BCG Daily Monday 27th June 2011

Marcus Brigstocke 'was suicidal' over weight struggles

"I was so obese I'd lie in bed trying to tear bits off my body." Comedian Marcus Brigstocke once weighed 24 stone and was suicidal but lives to tell the tale...

How Ricky Gervais took on his school bully - with Polos

Ricky Gervais once made the hardest pupil in his school cry - by hitting him in the face with a packet of polos.

A day in the life of... Nick Helm

I wake up every morning at around 7am. After a quick five mile run around the local park I will shower, make myself a cup of green tea and sit at my 15th Century antique lectern and write five to six excellent songs...

An interview with James Dowdeswell

James Dowdeswell is a stand-up comedian from the West Country who currently resides in London, working the local comedy circuit.

Sirens: Is it worth taking yet another trip to A&E?

Channel 4's new hospital comedy shows promise - but do we need any more programmes set in medical surroundings?

Dawn French reveals reasons behind her weight loss

She stunned fans earlier this month when she stepped out looking noticeably slimmer. And now Dawn French has revealed the reasons behind her astonishing four-and-a-half stone weight loss.

Stephen Fry named charity president

Stephen Fry has been named the new president of a mental health charity.

Simon Brint obituary

Composer for many television comedy shows and half of the cult duo Raw Sex.

Alistair McGowan to replace Rupert Everett in Pygmalion

Alistair McGowan, who was nominated for an Olivier Award for his peformance in Little Shop of Horrors, is to replace Rupert Everett as Professor Henry Higgins in the West End production of Pygmalion.

Radio Times review

I love black comedies. The bleaker and the more tasteless, the better. The Thick of It, Pulling, Getting On, Nurse Jackie. So Sirens, a "comedy drama" based on real-life paramedic Tom Reynolds's blog, looked alluring. Bring on the gallows humour!

It turns out to be a queasy mixture of sentimentality and sexism, spattered with the kind of knuckle-dragging gags last seen in Confessions of a Window Cleaner.

Example: a sexy gas-meter reader has to reach for her ID, which just happens to be tucked in her inside pocket, right near her ample, exposed cleavage. Come on, that kind of thing was dated in 1973.

I have no idea who Sirens, which follows three young male paramedics, is aimed at. Definitely not teens; they don't have the patience. Young men? Maybe; there are gags about erections and masturbation, and the weariest, most aged visual "joke" about a certain sex act that is so spent it's a museum piece.

But then maybe it's aimed at old men. Or tree frogs. Or Pekinese dogs. Who knows? But it should be better. It should be funnier. It should be sharper. It's unforgivable.