The comedic talents and collective mind palaces of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are reuniting for the supernatural comedy series, Truth Seekers. Centering on a pair of paranormal investigators, the 8-part series stars Frost as the leader of the paranormal investigator team, which slowly uncovers “a conspiracy that could bring about Armageddon for the entire human race.”
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While we never had the good fortune to speak with Sydney for our any of our PBS specials that featured not only the stars of some of the all-time great British comedy series but also focused on the writers and creators of some of the classics of British comedy, it was through the words of John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Jenny Funnell, Moira Brooker, Philip Bretherton, Richard Briers, Michael Crawford, Roy Clarke, David Jason, Karl Howman, Bob Larbey and Frank Thornton that we were immediately schooled on the greatness that was Sydney Lotterby.
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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 4+ months of the off-again, on-again mandated ‘sheltering at home’ lockdown, it’s the steady flow of creativity from the creative world, which has been nothing short of brilliant. […]
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With a huge tip of the hat to The Telegraph for getting the conversation going several years ago, we celebrate the brilliance that started out almost four decades ago as simply…The Black Adder. Premiering on 15 June 1983 on BBC1, the Richard Curtis/Rowan Atkinson creation turned 37 earlier this week on Monday at 9:25pm GMT. […]
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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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