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Television | Reviews | Other
Archives for category: Comedy
Image: Channel 4
8 Out of 10 Cats returned on Friday minus Jason Manford who left the series at the beginning of May to focus on projects on rival network, ITV. His replacement, Jon Richardson, pictured above right, suited the role fantastically and provided in my opinion, more laughs than Manford whose brand of comedy has waned on the typical of late. Richardson’s sharp wry humour and banter exchanged with Sean Lock made for entertaining viewing and a sign that should this continue, he’ll be around for a while yet. The career of Richardson is on the up after he left 6Music to focus on his comedy career and by this evidence, this was a wise move.
Alex Reid guested on the show and was the butt of many of Jimmy Carr’s jokes, which was hilarious as Reid is usually rather game for a laugh on these sorts of shows as can be seen on the last series of Shooting Stars. Russell Kane told a rather unbelievable story about a time when he offended a fan on a train and Rachel Riley provided an anecdote about Ryan Giggs, managing to remain topical and on topic all at once. Well done to her.
This series looks like it will be as sharp as ever and the show shows no signs of ending yet.
Image: Channel 4
King Of.. is a new comedy chat show on Friday nights on Channel 4, fronted by the very lovely Claudia Winkleman. The basic premise of the show is to bring on some celebrity guests who then decide what is the King of various subjects along with the members of those subjects that they hate.
So, for example, in deciding the King of holidays, we found out that Claudia hates skiing, based in no small part because she doesn’t like the cold or lifts with no walls, and that guest Sarah Millican doesn’t like cruises because “they go down a lot”. Hmm, cue innuendo-based giggles from the audience.
It’s not in many programmes however, that you get to see a pregnant Claudia Winkleman with two black eyes get chased by a penguin whilst Chris Evans giggles. But then again we did witness nearly a minute of a mouse sniffing various cheeses. Not the best idea for television in the world. I like Claudia Winkleman, I like Sarah Millican, I’m not fussed about Chris Evans but I can’t see this getting a second series.
Image: BBC.
The Thick of It is the political comedy on BBC Four and BBC Two written created by Armando Iannucci. Of the last 5 years, this comedy is one of the most ground-breaking and probably, one of the funniest. Peter Capaldi in particular is fantastic in his role as Malcom Tucker, Director of Communications to the then Government. Even if you haven’t heard of him, you probably will have heard of his impassioned foul-mouthed rants.
The series follows the political adventures of one governmental department in the UK and is fantastically written and acted out. In the third series, Rebecca Front replaces the disgraced MP who headed the department in the first two series.
You can buy the box set on DVD here.
Also, the series spawned a spin off film, In the Loop, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Or, if you’re particularly down with the kids and only watch films in 1080p, you can buy it on Blu Ray here.
Mock the Week’s tenth series continued last night with Chris Addison returning from last week. I quite like Chris Addison, especially in The Thick of It and on the Direct Line adverts but on Mock the Week continuously, I find him rather grating. Micky Flanagan was back this week and he’s always very happy and very funny and this week was no exception. Listen out for his distinct laugh. Instead of Mock the Week being a competition as it was before, now it’s more of a forum for comedy which I quite like and Micky doesn’t take himself too seriously which is even better.
Diane Morgan joined Ed Byrne this week, too. I’ve mentioned briefly my love for Ed Byrne before and this time last year I fully supported him in his Twitter war with joke stealer extraordinaire Keith “Cheggers” Chegwin. Diane Morgan though is something of a new comedian on the scene. Bringing her incredibly dry humour to the show as well as her Northern wit, I felt she was overshadowed somewhat by the big personalities of the panel.
Dara O’Briain was as sharp as ever and he really is becoming a big player on the comedy and entertainment scene with his witty interceptions and contributions. ‘Scenes we’d like to see’ this week was a bit of a let down so if you only watch the show for that, might be worth giving this week’s episode a miss. All in all though, it’s good to see that the series is progressing and shows no signs of wearing thin after its high profile fall out with Frankie Boyle.
Link: BBC iPlayer.
Image: BBC.
Lead Balloon’s series continued this week with Rick feeling that his move into shopping television could have been very wise. Of course in Lead Balloon nothing ever goes right and quickly things start to collapse. The presenter that Rick is filling in for dies after choking, and although at first he believes this to be a good thing, soon we start to discover that good things cannot last for poor old Rick.
Whilst this is going on we learn that Marty is romantically interested in Rick’s co-presenter Donna (played by Peep Show’s Big Suze, Sophie Winkleman) and that the television at home has miraculously switched its picture upside down. This comedic and dry interception is, as usual, masterfully created and incredibly funny, allowing us as an audience to put the main plot, Rick’s downfall epitomised in the wrong usage of “ring” and “finger”.
As usual, Lead Balloon delivers much more on a comedy basis than most other sitcoms around nowadays and the faith that the BBC have shown it shows that with a little perseverance, a diamond can be found in the schedules.
Link: iPlayer.
Image: BBC.
Remember The Life of Riley? Oh wait, that’s still going. I don’t know how, either. Well In With the Flynn’s is a lot like that, only with more canned laughter and it’s pre-recorded and not on a live set. In fact, other than those differences, I’d say they’re exactly the same as each other, only In With the Flynn’s is more northern. In fact it’s a lot more northern. It’s as northern as a pie down a coalpit.
The first episode introduces the family, with the Dad being played by WIll Mellor (because of course it would be), the Mum being played by that woman who was in that thing (Niky Wardley), the uncle being played by the bloke who was in Born and Bred and Misfits (Craig Parkinson) and Warren Clarke who was in A Clockwork Orange.
That’s right, A Clockwork Orange. Warren Clarke was in that and 40 years later he’s in this. One of the most renowned films ever made and also one of the most famous. A true British classic, internationally acclaimed and controversial, he’s now in In With the Flynn’s as a Grandad who’s after a younger woman. It is dumbfounding. It’s like Manchester United being relegated in successive seasons to the Blue Square Bet Conference National league.
So, the episode. Will Mellor is worried that he won’t be able to afford the family’s dream holiday to Santorini, but in the mean time we find out Steve, his son, is being bullied at school. Not only that but his daughter Chloe has had her tongue pierced and we all know why people have that done, so the bodily excretions really hit the fan.
What I found with this inaugural half hour of In With the Flynn’s (my apostrophe) is that it made me laugh a lot, rather begrudgingly, I might add. There are a lot of dreadful, lame, non-offensive jokes given its timeslot on a Wednesday night but it’s much better than The Life of Riley which was dreadful. This is just a bit common and working class, not that there’s anything wrong with that in the slightest. It really suits the slot it is given after Waterloo Road, too. In a time where the BBC are trying to cut a lot of middle-class imagery in their sitcoms, as seen in their decision to cut My Family, In With the Flynn’s looks as if it’ll fill the gap to a much wider audience.
Link: BBC iPlayer.
Image: BBC.
Mock the Week returned recently with a brand new series, this time not featuring Russell Howard, presumably because he’s on a UK arena tour. Instead we were treated to a great episode with Chris Addison, Milton Jones, Greg Davies and Seann Walsh joining the series regulars Dara, Andy and Hugh.
Now that the show has reached series ten and with the omission of some of the comedians who made the show so popular, such as Frankie Boyle and Michael McIntyre, it’s refreshing to see that the show and the format still works as well as it did back in the early days (see Dave for reference).
Whereas some of the series involving Boyle and McIntyre made the show seem rather smug and self aware, nowadays the show seems to be more a springboard for various comedians who’re out of their depth, placed alongside the regular panel members. That being said however, the series opener brought more of the same, what’s to be expected really. It’s definitely got much better since Boyle left and his work since he left the show, in the case of Tramadol Nights, was absolutely abysmal.
Long live Mock the Week, I say. Hopefully it joins the ranks of Have I Got News For You and Nevermind The Buzzcocks as long running panel shows that are here to stay for the future.
Link: BBC iPlayer.
Image: ABC/HBO.
The fourth episode in the first series of Angry Boys also aired last night, this time introducing yet another character, Jen Okazaki played by (that’s right) Lilley. Jen we find out, is a driven mother who has ultimately forced skateboarding upon her son, to the point where he is now one of the most famous and successful young skateboarder’s in the world. However, for Jen that’s not enough and total world domination seems to be her plan. Part of this plan involves forcing her son to admit he’s gay so that she can sell merchandise around him based on the fact he is gay. ‘GayStyle Enterprises’ involves many phallic items of merchandise, aimed around her son Tim, that can be sold to his adoring fans.
Jen’s determination, and her son’s lack of it, even forces her to move the whole family to Japan, where she enjoys a rather cushy lifestyle, paid for by her son’s hard work. Lilley here pushes the boundaries yet again. If his American accent with S.Mouse isn’t the greatest (and is borderline racist) then Jen represents the opposite. Lilley really hits the accent and persona of a small Japanese woman remarkably well here. From the clothes to the way he presents himself as her, it is comedy genius and incredibly funny.
Elsewhere, Blake gets into trouble with his wife when a graffiti tag involving him leads to a confrontation between a rival gang and Daniel attempts to curb Nathan’s masturbation problem by taping plastic milk bottles to his hands.
The series is shaping up to be rather funny indeed.
Link: iPlayer.
Image: ABC/HBO.
Episode three of Angry Boys aired last night and the series continued with another new character being introduced, Nathan and Daniel’s idol and member of their ‘Wall of Legends’, surfer Blake Oakfield. Oldfield – above – is played by (you’ve guessed it), Chris Lilley and with this many characters in Angry Boys in comparison to his previous comedies, his versatility really shines through.
Oakfield turns out to be somewhat of an underrated character. Most of this episode is dedicated to him and how he suffered a decline from his surfing career. This decline was triggered, excuse the pun, after he was shot in the testicles in a gang shooting, losing them both in the process. This was incredibly hilarious, mainly because a scene follows where he encourages his friends to kick him between the legs repeatedly to demonstrate how it ‘doesn’t hurt!’.
Moving away from Oakfield and his ‘Mucca Mad Boys’ gang, the episode also saw plot developments with the twins Nathan and Daniel, as well as S.Mouse. The latter loses his record deal after being angered by his manager’s attempts to make him more mainstream. S.Mouse decides to upload another song to the internet, entitled ‘Grandmother Fucker’, featuring his real life grandmother. This draws many complaints and the label drop him, leaving him without a label and his girlfriend threatening to dump him unless he finds another one.
Daniel and Nathan however share altogether more touching moments, albeit through the swearing, as Daniel and Gran try to get at least three members of their ‘Wall of Legends’ to attend a farewell party for Nathan, before he moves to his deaf school. The drive that Nathan and Gran show during this tough time when the boys’ Mum and Step Father are against any sort of party is both touching and rather funny. As can be expected, this episode provides many laugh out loud moments, mostly coming from the new character Blake Oldfield who provides a grown up childish comic relief.
Link: iPlayer.
