• More from the Ladies of Letters, pt 3

    More from the Ladies of Letters, pt 3

    Yet another note has arrived from the brilliant minds that pen the Ladies of Letters, the ITV series seen on a number of public television stations nationwide (Sundays at 11p on KERA in North Texas). Fortunately, in this last exchange, Lou Wakefield was able to finally remove the pen from Irene’s hand as she explains: […]

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  • Goodnight, Irene. More from the Ladies behind the letters, pt 2

    Goodnight, Irene. More from the Ladies behind the letters, pt 2

    More of our interview with the ladies behind the letters in Ladies of Letters, the hit ITV series now entering into its’ second season in the UK. We “sat down” through e-mail with the brains behind the pens, Lou Wakefield and Carole Hayman recently. Here, not only do we hear from them, but Irene gets […]

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  • Exclusive: The Ladies behind "the Letters", pt 1

    Exclusive: The Ladies behind "the Letters", pt 1

    As the story goes, on July 4, 1985, Irene and Vera were born in a handwritten letter left on a kitchen table in Clapham, south west London… While it would be easy to say the rest is history, it definitely wasn’t easy. What started out as a simple game of written improvisation from the brilliant minds […]

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  • Class = laughs in British comedy, according to BSA

    Class = laughs in British comedy, according to BSA

    According to a paper presented yesterday at The British Sociological Association entitled, The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour: British Comedy and New Forms of Distinction, researchers believe that, “social hierarchy holds the key to what Britons find funny, with middle class audiences using their preferences as a form of veiled snobbery”. Class […]

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  • Happy 80th, Manuel!

    Happy 80th, Manuel!

    OK, officially, Manuel may only be 35 years of age,  but Andrew Sachs, the actor who brilliantly portrayed the most famous waiter from Barcelona turns 80 today, Wednesday, April 7. Best known for his role as the hapless waiter, Manuel, in, perhaps the greatest British comedy of all-time, Fawlty Towers, Sachs has had, and still enjoys, a […]

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  • Fawlty Towers Revisited?

    Fawlty Towers Revisited?

    In an eerily similar occurrence to the original during rehearsals of Fawlty Towers at the King’s Theatre in Gloucester, seems as though after all these years, Basil Fawlty still hasn’t gotten the hang of hitting Manuel on the head with a frying pan without inflicting real pain. According to the particulars during rehearsal at the […]

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  • Ladies of Letters meet After You've Gone

    Ladies of Letters meet After You've Gone

    Two new British comedy series are set to premiere on public television in the coming months. KERA Dallas will begin tonight (Sunday) with Ladies of Letters at 11:00pm and After You’ve Gone at 11:30pm. A quick synopsis and preview of both. Would love to know what you think of them, wherever you are. Ladies of […]

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  • Old school comedians still rule!

    Old school comedians still rule!

    Recently, a poll was conducted in the UK to identify Britain’s all-time favorite comedians. Surprising to some, not surprising to many, was the fact that the old-style comedians topped the poll with 67 year old Billy Connolly heading a list that included Victoria Wood and the late, Tommy Cooper. Perhaps just as surprising was the […]

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  • Happy 70th, Penelope! And, we open the mailbag

    Happy 70th, Penelope! And, we open the mailbag

    You Look Marvelous Today is Penelope Keith’s 70th birthday. Billy Crystal’s character, Fernando Lamas, couldn’t have said it better. You look marvelous. With a long public television history dating back to the days of Good Neighbors and To the Manor Born right through to her recent efforts serving as host for both The Funny Ladies of […]

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  • Gervais & Merchant take on the big screen with Cemetery Junction

    Gervais & Merchant take on the big screen with Cemetery Junction

    Office co-creators/writers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant take the leap to the big screen with their upcoming film, Cemetery Junction, scheduled for an April 2010 release in the U.K. Unfortunately, no scheduled release date set as of yet in the United States. Taking place in 1970’s England, Gervais describes the film as a ‘coming of age’ […]

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