Press Clippings
Here is a collection of the latest previews, reviews and articles related to British comedy which have been published by newspapers and blogs from around the world. Don't forget to look at our news section for the significant stories - these won't be repeated here.
Grandma's House
Tonight is the last in the series of Simon Amstell's dark, self-referential family sitcom. It's Mum's big day, not that you'd know it. Auntie Liz is busy making arrangements for her anniversary party: "I've written a really funny quiz from the internet." And Simon is fawning over his LA-bound actor boyfriend. Will Simon abandon his own career and accompany him to Tinseltown? Amstell never misses an opportunity to pre-empt critics with knowing jibes at his own self-absorption.
The Unforgettable...
The Unforgettable Dudley Moore, ITV1, review
Bernadette McNulty reviews The Unforgettable Dudley Moore, ITV1's profile of the much-loved comedian and actor.
Written by Bernadette McNulty. The Daily Telegraph, 23rd May 2012
Grandma's House
The second series of this sharp sitcom - in which Simon Amstell plays an insecure version of himself - ends tonight with an episode involving Pinteresque levels of family squabbling and unfulfilled ambition. The problems begin when Simon learns that his latest theatrical venture - a role in a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest - is in jeopardy, and they're compounded by some wonderfully bitter infighting between Tanya (Rebecca Front) and Liz (Samantha Spiro).
QI
QI: Facts about the Queen's diamond jubille
A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week: QI throws a jubilee party.
Written by Molly Oldfield and John Mitchinson. The Daily Telegraph, 23rd May 2012
Grandma's House
Have you been watching ... Grandma's House?
As Simon Amstell's sometimes uncomfortable sitcom nears the end of its second series, the performances and writing look increasingly impressive.
Written by Gina Allum. The Guardian, 23rd May 2012
The Unforgettable...
Recent BBC4 repeats of Michael Parkinson's interviews with Peter Cook reminded us that Cook was a rarity: a skilled satirist who was louche, profoundly funny and charismatic.
His diminutive long-time comic partner, "cuddly" Dudley Moore, often fell into the shadow (sometimes literally) of his friend and colleague during their years in 1960s revue Beyond the Fringe and their subsequent TV series, until Moore quite unexpectedly became a huge star in the films 10 and Arthur.
Unforgettable hears from his ex-wife Brogan Lane about his life in Hollywood and how he coped with fame, and from friend Rena Fruchter, who helped Moore through his final, cruel illness until his death in 2002.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 23rd May 2012
Dan Carmichael caught up with Nick Helm to find out what life is really like outside the North East - and whether we should pack our sun cream.
Written by Dan Carmichael. Giggle Beats, 23rd May 2012
Peter Kay to be warm-up act for The X Factor
The X Factor will get another new face when auditions kick off today - comic Peter Kay.
Written by Leigh Holmwood. The Sun, 23rd May 2012
The Unforgettable...
A tribute to the late, great Dudley Moore, perhaps best known in the UK for his hallowed Pete and Dud double act with Peter Cook, but a considerable Hollywood star in his own right, not least for the comedy hits 10 and Arthur. Here friends, family, ex-wives and partners (he was married and divorced four times) celebrate his life, talents and achievements.
Very Important People
Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott interview
Comedians Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott have revived TV impressionism - and they have no shortage of ridiculous celebrities to send up.
Written by Laura Barton. The Guardian, 22nd May 2012
A Fantastic Fear Of Everything
The ex-Kula Shaker frontman has directed a black comedy starring Simon Pegg.
Written by Paul Gallagher. The List, 22nd May 2012
Highlights from the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe programme
Daniel Kitson, Billy the Mime and Paolo Bianchi set to appear.
Written by Brian Donaldson. The List, 22nd May 2012
Births, Deaths And Marriages
Births, Deaths and Marriages: review
Review of new radio sitcom from Alan Partridge regular David Schneider.
Written by Brian Donaldson. The List, 22nd May 2012
The most infamous Fringe controversies
As the Edinburgh Fringe launches its 2012 programme we recall some of our favourite Fringe scandals.
Written by Anna Millar. The List, 22nd May 2012
5 things you might not know about Jeremy Hardy
The Perrier award winner is antagonistic towards the far right.
Written by Brian Donaldson. The List, 22nd May 2012
Carl Donnelly: 5 things you should never do in the dark
Comedians only come out at night, but Comedy in the Dark at the Udderbelly takes things one step further, plunging a whole stand-up show into pitch black. One of the comedians taking part in this unique show is Carl Donnelly, who here mulls over some things that are best left to daytime...
London is Funny, 22nd May 2012
Kind Hearts And Coronets: Like Father, Like Daughter
As Alec Guinness did in the 1949 film version of Kind Hearts and Coronets, Alistair McGowan took all the parts of all the Gascoynes (D'Ascoynes in the film) and - with the possible exception of his Lady Edith - did so nimbly and amusingly. Natalie Walter as the ruthless Unity (the Dennis Price part) impressed. It was the script that limped, always a minute behind listener expectation.
Paul O'Grady sacked from Corrie musical?
It's being reported that Paul O'Grady has been sacked from Coronation Street musical Street of Dreams.
RTE, 22nd May 2012
Richard Herring on Edinburgh Fringe 'cock' censorship
Censors insist on banning the word cock but we should be celebrating the male member, not hiding it away in shame, says Richard Herring.
Written by Richard Herring. Metro, 22nd May 2012
Hancock's Half Hour
The painful break-up of Sid James and Tony Hancock
Taken from Sid James: A Biography, this extract looks at how Hancock's jealously and paranoia ended one of TVs most beloved, and hilarious, double acts...
Written by Robert Ross. Sabotage Times, 22nd May 2012
Hugh Laurie cannot get rid of his fake limp
Hugh Laurie has admitted it is impossible to leave his limp behind after eight series of playing grumpy Dr Gregory House.
The Sun, 22nd May 2012
Singing with a classical great and why I've been granted membership to a strange new club.
Written by Alexander Armstrong. The Daily Telegraph, 22nd May 2012
My Family
My Family: 'not dropped for being too middle class'
The BBC axed the long-running sitcom My Family because it had run out of ideas, not because it was too middle class, a senior corporation executive has said.
Written by Andrew Hough. The Daily Telegraph, 22nd May 2012
Episodes
Episodes: Series 2, episodes 1 & 2 review
BBC sitcom Episodes is back for a second series, but has it ironed out the wrinkles of its first outing? Read this review of Episodes 1 and 2.
Written by James T Cornish. Den of Geek, 21st May 2012
Women aren't funny? You must be joking
Anyone who thinks women can't do comedy, on stage or at work, hasn't seen the new wave of female sketch groups.
Written by Katie Burnetts. The Guardian, 21st May 2012
This week Ian Wolf listens to a pygmy hippo and a daughter taking up her father's passion of murder.
Written by Ian Wolf. Giggle Beats, 21st May 2012
Kind Hearts And Coronets: Like Father, Like Daughter
For me, Kind Hearts and Coronets is my favourite of the Ealing Comedies. As a result I was somewhat worried by the fact that someone would want to make a sequel to it.
In this story, following the death of Duke Louis (Dennis Price in the film), his wife Lady Edith takes the title, refusing to recognise the claim issued by Louis's biological daughter Unity Holland (played by Natalie Walter). Unity decides to get the title the old fashioned way - murdering all the other claimants...
The story sees Unity beginning her murder spree in 1939, through World War Two and after it. She then starts to kill the seven claimants: Lady Edith Gascoyne, fighter pilot Louis Gascoyne, spiv Henry Gascoyne, far-right twins Adalbert and Ughtred Gascoyne, socialist Marmaduke Gascoyne, and rubbish poet Ronald Gascoyne, all of whom are played by Alistair McGowan.
McGowan obviously has it easier than Guinness did. For starters, two of the characters are twins so they can have the same sort of voice. Also, Marmaduke suffers from a stutter so that gives another silly voice to play with.
However, it seems to have pulled it off. I don't think that this story is in any way a sort of sacrilege against the original; after all, the film changes bits from the original novel (in the novel the murderer was half-Jewish, not half-Italian).
An entertaining tale, then, with a nice story and set up...
Strap In - It's Clever Peter
Clever Peter is a sketch troupe featuring Richard Bond, Edward Eales-White and William Hartley, and by the sounds of things a rather good one.
It's a short programme, consisting of four episodes 15 minutes long, but the sketches in it were entertaining and rather appropriately, clever. Sketches featured an MP who claimed expenses on a pygmy hippo and is then ordered as punishment to kill the Danish ambassador (who actually has a Dutch accent); a diary written in gobbledegook; a man obsessed with lists leaving his girlfriend; and an old woman who has an enterprising way of dealing with door-to-door salesmen.
The humour in it is slightly surreal, but it's very good, while the performances were energetic. It certainly sounds like Strap In - It's Clever Peter could build into a more successful programme.
With Nobbs On
David Nobbs is a funny man. Not only did he create one of the greatest comic characters in Reggie Perrin but he also has a funny name, ripe for comic exploitation - something he's not shy of in this hugely entertaining talk on his life and career.
He wryly covers everything from his ten-year-old self's attempts to write books, which only stretched to the titles, to the moment he first got a sketch - or a line from a sketch - on That Was the Week That Was. There are also readings of excerpts from his first staged work, an extract from his first book and the revelation that, like Reggie Perrin, he likes ravioli. He lived off tins of it while in lodgings.
David Crawford, Radio Times, 21st May 2012
Episodes
There can be a lot of fun for a comedy actor, offering a space where the performer isn't obliged to share the credit for a laugh with the writer. There were two good examples in this week's Episodes, in which Stephen Mangan plays one half of a sitcom-writing team. The first was one of his specialities as an actor - the facial expression of a wrestling match between baser instincts and finer ones, played out here when he's offered a free sports car by the Hollywood star who broke up his marriage. The second came from Daisy Haggard, who played an irretrievably dim American executive giving notes after a script run-through. The line wasn't bad - "Page 18?... will anyone know who Rudyard Kipling is?" - but it was the long pause as she tried to work out how to respond to a counter-argument that was really funny. As Episodes can be, incidentally, when it doesn't get carried away with self-reference.
