Weekly Newsletter |
Monday 1st June 2020 |
Ooft. As the oddities of life under lockdown continue, the weather is hotting up just as much as the news - read on...
Latest comedy news
Two Doors Down to return for Series 5
BBC Scotland's hit sitcom Two Doors Down is to return to BBC Two for a fifth series, British Comedy Guide can reveal. All the cast will reprise their roles, and it's planned to be on air next year.
Comedian sets up fund to help northern acts get online
Comedian Red Redmond has launched The Real Northern Powerhouse, a fund to support comedy acts in the north of England who are affected by the coronavirus lockdown.
Room Next Door star Michael Spicer gets Radio 4 show
Radio 4 is to broadcast Michael Spicer: Before Next Door, a comedy based on comedian Michael Spicer's rise to internet stardom for his Room Next Door videos.
Infinite Monkey Cage to trial remote virtual audience recordings
Radio 4 panel show The Infinite Monkey Cage is to be the first to trial a BBC remote virtual audience recording system. Audience members will be able to watch the recording via Zoom, where their laughter will be recorded.
Lee Mack to present TV talent contest for carpenters
Lee Mack is to present The Chop: Britain's Top Woodworker, a series to air on Sky History in which 10 contestants compete to build and furnish a cabin in the middle of Epping Forest.
Agatha Raisin to return for Series 4
Hit Sky One comedy drama Agatha Raisin, which stars Ashley Jensen as an amateur detective, is to return for a fourth series. The news is revealed ahead of Series 3 starting next week.
Richard Ayoade to host BAFTA TV Awards
Richard Ayoade has been announced as the host of the British Academy Television Awards, which will be shown on BBC One on Friday 31st July.
Wallace & Gromit to return via augmented reality app
Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is to be released this autumn, a new phone app that will offer augmented reality gameplay, in character phone calls, comic strips, and other technology to tell a new story.
Romesh Ranganathan to publish second memoir
Romesh Ranganathan is to release a second volume of memoirs. As Good As It Gets: Life Lessons From A Reluctant Adult will be published in October.
Features
Comedy Chronicles: The Mission of Miles Malleson
In this edition of our hit column Comedy Chronicles, Graham McCann looks at the remarkable life and mission of prolific screen actor Miles Malleson.
First Gig, Worst Gig: JoJo Bellini
Holed up in New Zealand but still knocking out fresh stuff, JoJo Bellini serves up a fruity cocktail of ups and downs.
1979 and all that: Back to the future for comedy after coronovirus?
Oliver Double, the author of Alternative Comedy: 1979 And The Reinvention Of British Stand-Up, gives his thoughts on whether the club circuit will bounce back from lockdown, if live comedy is art, and whether alternative comedians were only ever preaching to the converted.
Stuart Goldsmith talks about his Infinite Sofa
Big stars, a big in-the-Zoom audience, plus an occasional naked weirdo. Stuart Goldsmith's Infinite Sofa is the lockdown show that might just run and run.
British Comedy Quiz #103
What number do The Kumars live at? That's one of our questions this time.
BCG Pro
Amongst the features on our website for those who write, produce and perform comedy: Holly Walsh talks about the work involved in co-writing The Other One.
Podcasts
Live recordings of RHLSTP might have stopped, but now Richard Herring is recording new episodes via the internet. Adam Buxton is the first lockdown guest.
TV listings
Ricky & Ralf's Very Northern Road Trip
The Royle campervan hits the North-East, to experience the Angel of the North, a working coal mine and glass blowing - and meet local pigeon-racers, food bank heroes - and a soccer legend.
Comedians: Home Alone
A new series in which the BBC has tasked comedians with entertaining and enlightening the nation in their own unique way, from their homes.
Bradley Walsh: Happy 60th Birthday
A one-off special celebrating the illustrious career of Bradley Walsh, from stand-up comedy and to quiz shows and acting.
Code 404
With Major's AI finally living up to the hype, Carver and Kelly come clean about their relationship. The team lies in wait to catch The Juggler.
QI
Sandi Toksvig hosts the high-brow quiz, asking questions about ruffs, red items and other things beginning with the letter R. Trying to come up with the answers are Alan Davies, Tom Allen, Susan Calman and Zoe Lyons.
The First Team
The new football comedy continues. Mattie befriends the team's star mid-fielder Carlos Velez in an attempt to improve team spirit.
Brassic
Ordered by McCann to sell all the weed they have grown, the lads decide to throw a music festival in Jim's field.
Joe Lycett's Got Your Back
A highlights episode featuring new behind the scenes insights, never before seen moments and Joe's most outrageous victories to date.
The Other One
Another chance to see the pilot episode of this comedy (first shown in 2017), ahead of new episodes arriving from next week, which will continue the story. It's about two families from different backgrounds who have to come together when it's revealed they had the same bigamist husband/dad.
The Last Leg
The last in the series of the lockdown version of the show. Adam Hills, who beams in from Australia, will probably be looking forward to not having to get up so early in the morning next week.
Big Zuu's Big Eats
Grime artist Big Zuu is back on home turf - cooking for comedian Phil Wang in London's West End. In a mini interview on our site, Phil Wang reveals his Desert Island Dish.
Michael McIntyre's Big Show
A series of highlights specials looking back at some of the best bits from all the previous runs of this hit comedy show. This week's picks include Gary Barlow surprising the audience by singing along to their karaoke versions of some classic Take That songs.
The Ranganation
Paloma Faith and Tom Allen are set to join Romesh Ranganathan virtually this week. The format seems to be going pretty well in lockdown, so maybe the host never needs to leave his house to record this in future series either?
For a complete list of broadcasts, including repeats and radio comedy, see our full schedule.
Shop
|
The Personal History Of David CopperfieldAdapted by Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci from the classic novel by Charles Dickens, The Personal History Of David Copperfield brings to life one of the author's most cherished characters. From birth to infancy, from adolescence to adulthood, the good-hearted David Copperfield (Dev Patel) is surrounded by kindness, wickedness, poverty and wealth, as he meets an array of remarkable characters in Victorian England. As David sets out to be a writer, in his quest for family, friendship, romance and status, the story of his life is the most seductive tale of all. The charming story is riven with injustice, but sparkles with the cream of British acting talent in this latest adaptation, including Hugh Laurie, Daisy May Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Peter Capaldi and Paul Whitehouse. |
 |
Military WivesKristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan star in this comic drama about a group of military wives who come together to form a choir, based on the famous real Military Wives Choirs movement. With their husbands deployed in Afghanistan, their wives left behind at their English military base form a choir, led by officers' wives Kate (Scott Thomas) and Lisa (Horgan), to cope with their husbands' absence and take their minds off the conflict. What begins with some performances in the local village culminates in a televised concert performance at the Festival of Remembrance in London's Royal Albert Hall. Can the women come together to make the choir a success? The rest of the cast includes Greg Wise, Laura Checkley, Robbie Gee and Jason Flemyng. |
|
The Constant HusbandRex Harrison gives a memorably smooth performance as an amnesiac boffin with a singularly dedicated attitude towards matrimony in this classic comedy by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. Co-starring Margaret Leighton, Kay Kendall and Cecil Parker, The Constant Husband is presented as a brand-new high definition transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio. An Englishman wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel bedroom with amnesia. A specialist at the local hospital tells him it was brought on by some kind of upset and they both set out to unearth the patient's past. What they find is shocking - not just to themselves but also to the man's seven wives! The premiere HD and restoration release of this title, it'll be available from 27th July. Pre-order your copy now. |
|
Sofie Hagen - Happy FatA "searing and impassioned" debut from comedian Sofie Hagen - who urges us to fight back and reframe our toxic relationships with our bodies. Sofie Hagen has always been fat. But after years of struggling with her body image and subjecting herself to countless diets, Sofie began to question the incessant body shaming and internalised fatphobia that she had always taken for granted. She started to worry less about fad diets and impossible beauty ideals and began to challenge the origins of these superficial aspirations. Happy Fat is a response to this exploration: part-memoir, part-social commentary, Sofie describes how she conquered a negative relationship with her body and provides practical tips for readers to do the same - drawing wisdom from fat liberation champions along the way. First published in May 2019, the paperback edition is out now. |
|
The Now Show - Series 50 - 5225 episodes of the flagship topical comedy show presented by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. Featuring some of the best and brightest contemporary comedians, this award-winning show takes a satirical look at the news through a mix of stand-up, songs and sketches, as well as interview segments in which experts in their field explain the facts behind the headlines. In these three series, hosts Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by special guests including Andy Zaltzman, Pippa Evans, Luke Kempner, Mae Martin, Daliso Chaponda, Jake Yapp, Eshaan Akbar, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Vikki Stone, amongst many others. |
For more, see our full list of new releases and items coming soon.
Comedy videos
Sunday Service
In this 10-minute video, a village vicar Facetimes her vulnerable parishioners during lockdown, unaware they're not as lonely as she thought.
Comedians In Quarantine - Huge Davies
It sounds like Huge Davies and his Sims have been busy in quarantine, in this video filmed for Comedy Central.
Mawaan Rizwan - Never Been Skiing
Mawaan Rizwan has never been skiing... "cos it aint a holiday if you gotta do exercise, you get me?"
Dave Bibby - The Cheese Song
Dave Bibby sings a song about his first love... cheese.
27 comedians deliver one-liners
A video organised by Mark Simmons in which 27 comedians deliver short jokes. Stars include Milton Jones and Tim Vine.
Angry Quiz Guy
A web series in which Nick Helm plays a man who is organising online quizzes for his friends - with much frustration!
The Brownie Club - What Are You?
A comedy song about being asked 'where are you from?'
My Family - Outtakes
Here're some never-seen-before bloopers from hit BBC sitcom My Family. The cast and producers decided that now would be a good time for them to be seen for the first time, as the show proves a hit again during a lockdown repeat run.
Jack Rooke & Rosie Jones on homophobia
Jack Rooke and Rosie Jones have had enough of homophobia. Jack wants to put haters through a homophobe conversion camp, but Rosie thinks more gay kissing is the answer - preferably involving her.
Escape room for flies
We love the premise of this one, from Short & Curly. It's an advert for the new escape room for flies.
Ant Dewson - Microsoft Teams Song
A new song from musical comedian Ant Dewson about keeping yourself amused during lockdown. Do not try this at home. It could lead to divorce, or unemployment, or both.
A Season in a Second
A look at how documentary programmes film time lapse photography sequences. It turns out it is very labour intensive to capture one second of footage each day!
Secret Zoom hack
Did you know the Ctrl + Shift + F7 trick on Zoom, which pauses your screen? Dom Joly guest stars in this sketch by The Pin.
The Paddock
The first episode in E4's new series featuring comedians at home. Jamie Demetriou sings a song, Lolly Adefope auditions for the role of Black James Bond, Rosie Jones has some 'me time', and Sam Campbell gives a lesson on how to edit images in Ultromedia Please.
Spotlight
Don't Drink The Water
We're sure you know of the ITV sitcom On The Buses, even if you're not familiar with it yourself: one of the network's most successful ever comedies, the working class staple clocked up more than 70 episodes across 7 series between 1969 and 73, plus no fewer than three feature-film adventures for the much-loved cast; all of which are enduringly popular to this day. Much less known is this spin-off/sequel, following the love-to-hate character of Inspector Blake as he retires to the Spanish sun with his highly-strung sister. Stephen Lewis reprises his role as Blakey, whilst the brilliant Pat Coombs takes on the role of regularly-hysterical Dorothy to perfection. Running for a further 13 episodes across two series, their disastrous domestic adventures on the Costa Brava are in much the same vein of comic escapades as On The Buses itself, and are available now on DVD.
Thanks for reading
Patrick Robinson has won the latest BCG Pro Gag-a-Week competition on the topic of "Dogs":
"I told my French girlfriend that I didn't like her dog. She took it on the chien."
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Head to our competitions page for a chance to win some Monty Python and Red Dwarf stuff!
British Comedy Guide
www.comedy.co.uk
BCG on social media:
Join our mailing list