minute changes with Amy - one minute she's dying the next she's not. Darren Day's character - supposedly a regular and then he's killed off after a small handful of appearances. The teenage pregnancy storyline was built up hugely, and then suddenly most of the key players (the Savage family) just literally DISAPPEAR one day. Mandy reappears, and then spends months being unable to decide on one persona (was she evil or was she not) and whether she was coming or going. Mercedes decides she loves Malachy and makes a big fuss about how she's going to re-assess her life - then within 2 weeks of being widowed she's engaged to Riley and shagging Carl. Half of the cast are replaced within the space of a couple of weeks, and then within a few months most of those new additions are being shown the door themselves. They were literally throwing everything at the canvas just to see what would stick, and it was chaotic. Things seem to be much more consistent now, and the Silas storyline is turning out to be quite AMAZING. There's still a few lingering issues. There's still a lot of cast members who have been hired for their looks and not much else (Liberty, Ethan), or who are just plain SHIT (Doug, Ruby). And I really don't think I approve of the way they throw in spoilers with the credits. TOP TEN 01. Silas (AMAZING) 02. Jacqui 03. Darren 04. Lynsey 05. Nancy (but she badly needs something to do - signs seem to point to her becoming more engrossed in the Silas storyline, which I hope IS the case) 06. Cindy (on past form, although she needs to be given something to do) 07. Cheryl 08. Rhys 09. Amy (bizarrely I only realised I liked her when she was almost killed off) 10. Brendan

Right well now that God-awful S Club schmaltz-fest has gone, I shall join the Madonna chorus.

I personally am rather fond of Madonna, but Music is most definitely NOT one of my favourites on the list and I wouldn't be sorry to see it leave. Were it not for the fact there's a horrendously gushy S Club 7 ballad still left in, I'd be voting Music out myself. It's dated HORRIBLY. Tinny production, nonsense lyrics, reliant on celebrity cameos to make the video work...I would almost class it as a novelty track. A crushing disappointment after the magnificent Ray Of Light era.

Tina Barrett forum NOW This iconic costume never fails to get me. http://www.wikifeet.com/pictures/Tina-Barrett-Feet-67384.jpg

Beyond Gwen (who is good but not THAT good), I can't really argue with any of that top 10. In fact if you take Biology and Untouchable out (loons aside, they really CAN'T be classed amongst the definitive forty of the decade), that's a very solid top 40. We just need to get the likes of MGMT and Empire Of The Sun even higher next time.

I do remember seeing her in that. I don't think she actually got to SPEAK though :(

Bloc Party, MGMT, Arcade Fire and Empire Of The Sun all featuring makes me hopeful for the future of Buzzjack. HURRAH

How many times is that now? To be frank, I don't think even

Michael Buble possibly. He's seemed to become more and more popular with each era.

Given there's stil two months of hits to arrive before the compilation's released, I think trying to predict the tracklisting is a little premature.

Predictable and oh so mediocre.

Perhaps because that's an absolutely AWFUL cover. Harking back to the one Jark posted, if you look at the covers from Now 30 up to about Now 56, the cover art was for the most part sublime and carried identity. It's been shit ever since, just a mass of multi-coloured and juvenile regurgitation. If you went by the covers alone, you'd think you were buying a Pop Princess Party album.

I much preferred the days when they had proper colour schemes. For the past few years every cover has merged into one. This is no different. Also the idea of a Now 80 makes me feel OH SO OLD.