Comedy Night - 29th September 2011

Marion and Geoff - s2e1 - Pathos pathos everywhere, possibly Rob Brydon's greatest moment.  Excellent combination of comic timing, improv and situation comedy.

Fast Show - s3e5 - the Channel 9 awards show sketch marks a return to the Channel 9 parodies actually being funny, especially with the comedy award.  A cruel caricature of Men Behaving Badly-era Martin Clunes. Also the début of Quayle the retriever.

Grass - e1 - the Fast Show spin off no one seems to remember, featuring Billy Bleach, Simon Day's pub knowall character.  Slow to start and rather dark, this was one of BBC3's first comedy's and Charlie Higson has said* that, like Swiss Toni, it was probably on the wrong channel for its target audience.

Gimme gimme gimme - Is Beryl really dead? How many uses for her coffin are there? The quality of this show really hasn't let up.

Show and Tell e3 - quality of guests takes a slight dip but still a strong line up.



*To me in a tweet. No really.  I made a noise like a small girl when I saw he'd messaged me. @monstroso is the handle he uses by the way, currently sending updates of Fast Show Faster they're doing for Fosters.

Comedy Night - 22 September 2011

Dad's Army - s4e9 - Mum's Army - Featuring a young Wendy Richards and Carmen Silvera (Edith in Allo Allo) as the Home Guard welcome women into the platoon.  Dad's Army must be in my top 5 sitcoms of all time, combining a stupidly talented cast and great, warm writing.  Arthur Lowe's comic timing in the Tea Shop as he tries to impress a younger woman by taking his glasses off and then end up bumping into things is a joy to behold.

Fast Show - s3e4 - more quality from Dave Angel and cockney geezer and this:

and Arthur Atkinson in a 1970s Confessions... movie.

Big Train - s2e1 - Opens with one of the greatest and most disturbing sketches they did:

From that point, I knew series 2 was going to be as good as series 1 and looking at the cast and writing list, its no surprise.

Smith and Jones in Small Doses - Second Thoughts - a touching comedy drama about 2 men about to commit suicide.  Curious piece this, which struck me as something ripe for a stage version.

Gimme gimme gimme - s2e1 - Sugar returns, Patsy Palmer decks Tom and the quality lines continue: "I'm in distress!" "So? I'm in dis dress."

Nathan Barley - pilot episode - still great and relevant (just take a walk in Hoxton and look at the young idiots)

Show and Tell - Nice new comedy panel show, notable for the stock of funny young comediennes it seems to have found.

Comedy Night - 15 September 2011

Chewing the Fat compilation e8 - Take a drink, goan, take a drink!  Still can't see why this never got shown south of the border.

Fast Show s3e2 - great episode, not only including a very young Tony Way (see comedy nights passim) in Suit You, the jazz dance outfit Thrusk (nice), but two classics: The Long Big Punch Up:

and this great remake of a British Cinema Classic:

Smith & Jones - special - The Boat People - I'd forgotten that Smith and Jones did a series of two handed comedy dramas as Smith and Jones in Small Doses (1989) .  This one based entirely inside a small sail boat is eminently watchable and shows that their ambitions were getting bigger than the sketch shows they were doing.

Gimme gimme gimme - millennium special - marvellous 2 hander (until the choir at the end) reflecting the crushing disappointment that is NYE and how it was magnified in 1999. That and some knob gags, of course.

Fun at the Funeral Parlour s1e4 - less patchy than other episodes and Art Malik as an evil hypnotist.

Comedy Night - 7 September 2011

TMWRNJ - s1e8 - Apart from featuring Brian Cant giving up on his voiceover for The Organ Gang, the highlight of this episode is this piece of bizarre genius from TV's Kevin Eldon:

Fast Show - s3e2 - more debuts including "black, black, black".  Also a very young Amy Winehouse in a competitive dad sketch here:

Flight of the Conchords - s2e10 - sadly the last of the show, perhaps of them as a duo given the way that Jermaine Clement's acting career appears to be taking off. MIB 3 anyone?

Smith & Jones - s4 compliation part 2 - those Head to Heads still hold up, you know:

Gimme gimme gimme - s1e6 - this week's gem: "I've had more pricks than keplunk" Not sophisticated but quality acting and script throughout.

Comedy Night - 25 August 2011

TMWRNJ - s1e7 - Curious Orange starts to go bad.  For some reason I vividly remember how realistic the mouldy look was. *Ahem* Anyway.

Fast Show - s3e1 - Everything seems to start to come together in series 3, Swiss Toni appears, as does Chip Cobb the stuntman, Arabella Weir finds a decent catchphrase character (an old lady saying "Ha!", don't get me started on "Does my bum look big in this") and this, possibly self-referencial joke at the expense of themselves and their fans:

Spaced - s1e7 - in which The Shining gets parodied and the Super Happy walk first appears.


Smith & Jones - s4 compilation - including a parody of In At the Deep End, which was reality TV before it was invented. Or something.

Gimme gimme gimme s1e5 - Kathy Burke's acting of a drunk Linda being worth the admission price alone.  Incidentally, Beth Goddard (Suze)?  Sir Patrick Stewart's mum, at least in X-Men First Class.

Flight of the Conchords s2e9 - Sadly, I really want to go to NY to do tours like this one.  Now can I get a Midnight Cowboy outfit to stand in outside their apartment block?

Comedy Night - 18 August 2011

TMWRNJ - s1e6 - Paul Putner, who plays the Curious Orange, is another one of those ever-present comedy actors, whose face you know, but name you don't.  Time was when people like him would have 20 Ealing/Carry On films under their belt.

Fast Show - s2e7 - With a character I'd forgotten by Charlie Higson: Sir Geoffrey Norman, who is so used to saying no in political interviews, it invades all his life:

Spaced - s1e5 - Featuring my favourite non-main character: Tyres.  Michael Smiley reprises the character in Shaun of the Dead, incidentally, look carefully amongst the zombies outside the Winchester.

Smith & Jones - s3 compilation - including the businessmen who go to a restaurant to eat like babies.  I vaguely remember the sketch, but it did have us giggling.  Oh, and this.  The Youtube subtitles are quite special, but I couldn't find a copy without:

Gimme Gimme Gimme - s1e4 - Dale Winton guests, but in a good way.

Flight of the Conchords - s2e8 - This week the boys get carried away with gel and revisit the 80s.  Musically.

Comedy Night 11 Aug 2011

TMWRNJ - s1e5 - What other show gives you TV's Kevin Eldon and Brian Cant?

Fast Show - s2e6 - My overdue realisation of the genuine that was Tommy Cockles continues, but this one also contains a gem of an Arthur Aktinson sketch.

Flight of the Conchords - s2e7 - apart from the shock appearance of Art Garfunkel in this episode, my man-love for Murray Hewitt goes on.  Looking forward to seeing Rhys Darby appear with Vic Reeves in The Fun Police.

Alas Smith & Jones - s2 compilation - I know it's the distillation of a whole series, but my goodness there are some gems in here.

Gimme Gimme Gimme - s1e3 - Although best known for Burke and Drayfus, the supporting cast in this is worth a mention.  Rosalind Knight's retired prostitute landlady is a hard centred piece of whimsy and Brian Bovell and Beth Goddard's sappy couple, who happen to be sex-mad are excellent as well.  Everyone has depth, no matter how cartoon like they appear at first.

Comedy Night - 28 July 2011

Still Game - s2e9 - one of the great advantages of this sitcom is that the characters feel real because you're not given a simple stereotype.  Although Jack's daughter lives in Canada, she's all too happy to invite him over, whereas Victor's son in S Africa obviously can't be bothered.  Result - no sentiment with the lovely children of the lovely OAPs, but not too much pathos with abandoned granddads.  Jack's different reactions to a bore and Victor both acting exactly the same way (from 5:50 on the clip) top off an excellent series.

Mongrels s1e8 - series finale with Bonfire Night.  With series 2 due to air soon, I keep having to remember the fine words (adapted) of Mr le Sac and Mr Pip: Thou shalt not stop liking a show just because it becomes popular.

Alas Smith & Jones Series 2 Compilation - more gems from the depths of my memory.

Fast Show s2e5 - is Rowley Birkin QC one of the greatest comedy characters of the last 20 years?

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace e6 - You do know that Matt Berry has made albums, plural, of this stuff, don't you?

Comedy Night - 21 July 2011

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? - s1e8 - 1970s Dinner Party faux pas with Terry and Bob.  I've alsways found WHTTLL strangely wistful. From the start of that theme song, it seems full of regret over forgotten youth. (Not in this version though)

Maybe its because it's full of the clothes and furniture of my earliest memories?  In any case, great ensemble cast, including Brigit Forsyth as one of the best straight (wo)men committed to Sitcom.

Mongrels - s1e7 - with Vince in a coma, Nelson takes over his patch, teaching woodland creatures how to be the best they can be, middle class. More throwaway one-liners (where they hide the near the knuckle stuff) and songs from the greatest puppet show since The Muppets.  (And yes, i'm including Gilbert the Alien in that statement)

Spaced - s1e4 - The one with paintball and Peter Serafinowicz doing the voice that would later excite Fran in Black Books when reading the Shipping Forecast.

Fast Show - s2e4 - Including the alcoholic family, Mark Williams proving that hitting your head on a cupboard is only funny when someone else does it.

I've no doubt someone somewhere as I type is working on a PhD on portrayals of drunkness from Music Hall to Online comedy.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - e5 - In which Scotch Mist invades. "If I want to highlight social prejudice, I will, but I’ll do it my way. And sometimes you actually have to be a bigot, in order to bring down bigger bigots." Cue OTT kilt wearing, ginger haired, claymore waving spirits. And a night out in Glasgow portrayed as the third circle of hell.

Comedy Night 14 July 2011

Still Game s2e8 - Including hunting urban foxes with night-vision glasses and the secret service life of the local alky. Oh, and never nick bunting.  More sitcom genius from the inhabitants of Craiglang.


Mongrel s1e6 - This week: incest and genocide, played for laughs.  Oh, and a dig at Ian Wright.  This week's song: Breaking Up is Such a Faff:

 

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace e4 - In which people start to regress to monkeys (and The Boosh turn up doing cameos).  Incidentally, it involves a chase scene on speeded up bicycles. (Family Guy - It's A Trap! anyone?)  Still worth the second look for the introductions alone.

Fast Show s2e3 - A great Ted and Ralph sketch - in the French Restaurant, Simon Day on The Life of Samuel Palmer, architect and idiot and the Offroaders go Paintballing.

Alas Smith and Jones s1 compilation pt2 - including the flies - the BBC had such high production values in the 80s.

Vic and Bob's Small Night In

If you weren't aware, Vic and Bob have followed Steve Coogan in producing small internet-only sketches for Fosters.  Coogan based his around Alan Partridge (now working for North Norfolk Digital Radio - I pass their portakabin every morning on the way to work), possibly as a test bed for the long wanted, now awaited Alan Partridge movie.

So what is Vic and Bob's contribution to the possible revolution of internet-as-comedy-provider model?  It's a series of 3 minute sketches with all new characters, all seemingly filmed on the same overgrown corner of an industrial estate.  Five episodes down, the content is, well, variable.

Now, I've long been a fan of Vic and Bob, I remember watching the trailers for Big Night Out ("Britain's top light entertainer") on Ch4 as a student and thinking, who's this big head then? (Irony was still on ration in 1990 Britain).  From the first episode, I got it, at last here was someone to inherit Monty Python's truly surreal take on comedy.  I've enjoyed The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Bang Bang It's R&M (and even The Weekenders in places) and the BBC3 underrated sitcom Catterick (well worth getting on DVD), but especially when they've trodden the obscure path.

When they hit it, they really hit it.

Shooting Stars has formed most of their output over the last few years and, well, often they don't appear to be really trying, repeating gags that wear after a couple of viewings (THAT song about Ulrika, anyone?)  The highlights of the quiz for me have been the filmed questions, concentrated Vic and Bob.

The new material on the internet appears to be much of the same.  Often they seem improvised and under rehearsed, Vic and Bob just busking it and hoping for the best, but when they concentrate, hit on the concept and hone a script it works again.

Filming on a new series of Shooting Stars has just finished, but I can't be alone in hoping they get a new sketch show commissioned, can I?

You're All Individuals. I'm Not.

The BBC has announced the latest in its line of BBC4 dramatisations of the history of comedy, only this time they've bounded in to the colour era, with a drama based on the public reaction to Life of Brian.

Holy Monty Python will air in Autumn and show the reaction of various groups including the church, famously Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark's appearance with Cleese and Palin, where Muggeridge stated it was "Such a tenth-rate film that it couldn't possibly destroy anyone's genuine faith".

All well and good, but most of these people are still alive and don't we already know what happens here form interviews and documentaries?  The interest in the previous films BBC4 have done was in picking stories we didn't really know: behind the scenes of Steptoe and Son, Corbett and Brambell hated each other; Hattie Jacques was unfaithful and near broke John le Mesurier's heart and so on.


Also, I'm not convinced this is the most interesting period in the life of the Pythons.  They'd all but finished being a comedy collective.  Cleese had just finished the second series of Fawlty Towers, Gilliam's directing career was taking off with Jabberwocky (and Time Bandits in planning), Idle had done RWT and the Rutles, Jones and Palin had completed a second helping of Ripping Yarns and even Chapman was planning Yellowbeard.


More interesting, in terms of episodes about which most people know little, would have been how they got together, tracking their work with Frost, the Two Ronnies, the Goodies, Marty Feldman and David Jason (who very nearly was a member of MPFC).  Even how they dealt with Cleese's decision not to appear in series 4 would have made interesting viewing.  I'm not sure I won't just sit there and go, yeah, don't we all know that?


It also raises the question: if Python is now subject to comedy dramas, what next?  The story of The Rubber Chicken Song and Spitting Image? Will My Family survive Kris Marshall's decision to leave, halving the number of actually funny people on the show? That tricky 7th series of Two Pints, when a shark jumped the Fonz?

Comedy Night - 30 June 2011

Still Game - s2e7 - It says something for this series that they do an episode about two old boys celebrating 60 years of being friends, yet avoid sentimentality, unless it can be played for laughs.  Being knocked down by a bus was never funnier.

Mongrels - s1e5 - Every now and then with a box set, you hit the jackpot.  A great episode and one you missed first time round.  Nelson's pen friend from France turns up, but are those flecks of saliva at the corners of his mouth?  BBC trailers are up for the new series in the autumn and repeats are on BBC3.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - e3 - Skipper the Eye Child, in which Garth over compensates for the lost of his half-human, half-grasshopper son. (in an accident involving a helicopter and an over-enthusiastic hop)

Fast Show - s2e2 - The arrival of Competitive Dad.  Incidentally Simon Day's autobiography is just out and looks an interesting read given he worked with Vic and Bob and appeared on Saturday Zoo (Jonathan Ross's failed yet often cited comedy chat show - birthplace of Paul Calf no less).  One day I must blog separately about the Fast Show, its influence and the overlooked parts of it.

Alas Smith & Jones - s1 best of - Astonishing for how young they both look (and how chubby Jones is) but also for the number of sketches that have stuck in the memory ("And now the new for the elderly...HELLOOOO").

Gimme Gimme Gimme - s1e2 - One room (pretty much) sitcom that still delivers on the joke quota and still has the worst title sequence of all time.

Comedy Night - 22 June 2011

This week's viewings:

• Mongrels e4 (Quality perhaps slightly dipping, but that's still miles ahead of others) - so glad to read that a second series is expected this summer.
• Still Game s2e6 (Such a consistantly funny, warm, but not condescending show)
• The Fast Show s2e1 (Introducing Jazz Club, Jessie's Diets and the concept of Gary Lineker's mid-coital sweaty brow looming over you)
• Garth Mareghi's Darkplace e2 (Liz's ESP gets out of hand) - I have to confess I really wasn't very impressed first time round by GMD, I think becuase I had such high expectations of it.  Second time around it's proving a lot of silly fun and Richard Ayoade steals all the scenes he's in, of course.
• Fun at the Funeral Parlour s1e3 (The Elephant Man's spirit possesses one of the Thomases) - a show I didn't catch first time around and it's so very nearly a great show, but just falls flat too many times.  Editting? Direction? Script? I really can't pin down what it is thats at fault.  Starring, of course, Tony Way, whose CV reads like a comprehensive listing of alternative comedy of the last 15 years.
• Gimme Gimme Gimme s1e1 (In which a mystery man is discovered in the kitchen the morning after) - this is a show that I'm not sure I should consider as a guilty pleasure.  Kathy Burke shows just why her decision to turn to theatre direction is a huge loss to comedy acting.  And let's not forget James Dreyfus, whose career doesn't appear to have recovered from My Hero yet, ironically having appeared in Casualty most recently (s1e1 features Tom and Linda playing a Casualty game).