Dead Funny review

Katherine Parkinson and Rufus Jones are superb in this poignant farce.

Dead Funny review

It is hard to mix farce and tragedy but Johnson pulls it off. When a custard pie hits someone in the face you chuckle but also feel like crying.

Dead Funny review

Under the writer's own direction, the production skilfully walks a fine line between hilarity and emotional exposure.

Dead Funny review

It's not clear why Dead Funny has remained dormant for so long, for this revival, directed by Terry Johnson, hits all the marks with strong actors, great characters, and a bitingly funny script than conspire to make a show as funny as any of the comedy greats it celebrates.

Dead Funny is a perfectly crafted

Assisted by sundry skeletons tumbling out of closets, this deft anatomy of marriage and mirth climaxes in a melee of uproarious slapstick (no dramatist worth his salt introduces a large bowl of trifle without putting it to good use). Recommended, then, even if couples should approach with caution: there will be moments when titter ye will not; and there may even be tears before taxi-time.

Dead Funny review

Both very funny and pointedly sad, 'Dead Funny' explores how laughs and jokes and jibes can be masks - veils that allow us to sidestep looking seriously at our own lives or even properly living them. That all might sound a bit serious, and there's much to chew on here. But this is no dry, po-faced look at comedy. Johnson directs this West End revival of his own play and turns in a brilliantly timed, often hilarious and lively production that's also poignant.

New mockumentary, narrated and exec-produced by Ralf Little, that follows a dysfunctional border control team at a minor UK airport as they cope with impassive foreign nationals, drug smugglers and bellicose Home Office directives. It's The Office with cavity searches, although judging by this bumpy first episode, it may take a while to find a groove. Edinburgh fringe veteran Jackie Clune is reliably good as harried team leader Linda Proctor.

C5's original comedy Borderline has great promise

For the first time in nine years, Channel 5 has created its own comedy series, Borderline. Set in the fictional Northend airport, the mockumentary follows a group of inept border guards trying to enforce Home Office policy. It is truly a comedy for post-Brexit Britain, and it has promise.