ShowBiz TV launches with Last Lennon interview

From a press release to news@media.info
Posted 1 December 2015, 2.14am est

ShowBiz TV, a brand-new entertainment channel for the discerning viewer, launches on 8th December 2015 @ 6.30pm.

While other channels with a similar remit remain niche and esoteric, or else are preparing, however reluctantly, to retreat to online-only, ShowBiz TV is a free-to-view platform offering the broadest range of exciting programming, seven days a week. Broadcasting on Sky channel 266 (National), Manchester (Freeview 80) and TV Catchup Online, there will always be something for everyone.

Whether you're a fan of music and movies, theatre and dance, fascinating documentaries or all of these and more, you have come to the right place.

“I am proud to find myself at the helm of this superlative new channel, founded on the skills and talent of an impressive creative and technical team,” said Alan Judd, Chairman, ShowBiz TV.

“They have worked tirelessly and with enormous enthusiasm to bring our channel to air in record time. Our special launch programming is just the beginning. I look forward to many years of creativity and fun with this fearless squad.

“ShowBiz TV is an independent entertainment channel, available to new talent, producers and directors alike. We offer an open invitation to them, to bring us their skills. While there will be an element of "The X Factor" to proceedings, we have no plans at the moment to feature judging panels!”

The channel launches on 8th December with an unmissable World Exclusive: “THE LAST LENNON INTERVIEW”.

On 8th December 1980, having given not a single British press interview for ten years and having been a domestic recluse for half a decade, baking bread and bringing up the baby, John Lennon and his wife Yoko One spoke to Radio 1 broadcaster Andy Peebles in New York about their new album, “Double Fantasy”.

The interview covered an astonishing range, no subject taboo. John talked for more than three hours about the Beatles, their break-up, his first meeting with Yoko, his conversion to feminism, his heroin-addiction, his drinking, his music-making and song writing, and his hopes for the future, both for his family and for his career.

Andy Peebles flew back to London with an unprecedented eight precious reels of tape in his bag. But while he and his production crew were half-way across the Atlantic, the most famous rock star on earth was shot dead by deranged assassin Mark Chapman at point-blank range, outside his home, the Dakota building. Only upon landing was Peebles made aware of the tragedy. He was accompanied by uniformed policemen to the BBC's studio at Heathrow, where he was forced to talk about the murder live on air. Not since then has he discussed it publicly.

Now he does so, for the first time in thirty five years, to ShowBiz TV’s Creative Consultant and former Fleet Street journalist Lesley-Ann Jones: sharing experiences that, as he says, have “haunted me for decades.”

“The Last Lennon Interview has been an extraordinary piece to work on,” comments Executive Producer Scott Millaney.

“Once Andy opened up, there was no stopping him. This is an important piece which will remind viewers why Lennon mattered, and why he is still revered today as perhaps the greatest rock star of all time.”

“I had been trying to persuade Andy Peebles to talk about his historic interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono for more than twenty years,” adds co-producer Lesley-Ann Jones.

“He had always been constrained by his broadcasting contracts. Now that he is retired, with no allegiance to the BBC nor to any other broadcaster, he was at last free to speak openly about his experiences, and the profound effect they had on him. It is a most moving piece, and it was such a privilege to work on this with him. This interview should reverberate around the world.”

In other programming, one of the channel’s biggest weekly draws is bound to be “Discovering Lucy Angel”: a wildly entertaining US reality series about a mother-daughter musical act as they seek to make their name on the American Country scene. “The Osbournes” meets “Keeping Up with The Kardashians”, “Discovering Lucy Angel” makes for addictive television, brimming with did-you-see moments.

In addition to its focus on Country and Irish music, ShowBiz TV will present a weekly peek behind Hollywood’s velvet ropes in the series “Making The Movies”; a weekly music magazine entitled “Wall of Sound”, which reports on music events around the world; regular celebrity fashion news; and documentaries on subjects ranging from Mikhail Baryshnikov to “Les Misérables” and The Beatles.

Educational as well as cultural, ShowBiz TV will also air themed evenings: the music of the Fifties, the Sixties, the Fab Four and so much more. It will introduce viewers to the songs, soundtracks and eras that they may have missed the first time round, having perhaps not been born yet, or of which they had been previously unaware.

ShowBiz TV will also focus on the UK’s young, untapped talent, in a manner hitherto unexplored. The brief here is simple: if you are an undiscovered artist, whether singer, dancer, actor or all-round would-be star, and you could use a little exposure on the nation's screens, then look no further than ShowBiz TV - and get in touch!

ShowBiz TV then, in a nutshell: a one-stop shop for entertainment addicts, be they ladies or gentlemen, teen-age or vint-age, addicted to the rock 'n' roll of today or the classics of yesterday. It's everything you've been waiting for, and more.

GET YOUR KICKS ON SKY 266.