BCG Daily Wednesday 6th May 2015

The women are the best thing on No Offence

Joanna Scanlan, Elaine Cassidy and Alexandra Roach were on top form in the gritty, funny cop show...

What to expect from Murder in Successville

Dermot O'Leary, Greg James and Jamie Laing are among the brave celebrities playing detective in BBC Three's new improvised comedy.

Radio Times review

This is silly. Very silly indeed. Successville is a town populated by celebrities - Gordon Ramsay's the chief of police; Mary Berry runs the strip joint - and policed by maverick DI Sleet. All these people are played by actors (Tom Davis is hilarious as Sleet). But when restaurateur Bruno Tonioli is found dead, Sleet is partnered with a celebrity rookie, Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing, who's parachuted in to help solve the case.

It's a mixed-up structured reality comedy cop drama impressions show. Yet it boils down to a bunch of comedians saying increasingly ridiculous things to make Laing corpse, which he does a lot. Brilliantly silly.

Radio Times review

There's a star turn from Reece Shearsmith as a demented fishmonger who cadges a lift to work with John and Kayleigh as this curious little observational comedy trundles along.

Shearsmith plays Ray, a colleague of the pair at the superstore but no one wants anything to do with him because he reeks of fish. In any event Kayleigh isn't at her best after a drunken night at a friend's farewell party where she drank a few too many "cheeky Vimtos", which, she tells John, "are all the rage in Basra".

There are signs that John (Peter Kay, who co-wrote and directed) is growing quite keen on his car-sharer, and the pair are developing a sweet and funny relationship forged to the cheesy hits of "Forever FM".

Radio Times review

Charlie Brooker is just what we need to cut politicians and pundits down to size after five weeks of campaigning. He's as funny, and spot-on, about TV coverage of the election as he is about the candidates themselves. Where shows like Have I got News for You mock the politicians, Brooker also satirises the good, bad and ugly coverage itself.

Expect disparaging dissection of all the parties, and quite a lot of deadpan exasperation with it. Best of all, he'll have the brilliantly dim Philomena Cunk by his side to really get to the bottom of all this election stuff. Because as Cunk would say, "What is politicians?"

Radio Times review

A great cast - Vincent Franklin from Cucumber, Hugh Skinner (dumb Will in W1A), and Rufus Jones (camp David, also in W1A) do their best in this queasy sitcom about drone pilots.

The bored little group are closeted in a cabin on a bleak airfield, their days characterised by long stretches of yawning boredom punctuated by administering sudden death in the Middle East, and sometimes they get it wrong.

It's a black comedy (there's a very off-colour gag about social services) but it's not black enough and consequently not funny enough. It's the kind of thing Charlie Brooker would do ruthlessly well, yet writer Guy Jenkin (Ballot Monkeys and Drop the Dead Donkey) lets it drift into farce.

Max Davis: How one good joke got me a job

In 2012 I gave myself an ultimatum. Sell a piece of writing within twelve months or give up comedy once and for all.

No Offence review

Those missing Shameless will welcome this pacy and provocative new series by writer Paul Abbott.

The new Mighty Boosh or a freshened up Star Stories?

Part surrealist improv, part prancing around in fake moustaches, BBC3's new sitcom marks a return to weird-slash-stupid humour.

Frank Skinner's Name That Tune suffers setbacks

Frank Skinner's return to ITV has suffered a setback following a series of problems and bad jokes including one about Rolf Harris, it has been reported.

Andy Parsons on Peter Cook

With his brilliant satirical stand-up, groundbreaking TV sketches and unremitting swearing, Peter Cook set me on the path to a life in comedy.

No Offence review - rude but not crude un-PC cop show

There seem to be no no-go areas for this vibrant, rich and warm cop comedy, but the title gathers irony like a snowball as the show rolls on.

Scenes for Apocalypse Slough to be filmed in Northleach

Filming for comedy-drama series, Apocalypse Slough, will take place in Northleach on Friday.

Comedian single for five years asks strangers for help

Maddy Anholt is seeking the funds to travel to Edinburgh on a love-hunt. She is also hoping to perform a comedy show in the Scottish city. Maddy has exhausted London's dating scene and been single for five years.

The story of Election 2015 as told by Radio 4 comedy

As campaigning draws to a close, we look back at how events unfolded through the filter of the BBC Radio 4 Comedy Election.

Tamsin Greig on her election vote

Telegraph Wonder Women #womenmustvote campaign: The actress Tamsin Greig urges women to use their voices and admits she's always voted Labour unlike her Conservative parents.

Have comics let politicians off the hook?

The homogenous, zombie-like world of modern politics is often ridiculed by satirists - but this election campaign has made me wonder if the comedians are any less on-message.

Reginald D Hunter interview

Reginald D Hunter has recently been on an epic road trip from North Carolina to New Orleans documenting the 150-year history of American popular song for a new three-part BBC Two series entitled Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South. In New Orleans, he got to interview the blues legend Dr John.

Peter Kay's Car Share puts him back in the driving seat

Kay's new un-hyped TV show is big-hearted and silly and reminds us what a terrific comic actor he can be.

Does BBC Three have another hit on its hands?

Jamie Laing was the first famous face to be thrown into the wacky world of Successville to solve a murder in the creepiest, funniest and downright weirdest of ways.

Tom Davis on Murder in Successville

We're very excited, and in the middle of an almighty press campaign, we quickly caught up with the busiest man of the moment, Tom Davis, to find out more.

Charlie Brooker: Farage has been giving him problems

"Nigel Farage is like a flipping, slightly pissed-up sort of brother-in-law or something," according to Charlie Brooker, who'll be presenting his customary Election Wipe this evening on BBC Two, ahead of tomorrow's turnout for what is predicted to be the closest election in years.

Liverpool Comedy Festival 2015 dates revealed

This year's event will run from September 18 to October 4 at venues across the city, organisers The Comedy Trust announced today.

Live at Parliament Square review

Liam Williams does a fine job as MC at Occupy London's comedy gig, alongside cracking gags from Ahir Shah and dark sketches from Gein's Family Giftshop.

Loony laughs from candidates standing in election

Now it's official. One party is campaigning on the "insanity" ticket. In fact the Official Monster Raving Loony Party has been putting up candidates at elections for decades without, as yet, winning any seats.

Charlie Brooker takes on immigration reporting in Wipe

In a clip from tonight's Screen Wipe special, the writer and broadcaster finds formulaic news bulletins ripe for parody.

Give them hell

Chuck Wendig has a brilliant blog and a recent post is very insightful - and visceral - about storytelling. In short, your protagonist needs to make things worse. And worse. And worse.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong review

Review of comic play Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

Who should win best female comedy performance BAFTA?

Olivia Colman, Tamsin Greig, Jessica Hynes and Catherine Tate battle it out for the award, but who gets your vote?

The Vote review: all-star election-night farce

Judi Dench, a wonderfully twitchy Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate and other famous faces make appearances at the polling station in Graham's entertaining ballot-box drama.

How comedians can help us take politics more seriously

The likes of Steve Coogan, Russell Brand and Eddie Izzard represent real life in the UK better than politicians in this election, so no wonder they engage us more.

Murder In Successville review

It's probably too inconsistent to be a must-see, but top marks all round for trying something different.

Jamie Laing's best facial expressions

He may not be a great detective but he does pull some crackers. Here are some of Jamie Laing's best facial expressions...

TV review: Bugsplat!

I love jokes in bad taste, but even I flinched at some of the one-liners in Bugsplat!, the new military sitcom from Channel 4.

Sitcom Writing: Give them hell

I find it difficult to think of extreme stories when plotting a sitcom episode and here is one possible reason: the genre.

Single comedian asks strangers to fund trip to Scotland

'I need £3,500 to find my prince': Comedian single for five years asks strangers to fund trip to Scotland in search of love (she'll turn her dating woes into a stand-up show too).