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My favourite TV programme

ROSEANNE CHOSEN BY HOLLY JOHNSON

“I had a regular Friday night ritual:” says Holly Johnson (above), currently celebrating his third solo hit, Atomic City. “I sat down in front of the telly and watched my favourite shows: Cheers and Roseanne. I never videoed them, I just made sure I was in on a Friday night. Theyre the only programmes that make me laugh. Out of the two, Roseanne [right] is my favourite. I like it because its set in a real American home, every thing is a mess and its not at all pretentious. Its also nice to see a working-class family in action rather than Cosby-style stereotypes where all the family wear £500 jumpers. Roseanne is down-to-earth and hilarious at the same time. Her one-woman stand-up routine which was on telly recently was brilliant, too.

“Americans are much better at producing sitcoms than the British. They seem to have a much bigger budget than our TV companies, so can afford to spend more on sets and story lines. But I think that British dramas are much better than American ones.

“The telly is always on at home if Im in. I read or eat or chat with my friends while its on, but unless I really want to watch something I basically ignore it. And theres one thing I refuse to watch on telly — American-style game shows. Theyre absolutely mindless and a real subject of ridicule. But I used them in my Americanos video to show how intrinsic they are to the American way of life.

“Videos are very important to a song because they represent your image worldwide. Its all very well doing Top Of The Pops here, but that wont get your song played elsewhere. An impressive video will. I always have lots of meetings with the record company over how a video will look and it really pays off.”

NR