BCG Daily Wednesday 16th December 2015

Artist has Mark Corrigan tattoo on his leg

Tom Wagstaff made the lasting tribute to the Channel 4 show which follows the trials and tribulations of Corrigan, played by comedian David Mitchell.

Doomed comedy that was rescued from the stupid boys

A new dramatisation shows how the bigwigs at the BBC nearly canned Dad's Army before the balloon went up, says Jasper Rees.

Luisa Omielan interview

Spurred on by a realisation that she was close in age to R&B pop superstar Beyoncé, comedian Luisa Omielan's empowering one-woman show, What Would Beyoncé Do?, became one of the most lauded Edinburgh Fringe Festival debuts in recent times.

Video: Mark and Jeremy age 12 years in 30 seconds

​Remember those viral videos where people took a photo of themselves everyday for 49 years? Just imagine if Peep Show​'s Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb) got bored - not a huge stretch- and did the same...

Radio Times review

Once upon a time the highlight of Christmas was settling down to watch Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's sketch show. You can see in this compilation that the roll call of stars who were prepared to be humiliated by the duo was legendary: Glenda Jackson, Peter Cushing, Shirley Bassey, Des O'Connor and Angela Rippon among them.

The running gags were brilliant and even if you can recite the words of their sketches verbatim, they still make you laugh. Eric's assertion to "Andrew Preview" that "I'm playing all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order" is as funny today as it was way back in 1971.

Radio Times review

Ross can still trade blows with Graham Norton: the night after the BBC One host had Carrie Fisher on his sofa, Wossy has another Star Wars star, Harrison Ford, on his. That's the cinema event of the season covered. As for TV, David Walliams has, via the circuitous route of writing books that lend themselves to sparkly dramatisations, become a festive fixture. He's here to chat about Billionaire Boy, which forms part of BBC One's heavyweight schedule on New Year's Day.

But, quick! Hide the jellied fruits! Jamie Oliver, whose campaign against excess sugar is gathering speed, is on the bill, too. He will, however, surely say a little indulgence is OK. Jess Glynne provides the music.

Radio Times review

A lightly sparkling edition of the stand-up showcase, although without too much disrespect to the comics on the bill, a Christmas Apollo doesn't mean a host of bigger names. Josh Widdicombe, after a year of ubiquity that's included sitcom and topical comedy as well as stage work, gets a very warm welcome for a decent observational routine about going home for Christmas to a single bed. Before him are the ribald Tanyalee Davis and Hal Cruttenden, who's always a little edgier than his camp, cuddly persona suggests.

The host is ventriloquist Nina Conti, doing her now-familiar improvisation using audience members as dummies.

Radio Times review

From the animated-arrow captions to the church hall set re-creation, this knockabout biopic envelopes Dad's Army fans in a very warm embrace. It charts the meeting, partnership and battles with the Beeb of two of our finest comedy writers, Jimmy Perry and David Croft, whisking us back to the smoke-wreathed 60s - all brown and beige, big specs and high hems.

Writer Stephen Russell holds your hand through the who's who and what's what, but with a lightness of touch and a deep affection for the imperishable Home Guard sitcom. There are lump-in-the-throat moments, too: Perry overseeing his hero Bud Flanagan record the theme tune is a beauty (Bud died shortly afterwards), and the whole thing ends with the perfect pop song.

Paul Ritter and Richard Dormer are superb as flamboyant Perry and commanding Croft. Just as this drama is a tribute to them, so is Dad's Army's longevity. Frank Williams, 84, the show's original vicar, recently told RT, "People have often asked me whether there was a lot of re-writing? No there wasn't, because there wasn't any need to. They produced the goods."

You have been watching their work for four decades, and will be for many years to come.

Radio Times review

If you enjoyed BBC Four's series about retired folk in Dorset, Close to the Edge, here's the sitcom equivalent. The idea is that three 60-something couples (including Alison Steadman as uptight Joyce) are striding into retirement, keeping creaking marriages afloat and leaning on old friendships - the working title was "Grey Mates".

We rejoin them at the Calais Eurotunnel terminal, returning from a trip to a Christmas market. There are surly asides about Germans, gingerbread and saucy Santa toys, while Alan (Philip Jackson) wrestles with a voice-recognition phone line: "Didn't understand me, wouldn't let me finish," he sighs. "It's the computerised ticket line version of Joyce."

Radio Times review

It's business as usual for the final episode, which is to say moments of brilliance and stretches that go a bit tepid. But that's the deal with Toast: you put up with the iffy bits for the occasional dash of comic glory you wouldn't find anywhere else.

Our luckless curmudgeon gets a job at the Globe in a production of Twelfth Night by radical director Daz Klondyke. It's to be performed by a cast of dogs as "a metaphor for what's happening in Syria". Yes, it's daft, but if you want an idea of the series' celebrity fans, look out for cameos from Jude Law, Martin Freeman, Sheila Hancock and others. They're all basically agreeing that Toast is, as Sam Mendes puts it, "a colossal t**t".

Radio Times review

After the note-perfect ending to series two, it came as a surprise - but a lovely one - to discover that a standalone episode would light up the festive schedules. Lance, you'll remember, unearthed a major find, while Andy and Becky were all set for something similarly life-changing.

As we rejoin the lovable eccentrics of Danebury Metal Detecting Club, the wintry fields and furrows are proving barren indeed for Lance (Toby Jones), who's not even turning up the usual ring-pulls or "canslaw". Is there any more gold to be found in them thar hillocks?

Detectorists is so adept at cockle-warming that a winter episode is in many ways the ideal framework. Tantalisingly, Mackenzie Crook says, "We got to bring the story to London for some extra-special scenes." The show's ardent metalheads can't wait...

Radio Times review

It's "Black" Christmas Eve at the discount supermarket Valco: as well as bargains being snapped up by hordes of feral shoppers, there are new and familiar faces in the sitcom that attracts top-quality comic actors, then doesn't do quite enough with them. Gavin (Jason Watkins) has become a Scrooge-like hard man, denying his staff a party and prowling around for vulnerable team members he can corral into working on Christmas Day. Will the return of Julie (Jane Horrocks), the tender guidance of rival store manager Cheryl (Sarah Parish) or the arrival of mysterious head-office enforcer Frank (Richard Wilson) lead to a softening of his spirit?

Radio Times review

Harry Hill returns as the multi-spectacled boffin of Norman Hunter's children's books. After Branestawm's TV introduction last Christmas, his cartoonish adventures are once again adapted by in-demand writer Charlie Higson. This time the chocolate-box village of Pagwell is, fortuitously, hosting an invention contest. But has Branestawm met his match in the ingenious Professor Algebrain (Steve Pemberton)?

Among an extraordinary cast giving fruity performances are Diana Rigg, Simon Day, Vicki Pepperdine, Matt Berry and his absurd intonations, Sophie Thompson and David Mitchell. From the clips available to RT, it's wildly eccentric, old-school and very funny - with a barking mad chase sequence.

Radio Times review

Before I started watching this I thought, "I wonder if they'll add some sleigh bells over the thrashy theme music" and I'm delighted to say they have. There's also a spangly snowflake backdrop and several Christmas-themed claims/tales/festive fibs.

To wit, "These are two of the best gifts I was given last Christmas," announces David Mitchell, flourishing a top hat and magic wand and prompting all of us to try to picture what Christmas Day might be like at the Coren Mitchells.

But the best prop arrives when Bill Bailey introduces a pet bird called Jacob, that he claims he once smuggled into the cinema with him. The fact it's a cockatoo is heroically ignored, even by Lee Mack: no pre-watershed-unfriendly gags here (although why Mitchell's enthusiastic mime of church bell-ringing gets a laugh might take some explaining). Kelly Holmes, Jo Brand and Ruth Jones add to the mendacious merriment.

Radio Times review

If you are going to have someone sing your praises then one of the most successful and richest authors on the planet is probably as good a person as any. Harry Potter author JK Rowling was, at the time of going to press, among a host of top names lined up to pay tribute to her friend Peter Kay in this celebration of the Phoenix Nights and Car Share comedian's career.

She will be joined by Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually scriptwriter Richard Curtis and author and broadcaster Danny Baker.

From his childhood growing up in Bolton, to the places, people and foodstuffs ("Garlic bread!") that have influenced his life and work, the profile will chart his rise "to become a household name and national treasure".

Radio Times review

The "Friend" is Joanna Lumley, who accompanies David Walliams through an inevitably uneven, but more-winners-than-losers sketch show. There's a disturbing pastiche of The Great British Bake Off with Paul Hollywood (Walliams, alarming with hedgehog hair) and Mary Berry (Lumley) unable to conceal their lust for one another.

In what feels like an updating of Ronnie Barker's classic Mispronunciation Sketch, Walliams is a party guest who invented autocorrect, and he drags up to play a passive-aggressive, glowing orange tanning salon receptionist. But maybe you'll prefer his Oscar Wilde, or the businessman dad who gives his little daughter a bedtime story in bullet points.

Radio Times review

And you thought Not Going Out ended for good last Christmas when hopeless slacker Lee actually did the right thing for once and married the long-suffering Lucy.

But no, everyone is back for a special episode with a festive theme. A year on from the wedding and Lucy (Sally Bretton) is heavily pregnant, three days overdue with her and Lee's first baby. But the poor woman can't simply put her feet up and await the birth, she and Lee (Lee Mack) are embroiled in a hold-up at a department store. Their captor is Father Christmas himself.

All of the regulars return, including the estimable Katy Wix as dopey Daisy, and the gag count is as high as ever.

Radio Times review

Those QI elves have been busy. We learn that every episode of QI since the start has included a secret coded message that nobody has spotted. And that's not the only bauble: at the end, Stephen Fry gets a (literally) magical surprise gift and it brings such childish joy to his face, it feels like a proper Christmas moment.

Elsewhere, there's a hilarious ad lib from Johnny Vegas when a studio bulb blows, keyboard skills from Bill Bailey, and some improvising around that little-known (but genuine) musical, The Bathrooms Are Coming.

Radio Times review

"I'm determined to have a safe Christmas this year," says Agnes, as she takes delivery of another preposterous, life-threatening tree from Buster. She's also preoccupied with Winnie's bucket list and the family's plan to ship her off to Canada.

Mrs Brown's Boys has zero sophistication but still manages to be peculiarly endearing and pull in the punters. This ramshackle special squeezes in decent visual gags, a trumping grandad and a swearing vicar; the usually effective ad-libs for once look well rehearsed. And watch out for a throwaway cameo for Noddy Holder.

Radio Times review

For the second year running, the indefatigable comedian hosts a cheery variety show, filmed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Dara O'Briain, Dame Edna Everage and surprise America's Got Talent winner Paul Zerdin provide laughs to go with McIntyre's own zippy observations about the tiny absurdities of a family gathering. Ellie Goulding and Tom Jones are the musical guests, with other celebs dropping in to surprise, and perhaps prank, the live audience.

Krankies actress in 'Yellowface' racism row

68-year-old Janette Krankie plays a male Japanese fashion designer called Huki Muki in the forthcoming Ab Fab movie, set for release next summer, which has caused a number of fans to call the casting choice 'racist'. Influential Korean American actress Margaret Cho ... accused the film of 'yellowface', which she describes as "when white people portray Asian people. And unfortunately it's happening in this film."

Why is 'yellowface' wrong yet pantomime dames are OK?

The casting of a Japanese character in the new Ab Fab movie has caused offence -but are we being selective in the caricatures we choose to attack?

Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star in Netflix's new Black Mirror

If reports are to be believed, British rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Canada's Mackenzie Davis are the first actors to be cast in Netflix's forthcoming series of Black Mirror.

Peep Show ended in the right way

Peep Show is certainly one of the greatest sitcoms made in recent decades. It is the show that we comedy connoisseurs want to take to all those people who watch Mrs. Brown's Boys, broadcast in front of them, and tell them that this is the show they should have been watching. I'll miss it... *MIMES PULLING CORD* Ehhhhhhh!! Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Peep Show: sitcom for a rootless generation

When Peep Show first arrived on our screens in 2003, it put off some who thought it too 'zeitgeisty' - too Channel 4. First developed as a kind of live-action Beavis and Butt-Head, where two graduates would trade sarky observations about TV shows, its inner monologues and POV perspective struck many as a gimmick cooked up by TV execs. But, as Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan later said, he hated Peep Show 'right up until the moment I actually watched it'.

The Chuckle Brothers interview

Paul and Barry Elliott, AKA the Chuckle Brothers, are in Peter Pan at Wolverhampton this year - their 48th consecutive pantomime. They talk daytime TV, their movie dreams - and making a record with Tinchy Stryder.

Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan interviews

Catastrophe is No/ 4 in our end-of-year roundup. Here, the stars talk about filming sex scenes with friends, winning arguments by scary fast walking, and why the show is not really about bad things happening.

The final Peep Show and the art of saying goodbye

After 54 episodes over nine series, the El Dude brothers have reached the end of the line. Where Sex and the City and The Sopranos rounded off in style and other series crash-landed, will tonight's finale do the show justice?

Lucy Beaumont's radio comedy to return to BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 has commissioned a new series of To Hull and Back, the comedy series by Lucy Beaumont.

Peep Show: series 9, episode 6 review

There have been laughs, there have been tears, there have been snakes, men with ven, three weddings, two funerals, a baby, and, of course, a dead dog in a bin. The world of British comedy will be that much the poorer without them.

Peep Show season 9 final episode review

Bidding a sad 'laters' to a humbling take-down of post-millennial life in a shit flat.

Peep Show: 19 funniest quotes from the final episode

Mark and Jeremy came to blows as the cult hit series bowed out.

Now is the right time to say goodbye to Peep Show

Channel 4's veteran comedy ended with excruciating, downbeat brilliance - but all good things must come to an end, says Ben Dowell.

Peep Show - the final ride of the El Dude brothers

We say goodbye to the era-defining sitcom with an episode full of the depravity, hilarity and human truths that have set it apart for 12 years.

The last ever Peep Show went out with a whimper

The resolution came all too quickly in Peep Show's big finale, says Iona McLaren.

Josh: episode 6 - Suited & Booted review

It has to be said that personally the final episode of Josh Widdicombe's sitcom was not the greatest of the bunch, not so much for a lack of comedic material, but more for what is worn on screen.

Peep Show: Mark and Jeremy's 12 best moments

To celebrate 12 years of television's favourite socially incompetent duo.

Peep Show's sentimental last episode is a winner

The El Dude brothers are doomed to repeat this routine forever.

MUFF review

To attempt to explain more would be counter-productive; just know that this is a wild, outrageous, rock-and-roll style of comedy, which ain't always pretty but which loves to revel in its excesses.