Happy 88th, Dame Judi Dench!

If it wasn’t the case before, I’m now fully convinced that if you looked up the definition of brilliant in the dictionary, there would simply be a photo of Dame Judi Dench. The Oscar/Tony/BAFTA/Laurence Olivier/Golden Globe/Screen Actors Guild award winner turns 88 years young today and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

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Remembering Michael Gwynn, a.k.a. Lord Melbury in ‘Fawlty Towers’

With a TOH to John Cleese, we remember Michael Gwynn who momentarily fulfilled Basil’s wishes of improving the class of guest that stayed at Fawlty Towers. Gwynn was one of a long line of talented actors who paid a visit to Fawlty Towers over the course of the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12). Gwynn passed away on 29 January 1976 at the age of 59.

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British acting legend, Geoffrey Palmer, passes away at 93. RIP, Geoffrey.

From Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to Ben Parkinson in Butterflies to Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Geoffrey Palmer has been a constant fixture in our collective British comedy lives for the better part of four decades with these three series alone. Palmer, who had numerous guest roles in series such as Doctor Who, Inspector Morse, Blackadder Goes Forth, Poirot, Ashes to Ashes and Rev, had perhaps his most well-known guest starring role as Dr Price in “The Kipper and the Corpse” episode of Fawlty Towers in 1979. With a celebrated career that spanned seven decades, Palmer, who turned 93 years young in June of this year, passed away peacefully at his home on Thursday, 5 November.

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Leaving the world with a lifetime of laughter to enjoy forever, legendary comedy producer/director, Sydney Lotterby, dies at 93

While we never had the good fortune to speak with Sydney for our any of our PBS specials that featured not only the stars of some of the all-time great British comedy series but also focused on the writers and creators of some of the classics of British comedy, it was through the words of John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Jenny Funnell, Moira Brooker, Philip Bretherton, Richard Briers, Michael Crawford, Roy Clarke, David Jason, Karl Howman, Bob Larbey and Frank Thornton that we were immediately schooled on the greatness that was Sydney Lotterby.

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Butterflies’ Wendy Craig arrives in Emmerdale on Monday

Wendy Craig, best known for her late 70s / early 80s role as Ria Parkinson, Geoffrey Palmer’s frustrated wife and Nicholas Lyndhurst’s mother, in the Carla Lane comedy, Butterflies, is headed to Emmerdale. The 83 year-old  actress will arrive in Emmerdale on Monday as the ‘fun-loving’ Maisie, the love interest of Sandy Thomas, played by 90 year-old Freddie […]

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How about a few ‘Vicious’ bloopers to get you ready for series 2!

Unlike American television where broadcast networks have made a living for years producing full-length programs that have centered around bloopers filmed during the actual episode recording, program bloopers for a majority of British telly, be it comedy or drama, have always been few and far between. Having had the great good fortune over the years […]

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R.I.P. – Bob Larbey

These are getting harder and harder to write with each passing but they seem to come more frequently these days than any of us would like. The British comedy world, actually, the comedy world, lost a good friend this past week when Bob Larbey passed away. While you may not be familiar with the name, […]

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'Buttleflies' creator, Carla Lane, returns to the world of comedy

Carla Lane, the creator of Bread, Butterflies and The Liver Birds, has decided to return to television following a self-imposed 17-year ‘retirement’. According to the Telegraph, her new sitcom will be set in Liverpool, which was the setting for many of her most popular comedies. Since retiring, Lane has spent years running an animal sanctuary […]

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Monday scattershooting….Paul the alien, Ricky Gervais, Bond23 and more….

Meet Paul, the 21st century E.T., premiering tonight Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the genius minds behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, star as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland, where they meet ‘Paul‘, an alien who alters their universe forever. Let’s just say, this isn’t your parents E.T. The film premieres tonight in […]

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