The British Comedy Guide revealed yesterday that The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin will return for two, 1-hour episodes this November on BBC Radio 4. David Haig (Cobra, The Thin Blue Line, Yes Prime Minister, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will star as the frustrated fantasist alongside Pip Torrens (Up The Women, The Lenny Henry Show) as CJ, Selina Griffiths (The […]
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In the United States, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement, dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country. We simply can’t let the long weekend pass by without paying tribute to some of the hardest working friends across the pond…the staff of the ladies’ and gentlemen’s clothing departments of Grace Brothers Department Store.
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Best known for playing Elizabeth Warden, the hyper-nervous next-door neighbor of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances, Josephine Tewson has passed at the age of 91. The actress died on Thursday at Denville Hall, a care home for actors and other members of the entertainment industry in north London.
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Bernard Cribbins, the rather fussy spoon salesman mistaken for a hotel inspector in one episode of Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93. **In spite of a brilliant seven decade plus career, Cribbins will be forever known as ‘being in the “Hotel Inspectors” episode of Fawlty Towers, which is a testament to the greatness of perhaps the best British comedy of all time but speaks more to Cribbins’ brilliant ability to make even a relatively minor role such as Mr. Hutchinson in one episode of Fawlty Towers so memorable.
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With temperatures across the globe hitting record highs the past couple of days, I hope everyone is staying hydrated, staying in the shade and surviving as best you can. 110 degrees is bad enough where I am but one can’t even begin to fathom it being 104F (40C) in London today which is, reportedly, the highest temperature on record to date.
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As co-writer and co-director of BBC’s The Office, Stephen Merchant is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais. Several years ago, the British writer, director, radio presenter, stand-up comedian and actor added London West-End appearance to his CV with his first play, The Mentalists by Richard Bean, alongside Steffan Rhodri at the Wyndham Theatre. And, his most recent effort alongside the greatness of […]
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Not long after Monty Python’s Flying Circus’s October 1974 premiere on KERA-TV in Dallas, one of my earliest memories of watching British comedy on public television was to ‘religiously’ watch Dave Allen at Large….a somewhat non-descript sketch/standup/sitdown comedy series featuring an intellectually brilliant Irish comedian that sat in a high bar stool with a seemingly bottomless glass of whiskey.
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Only the brilliant comedic genius that is Rowan Atkinson could build antcipation for an entire comedy series around one man’s fight with….a bee! When the former star/co-creator of such British comedy classics such as Mr. Bean and Blackadder is given a platform to showcase his physical comedy capabilities, it does spell the potential for comedy gold. In Man vs. Bee, […]
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Mackenzie Crook, the writer, director and star behind the brilliant metal-detecting sitcom The Detectorists, confirmed there will be one last sweep of the English countryside coming from his mind palace which will warrant getting the band back together in the not-too-distant future. The series, which finished after three series in 2017, was not only a very cerebral […]
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A series that played a significant part in shaping my ‘formative years in British telly’ was when I first discovered Monty Python’s Flying Circus. When it first aired in the United States on October 6, 1974, courtesy of my local PBS station, KERA (where I have now worked for a majority of my career in television), it […]
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