• Just in time for Fry & Laurie’s 30th, it’s Soupy Twists

    Just in time for Fry & Laurie’s 30th, it’s Soupy Twists

    With the simple aim to tell ‘the full official story’, comedy historian Jem Roberts brings us the genius that is Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’ in Soupy Twists. The ‘all-new narrative guide’ will be timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the debut of the duo’s ‘effortlessly superior sketch show’. The pilot episode of A Bit Of Fry & Laurie premiered in 1987, and then […]

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  • Basil Fawlty earns an “A” in the Science of Great Comedy

    Basil Fawlty earns an “A” in the Science of Great Comedy

    Fawlty Towers has to be the greatest 12 episodes of comedy ever. The UK version of The Office is a close second (much better, I think, than the American version, but that’s a debate for another day). In 2000, the British Film Institute selected Fawlty Towers as the best British television show. After a year-long poll looking for Britain’s Best Sitcom, the BBC […]

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  • PBS to get ‘Vicious’ one final time in June with special series finale

    PBS to get ‘Vicious’ one final time in June with special series finale

    Vicious, the British sitcom sporting the massive star power duo of Sirs Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, Frances de la Tour, Iwan Rheon, Celia Imrie and Marcia Warren, returns for a series finale that will follow a year in the lives of Freddie (McKellen) and Stuart (Jacobi). It premieres on Sunday, June 19th at 8 p.m. […]

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  • Don’t Panic! National Towel Day 2016 is just around the corner!

    Don’t Panic! National Towel Day 2016 is just around the corner!

    Still reeling from having missed the opportunity the last couple of years to alert everyone as to the fact that National Towel Day is just around the corner, I thought I’d get a head start this year so everyone (me included) can plan the days activities for #TowelDay2016 on May 25. As most of you probably know, National […]

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  • Gareth Gwenlan, British television producer/director, dies at 79.

    Gareth Gwenlan, British television producer/director, dies at 79.

    Gareth Gwenlan, a name you may not be familiar with but whose work you have seen and enjoyed for decades on countless British situation comedies, has died at age 79. Gwenlan, who joined the BBC Comedy department in 1967 as a producer, helped create some of the world’s most beloved British sitcoms, notably The Fall And Rise […]

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  • Red Nose Day USA returns with Craig Ferguson at the helm

    Red Nose Day USA returns with Craig Ferguson at the helm

    Red Nose Day USA has secured the brilliance of Craig Ferguson to host the 2nd annual fundraising special to be broadcast May 26 on NBC. This is excellent news given that I’m still bitter over that fact that the former host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson was not tagged as David Letterman’s replacement when he retired […]

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  • Equal time: 4 failed British remakes of American telly

    Equal time: 4 failed British remakes of American telly

    If you been with Tellyspotting as a P1 since Day 1, or if you have joined the conversation at any point over the course of the last six-plus years, you are probably acutely aware of my lack of tolerance for poorly done American television remakes of British television output. This holds true mostly in the […]

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  • ‘Upstart Crow’ with David Mitchell continues #Shakespeare400 celebration

    ‘Upstart Crow’ with David Mitchell continues #Shakespeare400 celebration

    Peep Show star and one-half of the comedy duo of Mitchell and Webb, David Mitchell, stars as William Shakespeare in a new 6-part BBC2 sitcom written and produced by Ben Elton (The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Thin Blue Line). Focusing on the playwright’s life before he became famous, the storyline for Upstart Crow, revolves around Shakespeare’s personal and professional life and the rather […]

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  • Prince Charles schools Britain’s best during Shakespeare Live! celebration

    Prince Charles schools Britain’s best during Shakespeare Live! celebration

    “To be or not to be” was the question of the evening on Saturday as a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the British acting world assembled on stage to honor the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. It was a rather impressive line-up of greatness who performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon to celebrate the Bard’s […]

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