Get A Grip (Ben Elton's new ITV1 show) Page 2

Blackadder's not "his". He was brought in on it, and undoubtedly did an amazing job, but it's not his.

Thin Blue Line was on UkGold thursday afternoon (i think), and it reminded me how brilliant it was.

"i've got curly wurly in my trouser pocket."

Yep! Long time since I've watched it properly, and I was cracking up. It's immensely overlooked.

Looks like UKTV Gold will be playing it every weeknight at 7pm from Monday 16th. Until then, they've got rather random acheduling of the first three episodes.

Yes I agree - Black Adder, then Young Ones. Thin Blue Line was a bit too OTT.

You're in denial. ;)

I think Ben Elton could claim Blackadder was 'his' (well half-his). It's fairly well documented that it was the bits Elton brought to the table which turned Blackadder from an average show to a hit show. In fact, without him, we probably wouldn't have Blackadder - the BBC would have probably gone through with the threat of cancelling it.

But, yeah, The Thin Blue Line is great. DI Grim is in my list of top-five comedy characters easily. "My cockup... your arse!"

I think Richard Curtis has been more consistently funny since Blackadder than Ben Elton has. I really liked the first series of Blackadder but loved the rest with the Elton influence too. I always get the impression that Ben Elton thinks that shouting a moderately funny line turns it into a classic comedy masterpiece, but I don't hold that view myself. I've not watched this new thing yet though. And I'm a huge Queen fan (not Her Maj) and really enjoyed We Will Rock You.

On the subject of the Chung woman, she's symptamatic of a trend in modern comedy to get non-comedians in to read an autocue. It started after Angus Deayton was sacked from HGNFY, and they replaced him with a succession of guest hosts. It works relatively well on that show because whoever the guest host is, assuming they're not a comedian, they're surrounded by genuine comedians. Unfortunately, this autocue comedy read by non-comedians has now spread to Channel 4, with shows like The Charlotte Church Show and The Friday Night Project, which has featured some spectacularly stilted and wooden guest presenters.

Sorry Aaron. I've never been to Egypt. (old joke)

Thought I'd give it a fair crack of the whip. The girl is there to make Elton look good. She's just not at all natural. I just don't like the format and he is very dated. Some of the sketches were amusing but I'm sure it's canned laughter. Ha ha ha ha ha. He is extremely smug.

Was that really NO ADVERTS AT ALL between parts 1 & 2?

Quote: David Chapman @ April 11, 2007, 10:20 PM

Sorry Aaron. I've never been to Egypt. (old joke)

Boom-boom tssschhhhhhhhh!

"The Friday Night Project, which has featured some spectacularly stilted and wooden guest presenters."

Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr are comedians and quite funny just not put in the right situations and I find charlotte church pulls it off with her welsh wit and her "I-don’t-give-a-shit" attitude to what she does.

PS - "Get a Grip" is really really really really bad... I couldn't watch the whole episode, I could almost see their eyes moving from side to side reading the autocue

But seriously I sort of watched it and between parts 1 and 2 they just had a couple of trailers for other programmes - no adverts - so no-one has any faith in it. (Maybe it's our fault)

The hairy one and gay one from The Friday Night Project are funny in a low level kind of way, I just don't see why they need the hideous gueast presenters. As for Charlotte Church, she's a talentless fat chav going out with a bright orange tit.

I think Ben Elton has got to that stage in life where he has so much money he thinks he can try anything (like when singers become actors and vice versa. he probably thought "ive done stand up comedies, written sitcoms and books so now il have a bash at the autocue comedy"
hopefully he'll realise that money doesn't buy you popularity and should stick to what he's good at.
The Chung woman is probably just naive...she's wooden on the T4 Pop world as well, she just needs more time...but Ben Elton should have been up to standard!

I think Ben Elton is grooming Alexa. We should probably call somebody.