As co-writer and co-director of BBC’s The Office, Stephen Merchant is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais. The British writer, director, radio presenter, stand-up comedian and actor added a London West-End appearance a couple of years ago to his CV with his first play, The Mentalists by Richard Bean, alongside Steffan Rhodri at the Wyndham Theatre. Known for his brilliant command of […]
Read more
Officially, July 1, the national day of Canada, is a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the date in 1867 and the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1867 (then called the British North America Act, 1867), which united the three separate colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada. Frequently referred to as ‘Canada’s birthday’, July 1 signaled the point in time when Canada […]
Read more
Moments after South Korea defeated Germany, 2-0, sending the defending World Cup champions packing, thoughts of the brilliant Philosopher Football sketch danced in my head. Why, you may ask? Well, Wednesday’s World Cup abrupt 2018 departure was an immediate reminder of another devastating loss for Germany some years back. Leave it to the genius minds of […]
Read more
This may be an old story, but that’s the beauty of the Internets, great old stories live on forever. In November 2005, as reported in Atlas Obscura, John Cleese, best known as a co-founder of sketch comedy group Monty Python, went on tour in New Zealand. Overall, his time in the country was mostly positive, […]
Read more
Dad’s Army, the BBC comedy that centered on the exploits of a dysfunctional unit of the Home Guard during World War II, turns 50 next month. The Home Guard was made up of men ineligible for military service, largely because they were considered too old, hence the name “Dad’s Army”, who were to act as […]
Read more
Charged with bearing the heavy burden of being “the real final episode of Father Ted”, co-creator/writer Graham Linehan (Black Books, The IT Crowd) announced earlier this week via Twitter that the brilliant British comedy, which sported an almost exclusively all-Irish cast, will return in musical form with Ted making the move from the fictional Craggy Island to […]
Read more
Upstart Crow, the BBC2 comedy starring David Mitchell as William Shakespeare, will return later this year for a a second Christmas special and a third series with several new cast members in tow. In keeping with the tradition started in series two where Emma Thompson (Brideshead Revisited, Love Actually, Harry Potter, Howards End, Fortunes of […]
Read more
It was more than fitting that Towel Day 2018 (May 25) was the setting for the announcement this past week that the greatness of the original six episodes of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will, for the first time, be released on vinyl. The release will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original radio broadcast on BBC […]
Read more
There’s something about British comedy over the course of time that makes you wonder how two people could ever hook-up much less cross paths. You know, those like Basil and Sybil Fawlty who are constantly at each others throats. But, you also get the sense that neither of them would survive without the other. The […]
Read more
In 2010, Alan Partridge pushed the boundaries of broadcasting and shunned what he believed to be the dated concept of television. He returned to his radio roots as a disc jockey on North Norfolk Digital radio’s 4th best time slot with his online, web-based series, Mid Morning Matters. Hailed and vilified at the same time for this […]
Read more