Channel 4 has commissioned a second series of The Change, written by comedian Bridget Christie. Here are the details.
Bridget Christie has been on the comedy circuit for almost 20 years and has written Edinburgh Fringe shows in which she performed dressed as King Charles II, as well as making a memorable appearance on Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience, in which she performed a stand up set dressed as an ant.
She made her screenwriting debut last year with wonderful comedy drama The Change.The plot followed Christie as Linda, a menopausal woman who decides on a whim to abandon her home and husband to join a commune in the Forest of Dean, where she meets an eclectic variety of eccentric characters, and begins to discover another side of herself.
The show co-starred Monica Dolan, Paul Whitehouse, Liza Tarbuck, Omid Djalili, Jim Howick, Tanya Moodie and Jerome Flynn. There’s...
Bridget Christie has been on the comedy circuit for almost 20 years and has written Edinburgh Fringe shows in which she performed dressed as King Charles II, as well as making a memorable appearance on Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience, in which she performed a stand up set dressed as an ant.
She made her screenwriting debut last year with wonderful comedy drama The Change.The plot followed Christie as Linda, a menopausal woman who decides on a whim to abandon her home and husband to join a commune in the Forest of Dean, where she meets an eclectic variety of eccentric characters, and begins to discover another side of herself.
The show co-starred Monica Dolan, Paul Whitehouse, Liza Tarbuck, Omid Djalili, Jim Howick, Tanya Moodie and Jerome Flynn. There’s...
- 5/8/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
When the puerile comedy bombed, the film-makers blamed the critics and the Tories blamed the UK Film Council. Twenty years on, we reassess the legacy of a cinematic pariah whose champions include Stewart Lee and Mike Leigh
Actor Dominic Coleman was about to board a flight back from Australia when he received a text from Mark Gatiss about a film they had starred in together. It was a quote from the Sunday Times: “Is this the worst British film ever made?”
By the time Coleman was changing planes in Hong Kong, disgust at the film had spread to the front pages of the British newspapers on sale at the airport. It was, he remembers, “like the end of the world. It felt like people were pointing at me on the plane: that’s the guy, it’s him. It was a really difficult time and it really freaked me out.
Actor Dominic Coleman was about to board a flight back from Australia when he received a text from Mark Gatiss about a film they had starred in together. It was a quote from the Sunday Times: “Is this the worst British film ever made?”
By the time Coleman was changing planes in Hong Kong, disgust at the film had spread to the front pages of the British newspapers on sale at the airport. It was, he remembers, “like the end of the world. It felt like people were pointing at me on the plane: that’s the guy, it’s him. It was a really difficult time and it really freaked me out.
- 2/20/2024
- by Fergal Kinney
- The Guardian - Film News
Film includes interviews with John Waters, Ben Wheatley, Mary Harron.
BFI Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Scala!!!, a feature documentary about the legendary London cinema which ran from 1978 to 1993, from production company Fifty Foot Woman.
The film will make its world premiere in the ’Documents and Documentaries’ section of the 37th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna in Italy this Sunday, June 25.
The full title of the film is Scala!!! Or, the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world’s wildest cinema and how it influenced a mixed-up generation of weirdos and misfits. Directed by Jane Giles...
BFI Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Scala!!!, a feature documentary about the legendary London cinema which ran from 1978 to 1993, from production company Fifty Foot Woman.
The film will make its world premiere in the ’Documents and Documentaries’ section of the 37th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna in Italy this Sunday, June 25.
The full title of the film is Scala!!! Or, the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world’s wildest cinema and how it influenced a mixed-up generation of weirdos and misfits. Directed by Jane Giles...
- 6/21/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
‘Scala!!!’, documentary about iconic London cinema, scores UK-Ireland theatrical release (exclusive)
Film includes interviews with John Waters, Ben Wheatley, Mary Harron.
BFI Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Scala!!!, a feature documentary about the legendary London cinema which ran from 1978 to 1993.
The film has its world premiere in the Documents and Documentaries section of the 37th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy this Sunday, June 25. BFI Distribution acquired the film from production company Fifty Foot Woman.
The full title of the film is Scala!!! Or, the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world’s wildest cinema and how it influenced a mixed-up generation of weirdos and misfits. Directed...
BFI Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Scala!!!, a feature documentary about the legendary London cinema which ran from 1978 to 1993.
The film has its world premiere in the Documents and Documentaries section of the 37th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy this Sunday, June 25. BFI Distribution acquired the film from production company Fifty Foot Woman.
The full title of the film is Scala!!! Or, the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world’s wildest cinema and how it influenced a mixed-up generation of weirdos and misfits. Directed...
- 6/21/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The theme of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, ‘United by Music,’ announced both the annual musical extravaganza’s all-embracing intentions and its status as a joint endeavor. With 2022 winners Ukraine unable to host in Kyiv due to the war, the U.K. – last year’s runners-up, thanks to Sam Ryder’s soaring “Space Man” – stepped in to reinstall this ever more spectacular circus (along with multiple Ukrainian creative personnel) in Liverpool, birthplace of the Beatles. A declaration that this was to be the glitziest of collabs was served via a prologue that paired Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, reworking last year’s winning entry “Stefania”, with the Princess of Wales, apparently providing piano accompaniment from within Windsor Castle. Soft power-a-go-go.
There was no President Zelenskyy address – ruled unduly political by the Eurovision mandarins, a decision that felt questionable even before Ukraine’s 2023 entry, Tvorchi’s “Heart of Steel,” implored “don’t...
There was no President Zelenskyy address – ruled unduly political by the Eurovision mandarins, a decision that felt questionable even before Ukraine’s 2023 entry, Tvorchi’s “Heart of Steel,” implored “don’t...
- 5/14/2023
- by Mike McCahill
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Audible has revealed a new slate of UK comedy podcasts, including new series from comedians Daisy May Cooper, Lolly Adefope, Mo Gilligan and Dara Ó Briain.
Alongside the new commissions, Audible is returning series From The Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (series 3), The Kurupt FM Podkast (series 3), French and Saunders: Titting About (series 4) and Jack Whitehall’s Safe Space (series 2).
In Educating Daisy, May Cooper’s first podcast, the actress and comedian will host guests including Tim Key, Diane Morgan and Katie Price, as they try to convince her to read their favorite novels.
Lolly Adefope’s Fanmail will see the actress and character comedian talking to fans and celebrities about some burning questions. The pod is produced by Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow, which also produces From The Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast.
Also hosting his first podcast is comedian Dara Ó Briain. Timewasters is a panel show format,...
Alongside the new commissions, Audible is returning series From The Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (series 3), The Kurupt FM Podkast (series 3), French and Saunders: Titting About (series 4) and Jack Whitehall’s Safe Space (series 2).
In Educating Daisy, May Cooper’s first podcast, the actress and comedian will host guests including Tim Key, Diane Morgan and Katie Price, as they try to convince her to read their favorite novels.
Lolly Adefope’s Fanmail will see the actress and character comedian talking to fans and celebrities about some burning questions. The pod is produced by Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow, which also produces From The Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast.
Also hosting his first podcast is comedian Dara Ó Briain. Timewasters is a panel show format,...
- 4/26/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
When it was announced yesterday that Frankie Boyle’s BBC series New World Order had been cancelled, the comedian’s reaction was frank but restrained. “Not surprising in the current climate, I suppose,” he told fans on Twitter, many of whom had followed his superb topical panel show devotedly for the five years it was on the air. Boyle didn’t elaborate on what he meant by the words “current climate”, but it doesn’t take too many imaginative leaps to hazard a guess. New World Order was one of the few shows on TV that was sincerely and unapologetically left-wing. And politically speaking, the BBC is in the midst of a full-fledged climate crisis.
It’s not good for optics that New World Order’s cancellation comes just weeks after the BBC was embroiled in an impartiality row with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker. The dispute – prompted...
It’s not good for optics that New World Order’s cancellation comes just weeks after the BBC was embroiled in an impartiality row with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker. The dispute – prompted...
- 3/24/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
We watch Sam Smith arrive at an old castle. Within seconds, they’re inside, surrounded by provocatively dressed dancers undulating suggestively. Smith stands at the centre, tassels on their nipples. Streams of water bounce off their face. In a nearby room, leather-clad BDSMers thrust amorously atop beds. I suppose it’s no wonder Smith’s latest music video, for the disco-inflected track “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”, has got people up in arms. It’s a raunchy, unabashed display of sexuality. Some have branded it “pornography” – but they’re wrong. It’s an accusation that reeks of homophobia.
The track itself isn’t the issue. “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” has pretty innocuous lyrics – tamely horny lines about looking to pull in a nightclub. Smith’s video, too, shouldn’t really have raised too many eyebrows: the non-binary English singer was simply embracing the kind of in-your-face,...
The track itself isn’t the issue. “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” has pretty innocuous lyrics – tamely horny lines about looking to pull in a nightclub. Smith’s video, too, shouldn’t really have raised too many eyebrows: the non-binary English singer was simply embracing the kind of in-your-face,...
- 1/31/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - Music
We watch Sam Smith arrive at an old castle. Within seconds, they’re inside, surrounded by provocatively dressed dancers undulating suggestively. Smith stands at the centre, tassels on their nipples. Streams of water bounce off their face. In a nearby room, leather-clad BDSMers thrust amorously atop beds. I suppose it’s no wonder Smith’s latest music video, for the disco-inflected track “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”, has got people up in arms. It’s a raunchy, unabashed display of sexuality. Some have branded it “pornography” – but they’re wrong. It’s an accusation that reeks of homophobia.
The track itself isn’t the issue. “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” has pretty innocuous lyrics – tamely horny lines about looking to pull in a nightclub. Smith’s video, too, shouldn’t really have raised too many eyebrows: the non-binary English singer was simply embracing the kind of in-your-face,...
The track itself isn’t the issue. “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” has pretty innocuous lyrics – tamely horny lines about looking to pull in a nightclub. Smith’s video, too, shouldn’t really have raised too many eyebrows: the non-binary English singer was simply embracing the kind of in-your-face,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - Music
Ricky Gervais celebrated his National Television Awards win at home by cuddling with his cat.
The 61-year-old comedian won the prize for Best Comedy at the awards show on Thursday (13 October) for his Netflix series After Life.
After the win, he tweeted: “Out partying, celebrating my big Nta win. Definitely not home, watching telly, cuddling the cat.”
Gervais shared the tweet alongside a photo of him and his pet.
He also thanked viewers who voted for the series, describing them as the “best fans in the world”.
Alongside a snap of him with a sniffer dog named Jack and his award outside the ceremony, Gervais wrote: “Thank you Nta and to everyone who voted. Best fans in the world. Oh, and thanks to Jack the sniffer dog for the selfie.”
After Life follows the story of newspaper writer Tony Johnson (Gervais) as he struggles to cope after his wife Lisa...
The 61-year-old comedian won the prize for Best Comedy at the awards show on Thursday (13 October) for his Netflix series After Life.
After the win, he tweeted: “Out partying, celebrating my big Nta win. Definitely not home, watching telly, cuddling the cat.”
Gervais shared the tweet alongside a photo of him and his pet.
He also thanked viewers who voted for the series, describing them as the “best fans in the world”.
Alongside a snap of him with a sniffer dog named Jack and his award outside the ceremony, Gervais wrote: “Thank you Nta and to everyone who voted. Best fans in the world. Oh, and thanks to Jack the sniffer dog for the selfie.”
After Life follows the story of newspaper writer Tony Johnson (Gervais) as he struggles to cope after his wife Lisa...
- 10/14/2022
- by Furvah Shah
- The Independent - TV
Ricky Gervais has responded to the suggestion that he return to host the Golden Globes in 2023.
The comedian and TV star has previously hosted the film awards ceremony five times, in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2020.
Gervais has drawn praise and a fair amount of controversy for his brutal monologues and mid-ceremony jokes, many of which take aim at the celebrity guests in attendence.
On social media, a fan shared a video of Gervais hosting the Globes in 2020, asking followers to retweet the clip “if you wish [that Gervais] would host the Golden Globes again in 2023”.
“F*** that,” Gervais wrote in response to the tweet, alongside a “crying laughing” emoji.
The comment echoes the After Life star’s previous remarks about returning to the Globes.
Back in January, he claimed that he had asked the awards body not to invite him to host the ceremony again.
“It could be the Golden Globes could offer me £10m for 10 minutes work,...
The comedian and TV star has previously hosted the film awards ceremony five times, in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2020.
Gervais has drawn praise and a fair amount of controversy for his brutal monologues and mid-ceremony jokes, many of which take aim at the celebrity guests in attendence.
On social media, a fan shared a video of Gervais hosting the Globes in 2020, asking followers to retweet the clip “if you wish [that Gervais] would host the Golden Globes again in 2023”.
“F*** that,” Gervais wrote in response to the tweet, alongside a “crying laughing” emoji.
The comment echoes the After Life star’s previous remarks about returning to the Globes.
Back in January, he claimed that he had asked the awards body not to invite him to host the ceremony again.
“It could be the Golden Globes could offer me £10m for 10 minutes work,...
- 10/10/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
The BFI London Film Festival’s annual Works-in-Progress showcase, now in its third edition, will present nine new feature films and documentaries by U.K.-based filmmakers.
The showcase, which is part of the festival’s U.K. Talent Days focus, will be an in-person event on Oct. 8 screening extracts from each project introduced by their producer to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers. The projects are either in production or post-production. Clips will also be available online via a secure platform to a wider pool of invited international industry professionals.
The annual Buyers & Sellers event returns as an in-person fixture at which international sales agents can meet with U.K. buyers, and Network@Lff will host masterclasses and events for 12 U.K.-based writers, directors and producers to interact with international filmmakers and industry executives at the festival.
Festival director, Tricia Tuttle, said: “Connecting independent filmmakers...
The showcase, which is part of the festival’s U.K. Talent Days focus, will be an in-person event on Oct. 8 screening extracts from each project introduced by their producer to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers. The projects are either in production or post-production. Clips will also be available online via a secure platform to a wider pool of invited international industry professionals.
The annual Buyers & Sellers event returns as an in-person fixture at which international sales agents can meet with U.K. buyers, and Network@Lff will host masterclasses and events for 12 U.K.-based writers, directors and producers to interact with international filmmakers and industry executives at the festival.
Festival director, Tricia Tuttle, said: “Connecting independent filmmakers...
- 9/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Lord Alan Sugar has been criticised for hitting out at someone who questioned his social media activity.
The entrepreneur and star of The Apprentice had shared a photographed of his yacht with the moon in the background, alongside the caption: “A moon landing.”
A Twitter user then responded to the post with the message: “People are struggling here with the cost of living and you taking pictures of your yacht.”
Sugar then shot back: “Shut your bloody mouth you jealous scum.”
The strongly worded insult has drawn criticism from other users of the social media website.
“Have some respect for people with differing opinions and who are less lucky than yourself,” one person wrote.
“Is this a parody account?? Surely no public figure is actually this rude??” another commented.
“Wow. That escalated quickly!” someone else wrote. “The dude had a valid point and you just shown him the contempt and total disregard.
The entrepreneur and star of The Apprentice had shared a photographed of his yacht with the moon in the background, alongside the caption: “A moon landing.”
A Twitter user then responded to the post with the message: “People are struggling here with the cost of living and you taking pictures of your yacht.”
Sugar then shot back: “Shut your bloody mouth you jealous scum.”
The strongly worded insult has drawn criticism from other users of the social media website.
“Have some respect for people with differing opinions and who are less lucky than yourself,” one person wrote.
“Is this a parody account?? Surely no public figure is actually this rude??” another commented.
“Wow. That escalated quickly!” someone else wrote. “The dude had a valid point and you just shown him the contempt and total disregard.
- 9/11/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
Jeremy Clarkson has opened up about the “alarming” car accident that occurred while filming the latest episode of The Grand Tour.
It was reported earlier this year that James May, who stars in the Prime Video motoring series alongside Clarkson and Richard Hammond, had been “rushed to hospital” after crashing his car in Norway.
The trio were in the country to film segments for their latest one-off special, The Ground Tour: A Scandi Flick.
In an essay for The Sunday Times, Clarkson discussed the crash in detail.
“In the latest episode of The Grand Tour there’s a big and alarming crash,” he wrote.
“There’s always a big and alarming crash in The Grand Tour of course, but this one was different because the person who was gingerly lifted from the wreckage by paramedics and carefully driven to hospital in the back of an ambulance was not Richard Hammond.
It was reported earlier this year that James May, who stars in the Prime Video motoring series alongside Clarkson and Richard Hammond, had been “rushed to hospital” after crashing his car in Norway.
The trio were in the country to film segments for their latest one-off special, The Ground Tour: A Scandi Flick.
In an essay for The Sunday Times, Clarkson discussed the crash in detail.
“In the latest episode of The Grand Tour there’s a big and alarming crash,” he wrote.
“There’s always a big and alarming crash in The Grand Tour of course, but this one was different because the person who was gingerly lifted from the wreckage by paramedics and carefully driven to hospital in the back of an ambulance was not Richard Hammond.
- 9/11/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
Ricky Gervais has appeared to respond to criticism from comedian Stewart Lee of his Netflix series After Life.
The Office creator’s latest comedy-drama premiered its third and final season on the streaming service earlier this year.
In an interview with Rob Brydon for his podcast Brydon &, Lee described After Life as “abysmal”, also branding it “one of the worst things that’s ever been made by a human”.
While Ricky Gervais has yet to explicitly acknowledge the jibe by Lee, he tweeted on Saturday (10 September): “Watch the award-winning, record-breaking #AfterLife Now streaming on Netflix around the world.”
Alongside this message, he shared a clip from the series in which his abrasive character, Tony, calls someone else a “fat, hairy, nosy c**ksucker”.
Gervais also “liked” a number of posts about Lee from his fans, including a post in which someone describes Lee as “never-been-funny”.
Another tweet “liked” by...
The Office creator’s latest comedy-drama premiered its third and final season on the streaming service earlier this year.
In an interview with Rob Brydon for his podcast Brydon &, Lee described After Life as “abysmal”, also branding it “one of the worst things that’s ever been made by a human”.
While Ricky Gervais has yet to explicitly acknowledge the jibe by Lee, he tweeted on Saturday (10 September): “Watch the award-winning, record-breaking #AfterLife Now streaming on Netflix around the world.”
Alongside this message, he shared a clip from the series in which his abrasive character, Tony, calls someone else a “fat, hairy, nosy c**ksucker”.
Gervais also “liked” a number of posts about Lee from his fans, including a post in which someone describes Lee as “never-been-funny”.
Another tweet “liked” by...
- 9/11/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
Harry Potter actor Sean Biggerstaff has branded Jeremy Clarkson a “rancid old thug” after the Grand Tour presenter made a remark about “socialists”.
On Friday (9 September), Clarkson tweeted: “Twitter is a handy and constant reminder that socialists are disgusting people.”
The post attracted criticism from many users of the social media website, including Biggerstaff, the actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in three films from the Harry Potter franchise.
“Shut the f*** up you rancid old thug,” wrote Biggerstaff in response to Clarkson’s post.
Clarkson is best known as the host of the BBC motoring series Top Gear, from which he departed in 2015 following allegations that he had assaulted one of the show’s producers.
His tweet was seemingly made in reference to reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II among left-wing republicans.
Biggerstaff was not the only voice to condemn Clarkson’s comment – others also shared...
On Friday (9 September), Clarkson tweeted: “Twitter is a handy and constant reminder that socialists are disgusting people.”
The post attracted criticism from many users of the social media website, including Biggerstaff, the actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in three films from the Harry Potter franchise.
“Shut the f*** up you rancid old thug,” wrote Biggerstaff in response to Clarkson’s post.
Clarkson is best known as the host of the BBC motoring series Top Gear, from which he departed in 2015 following allegations that he had assaulted one of the show’s producers.
His tweet was seemingly made in reference to reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II among left-wing republicans.
Biggerstaff was not the only voice to condemn Clarkson’s comment – others also shared...
- 9/10/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - Film
Harry Potter actor Sean Biggerstaff has branded Jeremy Clarkson a “rancid old thug” after the Grand Tour presenter made a remark about “socialists”.
On Friday (9 September), Clarkson tweeted: “Twitter is a handy and constant reminder that socialists are disgusting people.”
The post attracted criticism from many users of the social media website, including Biggerstaff, the actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in three films from the Harry Potter franchise.
“Shut the f*** up you rancid old thug,” wrote Biggerstaff in response to Clarkson’s post.
Clarkson is best known as the host of the BBC motoring series Top Gear, from which he departed in 2015 following allegations that he had assaulted one of the show’s producers.
His tweet was seemingly made in reference to reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II among left-wing republicans.
Biggerstaff was not the only voice to condemn Clarkson’s comment – others also shared...
On Friday (9 September), Clarkson tweeted: “Twitter is a handy and constant reminder that socialists are disgusting people.”
The post attracted criticism from many users of the social media website, including Biggerstaff, the actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in three films from the Harry Potter franchise.
“Shut the f*** up you rancid old thug,” wrote Biggerstaff in response to Clarkson’s post.
Clarkson is best known as the host of the BBC motoring series Top Gear, from which he departed in 2015 following allegations that he had assaulted one of the show’s producers.
His tweet was seemingly made in reference to reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II among left-wing republicans.
Biggerstaff was not the only voice to condemn Clarkson’s comment – others also shared...
- 9/10/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - Film
Acclaimed comedian Stewart Lee has heaped scorn on Ricky Gervais’s hit Netflix series After Life.
After Life follows the exploits of a curmudgeonly widower (Gervais) who slowly rediscovers his lust for life.
In an interview with Rob Brydon for his podcast Brydon &, Lee discussed the merits of Gervais’s series, describing it as “abysmal”.
“I think The Office is brilliant. I think Ricky’s comedy drama work is of diminishing returns to the point where it’s now abysmal,” he said. “I think it must be very sad.
“If you’re teaching drama or creative writing, how can you make a case for the things that make drama and creative writing good when After Life is a success? Because your kids could just go, ‘But none of those things happen in this!’ And yet, millions people watch it.
“I think it’s one of the worst things that’s...
After Life follows the exploits of a curmudgeonly widower (Gervais) who slowly rediscovers his lust for life.
In an interview with Rob Brydon for his podcast Brydon &, Lee discussed the merits of Gervais’s series, describing it as “abysmal”.
“I think The Office is brilliant. I think Ricky’s comedy drama work is of diminishing returns to the point where it’s now abysmal,” he said. “I think it must be very sad.
“If you’re teaching drama or creative writing, how can you make a case for the things that make drama and creative writing good when After Life is a success? Because your kids could just go, ‘But none of those things happen in this!’ And yet, millions people watch it.
“I think it’s one of the worst things that’s...
- 9/10/2022
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
About two-thirds into Sky Atlantic’s broadcast of King Rocker, Robert Lloyd – the subject of the film – is talking about how things were going from “bad to worse”. Unfortunately, an ad break comes in fractionally too soon and cuts him off; meaning what he actually says is “from bad to wor …” When the documentary resumes we have moved on, that final sibilant left unsaid. Probably forever. I’ve gone back and forth on this for ages, and I’m still not sure if it was intentional. It’s that sort of film.
This is, ostensibly, a documentary about a musician – Lloyd, the singer with 70s punk band The Prefects, which eventually morphed into cult Birmingham post-punk arty types The Nightingales. It tracks Lloyd’s hodge-podge career as he goes from art-rock frontman to record company boss, to band manager, to music video producer, to sit-com scriptwriter to pop solo artist,...
This is, ostensibly, a documentary about a musician – Lloyd, the singer with 70s punk band The Prefects, which eventually morphed into cult Birmingham post-punk arty types The Nightingales. It tracks Lloyd’s hodge-podge career as he goes from art-rock frontman to record company boss, to band manager, to music video producer, to sit-com scriptwriter to pop solo artist,...
- 2/10/2021
- by Marc Burrows
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Andrew Kötting’s dream-documentary traces a ritual journey in which a mysterious object is returned to a Scottish island
That unique artist, director and psycho-geographic savant Andrew Kötting sculpts another strange film-shamanic happening – intriguing, sometimes baffling, a bit preposterous, but pregnant with ideas. Tonally, his work is complex; humour is a part of it, and the film can’t really function without humour on the audience’s part, but it also requires a setting aside of mockery and irony, demanding instead to be accepted as a kind of higher playfulness, an inspired and transcendental jeu d’ésprit. In his 2012 film Swandown, Kötting included among his cast of characters a cameo from the comedian Stewart Lee, who was permitted to take the mickey a bit. But I sense that this isn’t a response that the film-maker wants to encourage.
Like much of his previous work, this is a dream-documentary road movie,...
That unique artist, director and psycho-geographic savant Andrew Kötting sculpts another strange film-shamanic happening – intriguing, sometimes baffling, a bit preposterous, but pregnant with ideas. Tonally, his work is complex; humour is a part of it, and the film can’t really function without humour on the audience’s part, but it also requires a setting aside of mockery and irony, demanding instead to be accepted as a kind of higher playfulness, an inspired and transcendental jeu d’ésprit. In his 2012 film Swandown, Kötting included among his cast of characters a cameo from the comedian Stewart Lee, who was permitted to take the mickey a bit. But I sense that this isn’t a response that the film-maker wants to encourage.
Like much of his previous work, this is a dream-documentary road movie,...
- 4/1/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: Shit-heels at the diner.As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***The Lindbergh Baby Case enthralled not just the world's journalists; in the funny pages, Dick Tracy was soon on the case, in a fiction-reality crossover soon brought to a halt by the tragic discovery of the murdered tot's remains. But movies continued to exploit the theme of baby-napping, and for some reason George Marshall, a useful Fox journeyman, was most associated with this particular sub-sub-sub-genre.Marshall had worked with Laurel & Hardy and is best known today for Destry Rides Again. Despite these strong comic associations,...
- 3/4/2020
- MUBI
Last week, BroadwayHD released the filmed version of the 2003 Olivier Award winning National Theater production of Jerry Springer The Opera. Written by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee, after it's acclaimed London premiere, the one-of-a-kind show made its way to New York City for a concert staging at Carnegie Hall in 2008, then later as part of the Off Broadway troupe New Group's 2017-18 season.
- 9/4/2018
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
‘Torch Song’, ‘Jerry Springer The Opera’ Among Off Broadway’s Lortel Awards Nominees – Complete List
The name Jerry Springer isn’t one you’d likely connect with Off Broadway’s prestigious Lucille Lortel Awards, but there he is, or the opera named after him anyway, with 4 nominations.
The Off-Broadway League announced nominees for the 2018 Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway today. See the full list of nominees below.
This year’s awards ceremony, to be hosted by Laura Benanti and Jason Jones, who appear together on TBS’s The Detour, is set for Sunday, May 6, at the NYU Skirball Center. The evening will honor Tony-winning playwright and performer Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and longstanding Off-Broadway company Wp Theater for their Outstanding Body of Work.
Also this year, the Lortel Awards will posthumously elect composer Michael Friedman onto the Playwrights’ Sidewalk in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village. The 41-year-old Friedman, who won an...
The Off-Broadway League announced nominees for the 2018 Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway today. See the full list of nominees below.
This year’s awards ceremony, to be hosted by Laura Benanti and Jason Jones, who appear together on TBS’s The Detour, is set for Sunday, May 6, at the NYU Skirball Center. The evening will honor Tony-winning playwright and performer Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and longstanding Off-Broadway company Wp Theater for their Outstanding Body of Work.
Also this year, the Lortel Awards will posthumously elect composer Michael Friedman onto the Playwrights’ Sidewalk in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village. The 41-year-old Friedman, who won an...
- 4/4/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In his latest podcase/interview, host Stuart Wright talks with Tim Plester, the co-director of The Ballad of Shirley Collins – which is out now. The DVD with CD of the soundtrack is available from earthrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-…ey-collins
Widely regarded as the 20th century’s most important singer of English traditional song, Shirley Collins is someone who was born to invoke the old songs. Alongside her sister Dolly, Shirley stood at the epicentre of the folkmusic revival during the 1960s and 1970s. But in 1980 she developed a disorder of the vocal chords known as dysphonia, which robbed her of her unique singing voice and forced her into early retirement.
Deliberately eschewing a straightforward biopic approach, Rob Curry and Tim Plester ‘Way of the Morris’, is a lyrical response to the life-and-times of a totemic musical figure. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for Shirley’s first album (Lodestar...
Widely regarded as the 20th century’s most important singer of English traditional song, Shirley Collins is someone who was born to invoke the old songs. Alongside her sister Dolly, Shirley stood at the epicentre of the folkmusic revival during the 1960s and 1970s. But in 1980 she developed a disorder of the vocal chords known as dysphonia, which robbed her of her unique singing voice and forced her into early retirement.
Deliberately eschewing a straightforward biopic approach, Rob Curry and Tim Plester ‘Way of the Morris’, is a lyrical response to the life-and-times of a totemic musical figure. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for Shirley’s first album (Lodestar...
- 4/2/2018
- by Stuart Wright
- Nerdly
“Jerry Springer – The Opera” finally comes to New York City in a fully staged production. Under the auspices of The New Group, Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee’s much-lauded show opened Thursday at Off Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center. Its debut here comes a full decade after a concert version of “Jerry Springer” briefly played Carnegie Hall and 15 years after the musical’s world premiere in London, where it went on to win the Olivier Award for best new musical in 2003. Why the long wait? Indeed, the show requires a big cast. But with 17 actors on stage it’s...
- 2/23/2018
- by Robert Hofler
- The Wrap
Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Stewart Lee, Garry Shandling and Victoria Wood feature in this film about the craft and catharsis of comedy
A murderer’s row of standup talent has been assembled for this documentary on the craft and catharsis of comedy. Chris Rock, Steve Coogan, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and Stewart Lee are among the many faces providing testimony to the euphoria and agony that telling jokes to a group of strangers can bring. The film is stronger on the latter point, with some savagely funny accounts of the many ways that comedians deal with hecklers, and one devastating account of a gig going horribly wrong.
The endless conveyor belt of talking heads does rather lose its lustre over time, and some actual standup would have been welcome, but there’s a dizzying amount of insight, not to mention a real poignancy to some of the contributors:...
A murderer’s row of standup talent has been assembled for this documentary on the craft and catharsis of comedy. Chris Rock, Steve Coogan, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and Stewart Lee are among the many faces providing testimony to the euphoria and agony that telling jokes to a group of strangers can bring. The film is stronger on the latter point, with some savagely funny accounts of the many ways that comedians deal with hecklers, and one devastating account of a gig going horribly wrong.
The endless conveyor belt of talking heads does rather lose its lustre over time, and some actual standup would have been welcome, but there’s a dizzying amount of insight, not to mention a real poignancy to some of the contributors:...
- 6/16/2017
- by Gwilym Mumford
- The Guardian - Film News
Andrew Blair Oct 17, 2016
Armando Iannucci & Chris Morris' BBC Radio 4 news spoof not only gave rise to Alan Partridge but also launched countless comedy careers.
If you haven’t heard of On The Hour, you’ll have seen or read the work of the people who made it: Brass Eye, The Thick Of It, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, Veep, Four Lions, that bit on the train at the end of Mission: Impossible, Closer, Jam, the Leicester Square Theatre Podcasts, the movie version of Notes On A Scandal; the NME, TV Burp, the videos for Little Baby Nothing by the Manics and Kung Fu by Ash, Smack The Pony, and Alan Partridge to name a few.
See related The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 4 review: The Cohabitation Experimentation The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 3 review: The Dependence Transcendence The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 2 review: The Military Miniaturization The Big Bang Theory...
Armando Iannucci & Chris Morris' BBC Radio 4 news spoof not only gave rise to Alan Partridge but also launched countless comedy careers.
If you haven’t heard of On The Hour, you’ll have seen or read the work of the people who made it: Brass Eye, The Thick Of It, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, Veep, Four Lions, that bit on the train at the end of Mission: Impossible, Closer, Jam, the Leicester Square Theatre Podcasts, the movie version of Notes On A Scandal; the NME, TV Burp, the videos for Little Baby Nothing by the Manics and Kung Fu by Ash, Smack The Pony, and Alan Partridge to name a few.
See related The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 4 review: The Cohabitation Experimentation The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 3 review: The Dependence Transcendence The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 2 review: The Military Miniaturization The Big Bang Theory...
- 8/21/2016
- Den of Geek
Jenny Morrill Alex Carter Aug 17, 2016
Get Your Own Back Live, Knightmare, Chloe from 24 and a bit of GroupOn? Jenny and Alex have been to the Fringe...
We've just spent a week at the Edinburgh Fringe, where we devoted equal amounts of time to eating, tutting and refusing leaflets. In between this, we managed to fit some shows in.
We're going to talk about some of these shows here, instead of telling you about the thousands of hipsters we encountered. Seriously, guy doing “street typing” on a typewriter – no thanks.
Get Your Own Back Live!
I'll cut to the chase here – being in the audience for Get Your Own Back Live was the most fun I've had since I was born. And I'm counting that time I found a bottle of mystery booze in a hedge.
The show is a pretty faithful (if cheaper and more self-aware) version of the original.
Get Your Own Back Live, Knightmare, Chloe from 24 and a bit of GroupOn? Jenny and Alex have been to the Fringe...
We've just spent a week at the Edinburgh Fringe, where we devoted equal amounts of time to eating, tutting and refusing leaflets. In between this, we managed to fit some shows in.
We're going to talk about some of these shows here, instead of telling you about the thousands of hipsters we encountered. Seriously, guy doing “street typing” on a typewriter – no thanks.
Get Your Own Back Live!
I'll cut to the chase here – being in the audience for Get Your Own Back Live was the most fun I've had since I was born. And I'm counting that time I found a bottle of mystery booze in a hedge.
The show is a pretty faithful (if cheaper and more self-aware) version of the original.
- 8/17/2016
- Den of Geek
Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon play one of history’s oddest couples in this entertaining account of the day Presley arrived unannounced at the White House
Related: Elvis and Nixon, Reagan and Jacko, Jagger and Blair … when pop stars and politicians collide | Craig Brown
If Oliver Stone and Peter Morgan ever decided to team up for a larky look at the darker conspiratorial currents of pop culture during the Nixon presidency, it might look like this entertaining, lenient reimagining of the most bizarre unofficial summit meeting in Us history, drenched in retrospective irony and postmodern absurdity. This was the encounter of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in 1970 in the Oval Office, commemorated with an official handshake photograph. Maybe Stewart Lee could create an opera based on this, like John Adams’s Nixon in China.
Continue reading...
Related: Elvis and Nixon, Reagan and Jacko, Jagger and Blair … when pop stars and politicians collide | Craig Brown
If Oliver Stone and Peter Morgan ever decided to team up for a larky look at the darker conspiratorial currents of pop culture during the Nixon presidency, it might look like this entertaining, lenient reimagining of the most bizarre unofficial summit meeting in Us history, drenched in retrospective irony and postmodern absurdity. This was the encounter of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in 1970 in the Oval Office, commemorated with an official handshake photograph. Maybe Stewart Lee could create an opera based on this, like John Adams’s Nixon in China.
Continue reading...
- 6/23/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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BBC Three put Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s wilfully shambolic live act and radio series, The Mighty Boosh, on TV…
Part of The Mighty Boosh’s delight comes from its unlikelihood as a TV sitcom. Its boundless Day-Glo imagination isn’t an immediate fit with the constraints of the form. A sunshine simpleton and his awkward, jazz-obsessed colleague meet mythic monsters and talking animals while performing expertly observed musical parody? It’s not exactly My Family.
As comedian, writer, and director of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s 1999 Edinburgh show Arctic Boosh, Stewart Lee, put it, “No television exec would ever have gone ‘What we need is a kind of purple head with tentacles coming out of it which speaks like a member of the Small Faces’”.
And yet a television exec did. Granted, probably not in those exact words. After Danny Wallace opened the door...
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BBC Three put Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s wilfully shambolic live act and radio series, The Mighty Boosh, on TV…
Part of The Mighty Boosh’s delight comes from its unlikelihood as a TV sitcom. Its boundless Day-Glo imagination isn’t an immediate fit with the constraints of the form. A sunshine simpleton and his awkward, jazz-obsessed colleague meet mythic monsters and talking animals while performing expertly observed musical parody? It’s not exactly My Family.
As comedian, writer, and director of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s 1999 Edinburgh show Arctic Boosh, Stewart Lee, put it, “No television exec would ever have gone ‘What we need is a kind of purple head with tentacles coming out of it which speaks like a member of the Small Faces’”.
And yet a television exec did. Granted, probably not in those exact words. After Danny Wallace opened the door...
- 2/16/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
The new year is upon us, and it’s time to clean up Netflix once again. Don’t fear too much though, as much as we hate to see some of our favorites leave Netflix, they do a pretty good job at adding some great new content. We lose Almost Famous, A Clockwork Orange, American Psycho, The Graduate, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and all the Rocky movies – and we get Intolerable Cruelty, Training Day, The Rundown and a new Netflix Original for Degrassi: The Next Class.
All Title Dates are Subject to Change
Netflix U.S. Release Dates Only
Available 1/1/16
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Along Came Polly (2004)
American Girl: Grace Stirs up Success (2015)
Angry Birds Toons: Season 1
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)
Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007)
Catwoman (2004)
The Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills: Season 1
Constantine (2005)
Forensic Files: Collection 2
Friday Night Tykes: Season 1-2
The Good Road...
All Title Dates are Subject to Change
Netflix U.S. Release Dates Only
Available 1/1/16
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Along Came Polly (2004)
American Girl: Grace Stirs up Success (2015)
Angry Birds Toons: Season 1
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)
Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007)
Catwoman (2004)
The Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills: Season 1
Constantine (2005)
Forensic Files: Collection 2
Friday Night Tykes: Season 1-2
The Good Road...
- 12/30/2015
- by Graham McMorrow
- City of Films
Untroubled by protests against its use of Caucasians in ‘brownface’ makeup, this western comedy canters along in Sandler’s pointless-to-questionable groove
Related: Adam Sandler film The Ridiculous Six in racism row as Native Americans quit set
And so does the universe correct itself: in the week of the most anticipated film ever made, a new Adam Sandler release trickles on to Netflix. Depending on temperament, spoof western The Ridiculous Six will mark either a sea change or merely a plumbing adjustment. It’s the first feature Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has pumped directly into living rooms, a breakthrough that recalls that scatological Stewart Lee aside about paying to watch E4. Despite production line troubles – several Native American extras quit in protest at the project’s insensitivity – the final cut still features characters named Beaver Breath and Never Wears Bra, played by Caucasians in “brownface” makeup. For Sandler, it’s business as usual.
Related: Adam Sandler film The Ridiculous Six in racism row as Native Americans quit set
And so does the universe correct itself: in the week of the most anticipated film ever made, a new Adam Sandler release trickles on to Netflix. Depending on temperament, spoof western The Ridiculous Six will mark either a sea change or merely a plumbing adjustment. It’s the first feature Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has pumped directly into living rooms, a breakthrough that recalls that scatological Stewart Lee aside about paying to watch E4. Despite production line troubles – several Native American extras quit in protest at the project’s insensitivity – the final cut still features characters named Beaver Breath and Never Wears Bra, played by Caucasians in “brownface” makeup. For Sandler, it’s business as usual.
- 12/15/2015
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
BBC
Danny Dyer is an actor, a TV presenter, a football chairman, and a right propa nawty geezer of the very highest order.
One thing he is definitely not though is a comedian. But despite this, he remains one the UK’s foremost comedy geniuses working today, with a string of legendary yet accidental comic performances behind him.
His brand of humour is not observational like Ricky Gervais, caustic like Stewart Lee or blue like Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
Rather it’s that subtle, deep-seated, fully fleshed-out type of character comedy that the likes of Keith Lemon and Tim Westwood have been doing for years. In fact, in Danny Dyer’s case, it’s so deep-seated that he himself might not be aware it’s happening.
It’s exactly his ability to keep such a straight face when faced with ludicrous situations that makes so much of what he does inadvertently hilarious.
Danny Dyer is an actor, a TV presenter, a football chairman, and a right propa nawty geezer of the very highest order.
One thing he is definitely not though is a comedian. But despite this, he remains one the UK’s foremost comedy geniuses working today, with a string of legendary yet accidental comic performances behind him.
His brand of humour is not observational like Ricky Gervais, caustic like Stewart Lee or blue like Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
Rather it’s that subtle, deep-seated, fully fleshed-out type of character comedy that the likes of Keith Lemon and Tim Westwood have been doing for years. In fact, in Danny Dyer’s case, it’s so deep-seated that he himself might not be aware it’s happening.
It’s exactly his ability to keep such a straight face when faced with ludicrous situations that makes so much of what he does inadvertently hilarious.
- 12/4/2015
- by Thomas Bagnall
- Obsessed with Film
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Beethoven's Christmas Adventure is the seventh film in the never-ending series. But is it a lost Christmas gem? Er...
This Christmas, rather than revisiting the Christmas classics again, we've asked our writers to try a variety of, er, 'lesser known' Christmas movies. Today? It's Beethoven's Christmas Adventure...
This article contains spoilers for Beethoven's Christmas Adventure.
This is the seventh film in the Beethoven franchise. It's the first movie after Beethoven's Big Break rebooted the series with a new title character (in this case a stray St Bernard that becomes a movie star). It's a straight-to-dvd tale featuring actors from American telly series, and a post-alimony John Cleese.
Far be it from me to suggest that Cleese didn't read the script and effusively phone his agent saying 'I've got to do this part', but it isn't exactly up there with his performance in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. To be fair,...
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Beethoven's Christmas Adventure is the seventh film in the never-ending series. But is it a lost Christmas gem? Er...
This Christmas, rather than revisiting the Christmas classics again, we've asked our writers to try a variety of, er, 'lesser known' Christmas movies. Today? It's Beethoven's Christmas Adventure...
This article contains spoilers for Beethoven's Christmas Adventure.
This is the seventh film in the Beethoven franchise. It's the first movie after Beethoven's Big Break rebooted the series with a new title character (in this case a stray St Bernard that becomes a movie star). It's a straight-to-dvd tale featuring actors from American telly series, and a post-alimony John Cleese.
Far be it from me to suggest that Cleese didn't read the script and effusively phone his agent saying 'I've got to do this part', but it isn't exactly up there with his performance in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. To be fair,...
- 12/1/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
There appears to be an intrigue into the mechanics of stand up comedy of late, getting behind the facade and studiously exploring the performer away from the stage. From Chris Rock’s Top Five, to Stewart Lee’s bestselling novel How I Escaped my Certain Fate, to the forthcoming British feature, The Comedian’s Guide to Survival.
The post Lff 2015: Entertainment Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Lff 2015: Entertainment Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 10/15/2015
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Grr, argh. Sit, Ubu, sit. I made this! What’s the story behind the production company tags added onto our favourite TV shows?
Closing logos have evolved into a TV production company’s tiny stamp of individuality. They’re a single snippet of screen time not at the mercy of network notes, audience feedback or sponsorship concerns.
A closing tag doesn’t need to sell a show, tell a story, or lasso an audience back for the next episode. It’s simply a signature, a few seconds entirely belonging to the creatives, to do with what they will.
As such, closing logos are as self-indulgent or esoteric as the production company wills them. They’re perhaps the only place in television production where in-jokes, family photos, personal homages (or extended rants in the case of one comedy producer) and kid-drawn scribbles usually found taped to the fridge door are entirely welcome.
Closing logos have evolved into a TV production company’s tiny stamp of individuality. They’re a single snippet of screen time not at the mercy of network notes, audience feedback or sponsorship concerns.
A closing tag doesn’t need to sell a show, tell a story, or lasso an audience back for the next episode. It’s simply a signature, a few seconds entirely belonging to the creatives, to do with what they will.
As such, closing logos are as self-indulgent or esoteric as the production company wills them. They’re perhaps the only place in television production where in-jokes, family photos, personal homages (or extended rants in the case of one comedy producer) and kid-drawn scribbles usually found taped to the fridge door are entirely welcome.
- 8/10/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Paul Weedon chats to Brian Limond, aka Limmy, about comedy, gallows humour, and new book, Daft Wee Stories. Strong swearing ahead...
Warning: the following contains frequent strong swearing and content some readers may find er, offensive.
With a cult following that would make even the most mainstream of comedians jealous, Brian Limond, better known to his legion of fans as Limmy, has spent the past decade and a half building a reputation as one of the strangest, most bafflingly brilliant comedians currently working. With the release of his new book, Daft Wee Stories, we sat down for a lengthy chat with Glesga’s favourite son.
“I love saying terrible things,” Limmy exclaims with a wry smile. “Things that I think are terrible and I’ve gotten in to trouble in the past – just hearing it come out of my mouth or seeing it typed and seeing it out there – something...
Warning: the following contains frequent strong swearing and content some readers may find er, offensive.
With a cult following that would make even the most mainstream of comedians jealous, Brian Limond, better known to his legion of fans as Limmy, has spent the past decade and a half building a reputation as one of the strangest, most bafflingly brilliant comedians currently working. With the release of his new book, Daft Wee Stories, we sat down for a lengthy chat with Glesga’s favourite son.
“I love saying terrible things,” Limmy exclaims with a wry smile. “Things that I think are terrible and I’ve gotten in to trouble in the past – just hearing it come out of my mouth or seeing it typed and seeing it out there – something...
- 7/29/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
The Imitation Game star has been nominated for his leading role in BBC drama Sherlock.Scroll down for full list of nominations
Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated for the third time as leading actor in his BBC role of Sherlock. This marks his sixth nomination for this category in his career.
Cumberbatch received a Best Actor Oscar nomination earlier this year for his role as Alan Turing in Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game.
The nominations, announced on Wednesday by actors Freddie Fox and Amanda Abbington, place Cumberbatch in a category alongside three others.
Toby Jones (Harry Potter, Captain America, The Hunger Games) is recognized for his role in Marvellous. The show received two other nominations including Single Drama and Supporting Actress for Gemma Jones.
James Nesbitt (The Hobbit) also received a leading actor nomination for The Missing, in addition to Jason Watkins (The Golden Compass) for his role in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries.
For...
Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated for the third time as leading actor in his BBC role of Sherlock. This marks his sixth nomination for this category in his career.
Cumberbatch received a Best Actor Oscar nomination earlier this year for his role as Alan Turing in Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game.
The nominations, announced on Wednesday by actors Freddie Fox and Amanda Abbington, place Cumberbatch in a category alongside three others.
Toby Jones (Harry Potter, Captain America, The Hunger Games) is recognized for his role in Marvellous. The show received two other nominations including Single Drama and Supporting Actress for Gemma Jones.
James Nesbitt (The Hobbit) also received a leading actor nomination for The Missing, in addition to Jason Watkins (The Golden Compass) for his role in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries.
For...
- 4/8/2015
- by mam27@bu.edu (Monica Mendoza)
- ScreenDaily
Louisa Mellor Aug 22, 2016
You've heard of Breaking Bad, Orange Is The New Black & House Of Cards, what about Danger 5, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Darknet and more?…
Quite understandably, column inches can't fill up quickly enough with praise for the likes of Netflix original series House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul and Marvel's Daredevil. What though, about some of the lesser-known series available on the UK streaming site?
Sweeping past the well-publicised riches of Doctor Who, Sherlock, Arrested Development, Community and the like, we've ventured into the slightly dustier shelf of TV shows available on Netflix UK that may be lesser-known or less widely celebrated than the big hitters out there, but are still richly deserving of your time. Some are new, some are old, some were cancelled long ago, some are ongoing, several are from outside the UK and Us.
From supernatural, sci-fi,...
You've heard of Breaking Bad, Orange Is The New Black & House Of Cards, what about Danger 5, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Darknet and more?…
Quite understandably, column inches can't fill up quickly enough with praise for the likes of Netflix original series House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul and Marvel's Daredevil. What though, about some of the lesser-known series available on the UK streaming site?
Sweeping past the well-publicised riches of Doctor Who, Sherlock, Arrested Development, Community and the like, we've ventured into the slightly dustier shelf of TV shows available on Netflix UK that may be lesser-known or less widely celebrated than the big hitters out there, but are still richly deserving of your time. Some are new, some are old, some were cancelled long ago, some are ongoing, several are from outside the UK and Us.
From supernatural, sci-fi,...
- 3/17/2015
- Den of Geek
Stewart Lee has announced a clutch of work-in-progress shows.
Lee performs 'Stewart Lee: A Room with a Stew (work-in-progress)' at London's Soho Theatre every night from Monday, June 29 to Friday, July 3 at 9.30pm each night.
Tickets are available now and are priced at £12.
The 60-minute shows will see Lee preparing material for the next series of his BBC Two series Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
Lee has again advertised the show with a selection of less-than-positive quotes about him and his work:
"There's a wealth of evidence to suggest that in the last few years, Lee has gone completely mad."
The Guardian
"Stewart Lee is not funny and has nothing to say."
The Daily Telegraph
"Utter disgrace. Totally evil propaganda. Offensive, biased, untrue and unfunny."
Patricia Culligan, Ukip
The first series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle aired in 2009, and a fourth series has been commissioned.
Last year, Lee...
Lee performs 'Stewart Lee: A Room with a Stew (work-in-progress)' at London's Soho Theatre every night from Monday, June 29 to Friday, July 3 at 9.30pm each night.
Tickets are available now and are priced at £12.
The 60-minute shows will see Lee preparing material for the next series of his BBC Two series Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
Lee has again advertised the show with a selection of less-than-positive quotes about him and his work:
"There's a wealth of evidence to suggest that in the last few years, Lee has gone completely mad."
The Guardian
"Stewart Lee is not funny and has nothing to say."
The Daily Telegraph
"Utter disgrace. Totally evil propaganda. Offensive, biased, untrue and unfunny."
Patricia Culligan, Ukip
The first series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle aired in 2009, and a fourth series has been commissioned.
Last year, Lee...
- 1/9/2015
- Digital Spy
We asked Den Of Geek’s writers to recommend brilliant comedy shows that deserve to have more of a fuss made about them. Here they are...
Banging a drum about stuff we love is more or less our remit on Den Of Geek - hence what many readers have started referring to as the ‘inexplicably regular' appearance of Statham, squirrels and Harold Bishop from Neighbours on these pages.
To that end then, we asked our writers which comedy shows (past and present, UK or otherwise, on TV, radio, or online…) deserved more praise, and here are the ones they chose. You might already like them too, or you might discover something new to dig out and enjoy. That’s the fun of it.
Please note that this list isn’t ranked in any order, nor is it exhaustive. It’s compiled from the opinions of a group of different people,...
Banging a drum about stuff we love is more or less our remit on Den Of Geek - hence what many readers have started referring to as the ‘inexplicably regular' appearance of Statham, squirrels and Harold Bishop from Neighbours on these pages.
To that end then, we asked our writers which comedy shows (past and present, UK or otherwise, on TV, radio, or online…) deserved more praise, and here are the ones they chose. You might already like them too, or you might discover something new to dig out and enjoy. That’s the fun of it.
Please note that this list isn’t ranked in any order, nor is it exhaustive. It’s compiled from the opinions of a group of different people,...
- 11/13/2014
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
The British Comedy Awards 2014 nominations have been revealed.
Matt Berry's Toast of London is up for six awards, while Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos has four nominations.
Berry himself has three nominations, including Best TV Comedy Actor and new category Best Internet Comedy Short.
The BBC's Would I Lie to You? receives four nominations, as team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack find themselves both up for Best Male TV Comic.
Berry, Enfield and Whitehouse are up against The Wrong Mans' Mathew Baynton in the Best TV Comedy Actor category, while Alan Carr will need to defend his Best Comedy Entertainment Personality title from Graham Norton, Ant & Dec and Adam Hills.
This year's ceremony has introduced two new categories - Best Internet Comedy Short and Best Comedy Moment of 2014. Best Comedy Film and Best International Comedy Programme have also made a return to the line-up,...
Matt Berry's Toast of London is up for six awards, while Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos has four nominations.
Berry himself has three nominations, including Best TV Comedy Actor and new category Best Internet Comedy Short.
The BBC's Would I Lie to You? receives four nominations, as team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack find themselves both up for Best Male TV Comic.
Berry, Enfield and Whitehouse are up against The Wrong Mans' Mathew Baynton in the Best TV Comedy Actor category, while Alan Carr will need to defend his Best Comedy Entertainment Personality title from Graham Norton, Ant & Dec and Adam Hills.
This year's ceremony has introduced two new categories - Best Internet Comedy Short and Best Comedy Moment of 2014. Best Comedy Film and Best International Comedy Programme have also made a return to the line-up,...
- 11/10/2014
- Digital Spy
While there'll always be a place for down-the-line observational stand-up, there are thankfully also some comics doing stranger stuff at the fringes.
From the mid-1990s on, Simon Munnery has intrigued and innovated. Ahead of his spot on Stewart Lee's The Alternative Comedy Experience, Digital Spy got on the phone with Simon to talk singing Kierkegaard, "fylm" and whether or not we'll ever get Attention Scum! on DVD.
Asked about The Alternative Comedy Experience, Munnery said: "It's a different selection of acts - it's acts you don't see on Michael McIntyre's Roadshow or Live at the Apollo.
"It's perhaps less mainstream acts, a bit more quirky, a bit more interesting."
Of almost half the comics on the show being women, he added: "There are a lot of very good women comics and quite a lot of them are on this.
"There just are quite a lot of good...
From the mid-1990s on, Simon Munnery has intrigued and innovated. Ahead of his spot on Stewart Lee's The Alternative Comedy Experience, Digital Spy got on the phone with Simon to talk singing Kierkegaard, "fylm" and whether or not we'll ever get Attention Scum! on DVD.
Asked about The Alternative Comedy Experience, Munnery said: "It's a different selection of acts - it's acts you don't see on Michael McIntyre's Roadshow or Live at the Apollo.
"It's perhaps less mainstream acts, a bit more quirky, a bit more interesting."
Of almost half the comics on the show being women, he added: "There are a lot of very good women comics and quite a lot of them are on this.
"There just are quite a lot of good...
- 7/15/2014
- Digital Spy
The Alternative Comedy Experience is returning to Comedy Central in July.
Created by comedian Stewart Lee, the stand-up show goes both in front of and behind the curtain and features performances from some of the best cult comedy acts.
Lee said of the show: "I am delighted that Comedy Central have had the vision to bring back the connoisseurs' stand-up comedy show of choice."
The series will be 13 episodes long with performances from Bridget Christie, Tony Law, Isy Suttie, David Kay, Simon Munnery, Maeve Higgins, Josie Long, David O Doherty, Paul Foot and Henning Wehn.
There will also be a host of new names appearing on the show, some of which are making their first ever appearance on a TV stand-up series.
Filmed at Edinburgh's iconic The Stand Comedy Club in front of a live audience, the programme sees short clips of each act stripped across the series.
Lee chats...
Created by comedian Stewart Lee, the stand-up show goes both in front of and behind the curtain and features performances from some of the best cult comedy acts.
Lee said of the show: "I am delighted that Comedy Central have had the vision to bring back the connoisseurs' stand-up comedy show of choice."
The series will be 13 episodes long with performances from Bridget Christie, Tony Law, Isy Suttie, David Kay, Simon Munnery, Maeve Higgins, Josie Long, David O Doherty, Paul Foot and Henning Wehn.
There will also be a host of new names appearing on the show, some of which are making their first ever appearance on a TV stand-up series.
Filmed at Edinburgh's iconic The Stand Comedy Club in front of a live audience, the programme sees short clips of each act stripped across the series.
Lee chats...
- 6/11/2014
- Digital Spy
Sometimes there's just too much great telly to watch in one week. Hundreds of channels, thousands of shows, you're bound to miss out on some brilliant telly.
If you need a hand finding some gems that you missed out on, here are five brilliant shows, still available on BBC iPlayer, that you can catch up on right now.
1. Line of Duty
If you haven't caught up with Line of Duty yet, firstly - why not? Secondly - get on iPlayer pronto. The full series is still available to view, so don't dally and make sure you don't miss out on the finest British drama of 2014 so far.
With a career best performance from Keeley Hawes and a script from Jed Mercurio that flips and twists more than a Premier League footballer in the penalty area, this truly lives up to the billing of 'must watch TV'.
2. Prostitution: What's The Harm
Reason No.
If you need a hand finding some gems that you missed out on, here are five brilliant shows, still available on BBC iPlayer, that you can catch up on right now.
1. Line of Duty
If you haven't caught up with Line of Duty yet, firstly - why not? Secondly - get on iPlayer pronto. The full series is still available to view, so don't dally and make sure you don't miss out on the finest British drama of 2014 so far.
With a career best performance from Keeley Hawes and a script from Jed Mercurio that flips and twists more than a Premier League footballer in the penalty area, this truly lives up to the billing of 'must watch TV'.
2. Prostitution: What's The Harm
Reason No.
- 3/23/2014
- Digital Spy
The BBC has announced a raft of new original commissions, featuring new talent and star names, to air exclusively on iPlayer.
Flea, Tag and My Jihad - three short original films from new young writers and emerging talent - are available to watch online from today (Tuesday, March 11).
A series of original comedy shorts will follow in May, featuring the likes of Frankie Boyle, Bob Mortimer and Meera Syal.
Morgana Robinson, Micky Flanagan, Matt Berry and Stewart Lee will also contribute to the seven one-off comedies.
New comedy mockumentary People Just Do Nothing - spun off from BBC Three's new talent 'Comedy Feeds' showcase - will also debut online in May.
Non-scripted content for iPlayer will include a guided tour of Matisse: The Cut-Outs Exhibition at Tate Modern by musician and artist Goldie (April), a Chelsea flower show special (May) and a trilogy of documentaries exploring contemporary Britain from journalist...
Flea, Tag and My Jihad - three short original films from new young writers and emerging talent - are available to watch online from today (Tuesday, March 11).
A series of original comedy shorts will follow in May, featuring the likes of Frankie Boyle, Bob Mortimer and Meera Syal.
Morgana Robinson, Micky Flanagan, Matt Berry and Stewart Lee will also contribute to the seven one-off comedies.
New comedy mockumentary People Just Do Nothing - spun off from BBC Three's new talent 'Comedy Feeds' showcase - will also debut online in May.
Non-scripted content for iPlayer will include a guided tour of Matisse: The Cut-Outs Exhibition at Tate Modern by musician and artist Goldie (April), a Chelsea flower show special (May) and a trilogy of documentaries exploring contemporary Britain from journalist...
- 3/11/2014
- Digital Spy
The Voice: BBC One, 7pm
With the blind auditions done and dusted, the coaches now have 12 acts each. However, now comes the brutal time where the judges who once fought for a contestant to join their team will betray half of them in the battle rounds!
The contestants are pitted against each other in head-to-head musical performances, and then it's up to their mentor to choose who will be going through to the live shows. The losing act will then find themselves at the mercy of the other mentors, who once again have the chance to 'steal' a rejected artist for their own team - tense stuff.
The Voice: Are the battle rounds a yay or a nay? Have your say
True Detective: Sky Atlantic, 9pm
The hunt for the murderer of Dora Lange continues, but the detectives are feeling the pressure from above to resolve the case quickly. As...
With the blind auditions done and dusted, the coaches now have 12 acts each. However, now comes the brutal time where the judges who once fought for a contestant to join their team will betray half of them in the battle rounds!
The contestants are pitted against each other in head-to-head musical performances, and then it's up to their mentor to choose who will be going through to the live shows. The losing act will then find themselves at the mercy of the other mentors, who once again have the chance to 'steal' a rejected artist for their own team - tense stuff.
The Voice: Are the battle rounds a yay or a nay? Have your say
True Detective: Sky Atlantic, 9pm
The hunt for the murderer of Dora Lange continues, but the detectives are feeling the pressure from above to resolve the case quickly. As...
- 3/1/2014
- Digital Spy
Stewart Lee returns to BBC Two this weekend and judging from the first preview clip of his new series, the stand-up has lost none of his brilliantly astute, bone-dry cynicism.
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle series 3:
In the preview clip for the first episode, 'Shilbottle', Lee launches into one of his trademark rants about his dislike for the internet, and in particular, Twitter.
Lee points out that his entire life could be traced back using only inane Twitter updates from members of the public and compares the social networking service to "a state surveillance agency staffed by gullible volunteers".
"It's the Stasi for the Angry Birds generation," he concludes.
The third series of Comedy Vehicle will feature the return of Brass Eye and The Day Today creator Chris Morris to TV. Morris has replaced Armando Iannucci in the sketches placed between Lee's stand-up sets.
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle returns on Saturday,...
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle series 3:
In the preview clip for the first episode, 'Shilbottle', Lee launches into one of his trademark rants about his dislike for the internet, and in particular, Twitter.
Lee points out that his entire life could be traced back using only inane Twitter updates from members of the public and compares the social networking service to "a state surveillance agency staffed by gullible volunteers".
"It's the Stasi for the Angry Birds generation," he concludes.
The third series of Comedy Vehicle will feature the return of Brass Eye and The Day Today creator Chris Morris to TV. Morris has replaced Armando Iannucci in the sketches placed between Lee's stand-up sets.
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle returns on Saturday,...
- 2/25/2014
- Digital Spy
Opera has always been a reflection of the cultural zeitgeist of Western society. Historical events, popular stories, real people—they’ve all inspired musicalizations which allow patrons to connect directly with cultural moments in artistic ways.
But while opera may have stopped being the most popular art form, it never stopped being a relevant one. Hats off to the contemporary composers who continue to devote themselves to breathing life into the art form (because if they don’t, who will?). Opera is an endangered species, much like pandas or stenographers, and it continues to thrive creatively by reflecting the pop culture moments—movies,...
But while opera may have stopped being the most popular art form, it never stopped being a relevant one. Hats off to the contemporary composers who continue to devote themselves to breathing life into the art form (because if they don’t, who will?). Opera is an endangered species, much like pandas or stenographers, and it continues to thrive creatively by reflecting the pop culture moments—movies,...
- 1/27/2014
- by Marc Snetiker
- EW.com - PopWatch
Our culture is stagnating, and nothing reveals it as explicitly as the sartorial choices made for actors attending the awards
As a lifelong lover of frocks, you'd think I'd be all over the awards season. Ever since 1989, when an older boy asked toddler-me if I was a girl or a boy, the importance of a decent dress has not been lost on me, but I find it a challenge to get excited about red carpet events.
The endless, strapless parade of conformist fishtails; the glib soundbites; the length – all of which were evidenced in last night's Golden Globes – combine to make awards ceremonies the least satisfying televisual experience. I'd guesstimate that as much as four-fifths of the love felt for Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Oscars was due to her unwillingness to play ball. From refusing to keep quiet about how hungry she was to answering questions about her dress with "well,...
As a lifelong lover of frocks, you'd think I'd be all over the awards season. Ever since 1989, when an older boy asked toddler-me if I was a girl or a boy, the importance of a decent dress has not been lost on me, but I find it a challenge to get excited about red carpet events.
The endless, strapless parade of conformist fishtails; the glib soundbites; the length – all of which were evidenced in last night's Golden Globes – combine to make awards ceremonies the least satisfying televisual experience. I'd guesstimate that as much as four-fifths of the love felt for Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Oscars was due to her unwillingness to play ball. From refusing to keep quiet about how hungry she was to answering questions about her dress with "well,...
- 1/13/2014
- by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
- The Guardian - Film News
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