More sad news from the world of comedy. Rik Mayall (pictured at left below), the co-creator/writer and star of The Young Ones has passed away at the age of 56. Not long after I was introduced to the likes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers on public television, along came this somewhat […]
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Whatever side of the fence you are on, with all the talk in recent weeks about net neutrality and what the FCC might do that could change the way the United States uses the Internet, we must turn our attention to the brilliant John Oliver as he shares his thoughts on net neutrality and the […]
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Time to appease members of The Downton Abbey Separation Anxiety Society once more… As part of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Buzzfeed’s Jarett Wieselman talks with Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates) about her early days of acting beginning with ‘stage school’ at the age of 13. At 15, her first acting job was a guest shot […]
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As with many of the individuals that have called Downton Abbey home, either upstairs or downstairs, there have been earlier acting lives that have gone relatively unnoticed since the acting ‘pot-of-gold’ that is Downton Abbey. In the case of Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates), he might have actually called upon one of his earlier career efforts […]
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Sloane with an “e”…like the Square It has been some time since I first screened Mr. Sloane. It was back in February at the 2014 BBC Showcase in Liverpool where we first came across this fairly non-descript situation comedy starring Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Cuban Fury. The really […]
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Even though original Python member, Terry Gilliam, calls the troupe’s forthcoming get-together “depressing”, most of the planet is looking forward to their reunion gigs beginning 1 July at London’s O2 arena. Monty Python Live (Mostly) launches on the 1st July, with 10 dates scheduled. The comedians have ruled out getting the band back together for […]
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Hyacinth Bucket, played brilliantly by Patricia Routledge, has spent a lifetime in our collective homes over the years insisting her surname is pronounced Bouquet. She is pretty much a pompous social-climbing snob. Unbeknownst to most neighbor residents of Blossom Lane, Hyacinth originally came from a very poor working-class background. Her main mission in life is […]
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If anyone still questions whether or not British situation comedy is better than its’ American counterpart, one only has to look to the list of pilot comedies coming from American broadcast networks this Fall for verification. In a pitch that must have sounded like it came directly from the lips of Buck Henry in The […]
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Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson and Private Pike are going back on patrol some 37 years after they were last on duty protecting the quiet seaside town of Walmington-on-Sea from a Nazi invasion. Dad’s Army, which starred Arthur Lowe, followed the escapades of the Home Guard platoon during World War II and their efforts as the […]
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“Unfortunately, the ’60s didn’t swing for everyone…” Television set in the 60’s these days dials up a pretty high coolness quotient given that, for the most part, our frame of reference is Mad Men or BBC’s The Hour. Mr. Sloane, set in Watford in 1969, however, is at the opposite end of the Earth from […]
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