In Mister Winner, Spencer Jones plays the ironically-named Leslie Winner, a sweet-natured sort of chap who retains an optimistic outlook despite his life being a succession of small disasters. It’s time for Winner to act like his surname and finally pull himself together, as he prepares for his wedding to his fiancé Jemma while simultaneously trying win over […]
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UPDATE: As you have most likely read over the last couple of days, the iconic 12th episode of Fawlty Towers entitled “The Germans” was pulled from the BBC owned UKTV Play streaming service due to several racial slurs and other offensive terms used by Major Gowen, the hotel’s elderly resident played brilliantly by Ballard Berkeley. At the time of the removal, long-time fans of the series were unclear as to whether or not we would ever be able to ‘mention the war’ ever again. Well, what a difference a day makes as word now comes from the UK streaming service that the episode will be re-instated in the not-too-distant future with “extra guidance” to be added to the front of the program.
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On the heels of the removal of The Mighty Boosh, Little Britain, Come Fly with Me and The League of Gentlemen from Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Britbox, comes the announcement by catch-up and streaming platform, UKTV Play, that they will immediately remove “The Germans” episode of what has long been considered the greatest television comedy series in existence, Fawlty Towers. While the remaining eleven episodes will still be available, at this point, no one knows if we’ve heard the last of the classic catchphrase line from the episode, “Don’t mention the war”.
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From Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to Ben Parkinson in Butterflies to Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Geoffrey Palmer has been a constant fixture in our collective British comedy lives for the better part of four decades with these three series alone. Palmer, who has had numerous guest roles in series such as Doctor […]
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In case anyone is wondering what they might get Tellyspotting for Christmas (ok, I’m kidding), take note that Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese will be released the first week of September. Cleese was in Dallas back in December before all this ‘sheltering at home’ got a grip on most of Planet Earth to accept the Ernie Kovacs Award from the Dallas Video Festival. Tellyspotting had the great good fortune to be able to sit down with the comedy legend to talk about creativity, comedy and life in general.
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Another day, another bit of lockdown video gold as the employees of the newly/aptly named ‘Bounce Back Group’ gather to discuss BBC measures regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan, Sarah Parish, Jason Watkins, and David Westhead reprised their roles from the hit sitcom W1A with Fletcher leading the initial Zoom meeting. Fletcher informs his colleagues […]
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Aside from the obvious much more important reasoning of ‘flattening the curve’ and ‘slowing the spread of the virus’, if anything good has come from the last 2-3 months of the mandated ‘sheltering at home’ lockdown, it’s the steady flow of creativity from the creative world, which has been nothing short of brilliant. The most recent example involves Good Omens stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
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Fortunately, or unfortunately, it’s official. The new Jim Parsons/Mayim Bialik produced series, Call Me Kat, has been given the go-ahead. The Big Bang Theory stars, who played couple Sheldon Cooper and Amy Fowler, will take on the role of Executive Producer (Parsons) and star (Mialik) of their new Fox show, which is based on Miranda Hart’s brilliant BBC sitcom, Miranda. Call Me Kat follows a 39-year-old woman who struggles to prove to her mother you cannot have everything you want and still be happy, and uses the money her parents had set aside for her wedding to open a cat cafe in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Thursday’s The Big Night In is yet another reason I would live in London at the drop of a hat…as if I needed another one! The 3-hour program brought together Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need for an unprecedented night of comedy on BBC1. Presented by Lenny Henry, Matt Baker, Zoe Ball, Davina McCall and Paddy McGuinness, the one-night […]
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Tim Brooke-Taylor, best known as one third of The Goodies – died Sunday at the age of 79, after contracting coronavirus. Brooke-Taylor’s career spanned more than six decades with his comedic roots planted in the Cambridge Footlights Club which he joined in 1960 and later became President of in 1963. His membership in the Footlights caused […]
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