Michael Palin in 'The Wipers Times' on BBC2

Michael Palin, Monty Python legend and longtime TV adventurer, returns to the small screen and his comedy acting roots in the World War One drama The Wipers Times this Wednesday on BBC2. The one-off special tells the uplifting and true tale of a group of British soldiers who stumble across an abandoned printing press in […]

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R.I.P. Mel Smith

Mel Smith, English comedian, writer, film director, producer and actor, best known for his pioneering work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O’Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones has died of a heart attack at the age of 60. Smith and comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones, founded Talkback in 1981, which grew […]

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The Rutles: A Look Back at Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry

The early 60’s were not especially kind to The Rutles. Languishing in the Rutland Cavern for years, it wasn’t until 1975 when this relatively unknown British pop group fronted by Neil Innes appeared on Rutland Weekend Television singing “I Must Be In Love” from their 1965 album, A Hard Days Rut, that The Rutles began […]

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BBC, former Python Terry Jones, discover flying penguins

BBC presenter, Terry Jones, discovers a colony of penguins which are unlike any other penguins in the world. Back in 2008, the BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history Miracles of Evolution series had captured footage of Adélie penguins taking to the air. Film maker, writer, former Python turned […]

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A tearful goodbye to BBC Television Centre…

As of today, the infamous BBC Television Centre is no more. It has ceased to be. It has gone on to meet its maker. Bereft of life, the Centre rests in peace! It is…an ex-Television Centre. On Monday, 18 March, a host of BBC stars bid farewell to the famous Wood Lane building for a […]

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Monty Python – All the bits, complete AND annotated

If you get a chance to drop by a newstand in the not-too-distant future (i.e. this month), pick up a copy of The Atlantic for a brilliant article. “The Beatles of Comedy” is a great read and a real treat for British comedy fans worldwide. Working from the premise that the genius of the Monty […]

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A Monty Python twist on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Published anonymously in 1823 under the title ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas‘, the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas has been called “arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American”. It is said to have largely been responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. While there […]

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Happy Endings next up for League of Gentlemen alumni

Back in 1995, The League of Gentlemen was formed. The world, as we know it, has not been the same since….and, in this particular case, this is a good thing. The quartet of British dark comedy writers/performers, Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith set up shop in the fictional village of Royston […]

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Graham Chapman's beyond the grave biopic – Monty Python style

In true Monty Python style, the upcoming self-described ‘animation epic’, A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, tells the story of (surprise) Graham Chapman, probably best remembered as ‘the dead one from Monty Python’. Described in the Hollywood Reporter as unorthodox, freewheeling and, by fellow Python member John Cleese as a […]

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