Brian Donaldson

Andrew Stanley

21 Aug 2008

Being whimsically funny seems to be part of the Irish birth right and Stanley is another example of an act who is adept at managing a crowd and building up a sweat as his shaggy hair matches the tales he unfurls. Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 1633…

Louis CK

Brilliant comedic rants far from negative

19 Aug 2008

There's little fanfare about Louis CK when he takes to the stage for the second of his two Pleasance Courtyard dates. With the lights dimmed, a slow roar has built which completely drowns out the introduction (his status is so big he doesn't have to…

John Pinette

Say yeah yeah to big bad John

14 Aug 2008

Since getting Jerry and co locked up in the grand finale of Seinfeld, John Pinette has spent the last decade making a name for himself on Broadway and in Hollywood. Having worked with the likes of Sinatra, Arnie and Travolta, he may not need the Fringe…

Pajama Men

Fantastic yet familiar physical horseplay

14 Aug 2008

The Fringe traditionally gets its unfair share of headlines for being a hotbed of nudity and a feast of skin-baring. But two guys in their jimmy-jams before the watershed? What gives? The massively innovative North American double act of Shenoah Allen…

Perfect Vagina

Channel 4, Sun 17 Aug, 10pm

14 Aug 2008

Get set to cross your legs and grit your teeth as Lisa Rogers fronts a very different kind of scrapheap challenge as part of Channel 4’s The G-Spot strand. We’ve all read the headlines and overheard the news that women are literally queuing up round the…

Top 5 - TV People

14 Aug 2008

Susie Dent Don’t even ask her to be drawn on the subject of the ‘Carol Countdown Controversy’. Along with fellow word fan Henry Hitchings, the nine-letter word expert will be talking about the ever-evolving English language. 20 Aug, 2pm, £9 (£7).

Lucy Porter

A set down to its bare bones

14 Aug 2008

While it may have been slightly dispiriting for Lucy Porter to hop out on stage to a less than packed auditorium, there's little in her jovial demeanour to suggest crushed hopes. To spend an hour in Porter's company is akin to having a litre of Jelly…

Alpha Males

Savage indictment of brutish blokes

14 Aug 2008

Last year, our introduction to Victor Legit ended in a shocking explosion of abrasive violence. This time around, the finale from the slightly corrupt but quick-thinking officer of FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) occurs in similarly gory…

Sarah Millican

The young Thora Hird gets down and dirty

14 Aug 2008

Judging by her light Geordie tones, you'd never find Sarah Millican staggering around the Toon with skirt hitched up to her neck, tanked up on Breezers and yelling filthy abuse at anyone with a member. Then again, even though she's been dubbed 'a young…

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…

Kings of London

14 Aug 2008

DRAMA Channel 4, Wed 20 Aug, 11.35pm Amid yet another summer of bland sport and tedious evictions, it’s reassuring to know that there are still programmes being made which at least try to bend our minds a bit. However, this latest instalment of C4’s…

Jon Richardson

The mutt's nuts is wearing the cat's pyjamas

14 Aug 2008

Living on your own might be fraught with danger and potential misery, but it doesn't half give a decent comic shedloads of material for a show. And fortunately, Jon Richardson is more than just a decent comic; he's a true star in the ascendant. This…

The Cup

14 Aug 2008

COMEDY DRAMA BBC2, Thu 21 Aug, 9.30pm Do we really need another fly-on-the-wall docu-comedy-drama about flawed individuals living out their largely miserable lives? Apparently so, as The Cup smashes its way towards us with more ‘subtle’ humour and…

Joanna Neary

Character comedy of the highest order

14 Aug 2008

Joanna Neary starts her show off in edgy fashion. She's an absolute bag of nerves and there's a real danger that this ropey opening might be translating itself to her audience. But fear not, it's just one of the many beautifully crafted characters that…

The Americans

14 Aug 2008

A typical US family gather up to see how they are going to deal with the threats looming over their way of life. Dad Sam, mom Libby (Liberty: geddit?) and gobby daughter Mary (sounds a bit like America, apparently) tackle the issues with sketches broken…

Zoe Gardner's Fault

14 Aug 2008

Previously one half of the Congress of Oddities, Gardner is hardly to blame for there being a dearth of quality character comics this year and she does her utmost to pull the genre out of the mire. Sticking a wig on to play her shrill producer and…

Lady Garden

14 Aug 2008

With Adrian Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders in the crowd, it's no surprise to learn that the cast list revealed that one of the young comic actresses has the surname 'Edmondson'. But the talent on stage was spread widely throughout some spot-on sketches…

Isabel Fay

14 Aug 2008

There's an energetic and quirky charm about Fay's set of oddball characters that makes it hard to hate them, but with a little extra work on the script, we could have loved these failures a bit more. The arachnophobe drafted in for a spider exhibition…

Pappy's Fun Club

14 Aug 2008

The sleeper hit of 2007, PFC storm back with Funergy (is it possible to have a laugh and be environmentally friendly at the same time?), with an avid following cracking up at every daft aside or snippet of nonsense. There's an early-Boosh charm to all…

It is Rocket Science!

14 Aug 2008

With a jolly hockey sticks approach to her show, Helen Keen makes a good fist at keeping the laughs bubbling along with this haphazard look at science and its wacky ways. A sidekick is on hand to help out with some shadow puppetry and a human wormhole…

Andy Zaltzman

14 Aug 2008

Political comedy may have been on the wane for some time, but thanks to this Art Garfunkel doppelganger, it's heart-warming to see that the flame is still burning somewhere. The Olympics, credit crunch and Mugabe naturally get a full airing, but…

Glenn Wool

14 Aug 2008

Following on from his shaggy-dog surrealist wanderings of last year, Canada's loudest man gives us a bit more of a structure and pumps us with a little more laughing gas as he considers the repercussions of his divorce and an incident from his teen…

Creation Nation

14 Aug 2008

A chat show hosted by two camp New Yorkers which falls into disrepair when they can't decide whether to have a fall-out or make a pass at one another. Unhilarious footage of main guy Billy Willing annoying punters at NYC's Fashion Week might be so 1998…

Andrew Lawrence

14 Aug 2008

Lawrence may be cleaner cut than the former tramp-devil he once 'played', but that hasn't dampened the amusing malevolence seeping from his mouth. He isn't the only comic this year to make the connection between the Shannon Matthews discovery and the…

Tea and Cake II

14 Aug 2008

About as appetising as a raspberry lasagne, the Tea and Cake crew's latest show is tediously hellbent on giving bad mime a kicking. Targets hardly come much softer than that and it's tempting to imagine a mime group showing footage of this hour as the…

The Real Daniel O'Donnell Show

14 Aug 2008

Witching hour tales of semi-terror have become such a hackneyed notion now that only the most brilliant of scripts can lift them above the ordinary. This failure has a couple of decent ideas (the shy ghost and Tales of the Unexpected dancers) but the…

The Guru

14 Aug 2008

With his 'Madonna' sidekick, Guru John Popolini (GJP) is determined to make us fulfil our potential and open up a wealth of opportunity. Coincidentally in the same room that Jackson's Way got us all hyped up on motivation, Popolini whips up a character…

Rule of Three

14 Aug 2008

Steering too close to the wind of cliché (kids becoming 'street', Aussie extreme sports guys, City workers being arrogant and loud), this trio get their teeth into some better material which just about sustains the hour. The sleazy boss and the…

Quincy: Single Mum

14 Aug 2008

Quincy has a good story to tell of becoming a single dad in tragic circumstances but, perhaps understandably, there doesn't seem to be enough genuine humour there to keep the momentum up. A different batch of material might suit his likeable manner and…

Josie Long

A logic-defying show about science

7 Aug 2008

The queen of lo-fi is back with kitsch artefacts all around and a scattery mind deep within. This year her comedy patchwork has Josie Long fiddling around with science, a subject she studied at school (for 'studied' read 'sat with her head on the desk…

Idiots of Ants

Messing about with form and content

7 Aug 2008

To the rousing theme of Grandstand, this quartet of white-shirted, black-tied lads (still not sure whether they're more idiotic or antlike?) race into the venue. For the previous few minutes, we've been looking at them on screens prancing around London…

Spooks: Code 9

7 Aug 2008

DRAMA BBC3, Sun 10 Aug, 9pm The spin-off show is a seemingly inevitable symptom of modern TV production: when ideas are running on empty, just grab a programme, give it a shake and see what kind of sub-version can be made out of it. So, here we are in…

Umbrella Birds

Sweating out life's problems

7 Aug 2008

Mark Watson is no longer the hardest working performer on the Fringe. That accolade may actually go to Emily Watson Howes who just so happens to be the popular stand-up's good lady missus. Not only is she the creator and director of World War II drama…

Pros from Dover

A riot of innovative sketching

7 Aug 2008

It's not enough these days for sketch show gangs to trot merrily on stage before simply delivering sketches followed by skits and topped off with some shards of broken comedy. Somehow the form needs to be shaken up, given a twist, dealt a postmodern…

Russell Kane

Essex boy made good

7 Aug 2008

While a cursory glance at the Fringe programme might suggest that being blessed with the forename Dan (including such variations as Danny/Danielle) might be the best way to fast-track towards a career in comedy, the nation's Russells are arguably the…

Alcock Improv

Hateful yet seemingly hilarious ad libbing

7 Aug 2008

Apparently this lot are causing sleepless nights for the Cambridge Footlights crowd, as the establishment quake in their boots as the Alcock crew go around snapping at their improvised heels. The whole ad-lib game is at best hit and miss, and at worst…

Alun Cochrane

Dad talk amid the credit crunch

7 Aug 2008

Last summer, the tallest Yorkshire-Glaswegian on the comedy circuit opted not to bring himself up to the Fringe. Not because he was writing a sitcom or developing a novel or workshopping sketch ideas; his absence was down to the more noble activity of…

Adams & Rea

Jokey folky afternoon amusement

7 Aug 2008

One has a pointy chin and is in therapy. The other is Aussie and has issues with her comedy partner. Welcome to the warm, witty and slightly witchy world of Adams & Rea, whose collected CV includes Jade the Folk Singer, a Funny Women award and a cameo…

Pippa Evans

Turning loneliness into laughter

7 Aug 2008

Ushering her audience through to their seats in the guise of an Australian lifestyle coach who runs classes in helping people deal (very badly) with crippling symptoms of loneliness, Pippa Evans begins a thoroughly mixed character show. Runner-up in…

Jeff Kreisler

US comic mines the land of the free

7 Aug 2008

When you see Jeff Kreisler at work, armed with the knowledge that he has won something called the Bill Hicks Spirit Award, it can occasionally cross your mind that he scooped the thing for getting the mannerisms of the dead Southern stand-up/preacher…

Make Me A Christian

7 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Sun 10 Aug, 7pm While the UK may have been founded on the rock of Christian values, its modern citizens would rather play Pro Evolution Soccer, get paralytically drunk or fritter a week’s earnings away on footwear. But would a…

Kids' Events

Trains and tweens dominate the first week

7 Aug 2008

Trains and tweens dominate the first week The good, the naughty and the hungry are all in evidence in the opening salvo of the kids programme, with the whole shebang kicked off in boisterous style by queen of tween Cathy Cassidy (9 Aug) who presents…

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman

7 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY BBC4, Wed 13 Aug, 10pm Wouldn’t we all love to be handed a camera, go off wandering across the globe on the flimsiest of motives and stick our lens into people’s lives? But most people would at least try to capture some of the fun bits…

Martha McBrier

7 Aug 2008

It's quite hard to get your head round what Glaswegian comic McBrier is trying to achieve on stage. With the barest of material (something or other to do with belief systems) she relies on her audience not only for suggestions but actually to inject…

Josh Howie

7 Aug 2008

Don't expect to see PR guru Lynne Franks at this show, for Howie is the son who had to go along with his mum's wacky Jewish then Buddhist then Native American then Jewish-again ways throughout his childhood, which is extremely funny - now that he can…

Kerry Godliman

7 Aug 2008

Is life full of expectations that have absolutely no chance of being fulfilled? Godliman had a eureka moment in a Little Chef which opened up a world of disappointment to her and a wealth of amusing tales told with verve and panache. You'll be talking…

Morgan Murphy

7 Aug 2008

Coming across like a female Todd Barry, Murphy's deadpan approach does nothing other than bring her crowd down: only a comic with killer material can afford to do that. It's a sad state of affairs when the guy playing your shrink in the elongated VT…

Tom Allen

7 Aug 2008

There's a place in the theatre for Allen, because stand-up comedy is not his forté. The pleasure in his tale of finding some meaning in his family history is all in the telling; at the climax, Allen pretty much admits himself that the content is sadly…

Andrew Bird

7 Aug 2008

Ten years ago, obsessive Oasis fan Bird wondered where he'd be now. If he dreamed of being a run-of-the mill stand-up with perfectly amiable but less than outstanding material, then job's a good 'un.

Wisecrackin’ Mindsqueezin’ Behemoth - Big time

31 Jul 2008

Their first stage meeting involved simulated copulation. John-Luke Roberts and Nadia Kamil now make beautiful music in their Behemoth sketch guise. Brian Donaldson hears about the pair’s celebrity fans and those nasty critics

Wearing well - crazy clobber for comedic purposes

31 Jul 2008

The Pajama Men are not the only ones who are putting on crazy clobber for comedic purposes. Brian Donaldson reveals some other Fringe comics who’ve had a wardrobe malfunction. The show by Mark Allen is about his uneasy relationship with animals and…

Stephen K Amos

31 Jul 2008

Who’s he then? Stephen K Amos is a 30-something actor, comedian and documentary-maker whose Batty Boy involved him going on a journey from his south London backyard to Jamaica in an attempt to discover why homophobia is so prevalent among black…

Adam Riches

A host of he-men and myriad of macho types flex themselves

31 Jul 2008

Last Fringe, Adam Riches introduced us to Victor Legit, the musclebound bully who made a barely honest living as a surveillance officer for the Federation Against Copyright Theft. This year, Victor is joined by a host of other creations out of the…

Keith Farnan

Irish comic’s debut shot rips apart America’s attitude to criminal justice

31 Jul 2008

Irish comic’s debut shot rips apart America’s attitude to criminal justice. When Keith Farnan was contemplating his first hour-long show at the Fringe, he wasn’t short of advice from fellow comics. ‘I listened to everyone who had done well and those who…

High Emergency

31 Jul 2008

DOCUMENTARY Five, Tue 5 Aug, 7.30pm One of the last places you’d want to find yourself stranded in the British Isles is up in the Highlands. If you thought any different you’ll change your mind after watching the first instalment of this documentary…

Car Bomb

31 Jul 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Sun 3 Aug, 7pm The scary question posed at the end of this two-part documentary is ‘will we ever see an end to the car bomb?’ The answer is a resounding ‘no’, not unless we ditch our motors for good and walk everywhere. Even…

The Kevin Bishop Show

31 Jul 2008

COMEDY Channel 4, Fri 1 Aug, 10pm Like the mighty Bobby Davro, Kevin Bishop can do a fair old impersonation or two (his Jonathan Ross and Gary Lineker are awesome) but can’t get any material around them to save his life. There have been boasts made…

Kid loves - Children's books round-up

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

Harry Potter may have played his last game of Quidditch and Lemony Snicket’s series of events have unfortunately ceased to be, but there are still plenty of iconic figures hanging around in children’s literature. Brian Donaldson finds ten of them…

Setting the President

Festival of Politics

22 Jul 2008

The race for a Clinton and Bush-free White House hots up. On his recent British stand-up tour, Hollywood comic Chris Rock unsurprisingly took much delight in delving into the blazing topic that is the US Presidential election. In particular, he analysed…

Richard Mason

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

In some forms of entertainment fame can often come extraordinarily early (music and film perhaps), but with mechanisms in place to help the ‘victims’ deal with the onset of celebrity. In the literary world, support systems are less common, especially…

Omid Djalili

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

There are several downsides to modern fame. Being hassled in the street by ordinary people and getting hunted down by paparazzi when hanging out the washing are just two celebrity negatives. Having chirpy researchers from celebrity TV shows ringing up…

Profile - Mark Olver

17 Jul 2008

Who’s this fella, then? Having first taken to the mic in 1998, Mark Olver is among that triptych of fine young comics from the west country, which also includes Russell Howard and Wil Hodgson. His style is more conversational than Hodgson’s and less…

5 Travel Books

17 Jul 2008

Ellie Nielsen Our Own Piece of Paris Subtitled ‘How We Fell in Love with the City of Light’, this follows one woman’s quest to find an apartment that oozes Parisian chic. Atlantic. Kapka Kassabova Street Without a Name Subtitled ‘Childhood and Other…

Remote Control

3 Jul 2008

When it comes to making new TV dramas, being brave and original can either make or break the show. Sometimes just playing it straight off the bat and keeping things safe can help your programme reap the rewards. Two hot and hyped BBC affairs go for the…

Superstars

3 Jul 2008

SPORT Five, Fri 11 Jul, 8pm Sporting life was very different in the 1970s. Kevin Keegan had bubblier hair, the only athletes who used artificial enhancement to boost their performance seemed to be born female in East Germany and it was still possible…

Profile - John Gordillo

3 Jul 2008

Name: John Gordillo Who’s this fella, then? You may have seen the name ‘John Gordillo’ somewhere in your house, but perhaps you just can’t quite place it. No, it’s not the name of a brand new kitchen product (the ‘Gordillo grill’ does have a certain…

The Ex-Men - A Life of Love

3 Jul 2008

SPOKEN ELECTRO (Beanstalk Records) At first, I took this to be a spoof. Why else would anyone rhyme ‘expressionism’ with ‘jism’? What possible other reason could there be for someone to warble ‘a word is a picture/made out of sound/a sound you can…

5 Things you might not know about - Francesca Martinez

19 Jun 2008

Martinez first came to the public’s attention as Rachel Burns in Grange Hill and claimed that at her real school she had to use humour to make people accept that even though she had cerebral palsy, she was just a regular kid. She got into comedy when…

Remote Control

19 Jun 2008

In an age where some people believe that the Royal Family have a secret assassination wing, it’s perhaps not a good idea to have an indiscriminate dig at those guys. So, here goes: does the estate of Princess Margaret have some incriminating photos of…

Fallout

19 Jun 2008

DRAMA Channel 4, Thu 3 Jul, 9pm The issue of young people and crime is such a hot topic that it was only a matter of time before documentary-makers got in gear and happy slapped Channel 4 commissioners into submission with a series to mark the sorry…

Simon Critchley - The Book of Dead Philosophers

5 Jun 2008

PHILOSOPHER HISTORY (Granta) Alongside religious types, the permanently unhealthy and stand-up comedians, philosophers have a nightly battle with questions about the process of dying and the actual reality of having snuffed it. Naturally, none of them…

Profile - Wendy Wason

5 Jun 2008

Name Wendy Wason Who’s she then? An Edinburgh lass, she was educated at George Watson’s before heading west to attend Glasgow Uni. She got into acting and took roles in Taggart, High Road and some ads before dipping her toes in the film world with…

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…

Remote Control

5 Jun 2008

Andrea Riseborough must have a thing about playing scary people. While she wafted in to view as a spectral ghost in the BBC3 pilot of Being Human (a one-off that was the subject of such a frenzied online petition that the show was eventually…

Peter Kosminksy

5 Jun 2008

DOCUMENTARY/DRAMA SEASON More4, Sat 14–Sun 20 Jun In the era of Play for Today, the rabblerousing TV dramatist lurked in every nook and cranny of the BBC, cropping up on primetime slots to frighten the horses. Now though, the nation’s broadcasting…

5 Things you might not know about - AL Kennedy

22 May 2008

The A stands for Alison, the L for Louise. She chose to go with the initials as she was keen on a certain degree of anonymity when starting out as a writer and her favourite authors as a kid were JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and EE Nesbitt. She doesn’t come…

Neil Astley & Pamela Robertson-Pearce - In Person: 30 Poets

22 May 2008

POETRY DVD/BOOK (Bloodaxe) Tucked inside the book of the same name comes a smart pair of DVDs which platform the depth and range which poetry publisher Bloodaxe have been offering us for three decades. In Person is a celebration of the intimacy that…

Michael Bond - Paddington Here and Now

22 May 2008

KIDS COLLECTION (HarperCollins) When a book series returns from a long absence to mark its main character’s anniversary, it can often feel too much like a rushed job created purely to ensure that the keynote guest isn’t late for their own party.

Remote Control

22 May 2008

Flicking through the TV schedules can often give the impression that we are living life like the eponymous character in big kids sci-fi series Kyle XY (BBC2, Sat 24 May, noon •••) Not only can we not quite understand what is in front of us, we probably…

13 Kids and Wanting More

22 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Thu 22 May, 9pm When is enough really quite enough? The subjects of this film clearly don’t believe in the concept, as they churn out child after baby after offspring, some for reasons of faith, others simply because they love…

Remote Control

8 May 2008

It’s difficult not to come round to the conclusion that the BBC is utterly obsessed with teenage pregnancy. In recent times, we’ve had Baby Borrowers, Britain’s Youngest Grannies and Adolescent Brunette Mothers on Crack with Guns. OK, maybe one of those…

Midnight Man

8 May 2008

CRIME DRAMA STV, Thu 8 May, 9pm Were James Nesbitt to be handed a script featuring the worst excesses of humanity, it would be difficult not to imagine him desperately looking for the jokes. Asides from his role as Ivan Cooper, the real-life civil…

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…

5 Things you might not know about - John Hegley

8 May 2008

As part of comedy group The Popticians, he recorded two sessions for John Peel in 1984. Being a spectacle-wearer has been one of Hegley’s long-term points of reference. Do not get him started on contact lenses. He went off to France to revisit the place…

Jimmy Carr

24 Apr 2008

STAND-UP Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 24 Apr Some people out there have looked upon his stand-up and TV work and judged Jimmy Carr to be a smug, self-satisfied posh guy who would undoubtedly be prepared to eat himself were he comprised of the…

Shrink Rap

24 Apr 2008

TALK SHOW More4, Mon 28 Apr, 10pm Alongside Billie Piper’s transformation from pop pixie and booze-sodden celebrity missus to respected TV actress, the most unexpected showbusiness career shift of our times has to have been Pamela Stephenson’s…

5 Things you might not know about - Nick Doody

24 Apr 2008

Nick Doody’s debut Fringe show in 2006, Before He Kills Again, kicked off with a disturbing song about clowns. So disturbing that the imagery cannot be repeated in a family publication. He shares a house with fellow stand-up Matt Kirshen. Noam Chomsky…

Remote Control

24 Apr 2008

It’s the end of the world as we know it and not even Hamish Macbeth or Hercule Poirot can save us. Or rather, Robert Carlyle doing a dodgy cockney accent as a hotshot engineer or David Suchet coming over all governmental as the beleaguered deputy PM in…

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…

Joe Humphreys - Foul Play

10 Apr 2008

SPORT HISTORY (Icon Books) With the protests surrounding the Beijing Olympics going into overdrive, disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers seeking a new career in rugby league and the integrity of referees, umpires and line judges being called into…

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 Things you might not know about - Ken Dodd

10 Apr 2008

Somewhat eccentric from his early years, he often walked backwards all the way from school to his home simply to prove that it could be done. When he tried this feat of nonsense while on his bicycle, it proved to be less successful. Legend has it that…

Comedy Central Collection

27 Mar 2008

DVD/CD (Comedy Central) For anyone who thinks that American stand-up comedy means Bill Hicks, Chris Rock and Joan Rivers, those wonderful people at Comedy Central are setting out to put you straight. A new set of DVDs and CDs should thrust you out of…

Poppy Shakespeare

27 Mar 2008

DRAMA Channel 4, Mon 31 Mar, 9pm The point where the axis swings between madness and sanity, the fiscal-led emphasis of modern health politics and the desire to find our place in the world are at the heart of this excellent drama based on the debut…

5 Things you might not know about - I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue

27 Mar 2008

1 Humphrey Lyttelton had a top 20 hit in the 1950s with ‘Bad Penny Blues’ and played on Radiohead’s ‘Life in a Glasshouse’. The Humph appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2006. 2 Tim Brooke-Taylor’s grandfather was a parson who played centre-forward…

Remote Control

27 Mar 2008

A public health warning should accompany Storyville: The English Surgeon (BBC2, Mon 31 Mar, 11.20pm ••••). Around the one hour mark, just make sure you haven’t got your dinner in front of you as the sight of hotshot London neurosurgeon Henry Marsh…

Gordon Burn - Born Yesterday

27 Mar 2008

NOVELISED HISTORY (Faber) Having dabbled in the world of real life Manchester United legends in Best and Edwards and fictionalised the stories of semi-real boxers and comedians for The North England Home Service, Gordon Burn’s latest, the ‘News as a…

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 - Stewart Lee

13 Mar 2008

When a stand-up is dubbed ‘a comics’ comic’, that can usually be translated into: ‘loved by his peers and critics; not quite so loved by audiences.’ Yet, when you look at the career of Stewart Lee, the adulation of comedians and journalists may have…

5 Things you might not know about - French & Saunders

13 Mar 2008

When Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders first met in 1977 at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, they didn’t exactly hit it off. Saunders believed French was a ‘cocky upstart’ while Dawn thought Jen was ‘snooty and aloof’. French is credited…