BCG Daily Friday 27th March 2015

Inside No. 9 review - I'm just not laughing

I'm sure I'll be crucified - probably quite rightly - but I don't love Inside No 9.

Inside No 9, TV review

Toilet humour with a twist - Pemberton and Shearsmith are in a different league.

Matt Berry interview

Matt Berry chats to us about his voice work in the new Spongebob Squarepants movie, House Of Fools, music, and Toast Of London...

Tony Hawks on his latest book and new life in Devon

Five years ago Tony Hawks was living the bachelor life in London, pursuing a TV, radio and stand-up career, writing books and appearing on shows like Have I Got News For You and Just A Minute. Today, he's living in rural Devon with his partner Fran and their one-year-old son Arlo, and while broadcasting is still high on his agenda, the move has given him plenty of humorous material for his new book, Once Upon A Time In The West... Country.

Milton Jones interview

Worry enough at a joke, says Milton Jones, and you can make it work.

Radio Times review

This knockabout episode sees Common Sense Party leader Aunty Brenda on the hustings facing dodgy bookie Iwan Jenkins and a joke candidate resembling El Macho from Despicable Me 2. Looking like a superannuated Yellowcoat from Hi-de-Hi!, Brenda goes wading in with her hobnail boots. So Michael, as much to curry favour with Stella as anything else, offers a few lessons in diplomacy. But he'll need to work hard - Iwan Jenkins is all free pens, pie-in-the-sky promises and Rocky music blaring over the tannoy.

Young Ben, meanwhile, has a disastrous first date with Lily, and Bobby has one of those consoling confabs with lost soul Paula (make the most of her!). It's cheesier than Caerphilly, and similarly irresistible.

How divorce turned Sarah Millican into a canny comedian

A profile of Sarah Millican.

Alan Carr interview

Famed for his big glasses, eccentric humour and popular TV chatshow, Alan Carr is about to hit the road once more.

Stars spotted filming Bad Education movie

Shooting for a feature movie began on Tuesday at Pembroke Castle under the working title Rosebud - The Movie. However, fans have been quick to second guess that the filming is for a feature length version of the popular BBC Three sitcom Bad Education.

In praise of Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction; an ingenious little show that's been bubbling away on radio's equivalent of People's Friend magazine for years.

This week's new comedy

Previews of We Love Immigration, WitTank and The QI Elves - No Such Thing As A Podcast.

Bill Oddie: My family values

The broadcaster talks about his mother, who was in an asylum for much of his childhood, and realising that he too had bipolar disorder.

David Cameron sung Benny Hill song in debate ad break

Tasked with keeping the audience entertained during an advert break, Sky News host Kay Burley asked Cameron could sing. The Prime Minister said no -- but revealed he does sing "Ernie" in the shower, a comic ditty about a milkman by legendary British comedian Benny Hill.

Profile of In and Out of the Kitchen's gay relationship

But the biggest point of interest, for me anyway, was how the gay couple at the centre of the action would be portrayed.

Stephen K Amos on prejudice, perception & life on tour

We didn't go on family holidays as kids. In fact my mum's idea of broadening our horizons was to open up the lounge room blinds. She'd point out and say "look".

Simon Amstell, Shepherd's Bush Empire - comedy review

Amstell's show is all about one skinny man's search for spiritual contentment - and it makes for a hilarious show, says Bruce Dessau.

Jeremy Clarkson's exit prompts script change to W1A

Jeremy Clarkson's ignominious exit from the BBC has claimed another casualty - nothing to do with Top Gear but a running gag in BBC Two's satirical comedy about the corporation, W1A.

Raised by Wolves - Episode 2 review

There's a lovely moment when the show pulls a reverse-Pretty Woman as the two store assistants welcome the fragile and nervous Yoko with open arms.

Review: Happily Ever After? 2015 Liverpool Improvathon

At 1pm on Saturday afternoon, improv group Impropriety, alongside a few special guests, began an improvised comedy of epic proportions, down at The Kazimier in Liverpool.

Opinion: Russell Howard 1 Stewart Lee 0

An article about how Stewart Lee's attempts on televising more alternative comedy on Comedy Central are losing out to more mainstream comics like Russell Howard.

Review: Inside No. 9, 2.1 - 'La Couchette'

They'll perhaps never again create anything with the impact of The League of Gentlemen, which changed the television landscape back in 1999 (inspiring a wave of twisted comedies like Nighty Night, while challenging the very idea of what a BBC comedy could look like), but Inside No. 9 is nevertheless a brilliant anthology show that sees former-League members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton channel their gift for the macabre into fresh weekly stories.

Review: Inside No. 9. Episode 2.1 - 'La Couchette'

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are exceptional storytellers, their writing is ingenious, incisive and full of telling detail. The intricacies in their work are deployed to tell a good story & tell it as well as possible.

What a Carry On: exclusive peek at long-lost photos

They're the films everyone loves. Now we give you an exclusive peek at the long-lost photos that languished in an archive for 50 years.

Inside No. 9 review

Even if they don't make you laugh, you have to concede Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are the most febrilely inventive writers on TV. But to say they are an acquired taste is like mentioning that absinthe isn't everybody's tipple, and that human sacrifice takes some getting used to.