TV Review: Siblings

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It’s always a great feeling to discover a new Sitcom on a popular television channel that surprises you with its innovation and originality. Siblings is one of those programmes for me.

This show follows the lives of sibling housemates Hannah (Charlotte Ritchie) and Dan (Tom Stourton) as they go about their days attempting to do as little work as possible and spend their time having a good time instead. Hannah has a regular office job where her manager is a ‘functioning alcoholic’ which means it is incredibly easy for her to escape responsibility on a daily basis, and generally spend less than five hours at work each day. Dan, on the other hand, spends all his time at home being bored out of his dim-witted brain. This results in him doing the most moronic things yet somehow avoiding the consequences (due to luck, rather than skill), a rather over-used concept but approached in an entirely new way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soMOeO_7Mdk

This is a Sitcom set in an entirely normal environment, yet what makes Siblings so insane is the characters within it. It’s a familiar habit of mine to allow my brain to tick over and get distracted while watching these kind of programmes but this one is an exception because of the wacky dialogue and actions of the brother and sister duo. As well as making many stupid decisions throughout, Hannah, in particular, is actually quite a horrible person (though I love her, but maybe that says a more about me than it says about anything else). For example, in order to make a good impression on her new boss in Episode One, Hannah makes it her duty to prove that the other office workers are not a patch on herself. Whilst in conversation with her new boss, Annette (Tracy Ann Oberman), and co-worker, Kevin, she suggests rather loudly:

“Kevin, what was that thing you were saying the other week about how gay people shouldn’t be allowed to live by the seaside?”

Siblings is a true breath of comedy-fresh-air and I look forward to watching the rest of the series over the coming weeks. You can catch up with the episodes so far on BBC iPlayer and watch Episode Three on BBC 3 at 10.30pm tonight.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Revisited: S1E3, Skipper The Eyechild

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Episode: S1E3, Skipper The Eyechild

Air Date: 12 February 2004

Summary: This episode is allegedly based on a true story. A giant eye impregnates one of the patients at Darkplace which results in the birth of a mutant eye-child. Rick Dagless MD has emotional wounds regarding his dead son, Skipper, (who was born half grasshopper) which leads him to steal the baby eye and hide him from everyone at the hospital. He also calls the new child Skipper in hope of filling the hole in his life that was left by his son when he died. Unfortunately, Rick is eventually backed into a corner and this results in him being bitten on the hand by the mutant eye and he panics…

skipper

What Else? This instalment of Darkplace is, yet again, packed full with top-of-the-range special effects. There are some authentic-looking wires to hold a helicopter in the sky and very realistic makeup, such as fake blood (it definitely doesn’t look like Ketchup at all). We get insight into Sanchez and Dagless’ special handshake and also see how it only takes mere seconds for Liz to ruin her makeup with tears after an insult, which isn’t particularly convenient for the busy woman.

Quote of the Episode:

Dean Learner: “I haven’t acted since. Some would say I didn’t act during, but er, those would be unkind people. I did my best.”

Familiar Faces: Graham Linehan as a hospital security guard.

THE REVISITED SERIES

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Revisited: S1E2, Hell Hath Fury

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Episode: S1E2, Hell Hath Fury

Air Date: 5 February 2004

Summary: This episode begins with a problem: the chef at Darkplace is too slow and the chicken is late. This has made all the staff waiting in line very impatient and annoyed, which results in multiple people being incredibly rude to poor Doctor Liz, and she doesn’t appreciate that at all. Within seconds, the chef has been mysteriously attacked and nobody can work out who did it: Rick Dagless M.D- “We’ve asked everyone in the hospital if they’re the mystery attacker, and they’ve all said no”. After many many hours, and various new attacks, Thornton Reed finally works out that the attacker is Liz, and she’s developed dangerous telekinetic powers.

What Else? This episode is about “love, loyalty and sacrifice”, which is definitely, and hilariously, not really that significant to the episode, and in places where it is, it is brief and lighthearted. A hilarious aspect of this episode is the terrible camera skills, where many characters only have the top half their face on screen at some points. We see many wonderful special effects: Dean Learner: “An eagle eyed viewer might be able to see the wires… if you go to a Punch and Judy show and look at the wires, you’re a freak!”

Quote of the Episode:

Rick Dagless: “I ran the only way I knew how, by placing one leg in front of the other in quick succession.”

Familiar Faces: Stephen Merchant as the chef (“you son of bitch”).

THE REVISITED SERIES

Gus The Fox Scrap Book

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A few months ago, Rachel Van Zyl and Alecia Steele from Noel’s Fieldmice sent me a copy of the Gus The Fox Scrap Book, the debut book from the Twitter sensation (you guessed it) Gus The Fox.

The foul-mouthed pest gained a lot of his following from his beautiful Twitter-relationship with Noel Fielding who regularly retweets his material. This is how I found the hilarious character. To show his appreciation of Gus’ work, Noel wrote the foreword to the book which is as insane as could be expected from the comedian. A couple of Gus’ tweets are posted below, and I intentionally picked ones with no swearing, though I actually find these funnier anyway. I’d encourage you to follow him if you want to have your feed broken up by a little bit of madness every now and then.

Screen Shot 2014-07-30 at 12.30.41 Screen Shot 2014-07-30 at 12.30.43

Gus’ book is refreshingly horrible, with frequent celebrity references and surreal anecdotes. The layout is original, well thought out and varied which makes it easy reading and a piece of art in itself, despite the horrific subject matter. In fact, in places, the content actually made me feel quite sad: amongst the laughs, this book is actually very depressing; Gus The Fox doesn’t have the best life.

This book clearly took a great deal of work from writer Matt Haydock and artist Nick Reyniers, and I fully recommend you purchase the book for yourselves. Again, thanks to the girls at Noel’s Fieldmice for sending me my own copy!

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Revisited: S1E1, Once Upon A Beginning

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Episode: S1E1, Once Upon A Beginning

Air Date: 29 January 2004

Summary: Rick Dagless M.D. is reminiscing about his old friend Larry, with whom Dagless accidentally opened the gates to Hell many years ago. There is something wrong at Darkplace Hospital, Dagless can feel it. Plus, new doctor Liz Asher (“You’re a woman,” “Yes, I hope that’s not going to be a problem.”) has had a psychic vision and it becomes apparent that Larry Renwick is at the hospital once more, as a patient. And when Larry explodes, everything gets a little bit worse…

What Else? It’s hard to express how hilarious this episode is in words because the true skill is in the performance. The combination of the deliberately terrible acting and pathetically poor props (such as fake cars) makes for very funny viewing. There is frequent use of extreme gore that is not for the faint-hearted but is obviously not real, along with absolutely ridiculous plot devices, such as an exploded man being buried with his body intact and a controversial amount of sexism (yet again, not designed to be taken seriously).

Quote of the Episode:

Thornton Reed: “If that’s how you treat your friends, imagine how you treat your enemies! Worse, I expect!”

Familiar Faces: Julian Barratt plays the very Howard Moon-like priest and Kim Noble appears as doctor Jim.

THE REVISITED SERIES

July: Comedian Of The Month #6, Noel James

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Each Comedian of the Month on MoodyComedy is a comic who has never previously featured on the website. Reasons for selection can include various current projects the comedian is involved with, or perhaps recent appearances on television programmes or podcasts. There is no strict criteria however, as Comedian of the Month simply stands as a collection of recommendations, highlighting interesting and original aspects of certain comedians and their work.

The stand out comedian for me this month is Welsh funny man: Noel James. I heard of him through a recent episode of Stuart Goldsmith’s Comedian’s Comedian Podcast in which Noel presented himself as a very thoughtful and self aware individual, and one that I was interested to find out some more about.

Throughout the episode, Noel discussed his use of wordplay and metaphors amongst many surreal one-liners. These often tie together to form mad little stories and frequently feature songs too: his comedy is clearly something of a variety act within a one-man show. He’s obviously a very intelligent guy, which is made even more clear when we hear that he can speak (and perform in) Welsh as well as English and in the words of the man himself: “I heard ‘sorry’ is the hardest word, but not compared to Welsh, I heard”.

What I like most about Noel is the way his natural sense of humour really comes through while he is performing. He is able to ad-lib, or appear to be ad-libbing, without hesitation and that is a very important factor in a live comedy experience for me because it makes the show feel unique and tailored to an audience. And it’s clear that Noel’s audiences do adore him; when watching clips of his stand up on YouTube, the laughs are constant and genuine and this is down to his wonderfully confident delivery and hints of absolute insanity.

Watching Noel James’ material and listening to him analyse it on Goldsmith’s podcast was a real breath of comedy fresh air for me (and not only due to his soothing Welsh accent). He brings an honesty to his work but also carries that hint of mystery that comes with surrealist comedy and I think that makes a lovely combination.

You can listen to Episode 86 of The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast at a price of your choosing here or download it from iTunes.

JUNE COMEDIAN OF THE MONTH

TV Review: Friday Night Dinner

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Friday Night Dinner is a fast-paced and brilliantly written sitcom about the slightly dysfunctional and entirely deranged Goodman family. Although the brand new series three has recently been shown on television (Channel 4), I have been catching up on all of the previous series as well as this one, with each being equally as strong as the last.

The format is relatively simple: it follows the family every week, where the boys visit their parents for Friday night dinner. The true skill here is evident in the excellent script writing (the programme is written and produced by the insanely talented Robert Popper) for the conversations are utterly insane but have been injected with a surprising amount of wit. The characters in the programme are consistently getting themselves into terrible situations, often involving difficult grandparents, girlfriends and troublesome neighbours.

Friday Night Dinner is one of the rare television programmes that has a solid cast through and through, with the four recurring characters consisting of two grown-up sons, Jonny and Adam (played by Tom Rosenthal and Simon Bird respectively) and unlikely married couple: Martin and Jackie (Paul Ritter and Tamsin Greig). As well as this, the fantastically talented Mark Heap plays the family’s sinister neighbour: Jim Bell, a character that has had me crying with laughter on multiple occasions.

My favourite character would have to be Jim. With his seemingly irrational fear of his Belgian Shepard, Wilson, and obvious lack of social skills teamed up with the fact he clearly fancies Jackie, every encounter with this tricky neighbour is absolutely hilarious. Mark Heap is a very talented comedic actor and this is made apparent through his uncanny ability to generate a laugh from the viewer purely from a facial expression or body stance. Heap has been given the role of a very typical comedy trope but has managed to make it his own, whilst demonstrating originality and skill.

It is hard to single out any other stand out actors in this programme because they are all undeniably outstanding, with Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal effortlessly filling the role of annoying, immature, and yet somehow loveable young men and Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter adding an interesting twist to their parenting personas. The character of Martin (Ritter) triggers many of the biggest laughs in each episode with his absurd catchphrase: “Shit on it!” and generally stupid and disgusting antics whereas Jackie (Greig) has expertly mastered the art of suggesting her emotions through her facial expressions, which has amusing consequences.

Friday Night Dinner deals with multiple recurring jokes that the viewer can never tire of, such as the way Jim always gets confused between Adam and Jonny:

Jonny: “Jim have you seen Adam?”

Jim: “I thought you were Adam?”

Jim is also ignorant regarding the family’s Jewish heritage, but not necessarily Jewish faith. He often tries to join in on their ‘Jewish traditions’ such as fashioning himself a “Jewish hat” and presenting them with a Schmoigle which is an offering of a basket of fruit.

This is easily one of my favourite sitcoms of all time and I hope there are many more series to come. You can catch up on all previous episodes from the past three series on 4OD.

I will leave you with the words of Jim: “Thank you all for the lovely evening. Well, except for everything that happened.”

TV Review: Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy: Tales From Painted Hawaii

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Yesterday, on the 24th of July, 4OD previewed the first episode of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy: Tales of Painted Hawaii, which was, of course, greeted with open arms by the Fielding community. Noel has previously said that this series took a lot longer to write than the first, and that audiences should be prepared for a very different show format. This is down to the fact that the making of series one of Luxury Comedy was a chance for Fielding and the other creative minds behind the show to throw lots of ideas into the mix, as well as there being an obvious need to establish a few core characters and concepts, and as a result, the show’s debut was a colourful combination of the insane and the psychedelic.

Although this first series was adored by fans all over the world, it also received a fair amount of criticism from people who thought it was a step too far and many suggested it was self-indulgent. I can’t say I disagree with the latter, but I wouldn’t say it was a bad thing: it is important that creators of content are in love with what they are producing, and I think Fielding’s passion for both art and comedy shone through. From what has been shown of series two, however, Luxury Comedy has evolved into a wonderful sitcom, rather than the fast-paced sketch show it was previously. By approaching the format in this way, Noel and Nigel Coan (who co-wrote the show) have been able to add a great deal of depth to all the characters, which is evident from the first episode alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmND4XGw0zE

There is a fresh new energy within the cast, that is made up of Noel Fielding, Mike Fielding, Tom Meeten and Dolly Wells, but still has the same feelings of warmth and familiarity of previous episodes. Actually, there are many subtle changes as well, such as the way Noel is much more self-depreciating and, therefore, more ‘human’. That is a definite theme I picked up on: the show has suddenly become a lot more human. This is made clear in the dialogue where characters often refer to the audience, or the fact that the show didn’t have many viewers (though it did, of course).

With the immense talent that is Serge Pizzorno (Kasabian) working with Noel to create the show’s music and the famously gifted Dave Brown putting together the unique and recognisable animation, the programme is absolutely seamless. Subsequently, right at the start of this first episode, with the title sequence that features efforts from both sides, there really is a lot to sing and dance about.

I cannot wait to see the rest of the new series of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy and will probably write up a full post about it when it finishes as I just can’t help myself; Noel is my idol.

TV Review: Mock The Week, Series 13

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On the 9th of February this year, the BBC made an announcement that lead me to write this post because it made me feel so disheartened. The announcement concerned the number of female comedians that are present on panel shows broadcast by the BBC and proposed that all new episodes of programmes like Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You and QI will have at least one woman each. The statement given by Danny Cohen, Director of Television at the BBC, that contained the proposal, was not taken well by comedians and the general public alike. As I explained in my post at the time, this was mainly because of the patronising nature of the new rule and I worried immensely about the effect this will have on female comedians and their audiences.

It is now five months later and the first half of Mock The Week series thirteen has been and gone. As promised, there has been one female comic on each of the six episodes so far and, as a result, I personally think it’s been one of the best series yet. This is because many wonderful comedians have been given the chance to appear on the show where they may not have been able to before, and many of them have been women. Now, I completely stand by the concerns I expressed in my previous post and still fear they are just as valid: I am very uncomfortable with the idea of a ‘token woman’ on such programmes and it’s always going to be an issue because of Cohen’s statement.

However, despite my worries, when I focus purely on the entertainment; when I pretend I don’t know why there are suddenly more women on Mock The Week, I thoroughly enjoyed the series. It made me incredibly happy to see some of my favourite female comedians make their Mock The Week debut, such as Angela Barnes and Sara Pascoe, and to see the wonderful Katherine Ryan make her fourth appearance on the show (an impressive achievement, looking at the statistics for such a programme). Not only were there many new female faces (also including Susan Calman and Tiff Stevenson), but I was also delighted to see one of my favourite male comedians appear on his second, third, fourth AND fifth episode: the hilarious Romesh Ranganathan.

So there have been six episodes in this half of the series and that means there have been six female comedians who got some screen time who may not have got it otherwise, and this has to be a good thing. I did some research and discovered that series eleven had five different female comedians throughout the whole of the twelve episodes: Jo Caulfield, Zoe Lyons, Ava Vidal, Andi Osho and Katherine Ryan. Likewise, series twelve only showed three on all eleven episodes and they were Ava Vidal, Katherine Ryan and Holly Walsh. Despite the humiliation of the extremely concentrated ‘positive discrimination’ that women (including the public as well as comedians) are being force-fed with, it is undeniable that Mock The Week is a better show because of it, I just wish it hadn’t been done so blatantly, before everyone’s eyes.

In February, I was made to feel embarrassed for being a girl. I felt like female comedians were being held up under a spotlight and examined; pitied. And it made me feel really helpless because if this is the only way for women to get an equal amount of time on panel shows, there is something very wrong with the world. But the effects seem to be wearing off and hopefully many people haven’t even noticed the change, which shows how unnatural it was to have so little female comedians on Mock The Week in the past.

Anyway, I don’t want this to be a negative post because I think the nation’s memory of Danny Cohen’s statement has faded considerably since February and I’d like to hope it stays like that. In general, the changes that have been made to the running of Mock The Week seem to be extremely positive and I hope this signals the start of some kind of panel-show-revolution.

PS. Another thing I noticed was that the female comic was always in the middle chair on Andy Parson’s team and that has intrigued me as I can’t think of a reason for that being so. If anyone can enlighten me as to why, that would be much appreciated.

Seven Questions With… Lost Voice Guy

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Lee Ridley, aka Lost Voice Guy, is a funny man with a unique comic voice: being that he literally has none. Lee relies on an iPad to communicate with his audiences, due to losing his speech as a child, which allows a completely different style of comedy gig to take place, and one that everybody should experience. With his light-hearted attitude towards his disability, Lee is working to end the stigma that is attached to such physical conditions while being a right laugh as he does so.
In order to find out a bit more about Lee, I asked him these seven questions…

1) Describe the strangest dream you’ve ever had?

I have strange dreams quite often actually. I’m not sure why. I can hardly remember any of them though. The only ones I can recall are the ones when I talk in my sleep and wake up with a load of random shit written on my iPad. I woke up once and found that I had written ‘but the Queen told me to do it’ so I’m guessing that was quite a weird dream.

2) In your opinion, what is the biggest disgrace to humanity?

Mrs Brown’s Boys, without doubt. I mean why? Why? WHY?! Why does it exist? What is it’s purpose? Is it supposed to be funny? Why does everyone seem to like it? Why does it make loads of money? It’s shit, isn’t it? Isn’t it?!!!!!!

3) Worst on-stage experience you’ve ever had?

A lot of comics suffer from stage fright but I’m not one of those. I’m more likely to suffer from a dead battery or the electricity going off. I suppose one of the worst on stage experiences was in Halifax when this woman stormed out of the room as I got on stage and said ‘oh I can’t watch this!’ I didn’t even think I was that ugly!

4) Three bands/artists in your perfect festival lineup?

Just three?! That’s really hard! Ash would be my first choice. I’ve always loved Ash since their 1977 album. I’d probably have the Manic Street Preachers as well but I’d make it clear to them that they had to only play their classics. Then I’d bring Michael Jackson back because he still owes me a gig from his London shows that got cancelled. Selfish bastard.

5) What ice cream flavour doesn’t exist, but should?

Monkey flavour ice cream. Because then you could ask for monkey’s blood to get put on top of it and it’d be so much more realistic as an experience. I doubt monkeys taste good though. I’ve never tried.

6) Other than humans, what is the most irritating animal on the planet?

Sheep. They’re constantly ruining my train journeys to gigs by standing on the train line. I meaLost Voice Guyn I don’t know why we can’t just run them over?! Maybe they’re trying to commit suicide anyway. They’re probably wondering why they never succeed.

7) Who is your comedy hero?

I always say Ross Noble so, for a change, I’m going to say The League Of Gentlemen. For everything they have made. I just love how dark and twisted they can get. It’s definitely my sort of humour. I just seem to adore everything they do. And I still want to go to the actual town which was made into Royston Vasey. I’d just go around shouting catchphrases from the show.

TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR LEE RIDLEY’S 2014 EDINBURGH SHOW

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH…