Virtual Pizza

Welcome to episode 28 of Virtual Pizza, where Phil shares his TV Show highlights from 2016. Shows discussed include: The X-files The Night Manager The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story Stranger Things Westworld Versailles War and Peace The Crown Scientology and the Aftermath 60 Days in Jail season 1 Game of Thrones Peaky Blinders Luke Cage Daredevil Hope you enjoy the show!

Welcome to episode 27 of Virtual Pizza, where Phil, Gary (from The Gamesmen RPG podcast) and Jason (from the campsite and The Pilchards & Cream podcast) share their audio drama podcast highlights from 2016. Shows discussed include: Life After Big Data Return Home Light of September Uncanny County Cold Reboot King Falls AM Alice isn't dead Within the wires Diane (Twin Peaks podcast) Archive 81 The Deep Vault Small Town Horror The Handmaid's Tale (from Secrets, Crimes & Audiotapes) Becky Shaw (from Secrets, Crimes & Audiotapes) Terms Hope you enjoy the show!

Welcome to episode 25 of Virtual Pizza, I'm Phil Olson and we've got an extravaganza of pizza toppings this week!  We have My Last 3 Slices, Loads of entertainment news and my recommendation of the week.           My last 3 slices Continuing with Netflix exclusive Daredevil - nearly at the end of season 1, fantastic show, violent at times but the characters and plot is gripping. Finished season 2 of Peaky Blinders, the BBC made drama about the infamous gang who ruled Birmingham in the early 1900s. can't wait to watch season 3 And I've been binge listening to this weeks recommendation, but more on that later   What last 3 slices of entertainment or media have you been consuming recently? Get in touch and let us all know.   NEWS The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that martial arts superstar Jackie Chan is set to receive an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on November 12th. Anew trailer has arrived online for director Paolo Sorrentino's

Welcome to episode 24 of Virtual Pizza. In this week's episode we have some entertainment news, I explain why I like recommending things to you, the listener, and our recommendation of the week.       NEWS Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau is set to direct the first episode of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's as-yet-untitled live-action sci-fi comedy-drama for Fox, as well as serving as executive producer on the series. With Red Dwarf XI due to cruise onto UK channel Dave on September 22nd,  Reddwarf.co.uk have released the first trailer for the new series. During the big Marvel Studios panel at Comic-Con in July, Marvel screened a short mockumentary from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, which explained what Chris Hemsworth's Thor has been up to since Avengers: Age of Ultron, and how he felt about being left out of Marvel's Civil War. The long awaited movie adaptation of Stephen King's Cell has finally made it to the screen

Welcome to Episode 23 of Virtual Pizza.   In this episode we cover what I've been catching up on, the latest entertainment news and out recommendation of the week, The Message.   WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING THIS WEEK Last 2 episodes of Versailles Set against a backdrop of power, love, betrayal and war, Versailles is a unique take on a defining period of French history. The year is 1667 and King Louis XIV, portrayed by George Blagden (Vikings), is a 28-year-old monarch on the cusp of greatness. A ruthless leader, he will stop at nothing to achieve his vision of creating the most beautiful palace in Europe and seizing absolute control of France and his enemies. Catching up with season 1 of Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix Ramsey's Hotel Hell Pilot episode of The Cleansed podcast   NEWS   Amazon has officially ordered ten episodes of the Jack Ryan reboot TV series. John Williams is returning to the Star Wars franchise for the eighth time to sc

News   STAR TREK DISCOVERY   If you haven't heard, there's a new Star Trek show coming soon! Titled Star Trek: Discovery, the TV show will be set after Enterprise and ten years before The Original Series, placing it in the original 'Prime' continuity rather than the current movie timeline, which is know as Kelvin.       Star Trek: Discovery will air in January 2017, on CBS All Access in the USA and a day later on Netflix here in the UK and across most of the world.    STAR WARS BLURAY SPECIAL EDITION   As a surprise to pretty much no one, there's now a four-disc 3D collector's edition of Star Wars: The Force Awakens heading into stores before the end of the year. The new set will include all of the bonus features from the disc release earlier this year. No official UK release date has been announced yet (and we've not found it listed at online stores in the UK), but the new set will start rolling out across Europe from the end of Octobe

In Episode 21 of Virtual Pizza, I interview IG Hulme, author of The Heavenfield, and listener Gary Leavor gives us his recommendations. News First up, I’d like to draw your attention to a couple of new TV shows on the horizon.     The first is Jessica Jones, an ex superhero turned private eye, solving crimes in Hell’s Kitchen.   This is the second collaboration between Marvel and Netflix, and following the success of DareDevil, this is going to be one to watch.  If you didn’t recognise the voice, it was Dr Who’s David Tennant, who will be playing Kilgrave, Jessica Jones arch nemesis.  All episodes of the new show will be released on Netflix on November 20th.     The second show to highlight is the adaptation of Terry Brooks high fantasy saga, Shannara.  The plot blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilisation was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the

It’s great to be back, this is Episode 20 of Virtual Pizza!   In this episode we have the latest TV and Movie news, a 'Last 3 Slices' from listener Jason Johnson and a report from a visit to The Arcade Club in Lancashire with The Veteran Gamers.   News The release date for Star Trek Beyond has been moved from July 8th 2016 to July 22nd. It’s rumoured that Emily Blunt is to star in the title role in a new version of Mary Poppins, with Rob Marshall linked to the project Bryan Singer is taking a break from the X-Men franchise to direct a new version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Mark Wahlberg looks set to return from Transformers 5 Despite claims that Pacific Rim 2 has been canned, Guillermo Del Toro still says he’s working on a sequel to the 2013 monsters vs giant robots movie. Personally I’d prefer it if he started work on Hell Boy 3! The latest trailer for Creed has been released, tell

Welcome back to Virtual Pizza, the show where we devour the digital world, one slice at a time. News 10-20 years ago, Hollywood were desperately trying to make films out of TV Shows (Mission Impossible, Charlies Angels, The Saint and The Fugitive). Now the tables have flipped and with the huge success of shows like Hannibal, Fargo and Bates Motel, the new trend of turning movies into TV shows continues with recent announcements  that Scream, Westworld and The Devil’s Advocate are following suit. The latest to jump on the bandwagon is Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, who are redeveloping the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report.  News that Matthew McConaughy is being courted for Josh Boone’s remake of the Stephen King miniseries The Stand. Favourite time of year with new shows starting after the summer break. Homeland returns with its 4th season, where I’m hoping that we can finally move on from the whole Brody issue http://youtu.be/uf15BBlJw30 Syfy has recently released &n

Fantastic show this week with entertainment news, the recommendation of the week which is a graphic novel, new feature movie trailer spotlight, community feedback and some last slices News Downton Abbey meets Star Wars Fox News Oklahoma City affiliate accidentally cuts 'evolution' out of Cosmos Vikings renewed for season 3 Indiana Jones may be recast Arnie explains why his Terminator will have aged in the new movie Recommendation of the Week   The Other Dead, written by Kevin Eastman, Joshua Ortega, Digger T Mesch and art by rising star Qing Ping Mui is a zombie themed graphic novel with a difference.  It's published by IDW Publishing. I'm sure most of you are starting to get that slow burning feeling. like heartburn, when you hear of another zombie themed product. Whether games, TV shows and movies, books or anything else for that matter, few stand out as supreme (such as The Walking dead and We're Alive), the rest feel like they're just jumping on the band wagon. So it was with some dr

It’s Sunday 2nd March 2014, and once again we’ve got a heavily loaded pizza for you to devour once slice at a time! News Ripper Street: Amazon have announced that they’ve commissioned a 3rd series, with brand new episodes to begin filming in May. The show will be available exclusively to Amazon Prime Instant Video members before screening on BBC1 a few months later. The Peacock network has announced a 13 episode miniseries for the show Heroes, to air sometime in 2015. Milo Ventimiglia who played Peter in Heroes, is joining ABC’s alien invasion pilot The Visitors. Welsh actor Matt Ryan will play the title role, John Constantine, in the adaptation of DC Comics’ Hellblazer graphic novels. New trailer for Godzilla Syfy is developing a series around the acclaimed future-set war comic DMZ. Dallas kicks off season 3 with a big hole needing to be filled. Recommendation of the week Ok, Ive always been cynical of fan produced content, a lot of it is pretty dire. But this week I di

In this week’s episode 16 of Virtual Pizza: News Shooting on Avengers: Age of Ultron has been delayed in the UK due to flooding The first images have been released of the US remake of Broadchurch David Tennant and Anna Gunn in US Broadchurch remake Recently seen in Mrs Biggs and Quartet, Sheridan Smith has signed up to play Cilla Black in a new drama for ITV. Orange is the new Black returns to Netflix on June 6th, with a teaser trailer being released. http://youtu.be/yr01fJwzcks Sad news that John Henson of the famed Muppet family has died at the age of 48. What does that 'P' mean? Example of the 'P' warning that there is product placement in the show Recommendation of the week: Rust http://youtu.be/-YhCvGVop1Q My Last Slices Lee (Destination Gamer) Gary Leaver Phil's 12 Years a Slave at the fantastic Electric Cinema Extract http://youtu.be/3cemS6oUBeg  The Following (Season 2) http://youtu.be/NK5nq5ibTNI   More info on The Heavenfield 

In this week's episode 15 of Virtual Pizza: News BSkyB has signed a 5 year deal for exclusive rights to the entire HBO TV catalogue (Guardian) Back to the Future - The Musical will have it’s premiere in London in 2015 Sharknado 2: The Second One Jon brings us some Awesome Sauce We Are Here by Michael Marshall Grace The Skies Facebook page LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (PS4) Recommendation of the week: The Bletchley Park podcast from the home of the code breakers and the home of modern computing, the Bletchley Park podcast presents stories told by the codebreakers, staff and volunteers, audio from events and lectures, stories which are still emerging and reports on the progress of the development of Bletchley Park. More info about Bletchley Park and the history of the code breakers can be found at the official site. And we close the show with some new ‘My Last Slices’ from Phil The Bletchley Circle - Series 1 And 2 [DVD] Firestorm (The Survivalist) Elysium - S

In this week's episode 14 of Virtual Pizza: Shannon provides some listener feedback Entertainment news NBC cancels Murder She Wrote reboot The new trailer for season 2 of the fantastic Hannibal has been released  The trend for TV shows based on movies continues with news of TNT bringing us a new show based on the Transporter franchise later this year, starring Chris Vance from Prison Break as Frank Martin. Also, Amazon have announced plans for a new show based on the 1960s Jane Fonda movie Barbarella. Last played by Keanu Reeves, John Constantine is getting his own ‘Hellblazer’ show on NBC - no word yet on who will be playing this comic book role. A teaser trailer for the new Steven Spielberg scifi series Extant, has been released. Rumours of Batman vs Superman not being delayed after all Exciting news for UK podcasters, Mike and Izabela Russell at Music Radio Creative are setting up a community specifically for UK Podcasters. My highlights of 2013 Ben Spicer from Th

This week in episode 13 of Virtual Pizza we cover the week's entertainment news, say goodbye to a pioneer, Ben Spicer from the Command Line podcast tells us why he loves his iPad Mini and Phil recommends some podcasts. News Last ever Blockbuster rental is the 2013 sci-fi comedy, This is the End Angela Lansbury is not happy with the planned Murder, She Wrote reboot The Monopoly 'Walking Dead' edition goes on sale Amazon UK Amazon US Ray Dolby, the billionaire U.S. inventor whose name became synonymous with high-end home and cinema surround sound, has died. Netflix and Disney announced that they’ve joined forces to develop a live-action “four series epic,” plus a “miniseries event,” based on a quartet of beloved Marvel characters. Stuxnet, the world's most sophisticated malware worm, has spread to a Russian nuclear plant and even the International Space Station. For more on Stuxnet, I highly encourage you to watch this sobering TED talk by Ralph Lagner where he descri

In episode 12 of the Virtual Pizza podcast, we cover some interesting TV and movie news, recommend an audiobook and tell you about a heartwarming superhero story. News Battlestar Galatica showrunner Ron Moore is returning to Syfy with an intense new drama series called Helix. Cast confirmed for Spooks (MI5) the movie Open casting calls are being held in the UK and Ireland over the next 2 weeks for 2 roles in the new Star Wars movie, due to start production in 2014 at Pinewood Studios in the UK, and has just been given an official release date on December 18th 2015.  A casting notice states that producers are looking to fill the roles of a "street smart and strong" orphaned girl in her late teens and a "smart capable" man in his late teens or early 20s. Ed Sheeran has released the music video for his new theme song for the new Hobbit movie. "I See Fire," an original song he wrote for the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's upcoming Hobbit sequel The Desolation of Smaug. The long-awaited big screen

In episode 11 we talk about changing things around on Virtual Pizza, discuss the latest entertainment news, celebrate the 75th anniversary of The War of the Worlds radio broadcast, recommend Ripper Street and say a huge thanks to Podcasters. Getting regular guest contributions for Virtual Pizza has always been a challenging task. Our team have day jobs, families and often their own podcasts.  In an effort to produce more regular episodes of Virtual Pizza, I’m starting to look at changing the format of the show slightly.  Don’t worry, we’ll still have the guest articles as and when we have them, they’re a major part of what has made Virtual Pizza unique, but in the meantime I’ll be trying out some new stuff, including more of me!  Virtual Pizza will still be bringing you the best in digital entertainment, and highlighting gems that you may not have heard of before. So over the next few weeks I’ll be trying out new segments and formats, an

Welcome to Episode 08 of Virtual Pizza, devouring the digital world, one slice at a time. In this episode: - new feature '5 minutes with the Film Thugs' - Jo tells us about exercising for 4 minutes a day in Side Salad (Jo Taylor Fitness) - Brian interviews international DJ Andy Ward - And Phil tells us about his first experiences in Guild Wars 2

Welcome to Episode 10 of Virtual Pizza, devouring the digital world, one slice at a time.  This episode has a special horror theme! Chris tells us about the rules of the horror movie (Overseas Connection) Phil recommends Welcome to Night Vale Stu gives us his top 5 foreign horror movies (Veteran Gamers) Phil recounts his first experience of a horror film Duke Skath shares his feelings on horror in video games (Didactic Syncast and Veteran Gamers) Phil interviews Gary Smart from Back to the Theatre about some exciting new events in Birmingham Jim and Clarkson bring us "5 minutes with The Film Thugs" and their view on The Walking Dead (The Film Thugs) Remember, tickets are still available for the Back to the Theatre Brian Cox event on September 28th, where Manhunter and Trick 'r' Treat will be screened with the great man himself in the audience! Break music: the fantastic 'Re: Your Brains' by Jonathan Coulton 

Welcome to Episode 09 of Virtual Pizza, devouring the digital world, one slice at a time. In this TV Special episode, we look at great TV you may have missed and new shows on their way for 2013: the first episode of Virtual Pizza: The Slice on YouTube, looking at the most anticipated new shows of 2013 Jim and Clarkson bring us "5 minutes with The Film Thugs" and their view on Breaking Bad (The Film Thugs) Jon delivers another Awesome Sauce (The PlayVault) Chinny tells us about his love of YouTube (Overseas Connection andVeteran Gamers) Duke Skath recommends The Wire and Downton Abbey (Didactic Syncast and Veteran Gamers)