Penned by Glee’s Ryan Murphy, the bare bones of the story sounds very much like your clichéd horror film. The Harmon family, Ben, Vivian and daughter Violet relocate to an old mansion, which inhabits some not so friendly ghosts. However, AHS quickly and effectively asserts itself as more than just another run-of-the-mill haunted house tale and doesn’t shy away from big scares either. Gleeks would be positively shitting themselves.

The plot evenly distributes between big scares and character development but also achieves to maintain an eerie and on edge atmosphere. You never quite know when the next big scare will appear. In this house, things don’t just go bump in the night, they go bump whenever it damn well pleases.

The characters and their fragile emotional states (Ben has recently had an affair whilst Vivian was coping with a miscarriage) sets the tone for the family who are already in a vulnerable position, making the house and its supernatural inhabitants seem the even more malevolent and unforgiving.

Not to say that the show isn’t entirely original. There are some definite nods toward Hammer House of Horror and there is a heavy smattering of Hitchcockian suspense tactics. You can tell that Murphy knows his horror just as much as he knows his way around a show tune.

Murphy has also created a horror icon of his own in the form of the twisted and disturbing Rubber Man of whom has a wholly unsettling and dark encounter with Vivian in the first episode. Jessica Lange, however, looks set to be the true monster of the series as Constance, the family’s bolshy and mostly unwelcome next-door neighbour.

The Oscar winning actress’s return to the small screen is completely on base, with Lange revelling in the role of the cold, calculating former matron of the house. Now past the half way mark of the series, her character looks set to one of the shows most controversial as she meddles with the Harmon’s lives for her own benefit.

American Horror Story is one of those rare shows that has seemingly come out of nowhere and blown everything else on television out of the water. Perfectly cast and on many occasions, genuinely scary, the intriguing plot of this début series makes AHS easily one of the best shows of 2011.

Definitely worth a look at- a seriously good read.

Priceless.

Click here for the full Stacey experience: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b018wzz8/?t=11m03s

In 2010 the Arts Council Wales conducted a survey, looking at audience engagement and participation with the arts. The survey revealed that 86% of adults in Cardiff did attend live events, but only on an average of once a year because of time and money constraints. With this in mind, does this mean that theatres now have to work that much harder to secure full attendance to their performances and could people be turning to more current, cheaper alternatives?

Since becoming a hit 8 years ago, The X Factor has become a seemingly unstoppable moneymaking juggernaut. The insular self-advertising nature of the show has meant that millions of viewers have been aware of its yearly nationwide live tours after the show has finished. Next year, from the 3-5 April, the tour will come to Cardiff’s Motopoint Arena

The only advert I could find in Cardiff for the X Factor Tour

and of the 15,000 tickets available, only 564 are left. For a show to sell this fast 4 ½ months before the performance just goes to show the sheer power the X Factor has over people parting with their money. This does lend the question, what hope do more traditional live performances have without the backing of being directly in the public eye?

This Christmas in Cardiff, the headlining show at the Welsh Millennium Centre is Oliver! starring Neil Morrissey. The show has been on since 10 December and will run through to 21 January 2012.

I was keen to find out about the WMC’s strategy to encourage audiences to part with their hard earned cash so I contacted the press office. A few days later I received an email from the WMC press officer who told me that her and her team were extremely busy with Oliver! and wouldn’t be able to help me, however, she would be happy to help in the New Year.

With a sufficient lack of information from the WMC, aside from being busy, I took it upon myself to investigate how the show was being promoted across Cardiff and if it correlated with the amount of tickets that were being sold.

The first thing I wanted to find out was the WMC’s strategy behind promotion and making people aware of the show’s presence. I did this by simply walking around the city to see if I could find any evidence of the promotional campaign. I soon discovered that the WMC had been extremely busy:

I then met up with Amy Hall, 24, who is employed by Pear Distribution, a company who have been paid by the WMC to flyer and put up posters advertising the production across Cardiff. I spoke to Amy about how far the WMC has allocated flyer and poster distribution:

Along with this canvassing of the entire city, Oliver! was also being heavily promoted on Real Radio (who is handily a media partner of the WMC) and in advertising in the South Wales Echo. The next stage was to find out whether or not the promotion had worked and I quickly found, it seemed to be paying off.

On the 12^th December I went to the WMC’s website to see if it was possible to book myself a ticket for the show. I looked at ticket availability for the 38 shows. Ticket sales were very good with limited seating available between 18 December and 21 January. The earlier dates in December and were also selling, just more steadily, and still all had over 200 seats available to buy each night. It was interesting though that at this point, not a single performance had completely sold out.

The X Factor alumni 2011 perform in Cardiff with little promotion needed

Whilst on my investigation around town I walked past Pulse, a nightclub in Cardiff that was advertising X Factor nights where for £8 entry, the recent batch of X Factor wannabe’s would perform to night clubbers, before they disappeared into obscurity. Intrigued to find out how popular these themed nights have been, I got into contact with Pulse and was referred to Matgo Styles, the clubs promotions manager who revealed that by having these contestants perform, the venue has benefited greatly:

I then met up with Bridgend Arts Councillor Guy O’Donnel to find out what he thinks the arts can do to bring in more custom and whether or not he thought programs like the X Factor are damaging:

It was interesting that Guy believes that the live tour could be perceived as a good thing but what most stuck out to me after the interview was how much further the arts needs to go in order to fully engage once again with its audiences. What is clear is that people are more willing to part with their money to watch what could be perceived as a more lowbrow event rather than highbrow. As Guy said, if people are paying to see these tours, which have a lower production value, they may be tempted to go back to that same venue again to watch a different show.  However, if they don’t, popular culture could be undercutting the value of live performance and generating more turnover at it’s expense.

Oh for f*ck sake.

2000-2010: Simply stand up from your stall when the key changes. Case and point, 2mins 36 secs in;

2011 onwards: When the key changes, change into a completely new outfit. Preferably write a song around this new technique with several key changes to allow the maximum amount of wardrobe variations;

Only bloody Beyonce.

The premise is simple.

A woman, who is partial to singing Chris Rea classics, is driving home for Christmas.

The advert begins with trying to convince us that The X Factor 2009 3^rd place finalist and Queen of the Jungle Stacey Solomon is a superstar songstress who headlines gigs to adoring fans.

This is brilliant for two reasons. 1. She clearly doesn’t 2. It gives the excuse for Iceland to get her singing rather than talking for the duration of the commercial. Never a bad thing.

Here are the best parts:

“Just put the prawn shots on a gold tray, it’ll add class”

“I can’t believe my Iceland van just broke down in the middle of nowhere. Oh wait, its Stacey Solomon, I’ll flag her down. She’s waved back, us Iceland workers stick together, what a down to earth girl”

“Crap it’s a broken down Iceland van, should I stop? Am I expected to stop? I mean I would stop but there’s a cranberry glazed turkey and gammon joint waiting for me at home. Shit he spotted me. Wave and drive Stace, just wave and drive”

 Nothing says Christmas like Hoisin Duck Christmas Trees

“Why do I still live in Dagenham?!”

 “Seriously, what have you just handed me?!”

So here it is, 2011’s BEST Christmas advert, The Stacey Solomon Iceland Christmas Campaign in all its splendorous glory:

Re: It’s also very Christmassy, which is nice. 

This Sunday, it will be four weeks until Christmas, which in my world means a lot of television gold to watch. However, this year I will be venturing into Cardiff on a mission to educate myself outside the confines of my living room to see what the arts have to offer in Cardiff in the build up to the festive period.

In 2008 Cardiff was shortlisted for The European Capital of Culture so common sense says, Cardiff has a lot to offer.

So on my mission to higher my brow and open my eyes I will be attending events, meeting the organisers and chatting to people who have decided to immerse themselves into the possible wonders of high culture.  Is popular culture still a distant, dejected relative of high culture or are the two, in fact, not so dissimilar after all? Only time will tell.

Wish me luck.

BBC1 9pm

We are now four weeks into the pint-sized edition of this years Apprentice and as the voice over tells us each week, this is an education like no other. So with this is mind, what have we learnt from the series so far?

1. It’s become wholly apparent that Sir Alan Lord Sugar doesn’t seem to be particularly invested in the young hopefuls this year. Last week Al didn’t even bother turning up to tell the candidates what their task was. Instead, perhaps in an attempt to be down with the kids, he appeared via tablet. Although with his over zealous hand gestures and borderline shouting, one does question his understanding of modern technology. You’re not in the room Alan but they can still see and hear you.

2. Young people have an interesting perception on what it is too look ‘the business’. Zara in particular seems to enjoy nothing more than dressing up as Carol Vorderman at a Star Trek convention when visiting the boardroom.

3. The researchers for the show seem to be having a competition between each other to see who can come up with the loosest connection between the briefing setting and the task. This week the candidates were summoned to the Natural History Museum. Speculation was rife amongst the candidates, what on earth could they be selling this week? Exhibition tickets? Historical tours? It seemed possible as Lord Sugar began his brief “As you can see this place is housing some of the oldest creatures that have ever walked on this planet”. Ok, could be a number of things at this point.

“This week you’ll be selling to the over 50’s market”.

Hmmmm.

4. The caliber of contestants this year does not bode well for the future of the country’s economy. If the show really wants to convince us that these are the best young business brains in the UK perhaps they should have told self assured James last week to bite his tongue before proclaiming “there’s not a lot of numbers in economics”. And he’s one of the better ones.

5. Lewis has mixed feelings about old people. On route to the 50 plus exhibition he seems to love them, “I think old people are lovely, when I see them I think they look sad and I just want to give them a big hug, squeeze them”. Two hours into selling to them, “I never ever want to be old”.

6. Lord Sugar would seemingly hire every candidate he has fired if it wasn’t for the programs format. So far everyone has been fired ‘with regret’. Something tells me he’s more likely to be referring to agreeing to be part of the program.

7. The Young Apprentices this year seem to have a knack for tapping into the mindset of their target audience. Gbemi Okunlola certainly understands selling to the fifty plus market: “Old people want to dash their money cos they don’t want to save their money anymore”. Insightful.

8. Lord Sugar telling the candidates to “Chill Out” is possibly the best-failed attempt to connect with the 17 year old hopefuls so far.

ITV1 8pm

It’s not been a great year for the X Factor. This year has seen ITV’s seemingly unstoppable flag ship show garner the usual amount of tabloid coverage, but for all the wrong reasons. Misbehaving contestants, bullying claims, reports of judge in fighting and a generally low standard of talent has led to the almost unthinkable, being surpassed in the ratings battle by grandparents favorite, Strictly Come Dancing.

In yet another dramatic, yet not particularly shocking, chain of events, everyone’s favorite jack-the-lad and all round good time guy, Frankie Cocozza was kicked off the show.

Show producers apparently over heard the singing sensation boasting about his drug fuelled sex-capades and decided enough was enough. Arguably a bit rich considering over the last few weeks all they’ve been doing ramming Frankie’s party lifestyle down the throats of the viewers.

So with a space to fill, producers decided to infuriate the public once again by allowing one of the four first eliminated contestants back on the show. But who would it be? Essex duo 2 Shoes (and one up the duff), Solider Jonjo Kerr (the X Factor could literally save his life…), Liverpudlian James Micheal (drawing a blank here) or maybe Amelia Lily (the original favorite to win the entire show)?

The show got off to a shaky start, and I’m not referring to the incredible lazy and altogether odd theme of Lady Gaga Vs. Queen week. Due to a power cut at the BT Tower, the show began half an hour late, leading to fix claims as it was revealed a little prematurely by STV that Amelia Lily had in fact won the public vote to return.

As the remaining acts performed versions of classic Queen and Gaga songs, Dermot tried to keep the tension building as to who would be returning. Of course this was in vein given it had now leaked onto twitter.

So when the reveal of the public vote finally came the big shock wasn’t who it would be, but how the reveal itself played out.

The studio lights dimmed and the stage door opened revealing Amelia Lily. In true X Factor style, Amelia’s return was far from low key. Playing out like a sort of modern day second coming, Amelia walked onto stage through a mist of dry ice and blinding lights whilst Carmina Burana blasted through the sound systems. Kelly Rowland had apparently been converted, cheering along with the hysterical audience, completely ignoring the fact that she had been solely responsible for Amelia’s early exit from the show in week one.

So Amelia’s time to shine arrived, singing Queen’s The Show Must Go On, but how did she fair? Well she’s now favorite to win the show so I’d say rather well. Kelly Rowland was particularly impressed, claiming Amelia meant “not serious business but SIRIUS business”, I’m assuming she’s been reading the Prisoner of Azkaban during the ad breaks.

In Sunday’s show we were treated to two live performances from One Direction and a beheaded Lady Gaga. But this, oddly, wasn’t the strangest thing to happen on the show that evening.

After losing out to Misha B in the sing off, Kitty, who may be a few sandwiches short of a picnic but has been the most entertaining performer of the series, departed in the only way she knew how.

Incredible. Just Incredible.