With a font reminiscent of the one used for Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a vast advertising campaign, One Television inform-ed us that the local version of Isola dei Famosi would be taking place on Kemmuna.
Rough living (although the contestants looked reasonably well-kempt) for four days appears to have done all of them good - perhaps because the rats were reasonably well-behaved, and unperturbed at the human invasion of their territory, and there were no lizards to scare Julia Farrugia out of her usual cheerful disposition.
Of course, being ever the intrepid journalist, she spent time chattering with Salvu and his family... about whom I am sure we will hear more, later.
The back-up crew was nine strong, and there were satellite links to provide live transmissions as well as edited clips to viewers, for a sum total of 22 hours of airtime, which went very well, because as Mark Doneo put it, 'four days working day and night with the same people, you'd better have a pretty good crew and they'd better be great company... which they were'.
Unfortunately, there will still be people who, while not prepared to rough it out themselves, were eager for the participants to be 'punished' (for what?) by being given arduous tasks. But this was not I'm A Celebrity.
Two things that annoyed me in all this, but which were perhaps essential to the format of the show, were the almost constant use of split-screens, and the animated logo in the background.
Larissa Bonaci told me she was pleased to have been chosen for this adventure - and proved that appearances are deceiving. And Neville Refalo took this as a golden opportunity to people-watch - and I am sure that what he has experienced will be dribbling through in his future roles in local drama.
Some time ago the local media reported that PBS had been in talks with China over a bilateral agreement with respect to broadcasts.
I asked PBS chairman Clare Thake-Vassallo what had transpired of this so far. She said the preliminaries of the agreement with China have now been completed. "Malta may look forward to five years of exchanging of expertise, help with archives, and most excitingly, five co-productions. Discussion is underway for one of the productions to deal with ancient history of the two countries," she said.
Other productions that will be shown in China, over and above the agreement; CCTV was very keen to show programmes about Malta to increase people's knowledge about our country and encourage tourism, according to Dr Thake-Vassallo.
"Another great satisfaction is the News Xchange conference hosted by PBS last October," she added.
I hope that the above bodes well for when it comes to the next round of the programme selection process. Sometimes, the mind boggles about why certain submissions were rejected, and others accepted. It's not the first time that producers told me something on the lines of "they proposed such ridiculous conditions that for a moment I wondered whether they were pulling our legs".
And yet another success has been reported for a film that was screened at the Malta International Short Film Festival organised by Joyce Grech and Tony Parnis recently. Arlekkinu (Harlequin), produced by Chris and Maurice Micallef, has won two separate awards abroad; the Bronze Award in the recent 21st International Golden Diana Film Festival in Austria last August, and the Best Cinematography in the International Video Festival in Slovenia earlier this month. Apart from that, this short film has won other awards, including the SAVAC Top Ten Best Actress Award, going to Ruth Scicluna.
When I had asked about what a 'watershed' covers, exactly, I was informed adequately of this. But in the correspondence sent to me there was also a rider that said "... an over-arching, generic provision which in some cases can be applied and which is not strictly tied to a time-frame, refers to good taste and decency. This is found under Article 13(2) (a) of the Broadcasting Act which refers to taste and decency."
I interpret this to mean that it is not acceptable to make fun of people, or to tell double entendres, or to use minced oats on air, ever, let alone when children are bound to be listening to radio or watching television.
Speaking of children - it must once again be pointed out that presenting a programme for children, whether it is on radio or television, does not mean that you can get away with 'child's play'. One needs to conduct assiduous research because whatever presenters say may have more impact on children's minds than what is written in their textbooks. This week, and this is just one trite example, we had one presenter indicating 'Sanskrit' as a country.
DeeMedia.tv is offering viewers a Bonġu calendar. All you need to do to obtain one is to send an SMS to 5061 4445 with your name and surname, and collect the free calendar from DeeMedia.tv offices in St Venera.
Hearing Colin Fitz speak Maltese must be a new experience for many people - yet I am glad that he and Christine Calleja are presenting the new, improved XFM Radio Breakfast Show.
The organisers of the Malta Hit Song Contest have announced the titles of the 15 entries that qualified for the finals of the Malta Hit Song Contest 2010. These entries will also be featured in Celebrity Sundays on One TV (Sundays at 5.45 p.m.) from January 10. For further information visit www.ogaemalta.com/SilverNews/index.php?news=988.
television@timesofmalta.com