Goodbye, Free Agents The news this week out of Hollywood of the cancellation of the U.S. remake of the Channel 4 comedy, Free Agents, sadly, was not unexpected. I guess, however, in the grand scheme of American commercial television remakes of British comedies, it should be considered a mild success. After all, it did make […]
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Rumors circulated across the internet in recent weeks concerning a possible return of the greatness of Blackadder for another season. Seems as though when Rowan Atkinson recently announced that Mr. Bean (and Teddy) had officially retired, he quietly hinted that he’d love to see ‘the band get back together’ for another Blackadder series. Of course, […]
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Ready for some AbFab, sweetie darling? When filming began recently, it was as if they had never left the limo-riding, shopping, boozing lifestyle. Patsy (Joanna Lumley) and Edina (Jennifer Saunders) are back, better than ever, for three new Absolutely Fabulous specials targeted for a 2012 transmission. Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we get an exclusive sneak […]
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Having first appeared in a 1990 New Year’s Day radio program for Thames Television, Mr. Bean is officially retired. Rowan Atkinson, the British comedy great that brought the character to life believes he is too old to play the Buster Keaton-like character any longer. Having last played the lovable legend in the 2007 film, Mr. […]
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Shamelessly paraphrasing a line from the Stevie Ray, Doyle Bramhall song The House is Rockin’, “…don’t bother knocking, come on in” is the only way to describe PBS’ house tonight as Hugh Laurie pays tribute to the history and tradition of New Orleans Blues. Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk — A Celebration of New Orleans […]
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With the passing of David Croft on Sunday, 27 September, at age 89, more from our 1999 interview for the public television program, Salute to British Comedy on American Public Television. When host Penelope Keith introduces the ‘Allo ‘Allo segment, we come to realize that the series was not only complex for the audience, but […]
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British comedy legend, writer/producer David Croft, has died at age 89. Responsible for such classic sitcoms as Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi, ‘Allo ‘Allo and Are You Being Served?, Croft began his career in show business with an early childhood advertisement appearance and then a small part in the 1939 film, Goodbye […]
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Sky 1, to further demonstrate their ongoing commitment to create original comedy content, announced recently that Trollied, starring Jane Horrocks, Jason Watkins and Mark Addy, has been renewed for two seasons. In somewhat of a departure for British comedy commissioning, which traditionally consists of green-lighting one season of a series for 6-8 episodes at a […]
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Downton Abbey 2 vs. Spooks 10 vs. Mildred Pierce With Downton Abbey 2 and Spooks 10 set to battle it out Sunday night in the UK, the States have a battle of their own as the Sunday night telecast of the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards will pit the original Downton Abbey 1 series against HBO’s […]
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Rampant rumors have been circulating around the internets this past week, many the direct result of a Craig Charles appearance last week on ITV This Morning. While he was there to, most likely, chat about his role on Coronation Street, the talk quickly turned to the long running British sci-fi comedy with Charles, given the […]
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