Comedy Slab

This week we review - Warren (Series 1 Episode 1)

Warren is forced to move from the south up to Preston when his partner Anne's father falls ill. He suddenly finds himself living in an area he doesn't like, doing a job he's not emotionally cut out for and looking after two teenage stepsons he never wanted.

Warren loves Anne, and somehow, Anne always sees the good in Warren, but he has a way of knowing best and speaking his mind that inevitably leads to conflict, chaos and disaster for those around him and most especially for himself.

Warren is not growing old gracefully, he's very much rooted in the now, with a modern voice and sharp edge. There are no happy endings as he grapples against the problems and misunderstandings of his own making.

Written by Jimmy Donny Cosgrove & Paul McKenna

Produced By Tom Jordan

A Hat Trick Production for the BBC.

Warren is available to watch at: https://bbc.in/2T49rD4

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - This Time With Alan Partridge (Series 1 Episode 1)

Alan Partridge is handed a career lifeline - the chance to stand in (temporarily) as co-host on This Time, an evening weekday magazine show.

His first return to live television since his 90s chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You was cancelled after a guest was fatally shot on air, This Time is the perfect shop window for a man of Alan's gravitas and will, or should, see him finally recognised as one of the heavyweight broadcasters of his era.

The show itself is a heady mix of consumer affairs, current affairs, viewer interaction, highbrow interview and lightweight froth; very much the sweet spots for a man whose CV boasts over two decades of weekday local radio.

And with an array of diverse subjects on the agenda, it promises the perfect fit for a man whose broadcasting style has been described as "equidistant between chitchat and analysis".

Due to the sudden illness of its regular host, BBC One magazine show This Time welcomes Alan Partridge as its guest presenter. A chance for the consummate broadcaster to flit effortlessly between seal pups, hand washing and cyberterrorism.

Written by Steve Coogan, Neil & Rob Gibbons

Produced By Ted Dowd

Baby Cow Productions for the BBC.

This Time with Alan Partridge is available to watch at: https://bbc.in/2EeAj9a

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Friday Night Dinner (Series 1 Episode 1)

Friday Night Dinner depicts Shabbat dinner in the middle-class secular Jewish Goodman family, reflecting writer and producer Robert Popper's own secular Jewish upbringing
Every Friday night, twenty-something brothers Adam and Jonny Goodman return to their parents' home for dinner.
Adam and Jonny think of the weekly event as a necessary annoyance, - necessary because they get fed, and annoying because, well, they have to spend the evening with Mum and Dad. It's not that Mum and Dad aren't wonderful. They really are. But Dad slugs ketchup straight from the bottle, Mum is obsessed with Masterchef and even Grandma likes to wear her new bikini around the house.
As for the next generation, there is much consternation that Jonny's girlfriend, Alison, is nothing less than 'made-up' and not even the Internet can sort out a "female" for Adam. Maybe this is because Adam writes jingles for toilet roll adverts, and Jonny's favourite party trick is to jump out of bin-liners onto unsuspecting victims. Of course every family has its foibles, its rituals and its eccentricities. It's just that the Goodmans have made something of an art form of theirs...

Written & Created by Robert Popper

Produced By Robert Popper

A Popper Pictures / Big Talk Production for Channel 4.

Friday Night Dinner is available to watch at: https://bit.ly/2OtBkBc

And available to buy at: https://bit.ly/2EEXTxm

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Better Things (Series 1 Episode 1)

`Better Things' is the story of Sam Fox, a single mother and working actor with no filter trying to raise her three daughters, Max, Frankie, and Duke in Los Angeles.
She also looks out for her mother, Phil, an English ex-patriate with questionable faculties who lives across the street.
Whether she's struggling to keep her daughters close or trying to push one of them out of the nest, Sam approaches every challenge with fierce love, raw honesty, and humour.
At the end of the day, Sam's just trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters' changing lives, survive her family, have fun with a friend or two, and also, just maybe, squeeze in some private time.

Created by Pamela Adlon & Louis CK

Produced By Joanne Toll

A Pig Newton, Slam Book, 3 Arts Entertainment production

Better Things is available to watch at: https://bbc.in/2B4UhlJ

And available to buy at: https://bit.ly/2EqdznL

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Lee & Dean (Series 1 Episode 1)

Introducing builders Lee and Dean - brothers from other mothers. Since school they've been inseparable... until Lee meets Nikki. For the first time Lee seems smitten, and Dean's nose is put out of joint when she moves into their flat and takes over organising Lee's birthday party.
Lee has also been enjoying 'builder's perks' with posh client Mrs. Bryce-D'Souza, who sees their dalliances as more than client aftercare. When Mrs. Bryce-D'Souza turns up at Lee's birthday party unannounced, Lee is terrified that she'll tell Nikki what's been going on... until Dean steps in to save the day. And when Dean's dad Terry mishears a drunken conversation, he unknowingly forces Lee and Nikki to commit to each other
publicly.

Written by Miles Chapman, Mark O'Sullivan, Sam Underwood

Produced By Mark O'Sullivan & Miles Chapman

A Bingo Production for Channel 4

Lee & Dean is available to watch at: https://bit.ly/2SxuygB
And available to buy at: https://amzn.to/2N617wj

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Bleak Expectations (Series 5 Episode 2)

A radio comedy which has been aptly described as "a gloriously daft Victorian romp in the style of Charles Dickens after too much gin."

In this series, Pip Bin is beginning to miss the conflict with his absent evil nemesis Mr Gently Benevolent, when he receives an intriguing invitation to a house party with Britain's poshest man. Pip, Gently and Co visit India, Antarctica and other interesting locations.

In this episode, The Victorian comedy adventure sees Pip and his friends travel to India in their quest to thwart the evil machinations of smooth but sinister genius Mr Gently Benevolent.
Gasp as our heroes struggle with super-intelligent tigers, giant snakes, and secret gin!

Starring Tom Allen, Anthony Head, Richard Johnson, James Bachman, Susy Kane, Sarah Hadland and Geoffrey Whitehead.

Written By Mark Evans

Produced By Gareth Edwards

A BBC Radio Production

Bleak Expectations is available to listen to online at: https://bbc.in/2SoOW2Q
And can be bought on iTunes.

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Semi Detached (Pilot)

Real-time sitcom following the hapless Stuart as he struggles through the worst half an hour of his life.
When his new girlfriend April goes into labour, Stuart quickly finds himself having to rely on his ex-wife Kate to get her to hospital. As Stuart thinks he's getting a handle on the situation, he is forced to deal with a sexually promiscuous father, a daughter with a newly-shaved head and the surprise return of his errant brother, who is on the run from some very unsavoury types.
And that's before Stuart has to enlist the help of one tipsy neighbour to help with another neighbour, who he finds naked and the victim of a DIY circular saw accident.

Written by David Crow & Oliver Maltman

Produced by Julie McKenzie

Starring Lee Mack, Ellie White, Samantha Spiro, Clive Russell, Sarah Hoare, Neil Fitzmaurice, Geoffrey McGivern, Patrick Baladi 

Happy Tramp Productions / BBC

Semi Detached is available online at - https://bbc.in/2Befhqt

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Party - Series 1 Episode 4

Based on the award-winning play from the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, Party is written by Edinburgh Comedy Award winner and Cowards member, Tom Basden. It explores what happens when a group of people try and change the world.
Four young idealists have decided to form a new political party to save the world from itself. The new fifth member, Duncan, sets about saving the world from them.
A suburban garden shed is the setting, as the adolescent adults debate forming their own political party. From the perils of electing a leader and choosing a party name through to the finer intricacies of Foreign and Environmental policy, this comedy satirises the ambitions, hypocrisy and naivety of those who choose to try to change the world.
Party is about small minds tackling big issues - China, sex trafficking, cycle lanes, unfair trade coffee, whether to call the party 'The Friendly Party' or 'Gladios', and when, exactly, they should break to eat a cake.

Written by Tom Basden

Produced by Julie McKenzie

Starring Tom Basden, Tim Key, Jonny Sweet, Anna Crilly and Katy Wix

A BBC Radio Production

Party is available online at - http://bit.do/eGEoe

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Ideal - Series 2 Episode 1

Ideal is a BBC Three sitcom written by Graham Duff and centres around Moz, a small-time drug dealer and his varied regular clients.
Moz (Johnny Vegas) has no ambitions beyond spending a quiet life dealing cannabis to a small group of friends and acquaintances and the action takes place in and around his flat - number 20.
We get an insight into Moz's world, his oddball clients and his long term girlfriend, Nicki, who is about to give birth, even though there seems to be a question mark over the father - it could be any one of three men.
Moz's days as a dealer could be under threat as the local copper, PC (Tom Goodman-Hill) who is Moz's best mate, is in line for a promotion. If he get's the new job it might mean that Moz's cannabis supply would dry up as it currently comes from police raids.
Written by Graham Duff

Produced by Ted Dowd

Directed by Dan Zeff

A Baby Cow Production

Ideal is available to buy online at - http://tiny.cc/igwh2y

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Alex Edelman's Peer Group - Series 2 Personal

The so-called Millennial generation has been much maligned in the press for being lazy, entitled, vain, venal, self-involved, easily offended little emperors. 

Alex Edelman thinks these criticisms are baseless.

This episode is about Alex's relationship with social media and how it has insinuated itself into his life. From the power of Twitter to the perils of Instagramming your sandwich, Alex takes a personal look at a very millennial preoccupation.

We also hear from friends of Alex - American comedians Brandon Wardell and Jak Knight, journalist Rebecca Nicholson and cultural commentator David Burstein.

Written by Alex Edelman

Produced by Sam Michell

A BBC Studios Production

Alex Edelman's Peer Group is available online at - https://bbc.in/2RkUWtF

Comedy Slab is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.