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Angela Barnes

Review: Angela Barnes, Rose-Tinted

May 30, 2019 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment
© Matt Crockett

Angela Barnes is becoming a bigger comedy name with each passing month. She is a regular on television panel shows such as Mock the Week and has also appeared on 8 out of 10 Cats and Live at the Apollo. She is currently touring the UK with her latest stand-up show, Rose-Tinted, supported by Phil Jerrod.

Barnes is a powerful speaker. Her ideas are projected forward with strength and her delivery is relaxed. Within seconds her audience feels assured that they are in safe hands for the next hour, and they are.

Rose-Tinted is a show concerned with trying to find positives in a world that seems rather dismal and often quite terrifying. Barnes confesses that she is no ray of sunshine, generally speaking, but it is only natural to assume that most of us aren’t. Angela’s mission, however, is to find the silver linings in the day to day dreariness of UK living. She reflects on the political landscape, along with the #MeToo movement and the state of the NHS, but this is no depressing, political rally because the main focus is Angela’s own personal experiences throughout her teenage, and more recent, years.

In fact, Barnes’ show is remarkably up-lifting. This is largely down to the predominant focus being on day-to-day silver linings, from Barnes’ happy relationship to her recently completing the Couch to 5K. Effortlessly amiable, Angela has her audience rooting for her. This likability comes from her directness and the fact she never feels the need to pander to her audience. As a comic this shows a great amount of creative confidence. Not only this, but her down-to-earth demeanour means that we, perhaps predominantly her female audience, begin to see a part of Angela in ourselves.

Barnes is very open about her faults and is clearly incredibly self-aware, recognising that change needs to come from inside of us and work its way out into the world we live in. The contrast of personal anecdotes and political comment gives the show a freshness, although there is certainly more room for the comic to delve deeper into her own personal narrative, when the time comes.

Rose-Tinted is an honest, uplifting recognition of the important role we each play in our own happiness, regardless of what is going on in the world around us. It’s fast-paced, honest and packed with solid jokes; a highly enjoyable piece of comedy.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR ANGELA BARNES: ‘ROSE-TINTED’ HERE

Posted in: Comedians, Live Comedy Tagged: Angela Barnes, Rose Tinted

Interview: Angela Barnes, Rose-Tinted

February 28, 2019 by Becca Moody 1 Comment

Angela Barnes is a down-to-earth, personable stand-up comedian who has been going from strength to strength in recent years. She has hosted the Radio 4 series NewsJack, as well being one of the generous comics behind the The Home Safe Collective, a charity that ensures female, trans and non-binary comics and performers have safe transport home from late gigs at the Edinburgh Fringe. MoodyComedy spoke to Angela about her new show, Rose-Tinted.

© Matt Crockett

Hey Angela, what’s changed since we last spoke?

Hello! Well one of the main things that has happened since we last spoke is that I handed over the hosting duties on NewsJack to the excellent Kiri Pritchard-McLean. I did 4 series and absolutely loved it – but it was time to move on to other things and let someone else have a go! Since then, I’ve made a second series of my Radio 4 show You Can’t Take It With You which aired in January and I still keep popping up on The News Quiz and Mock The Week etc.

What is the greatest compliment you’ve received about your comedy recently?

I wouldn’t usually like to boast, I’m not one for retweeting praise, for a start, it does no good for my self-deprecating image. But recently, when the second series of my Radio 4 show You Can’t Take It With You aired, Kathy Burke tweeted ‘I loved it too. You’re like the daughter I didn’t have because I didn’t want kids either,’ and I knew I could die happy. I am such a big fan of Kathy, that that was the highest compliment I could ever hope for.

How did you find the writing process for your new show, Rose-Tinted?

I really enjoyed writing this show. I think that because I’m doing a bit more radio and telly now, people have an idea of what I am about, and so I can now write a show without worrying about having to establish where I’m coming from at the start. That is very freeing and means I can get on with whatever it is I want to bang on about. I had a lot of fun in the process of putting this show together, and am really looking forward to getting it out on the road.

How has your mission to become more positive in the face of all the world’s negativity been going so far? Any advice?

Hahaha – I am not the person to come to for advice on looking for the positive. I wanted to try to look on the bright side in this show, but, spoiler alert, I don’t always succeed. Having said that, it has made me more aware of when I am catastrophising and to try to reign it in and look for the roses growing through all the shit. Though the world seems pretty determined to make it as hard as possible to do that…

Are there any places or venues that you are particularly excited to visit during your tour this year?

I’m always excited going to places I haven’t been before, so if anyone has any hot tips on visiting Market Drayton, Burton on Trent or Sudbury – hit me up! I always look forward to playing my hometown, the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone – I used to watch panto there every year as a kid, so it is so weird to be on that stage.  And wherever I go, I always look for the nearest nuclear bunker to visit – it’s kinda my thing – so need to do my research on that before I hit the road!

What have you learned about yourself or your craft over the past year?

2018 was a very busy year, which is great. I like being busy – doesn’t give my brain time to get too bogged down. I am finding my place in the comedy world I think – it’s so hard when you start out to know where you belong. 6 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be a topical comedian, or appearing on political shows – but it seems to be where I thrive, and I’m grateful that topical comedy found me. I have no grand plans – I am just enjoying the ride. I think this last year has taught me two things 1) hard work pays off and 2) I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do this, and I don’t want to ever lose sight of that. I get paid to muck about with excellent people. What a fluke.

What are your main hopes for this 2019 tour?

My main hopes are that people come along and have as much fun watching the shows as me and my brilliant support act, Phil Jerrod, have doing them.

BOOK TICKETS FOR ANGELA BARNES’ TOUR HERE

Posted in: Comedians, Interviews Tagged: Angela Barnes, Interview, Rose Tinted

Interview: Angela Barnes, Fortitude

March 6, 2018 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment
MoodyComedy recently spoke with award-winning comedian Angela Barnes about her latest show, Fortitude…

© Matt Crockett

Hi Angela, what’s on your mind today?

Snow mostly. Brighton is looking very pretty from my living room window, but the bruise on my arse from where I slipped on it yesterday is not appreciating the view.

You’re about to embark on a huge UK tour, are you ready?

As I’ll ever be I think. All I’ve wanted to do since I started doing stand up is to tour my own show to an audience who want to see it. I’m so bloody excited, I just wanna get cracking!

Your comedy often discusses society’s expectations of what we should all be doing at each stage in our lives – what is it about this topic that you are drawn to?

I come from quite an unconventional family, and I’ve never done anything in the right order or at the right time. I was even born far too early, and I’ve done everything arse about face ever since. I’m 41 now, I’m not married, I don’t have children, I don’t have the mortgage, but I can honestly say that I am the most content I have ever been in my life. I just think we all find our own way, and happiness comes from different things for different people… Numbers are mostly arbitrary when it comes to ageing, you know what feels right for you and when. We are lucky enough to live in a society where we have a lot of choice about what we do with our lives and I like to celebrate that.

You’ve become quite a regular on Mock the Week in recent years, has the novelty ever threatened to wear off or do you find it more enjoyable now you’ve had the chance to settle in?

I love doing it now. The first time you do it, you’re like a rabbit in the headlights. You sit on the set, and it looks so familiar, and I found myself just watching it, and then thinking “Oh Christ, you’re not watching telly, you’re on it!”.  Now I feel much more relaxed and can actually enjoy myself on the show. It’s a fun team to work with, and Hugh and Dara are brilliant.

What has been your favourite aspect of presenting Radio 4’s Newsjack?

I have such a special place in my heart for Newsjack, because it really is a way into a world that can feel completely impenetrable. When I was just a comedy nerd sat at home listening to Radio 4, I had no idea how I could ever get anything I wrote seen. Then Newsjack came along and gives everybody a chance to have a go at writing comedy. So many new writers have been discovered through the show, it really works. If you consistently submit good stuff, you WILL get noticed. I love how exciting it is for someone to hear their name in the credits for the first time, when I don’t screw up the pronunciation that is! 

What do you think your best attributes are as a writer and performer?

Ooh crikey, I’m not very good at self reflection. I think the phrase “down to earth” gets used to describe me a lot. As a comedy performer, you are asking an audience to pay money to sit in a room and listen to you bang on about yourself. When you really think about it, how arrogant is that?!  So I think that if your audience is comfortable in your company, that’s half the battle. I’d hate to think I’ve ever been intimidating to anyone, I hope people would think I’m approachable, and that makes you relatable to an audience as a performer. As a writer it’s the same thing. We are communicating an idea to an audience. If you are trying to do it in a way that alienates your audience, by being too complicated, or by making an audience feel small or inferior in some way, you’re going to find it tougher. There are some excellent so-called “high status” comics, but it is a difficult balancing act, and most of us are low-status. I want my audience to come away feeling good about themselves, thinking “I’ve had a good laugh, but thank God my life’s better than hers”!

What would you like people to take away from your new show, Fortitude?

There’s no great message to the show really. I talk quite a lot in it about my decision not to have children, so I suppose the one thing I’d like people to take away is that someone’s decision about their own reproductive life is nobody else’s business. We treat the question “ooh, do you think you’ll have children?” as if it’s small talk, just making conversation. But it isn’t. For some people it’s a very intrusive and upsetting question to be asked. I get fed up of the assumption that I don’t know my own mind, and that I am some sort of child-hating monster. Neither of those things are true. My decision not have children was made with a lot of consideration and is informed by being the person who knows me best! I actually adore babies. Like love them so much. The smell, the feel of their little arms and legs, my womb flips when I see one. But that is not enough for me to change my mind. I think what I need is a puppy. So yeah, if there’s one takeaway, it’s stop asking or judging people about whether or not they procreate. But mostly – I want them to have had a laugh and a fun night out

And lastly, if you had to persuade a stranger, what makes Fortitude worth going to see?

Well, there’s my brilliant support act Phil Jerrod, who properly makes me laugh, so if not for me and my show, come to a tour show for that! To a potential punter I’d say “ I promise there are jokes. Proper ones I’ve bothered to write. Oh, and I think I can confidently say that this show has more stuff on cold war nuclear bunkers than any other comedy show you’ll see this year.”

BUY TICKETS FOR ANGELA BARNES: FORTITUDE, HERE

Posted in: Comedians, Interviews Tagged: Angela Barnes, British Comedy, Comedy, Fortitude

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Angela Barnes

July 21, 2017 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment
Angela Barnes seems to always be on television and radio these days, whether that be Mock the Week, Alan Davies’ As Yet Untitled or The News Quiz. Barnes is at the top of her game. She is the voice at the back of your mind that says it how it is, but is also genuine, warm and darkly funny. Angela will be performing at the Pleasance Courtyard throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

So many things, not least, not having to get on a train or in my car for a WHOLE MONTH! I didn’t do the Fringe last year, and spent the whole of August with raging FOMO, so am happy to be there this year, to drive myself mad with equal parts anxiety and joy.

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

My first Edinburgh show was called You Can’t Take It With You, and was what is often referred to now as a “Dead Dad” show, as it seems to have become a bit of an Edinburgh trope. It was important to me that my first show was about my Dad, as starting stand-up was very much a reaction to losing him suddenly. I love my job, but I will never not be sad that my Dad never got to see me do it, after all, he gave me my love of comedy. So, I made sure he was there with me in my first show. I hope he’d have liked it

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

Not that I’ve particularly noticed. Since doing more stuff on Radio 4, I guess I’ve started to notice a slightly more “Radio 4” element to the audience (whatever that means). But, being a radio comedy nerd myself, I couldn’t be happier with that. But, I don’t think I have a particular demographic that I aim for – though, being a 40 year old woman, I guess my stuff is more relatable to the slightly more worn-out section of society like myself.

© Andy Hollingworth

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

In 2015, I shared a flat with Lou Conran and Juliet Meyers. We arrived at the estate agents to pick up the keys (I’m dying to name and shame, but rise above Angela, rise above) – and we went to the flat. It was clearly a student flat that should have been cleared out for the summer. But it looked like the students had had a bloody great farewell party and scarpered that morning. It was disgusting. There were dirty clothes everywhere, fag ends on the carpet, dubious stains, and it smelt to high heaven. After much persuading that we weren’t being “fussy”, the agency sent someone over who was horrified. It had apparently been “missed off” the cleaning rota. No shit. They brought in a team of cleaners who worked on it for hours, and in the meantime, they sent us to an Italian restaurant and told us to order what we wanted, and they would foot the bill while the work was being done. We drank a LOT of Prosecco, as it was most expensive item on the menu. When we went back to the flat, it was transformed into, well, a perfectly adequate living space, but it was hard to erase the memory of what we’d seen.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Oh crikey – whatever I say here, I just know that I will think of many more as soon as I’ve finished answering. I guess, if I had to pick one, it would be being interviewed by the late great Terry Wogan. Growing up, his chat show on TV was iconic, and as a kid I would imagine him asking me questions about my career, though at that time, I thought it would be because I was a gold medal winning figure skater… It was 2011, I had only been gigging a year and, in fact, still had a day job, when I was asked to take part in his Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan Children in Need special at The Savoy Theatre. Next thing I knew, I was in a green room at the Savoy Theatre with Gary Barlow. I KNOW! I did a short set, no mean feat when I didn’t have much material, and most of what I did have wasn’t wholly suitable for live broadcast on R2 at 11am on a Sunday. I then sat down at a desk and was interviewed, live on the radio, by the great man himself. It was mental. My Mum was with me, we went to lunch afterwards and were sat at a table with Vanessa Feltz. I mean, what an entry to this mad new world.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

I have bought so many tickets already, so there are many – but if I had to pick just one, it would be Tom Neenan’s show Attenborough. I’m a HUGE Tom Neenan fan, he is one of the best joke writers around, and his shows are so theatrical and different to anything else. I can’t wait for his latest offering.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

I’m just looking forward to doing a new show in a nice venue. Edinburgh is a bit of a trade fair, I know, but if I think about it too hard in those terms, I will go mad. The bottom line has to be that I would like the people who come to my show to have an hour that they enjoy. That’s all I can ask really.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

Oooh, that’s tricky. Maybe I will write a show and record it, only to be shown at the Edinburgh Fringe in the event of my death. It will be called “All the things I didn’t have the balls to say when I was alive”. Actually, that’s not a bad idea… hang on, I’m off to phone my agent. Oh, and I hereby copyright that idea as mine, yeah?

BOOK TICKETS FOR ANGELA BARNES: FORTITUDE, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

Posted in: Comedians, Edinburgh, Interviews Tagged: Angela Barnes, British Comedy, Comedy, Edinburgh Festival, Interview, The Edinburgh Interviews, The Edinburgh Interviews 2017

Review: Bramall Comedy Night, Scott Bennett, Angela Barnes & Gary Delaney

November 11, 2015 by Becca Moody 1 Comment

Autumn 2015 signals a new season of comedy at the University of Birmingham’s Bramall Hall with the second event doing predictably well in terms of its line up, with Scott Bennett, Angela Barnes and Gary Delaney performing.

The night was compèred by likeable Yorshireman Scott Bennett, who recently performed his debut stand up hour at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, tickling audiences with anecdotes about his recently retired and slightly mental father. His stories are instantly easy to relate to, speaking of elements of family life that most of us can sift through and relate to at least parts of. Bennett clearly has had a lot of experience as a club host, with an ability to communicate effortlessly with multiple age groups within an audience.

gary-delaney-2014-october

Gary Delaney © Andy Hollingworth Archive

Angela Barnes has returned from August’s Edinburgh Festival with a confidence to her new material that is pleasing to see. Deeply personal and bordering on self-depreciating, Barnes is a comic who knows how to set her audience at ease, with a presence that does not overbear but lines that sometimes cut delightfully sharp. Angela is the voice in all of our heads and it is a relief to hear someone openly talk about hating things that everyone else claims to love. She’s sweet, friendly and endlessly relatable, but with an undeniably wicked streak.

Gary Delaney is the first comedian to return to the Bramall Hall comedy night, speaking of how much he enjoyed the venue and audience last year. Once again Delaney amazed with his impressive back catalogue of memorised material, which he effectively manipulated to suit the feel of the room. Though perhaps a bit impersonal at times due the nature of being a one-liner comic, Gary successfully incorporated technology into his set which made for a refreshing change. He clearly enjoyed the gig and this made the performance feel a little outside of the norm, with Delaney’s infectious positivity ensuring that his whole audience was on side.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH… ANGELA BARNES

BRAMALL COMEDY NIGHTS

Posted in: Comedians, Live Comedy, Reviews Tagged: Angela Barnes, Comedy, Gary Delaney, Live Comedy, Scott Bennett

Edinburgh Preview: Angela Barnes: Come As You Are

July 13, 2015 by Becca Moody 2 Comments

Angela BarnesAngela Barnes is a name I have followed for quite a while now, and I’ve even interviewed her, but only recently found the opportunity to see her perform live at the MAC in Birmingham: a preview of her second stand up show, Come As You Are.

Things have been changing for Angela in recent times. She has found love, had various strange health hiccups and her friends have all started having children. And though she is keen to share all that she has learned with her audiences, it is clear that her adventures and successes career-wise have not gone to her head. Her general demeanour on stage is very approachable and friendly, which made the whole affair feel a little like a lovely, small village meeting rather than a stand up show, particularly as a result of the decision to abandon the microphone early on.

The show itself oozed competence and natural flair, despite it being a work-in-progress with infrequent pauses and note scribbling (which was of course to be expected). The content fitted together well and it felt as though we, as an audience, left feeling like more of a collective, such is the relatability of Angela’s material.

This new hour contains multiple incredibly dark elements (a sick reference to Nigella Lawson here, an anecdote about a lonely pensioner there) which seem to crop up out of nowhere and really lifted the whole experience to a new level. Often following up her delightfully grim comments with questions like “was that too dark?” as though that’s a bad thing makes me worry that Angela might actually remove them from the show, but I greatly hope that she keeps them in. I’d argue that there’s still room for her to add more.

Angela Barnes is currently performing preview shows of Come As You Are across the UK and will be taking the completed show to Edinburgh in August.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH ANGELA BARNES

MORE EDINBURGH PREVIEWS

Posted in: Comedians, Edinburgh, Live Comedy, Previews, Reviews Tagged: Angela Barnes, British Comedy, Come As You Are, Comedy, Edinburgh Preview, Live Comedy

Seven Questions With… Angela Barnes

September 6, 2014 by Becca Moody 2 Comments
Angela Barnes is a brilliant comedian who takes usually unnoticed everyday situations and effortlessly turns them on their head; she is unique, quick-witted and most importantly: brave. With appearances on Russell Howard’s Good News and, more recently, Mock The Week, Angela has shown an array of strong and diverse material to fit any occasion (maybe not a funeral, but we can’t have it all). Her comedy is relatable, silly, and therefore, absolutely wonderful.
To learn a little more about the person behind the comedy, I asked Angela these seven questions…

1) What inanimate object best describes you?

I think a 4-colour biro best describes me. I always use a 4 colour-biro, so my writing will match my mood.  So, maybe I am a biro with just 4 colours: Red – happy, black – sad, blue – angry, green-mental.

Yep, that about covers it.

2) What is the first thing you notice about new people?

Whether they have a face. Or, at least, I reckon I’d definitely notice if they didn’t, so…

3) Is there a certain subject that you would never write material about?

At the moment, I won’t do any material about my previous working life. That’s mainly because I am a pessimist, and am certain that this comedy lark will almost certainly go tits up, and I will have to go back to doing what I used to do. I’m not going to risk my chances of getting a job by writing gags about it.

4) What’s the most recent thing you’ve done that was really stupid?

I was walking through town the other day, and a homeless gentleman was approaching me. I tried to work out how to get away from him, what excuse to give him for not giving him any money. I avoided eye contact and barged past him, but he followed me. I sped up, so did he, I was feeling uncomfortable. Then he caught up, tapped me on shoulder and said “sorry love, your flies are undone, thought you’d want to know”.  He was just being nice. i gave him a fiver and berated myself for being a self-important twat.

5) Which season of the year is your least favourite?

I think my least favourite season is whichever season I am currently in. I always think I love summer, but then I remember hay fever and sunburn. I burn stupidly easy. I was complaining to my Mum about having to plaster myself in F50, she said  “well you redheads do burn easily don’t you”.  Might surprise you, but this is not my natural hair colour. It is nobody’s natural hair colour. I said, “yes Mum, you’re right, when I got my hair dyed, it was a mistake getting the matching skin graft”.

My hay fever starts in February and lasts til October. My doctor gave me a new nasal spray, it works, but it genuinely smells of flowers. Thanks for that Doc, if I had a peanut allergy, I’d want my lifesaving adrenaline shot to smell of sun pat wouldn’t I?

Then I think I like winter, Christmas lights, mulled wine, woolly tights. Then I remember that being cold sucks, and that in my job, I often have to stand on train platforms at silly times of night in the middle of nowhere. I remember how much I miss light, how much I hate snow, and then winter loses its appeal too.

I used to think I had Seasonal Affective Disorder, but now I think I might just be a miserable arse. Yes that’s it.

6) What animal would you most like to be?

angela barnesI’d most like to be a donkey. There are not many people who don’t like donkeys. Apparently, so many old people leave money to donkey sanctuaries in their wills, that they don’t know how to spend it all. Spend my days grazing on a sweet pasture, with top of the range hay and a pimped up stable, thanks to some spinster who hated her family. That sounds like a good life to me.

Also, donkeys know what’s what. In Animal Farm (not that one, the Orwell), Benjamin the donkey gets what’s going on before any of the other animals.  Eeyore in Winnie The Pooh knows that life is essentially shit, and you have to make the best of it.

I guess I’m just a good old fashioned pessimist. I wouldn’t have it any other way, when you always expect the worst, you can’t be disappointed.

7) What is the best thing that has come out of being a comedian for you?

I’m going to try really hard not to sound wanky here, but no promises.  I wanted to be a comedian for as long as I remember, but I thought it was something that the cool, confident kids did. The realisation that comedy is a perfect creative outlet for those of us that have never felt like we belonged properly was an immense thing.

I can be me, albeit a sometimes exaggerated version of me, and it doesn’t matter that I’m not the prettiest girl, or the thinnest girl, or the coolest girl, people still want to hear what I say (sometimes). And finding that out was the best feeling in the world.

I can’t believe that someone like me is allowed to do this. And get paid for it.

For more information on Angela’s latest shows check out her website, or her Twitter at @AngelaBarnes.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH…

Posted in: Comedians, Seven Questions With... Tagged: Angela Barnes, British Comedy, Comedy, Interview, Seven Questions With

TV Review: Mock The Week, Series 13

July 23, 2014 by Becca Moody 4 Comments

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.

Posted in: Comedians, News, Television Shows Tagged: Angela Barnes, BBC, British Comedy, Comedy, Katherine Ryan, Mock the Week, Romesh Ranganathan, Sara Pascoe
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