I don't think it's Charm Offensive, that was a lot later than 94, right?
There's a mention of In Excess here in an article from Dec 94:
You can hear undiluted Armando on Radio4 at 3.30 this afternoon, and for the next three days, in a bijou series called In Excess, filling in at this funny, floating, weightless,timeless part of the year. He will just be himself, thinking aloud on various topics, such as money, and doing a few interviews with money people. Hard to explain, really. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/when-news-satire-is-beyond-a-joke-life-1390697.html
But that doesn't really sound like this sketch show feat Rebecca Front et al, esp when the R4 webpage above says "Anarchic sketches and music, first heard on BBC Radio 1 in March 1994." Seems like this sketch show wasn't recorded by anyone, annoyingly, not even when it was repeated a couple of years ago.
― NI, Tuesday, 16 October 2018 20:08 (five years ago) link
Tell a lie, just found these episodes in my archives:
Armando Iannucci R1 Show S1E1 (27393).mp3Armando Iannucci R1 Show S1E2 (4493).mp3Armando Iannucci R1 Show S2E1 (7394).mp3Armando Iannucci R1 Show S2E2 (14394).mp3Armando Iannucci R1 Show S2E3 (21394).mp3Armando Iannucci R1 Show S2E4 (28394).mp3
Which all tallies up, Mystery solved. Think I got them off Soulseek if anyone's interested.
In other UK comedy news, I wax lyrical about Limmy's recent audiobook over at: Limmy's Show
Those two stories I mention (three including Benidorm finale epic) are up there as the best and most surprising things he's ever done.
― NI, Tuesday, 16 October 2018 20:13 (five years ago) link
Did anyone watch the Inside No.9 Hallowe'en special? Hmm. Moments were good, but mostly it felt a bit 'will this do?'. It was almost worth it for the Bobby Davro clip.
― Have the Rams stopped screaming yet, Lloris? (Chinaski), Monday, 5 November 2018 17:07 (five years ago) link
there were ~3 comments in the dedicated LoG thread. but yes. apparently that clip is now used inside the BBC as a Health and Safety lesson. i thought they'd faked it, specifically because the people in it were so quintessentially 80s light entertainment.
i need to watch the whole thing again.
― koogs, Monday, 5 November 2018 17:13 (five years ago) link
it was clever but it wasn't great.
― calamity gammon (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 5 November 2018 21:20 (five years ago) link
have been watching The Office (UK) since it kind of passed me by at the time. and it's underwhelming, really. i prefer the US version, a lot of which comes down to the time of broadcast, i think, the intended audience. in the UK one there's a lot of crude sexual references that are missing from the US one and that make everyone, including the Jim/Tim character less likeable.
i still have the two xmas specials to watch, maybe that'll salvage things.
odd seeing mackenzie as the 'baddy' though given his later role in Detectorists
also, cameos by garth marenghi (IT guy) and olivia colman (reporter). both look very young.
dvd extras make no mention of the US version despite being from 2011.
― koogs, Thursday, 8 November 2018 13:49 (five years ago) link
It wasn't underwhelming at the time. Crude sexual references often make people more likeable to me FWIW!
― chap, Thursday, 8 November 2018 14:10 (five years ago) link
no-one in the uk version of the office is supposed to be likeable in the same way their american counterparts are, tbf
― i want donald duck to scream into my dick (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 8 November 2018 14:12 (five years ago) link
I find Dawn and Tim miles more likable than their American counterparts.
― chap, Thursday, 8 November 2018 14:13 (five years ago) link
Like Tim's smugness is undercut with self deprication and vulnerability, whereas often Jim just comes across as smug and nothing else.
― chap, Thursday, 8 November 2018 14:14 (five years ago) link
the thing i found the oddest is that Tim is also sharing the pornography, hiding the doldoes etc, things that would be o_O in any 2018 office = he's a dick. jim's practical jokes only ever get as bad as replacing dwight's desk with cardboard...
― koogs, Thursday, 8 November 2018 17:49 (five years ago) link
Loved the UK Office when it first ran, but find it unwatchable now. Partly its the surfeit of cringe comedy since, partly its Gervais-malaise. I definitely prefer the warmth and redemption of the US series.
― Jacob Lohl (stevie), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 10:50 (five years ago) link
Everyone's likeable in US sitcoms, that's one of the problems with US sitcoms.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:00 (five years ago) link
*cough* Seinfeld, It's Always Sunny, Larry Sanders, etc etc
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:03 (five years ago) link
Generalization. I don't know what It's Always Sunny is tbh.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:14 (five years ago) link
Comedy of douchebaggery
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:17 (five years ago) link
I know it now I've seen the full title but if it's not on Freeview I've never seen it. Who's hidden my Werthers?
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:20 (five years ago) link
I just couldn't be bothered typing out the whole title. It's good, inasmuch as I ever comment on or care about stuff
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:22 (five years ago) link
Gervais is unwatchable now for me but I thought the cruelty and pettiness of the 2 proper seasons of the Office, before he disappeared up Freeman's colon, were horribly real
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:24 (five years ago) link
That kind of comedy of cruelty feels anachronistic in this day and age, in that its a more overtly cruel era for the world and British comedy seems to have got gentler. The humour in Detectorists or People Just Do Nothing is more in a sort of quiet desperation but everyone is essentially likeable.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:29 (five years ago) link
Same goes for This Country as well. I'm probably the first person to have ever described PJDN as 'quiet' but I think you get what I mean.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:30 (five years ago) link
It's not unaffectionate towards its hapless characters, yeah. It's near impossible for a writer to really hate their characters and not come across as a nob a la Gervais
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:33 (five years ago) link
I think The Xmas special 2-parter is the best thing anyone involved will ever be in, easily one of the best things I’ve ever seen. The rest of it is funny but much more often grim and sad but it kinda felt that way back then too.
And things like this still crack me up
https://youtu.be/13Bn-PT9TKE
― piscesx, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:48 (five years ago) link
everyone is essentially likeable.
Well apart from Grindah.
― chap, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:49 (five years ago) link
Speaking of hateable characters, has anyone watched Julia Davis's new thing? Caught the first episode and wasn't particularly moved to continue
― Number None, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:51 (five years ago) link
I never watch anything she's done, oh so transgressive misanthropy seems like her entire shtick
― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:54 (five years ago) link
OTM.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 11:58 (five years ago) link
Yeah, she does only have one trick. But I enjoyed Camping and Human Remains is a classic
― Number None, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 12:02 (five years ago) link
i don’t know where to put this so i’m putting it here: someone’s been going around norwich spraying “LES DENNIS” on walls
― calamity gammon (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 23 November 2018 07:23 (five years ago) link
the connection with “uk comedy” is that i’m on a tram and am trying really really hard not to cry with laughter
― calamity gammon (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 23 November 2018 07:24 (five years ago) link
about 20-30 years ago Glasgow was covered with graffiti that simply said
AL JOLSON
― brokenshire (jed_), Friday, 23 November 2018 09:01 (five years ago) link
new Big Night Out on bbc4 from wednesday
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0btc4d3
― koogs, Friday, 23 November 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
Sweet
― or something, Friday, 23 November 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
― calamity gammon (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 23 November 2018 07:23 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag PostPermalink
Beats east London's "NAT HAS HERPES" slogan on every wall
― plums (a hoy hoy), Saturday, 24 November 2018 13:43 (five years ago) link
sally4ever's first couple of episodes were good. really ott sex sequence juxtaposed with nerdy, awful, cuckolded fiancé flossing etc. to the sound of "china in your hand" had me in stitches
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 10 December 2018 19:40 (five years ago) link
objections to julia davis' schtick above are noted, and i don't really disagree, i just find the stuff funny despite the one-note nature
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 10 December 2018 19:43 (five years ago) link
Catastrophe starts again tonight on ch4. the last series, iirc, was more arguing than comedy but i'll give it another go.
taped blackadder 4 the other day (the hospital spy episode) and it was painful to watch. i deleted the other episodes unwatched.
the Upstart Crow / Christmas Carol mashup though, was quite well done, i thought. (sat on the same table as one of the producers during some training just before christmas, he was telling me about this and vic and bob's latest show)
― koogs, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 20:31 (five years ago) link
(speaking of vic and bob, were the parkour and the ghost hunter bits of the last season from somewhere else? i remember seeing similarly themed webisodes somewhere before)
― koogs, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 20:33 (five years ago) link
oh,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=pI-MUrrbV3E
Vic and Bob's Afternoon Delights. sponsored by fosters. pre-runner to the alan partridge things?
― koogs, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 20:35 (five years ago) link
I think the Alan Partridge one was the first and there was a Fast Show one too?
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
this is generally a bugbear of mine too, fwiw, that writers think bickering and arguing between couples is interesting or amusing to watch but Catastrophe was one of the rare examples that pulled it off, imo.
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf is another example.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 22:57 (five years ago) link
Both leads on Catastrophe are so likable and funny that the sloppy writing is excusable.
― chap, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 11:08 (five years ago) link
is the windsors as terrible as it looks?― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 17:32 (two years ago) Permalink
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 17:32 (two years ago) Permalink
The Windsors has turned out to be one of the best Brit comedies of the last few years IMO. The Richard Branson thing they're doing now is pretty good, too.
― fetter, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 13:47 (five years ago) link
I tried Flowers and couldn't really cope with it: the forced eccentricity on every inch of the screen and in the script left me no room to breathe. It had the whiff of farce about it, too. Does it calm down?
― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 14:15 (five years ago) link
i wouldn't know
my interest in the whimsical sadness of posh eccentrics ran its course for me halfway through my second wes anderson movie
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 14:22 (five years ago) link
No, Flowers doesn't calm down. If anything it gets worse.
Ta for the tip on The Windsors, I had been avoiding it.
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 14:38 (five years ago) link
latepass for Stath Lets Flats here - lovely stuff, proper Cypriots, proper slapstick, I lolled
― imago, Wednesday, 16 January 2019 13:04 (five years ago) link
This season of Catastrophe is so weird!!
- It looks like it's shot in LA. the locations are recognisably London, but everything is suffused with a golden-hour glow and the saturation looks like it's been subtly amped
- Everyone's hair looks better, and everything in general just looks more expensive (but this always happens on successful sitcoms)
- the two leads are written as over-broad dickheads when.. i didn't really see them that way before? Everyone's a Seinfeldian asshole now??
- Ashley Jensen as Fran is my favourite character now
- tho when it's just Horgan and Delaney they still got it
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 28 January 2019 21:53 (five years ago) link
director of S1-S3 moved on to do Sex Education
― sans lep (sic), Monday, 28 January 2019 22:17 (five years ago) link
yeah. there's something lifeless about it now tbh
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 28 January 2019 22:28 (five years ago) link