Comedy | Tellyspotting

July 4, 2022
Stephen Merchant answers the burning question — ‘What if the British won?’

As co-writer and co-director of BBC’s The Office, Stephen Merchant is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais. Several years ago, the British writer, director, radio presenter, stand-up comedian and actor added London West-End appearance to his CV with his first play, The Mentalists by Richard Bean, alongside Steffan Rhodri at the Wyndham Theatre. And, his most recent effort alongside the greatness of […]
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June 21, 2022
The generational legacy of the greatness of Dave Allen

Not long after Monty Python’s Flying Circus’s October 1974 premiere on KERA-TV in Dallas, one of my earliest memories of watching British comedy on public television was to ‘religiously’ watch Dave Allen at Large….a somewhat non-descript sketch/standup/sitdown comedy series featuring an intellectually brilliant Irish comedian that sat in a high bar stool with a seemingly bottomless glass of whiskey.
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May 29, 2022
Rowan Atkinson is the man in ‘Man Vs Bee’

Only the brilliant comedic genius that is Rowan Atkinson could build antcipation for an entire comedy series around one man’s fight with….a bee! When the former star/co-creator of such British comedy classics such as Mr. Bean and Blackadder is given a platform to showcase his physical comedy capabilities, it does spell the potential for comedy gold. In Man vs. Bee, […]
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May 14, 2022
The next meeting of the DMDC is set as ‘The Detectorists’ gets ready for one final dig!

Mackenzie Crook, the writer, director and star behind the brilliant metal-detecting sitcom The Detectorists, confirmed there will be one last sweep of the English countryside coming from his mind palace which will warrant getting the band back together in the not-too-distant future. The series, which finished after three series in 2017, was not only a very cerebral […]
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May 6, 2022
The 1975 review of ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ that completely misses the mark.

A series that played a significant part in shaping my ‘formative years in British telly’ was when I first discovered Monty Python’s Flying Circus. When it first aired in the United States on October 6, 1974, courtesy of my local PBS station, KERA (where I have now worked for a majority of my career in television), it […]
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April 22, 2022
Celebrating Shakespeare in a nutshell this St Georges Day, courtesy of ‘Upstart Crow’

This coming Saturday, William Shakespeare would have been a mere 458 years old. While his true birthdate remains a mystery (he was baptized on April 26, 1564), it is generally celebrated on April 23, the same day England’s patron saint is celebrated with a laundry list of ‘happenings’, St. George’s Day. It was a mere 406 […]
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April 17, 2022
As you seek the Grail this Easter, heed the words of Tim and always ‘fear the bunny’!

One simply cannot let Easter pass without paying tribute to the genius that is Monty Python & the Holy Grail. There are literally thousands of lines and/or scenes that millions of fans worldwide can quote or reference, and there are few that don’t gravitate to a seemingly innocent looking rabbit that surprises a group of tourists looking for […]
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April 2, 2022
Happy 82nd, Dame Penelope Keith!

Today is Penelope Keith’s 82nd birthday. With a long public television history dating back to the days of Good Neighbors and To the Manor Born to her efforts serving as host for PBS’ The Funny Ladies of British Comedy and More Funny Ladies of British Comedy and right through to her more recent presenting efforts in the numerous […]
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April 1, 2022
Swedish author discovers lost 13th episode of ‘Fawlty Towers’

With the mysterious script chronicled in the book Fawlty Towers – A Worshiper’s Companion, a lost, never-before-broadcast 13th episode of the classic British comedy Fawlty Towers has been discovered. Swedish author Lars Holger Holm admits that he viewed the mysterious 13th episode in 1999 in the London flat of an individual from the Editorial Department who worked on numerous […]
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March 27, 2022
Did the German ‘Fawlty Towers’ ever dare to ‘mention the war’?

Even though we re still a few years away from the 50th anniversary of Fawlty Towers (September 2025), I thought it would fun to take a look back at how the greatest situation comedy of all-time made the leap to German broadcaster RTL. The first ever non-English adaptation of the John Cleese/Connie Booth bit of brilliance occurred […]
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