Previews, Brian Donaldson

Remote control

4 Sep 2008

Brian Donaldson finds some dramas over-stretching themselves and failing, while those staying within their means do the business

Gordon Burn

Upsetting the traditionalists with novelised news

21 Aug 2008

‘I hate plots. Soon as I know that a film or a book or TV show has a plot, my brain can’t cope with it. If I’m watching a film and I don’t know or have forgotten what the storyline is and I’m supposed to work out who this or that person is, I just fall…

Kids Events

14 Aug 2008

When Miranda Richardson so memorably played the child-like Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder, a career in entertaining kids seemed to be in the offing. With Horrid Henry (16 Aug) she appears to have finally grasped that opportunity by voicing the little…

Paul Merton's Impro Chums

5 Jun 2008

IMPROVISATION Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 6 Jun The public image of Paul Merton is one of an ad libbing master who can turn the blandest of suggestion or question and turn into improvised gems. Yet this is a man who has plied his comedy trade with…

Also Published - 5 Travel Books

8 May 2008

Daniel Kalder - Strange Telescopes Following up his Lost Cosmonaut, this intrepid Fifer goes on the hunt for some more offbeat individuals in the former Soviet Union. Faber . Susanna Clark - A House in Fez Subtitled ‘Building a Life in the Ancient…

Also Published - 5 Sports Paperbacks

24 Apr 2008

Barry Davies - Interesting, Very Interesting Over 40 years of broadcast commentating are recalled here by a man who reached the peaks when he went on Big Train to cover the World Stare Out Championships. Headline . Eddie Jordan – An Independent Man…

5 Debut Novels

10 Apr 2008

Héddi Kaddour - Waltenberg A bumper espionage thriller between World War I and the Berlin Wall’s collapse featuring a German author, an American singer and a French journalist. Harvill Secker . Jane Kotapish - Salvage Narrated by a woman who has…

5 Paperback Autobiogs

Also Published

27 Mar 2008

David Coulthard - It Is What It Is From rural Scotland to a multi-millionaire lifestyle in Monte Carlo all thanks to the flashy world of Formula 1 motor racing. Orion . Mark Barrowcliffe - The Elfish Gene A memoir of a nerdish youth in the 1970s…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Omid Djalili

28 Feb 2008

There are a few things guaranteed about an Omid Djalili show. There’ll be spot-on regional accents, plentiful jokes about his Iranian roots, a slap or two in the pug ugly face of British bigotry and, the pièce de résistance, an energetic slab of…

Good autumn TV to stay in for

4 Oct 2007

Old stories being retold is the thrust of the new season in British drama with Dickens, Kipling, Shelley and the Bible all being dipped into. EastEnders writer Sarah Phelps is let loose on Oliver Twist (BBC1, mid Dec) with Timothy Spall as Fagin and Tom…

5 Things - Brendon Burns

5 Things you might not know about . . .

23 Apr 2007

1 Aussie comic Burns believes that death is our second biggest fear. Number one is speaking in front of a group of people.

Ross Noble

ROSS NOBLE ON

23 Apr 2007

CD Ross Noble is a comic who, like the best of them, splits the crowd straight down the middle. To some he is a rambling muppet with an array of silly voices whose seeming lack of script results in him endlessly stumbling up comedic cul de sacs. The…

Edinburgh International Science Festival

World of Wonder

26 Mar 2007

Once upon a time, only the biggest geeks at school were ever even vaguely interested in the ways and doings of test tubes and Bunsen burners. Nowadays, it’s not just the cool kids who are getting into science, as everyone with an interest in making any…

The Goodies

The Goodies Still Rule OK!

26 Mar 2007

TV STAGE SHOW If you were ever to get a trivia question about celebrities being expelled from school at the age of five, you might imagine that Pete Doherty, Jade Goody or Sid Vicious would be strong contenders. But Tim Brooke-Taylor? Could this mild…

Little Howard's Kids Show

13 Mar 2007

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL Never work with children or animals goes the surely outdated cliché. But what about an audience of children? Or a crowd of animals? Could you tell the difference? In his dual life as a grown-up’s and children’s…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds some new dramas about madnes

13 Mar 2007

Without wishing to be cruel, Jessie Wallace isn’t the kind of actress you’d associate with roles which anyone could dub as ‘classy’, not in the stereotypically glamour sense of the word anyway. Maybe feisty, shouty and boozy, but never ever classy. The…

Mark Nelson

Raw energy

12 Mar 2007

Mark Nelson’s mouth has been getting him in trouble for quite some time now. Back in his day as a Dumfries schoolboy, he was indulging in between-song banter while appearing with local band Evac-Chair, named after the vehicle which transports an…

5 Things

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . .

27 Feb 2007

1 Back in her native Oz, a young Kendall first worked her comedy routine for fellow students at Sydney University while majoring in modern history. She fought for a while against stage fright insisting that stand-up was ‘a good way to get into vomiting.’

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds some new dramas verging on t

27 Feb 2007

It’s never been an easy task to translate the work of Harold Pinter onto the small screen. Some wags might suggest it’s difficult enough trying to make sense of it on stage. As part of More4’s mini-Pinter extravaganza, Celebration (More4, Sat 3 Mar, 9pm…

15 Storeys High

12 Feb 2007

DVD With questionable wisdom, voters in the BBC’s Best Sitcom Ever poll back in 2004 utterly ignored 15 Storeys High, instead opting to find slots near the business end of the top 100 for the risible likes of ‘Allo Allo’ and Vicar of Dibley. History…

Andy Zaltzman

12 Feb 2007

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT 1 In 1999, Andy Zaltzman’s fledgling comedy career took off in a big way when he reached the final of So You Think You’re Funny. Also nominated that year were Josie Long and Russell Howard while the winner was…

Aye Write!

Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Fri 16-Sun 25 Feb

12 Feb 2007

BOOK FESTIVAL At times, it might seem like the world of children’s writing is a woman’s domain. You can barely move in the kids section of a book store without bumping into a whole shelf dedicated to JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine or Lauren…

Zoe Lyons

29 Jan 2007

STAND-UP Back in 2001, reality TV might not have been the scabrous slice of vermin that it is now. The innocent spirit of adventure probably reigned and people who went onto those shows may actually have wanted to get on with each other. This is…

Wil Hodgson

15 Jan 2007

STAND-UP Bespectacled John Peel impersonator Robin Ince has been known to tell a story about how his pal Wil Hodgson was verbally abused by some blokes in the street. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carr was one of the experienced comics who offered the mohicaned…

Simon Brodkin

19 Dec 2006

CHARACTER COMEDY There are few things which will elicit ashamed giggling or an audible intake of breath with a comedy audience these days quite like racial humour. Ashamed giggles and breath intakes can change in an instant to all-out hostility and…