From Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to Ben Parkinson in Butterflies to Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Geoffrey Palmer has been a constant fixture in our collective British comedy lives for the better part of four decades with these three series alone. Palmer, who has had numerous guest roles in series such as Doctor […]
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In case anyone is wondering what they might get Tellyspotting for Christmas (ok, I’m kidding), take note that Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese will be released the first week of September. Cleese was in Dallas back in December before all this ‘sheltering at home’ got a grip on most of Planet Earth to accept the Ernie Kovacs Award from the Dallas Video Festival. Tellyspotting had the great good fortune to be able to sit down with the comedy legend to talk about creativity, comedy and life in general.
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Another day, another bit of lockdown video gold as the employees of the newly/aptly named ‘Bounce Back Group’ gather to discuss BBC measures regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan, Sarah Parish, Jason Watkins, and David Westhead reprised their roles from the hit sitcom W1A with Fletcher leading the initial Zoom meeting. Fletcher informs his colleagues […]
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Aside from the obvious much more important reasoning of ‘flattening the curve’ and ‘slowing the spread of the virus’, if anything good has come from the last 2-3 months of the mandated ‘sheltering at home’ lockdown, it’s the steady flow of creativity from the creative world, which has been nothing short of brilliant. The most recent example involves Good Omens stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
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Fortunately, or unfortunately, it’s official. The new Jim Parsons/Mayim Bialik produced series, Call Me Kat, has been given the go-ahead. The Big Bang Theory stars, who played couple Sheldon Cooper and Amy Fowler, will take on the role of Executive Producer (Parsons) and star (Mialik) of their new Fox show, which is based on Miranda Hart’s brilliant BBC sitcom, Miranda. Call Me Kat follows a 39-year-old woman who struggles to prove to her mother you cannot have everything you want and still be happy, and uses the money her parents had set aside for her wedding to open a cat cafe in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Thursday’s The Big Night In is yet another reason I would live in London at the drop of a hat…as if I needed another one! The 3-hour program brought together Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need for an unprecedented night of comedy on BBC1. Presented by Lenny Henry, Matt Baker, Zoe Ball, Davina McCall and Paddy McGuinness, the one-night […]
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Tim Brooke-Taylor, best known as one third of The Goodies – died Sunday at the age of 79, after contracting coronavirus. Brooke-Taylor’s career spanned more than six decades with his comedic roots planted in the Cambridge Footlights Club which he joined in 1960 and later became President of in 1963. His membership in the Footlights caused […]
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Today is Penelope Keith’s 80th birthday. With a long public television history dating back to the days of Good Neighbors and To the Manor Born to her efforts serving as host for PBS’ The Funny Ladies of British Comedy and More Funny Ladies of British Comedy and right through to her more recent presenting efforts in the numerous […]
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Aside from the brilliant series, I Claudius, it seems like an ‘Ides of March’ cannot pass without thinking of the classic BBC comedy, Up Pompeii, starring the late, great Frankie Howerd. The series, which ran only two short seasons back in 1969-1970, was written by and starred a number of Carry On film alumni, would probably have […]
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At long last, we get our first look at the return of the greatness of Red Dwarf and their new feature length special, Red Dwarf: The Promised Land. The new special will see Lister, Rimmer, Kryten (a.k.a. Service Mechanoid 2X4B-523P) and Cat meet three cat clerics, played by Tom Bennett, Mandeep Dhillon, Lucy Pearman, who worship Lister as their God. Lister vows to help them as they’re being hunted by Rodon, the ruthless feral cat leader (Ray Fearon) who has vowed to wipe out all cats who worship anyone but him.
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