Of all the one-off programs that the BBC has lined up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of comedy on the BBC, Goodnight Sweetheart has to the one I’m most excited about. I thought the original was brilliant. With the original writers and virtually all of the original cast involved, this has potential much like Still Open […]
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If nothing else, Young Hyacinth, the forthcoming BBC prequel to the classic Roy Clarke series, Keeping Up Appearances, will give audiences a bit of insight as to how a 19-year-old Hyacinth from humble beginnings turned into an over-bearing, social-climbing snob with a penchant for slimline telephones with automatic redial, Royal Doulton china with hand-painted periwinkles, candlelight suppers. In […]
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Porridge, the early 70s British sitcom starring Ronnie Barker, Richard Beckinsale, Fulton Mackay and Brian Wilde, is being re-made as part of the BBC’s 60th anniversary of comedy celebration, the Landmark Sitcom Season, beginning this Fall. Barker starred as habitual criminal, Norman Stanley Fletcher. “Fletch” shares his cell with young Lennie Godber, a first time inmate upon whom he imparts his […]
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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. The British writer, director, radio presenter, stand-up comedian and actor added a London West-End appearance last July 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 the English language, […]
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Caroline Aherne, the co-creator/writer and star of the brilliant late 90s British situation comedy, The Royle Family, has died at the age of 52. Aherne, who played Denise Royle, co-created and wrote all three series of the critically-acclaimed comedy with co-star, Craig Cash. Centered around the lives of a blue collar, television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, comprised of family patriarch Jim […]
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Carla Lane, one of the first female television sitcom writers in an era dominated by her male counterparts, has died at the age of 87. Through her series, The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread, Lane gave women a voice while delving into serious subjects not normally dealt with in situation comedy. Her four decades of comedy established her as […]
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As you probably gathered, we just can’t let National Towel Day and Douglas Adams go just yet. Why, you ask? Well, now comes word that BBC Radio 4 has commissioned a new series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, over a decade since the last series aired. According to the British Comedy Guide, it will become the sixth series […]
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Best known for playing alongside Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films, Burt Kwouk has passed away at the age of 85. While his international fame came from his recurring role as Inspector Clouseau’s sidekick, Cato, in the Pink Panther films from 1975-1993, Kwouk was a small-screen fixture from 2002-2010 starring as electrical and mechanical engineer Entwistle in Last Of The […]
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The second-longest continually running UK film series, next to the James Bond films, will be getting a 21st Century makeover in the near future. The Carry On film series, which contains the largest number of films of any British series (31), began in 1958 with Carry On Sergeant, ending in 1992 with Carry On Columbus, produced to coincide with the […]
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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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