Press Clippings
Here is a collection of the latest previews and reviews related to British comedy shows published in the UK papers and around the web...
Genius
Dave and all of us at GeniusHQ need your help! We want you to send in your extraordinary notions, amazing concepts and barn-storming ideas to make our new series even more chock-full of genius than the first!
Written by David Thair and Genius HQ. BBC Comedy Blog, 18th March 2010
Russell Howard's Good News
Russell responds to your tweets
Thanks for all the great stuff you have been sending in.
Written by Tris Cotterill. Good News Blog, 18th March 2010
Reggie Perrin
Martin Clunes recreates Reginald Perrin's fake suicide
Thirty-four years after Leonard Rossiter stripped off and ran naked into the water on a Dorset beach in The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, Martin Clunes is doing it again.
The Daily Mail, 18th March 2010
Celebrity Juice
Jedward join Leigh Francis on Celebrity Juice
Keith Lemon takes aim at a ratings hit as he signs pop twins Jedward up for a regular skit on his new series of Celebrity Juice.
The Sun, 18th March 2010
Life Of Riley
Inoffensive is the kind of word that gets attached to Life Of Riley (BBC1), the kind of sitcom that thinks it's still the 1980s and that jokes about harassed suburban parents being given the runaround by their cheeky/geeky/knowing children are absolutely hilarious.
But offensive is exactly what it is. At least the ruinously overrated Outnumbered (returning soon, you have been warned) boasts the odd surreal moment.
But Life Of Riley not only destroys any shred of fondness you might have nurtured for The Lightning Seeds - truly this is an abuse of a theme tune - it's so lazy it feels like you're watching an extended cornflakes advert.
Keith Watson, Metro, 18th March 2010
Life Of Riley
Was Life of Riley made to test varying levels of Alzheimer's? Beginning its second run, the "jokes" fitted distinct categories: things that were topical/funny two years ago (self-service checkouts); ten years ago (self-help books); only to dimwits (falling over during a trust exercise); or never (Caroline Quentin's mumsy character - woops! - making a chocolate cast of her hubby's hairy bum). Its laughter track should have said "Gah!" and "Eeeg!" - but instead rollicked along and even seemed to positively discriminate, the higher hilarity-count for Nana's gags about boiled eggs and tea only explainable by a BBC effort to counteract recent allegations of ageism. Big Top, The Persuasionists, now this: anyone with their BBC comedy glass understandably more than half empty had better go to Dave at 10.20pm tonight for emergency care - the excellent Psychoville is rerunning and proves that somewhere Aunty still has a live and kicking funnybone.
Life Of Riley
Life of Riley: why are most family sitcoms so unfunny?
You would have to be mean, small-minded and probably a bit snobby to attack the second series of BBC1's innocuous Life of Riley, the Caroline Quentin sitcom, back on air. So let's go for it...
Written by Viv Groskop. The Guardian, 17th March 2010
Life Of Riley
A somewhat surprising second series for the Caroline Quentin vehicle that isn't the one where she solves murders or works in a travel agent.
This is the one where she's married to Neil Dudgeon and they have kids from their previous marriages as well as a baby between them. The step-parent aspect doesn't generate much mileage - it just means the two older kids call her Maddy instead of mum.
Their neighbours, straight out of sitcom central, are still in residence and tonight when the kids from next-door show no inclination to go home, you might think you're just watching a remake of My Family.
Tonight, Maddy and her husband attempt to put the sparkle back in their marriage by going on a date.
Last series they were newlyweds and the spark had gone already. It's not a great sign either that the babysitter gets the best scenes.
Dave Gorman: This tour has no gimmicks
After more than a decade of themed innovation, offbeat discovery and daft missions, the smiling comedian has set himself a new challenge - simply being funny.
Written by Brian McIver. The Daily Record, 17th March 2010
Life Of Riley
Eight- to 12-year-olds will love this inoffensive family sitcom, which returns for a second series starring Caroline Quentin and Neil Dudgeon as a chaotic married couple attempting to corral their picturesquely badly behaved kids. Life of Riley can't possibly be aimed at grown-ups, what with its broad jokes about bottoms and the perils of incorrectly loading the dishwasher. The adults behave like kids, which is probably why young 'uns will enjoy it, and the kids are knowing, cheeky and annoying. It also features the world's oldest sight gag about that falling over backwards trust exercise, which even a late-developing toddler will see coming.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 17th March 2010
Life Of Riley
Caroline Quentin returns for a second series of this dismal sitcom, which is aimed at viewers who worry that one day My Family will disappear from the schedules and there will nothing to replace it. It's the same-old format that passed its sell-by date sometime in the early 1980s, in which an ordinary family muddles along doing the best they can and being oh-so-funny. In this opening episode the husband and wife have bought a book on keeping alive the romance in marriage. They decide to spend an evening of quality time together - with entirely predictable results. Without wishing to sound negative, it is lazy, mindless, patronising, cowardly and desperately unfunny drivel. What is so frightening is that no one at the BBC thought to say: "Hang on, we ought to be aiming a bit higher than this."
Life Of Riley
For those who find Green Green Grass too edgy, this inoffensive sitcom is back for a second series. Caroline Quentin plays Maddy, a hassled mother who lives with her second husband Jim and their respective children. Jim is played by Neil Dudgeon, who will be taking over the lead role in Midsomer Murders next year when John Nettles leaves. He'll find the killing fields of Midsomer positively soporific next to the frantic pace of the Riley household, where gags come thick and fast on the minutiae of family life.
Dom Joly: 'Dressing as Tintin nearly got me beaten up'
Trigger Happy TV's Dom Joly explains why he's made a special tribute to the famous boy reporter.
Written by Dom Joly. Daily Telegraph, 17th March 2010
Harry Hill triumphs at Royal Television Society Awards
Comedian Harry Hill has scooped the top prize at the Royal Television Society Awards for his TV Burp show on ITV1.
BBC News, 17th March 2010
An Open Letter To Richard Branson
Tom Wrigglesworth was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award at last year's Fringe, and although I missed Wrigglesworth's show, the fact that so many people I trust were eulogising about him suggested that he would nonetheless be a very worthy winner. This radio show is a half-hour version of his Open Letter to Richard Branson in which he recalls a particularly eventful trip on a Virgin train which saw him arrested and, eventually, effect a fundamental change on company policy. A very funny and eloquent man ranting and raving against unthinking jobsworths - gotta be worth a listen, right? Right.
The Museum Of Curiosity
For the uninitiated, The Museum of Curiosity is presented by comedy producer/godlike genius John Lloyd, and he's joined by a different 'curator' each series; Bill Bailey, Sean Lock and now the brilliant Jon Richardson. Three contributors - comedians, scientists, authors, historians, generally fascinating people - donate something the museum each week, and that something can be absolutely anything, no matter how huge, tiny, fictional or dead. I won't give away what Shappi Khorsandi, Terry Pratchett and Marcus Chown ("cosmology consultant of New Scientist") gave to the museum in the episode I saw recorded, but I will say that all three spoke passionately about their donation, and that Chown's made my brain hurt for days. The series will air later in the Spring.
Party
I've been to a couple of rather wonderful recordings of Radio 4 comedy recently. First up was the live recording of two episodes - 1 and 3 oddly - of Party, a four-part sitcom version of Tom Basden's play that I saw up in Edinburgh (ok, and down in London) in which five young and essentially clueless idealists set up a political party in its self-appointed leader's shed (or summerhouse, as he insists). It's broader than the theatre version, certainly, but the writing's still wonderful, and the performances still pitch perfect. Jonny Sweet is especially brilliant as that disputed leader, a campus Clegg/Cameron/Blair-like lothario; and Tim Key's immaculate timing is given a great showcase as the newest member of the party, drafted in because he new dad owns a print shop (though he thinks he's there for another reason entirely).
Ivor Dembina gives parliament its first standup gig
Ivor Dembina is about to do the first ever standup gig in parliament. Will he bring down the House?
Written by Brian Logan. The Guardian, 16th March 2010
Chubby Brown cleared of hitting woman on Teesside
Comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown has been cleared of assaulting a woman in a Teesside supermarket car park.
BBC News, 16th March 2010
James Corden reveals he was teased over middle name
Funnyman James Corden found himself on the receiving end of jokes as a schoolboy - when word got round that his middle name is Kimberly.
Written by Vicky Shaw. The Independent (via PA), 16th March 2010
