• ‘W1A’ stars to reunite for Comic Relief UK 2024 on Friday, 15 March!

    ‘W1A’ stars to reunite for Comic Relief UK 2024 on Friday, 15 March!

    Red Nose Day has to be the single most brilliant example known to man and/or woman of how an entire country demonstrates the ability to create brilliant content and rally around a charitable cause. To label Red Nose Day in the UK as a cultural phenomenon is doing it an injustice. It’s an institution. The entire country gets […]

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  • John Cleese adapts ‘Fawlty Towers’ for London’s West End stage!

    John Cleese adapts ‘Fawlty Towers’ for London’s West End stage!

    Just how does one tinker with perfection? This had to be a question that has run through John Cleese’s mind palace over the years when the annual question would come up as to why there has never been a Fawlty Towers remake. I’m guessing the same with Ricky Gervais when thinking about The Office (even though the American […]

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  • Benny Hill turns 100!

    Benny Hill turns 100!

    While, clearly, a majority of my formative years were shaped by the greatness of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, there was a small amount quietly tucked away that I remember was reserved for The Benny Hill Show. On the surface, the slapstick, mime and double entendre sketches were definitely cringe-worthy but there was a underscored brilliance behind […]

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  • Grab your briefcase and bowler and celebrate The International Day of Silly Walks 2024 in Prague.

    Grab your briefcase and bowler and celebrate The International Day of Silly Walks 2024 in Prague.

    A recent study by the BMJ found that a walking style made famous in a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe is actually vigorous exercise. Studies published in the annual holiday edition of the British Medical Journal, which traditionally highlights legitimate but offbeat research, indicate that a brief but brisk ‘silly walk’, similar to that made popular by […]

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  • “The same procedure every year” — ‘Dinner for One’ continues its annual NYE tradition in Germany

    “The same procedure every year” — ‘Dinner for One’ continues its annual NYE tradition in Germany

    It’s repetitive…it’s predictable…it continues to be brilliantly funny every year and it’s worthy of an annual mention on Tellyspotting every New Years Eve. On the surface, Dinner for One is a short British cabaret sketch from the 1920s that has become a German New Year’s tradition. Whether or not you understand the cultural significance of this, Dinner […]

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  • John Cleese’s classic rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

    John Cleese’s classic rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

    Much like watching It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, Tuna Christmas or, as evidenced by a recent admission, Die Hard, one of my annual Christmas traditions is to listen to John Cleese’s adaptation of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas from podcast No. 28. Never mind that there have been endless readings over the years by the likes […]

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  • ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ — the making of the final scene

    ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ — the making of the final scene

    After years of futile trench warfare, the final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth was a result of General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry) giving the order for the “big push” — which translates as a suicidal charge across the battlefield towards hundreds of German machine guns. IMHO, it’s probably one of the most powerful […]

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