Comedy Slab

This time we review Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads (Series 1 Episode 6)

It's been over 5 years since the little mishap that left Terry in the Army and Bob discharged with flat feet in The Likely Lads.

Terry, now back in civilian life, returns to Newcastle to find that everything has changed - not least his friend Bob who is now engaged to be married and upwardly mobile in more ways than one.

There is no love lost between Terry and Bob's fiancée, Thelma, so reinvigorating their friendship will prove difficult at the best of times. It's not long before Bob is having doubts that the last person he needs in his life, right now, is Terry.

Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais
Produced by Jack Gilbert and Bernard Thompson
Directed by James Gilbert, Bernard Thompson & Dick Clement (All uncredited)
A BBC production.
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads is available here: https://amzn.to/3GP0ZLK

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

This time we review How Does That Make You Feel (Two epsiodes)

In How Does that Make You Feel? we visit a group of people who all share one thing in common, a therapist called Martha... oh, and a growing set of neuroses which appear to be overtaking their wholly imperfect lives.

As therapists go, Martha is reasonably compassionate, but deep down she's losing patience. It seems all her clients want to be something they are not, and it's driving them and her, out of their minds?

There's Richard Fallon MP, who's convinced promotion to the front bench is being denied him because of his obese son and a wife who lost all patience with him 20 years ago, Caroline, who thinks her child is a genius with an IQ way off the scale and Philip, who insists he isn't facing a crisis since his demotion from Good Morning Norfolk to a shopping channel.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson.
Produced by Eoin O'Callaghan.
Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan.
A BBC production.
How Does That Make You Feel is available here: https://bbc.in/3GxYmhs

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

This time we review Avenue 5 (Series 1 Episode 1)

Avenue 5 has been described as "set in the future, mostly in space."

On board the interplanetary cruise ship, the Avenue 5, a momentary loss of artificial gravity and accidental death of its chief engineer sends the titular vessel a few degrees off course.

It's estimated it will take the ship three years to return to Earth, and with only enough supplies to sustain her many passengers for the intended eight-week long cruise, the crew of the Avenue 5 must struggle to maintain order and return the craft safely.

Written by Armando Iannucci.
Produced by Various.
Directed by Armando Iannucci.
A Dundee production for HBO.
Avenue 5 is available here: https://bit.ly/3Gi9YoG

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

This time we review Believe It (Series 4 Legacy)

Based on 'glimmers of truth', Believe It! is the bizarre, revealing and, most importantly, untrue celebrity radiography of Richard Wilson.

Celebrity autobiographies are everywhere. Richard Wilson has always said he'd never write one but he does narrate this series, weaving in and out of dramatised scenes from his fictional life story.

He plays a heavily exaggerated version of himself: a Scots actor and national treasure, unmarried, private, passionate about politics, theatre and Manchester United (all true), who's a confidant of the powerful and has survived childhood poverty, a drunken father, years of fruitless grind, too much success, addiction, charity work and fierce rivalry with Sean Connery and Ian McKellen (not true).

All the melodramatic staples of celebrity-autobiography are undercut by Richard's deadpan delivery.

Written by Jon Canter.
Produced by Clive Brill.
Directed by Clive Brill.
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
Believe It is available here: https://bbc.in/3fQfKmL

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

This time we review It's Kevin (Series 1 Episode 4)

It's sketches, it's songs, it's characters, it's guests, it's a man who's old enough to know better mucking about, with help from a number of his comedy friends.

It's Kevin Eldon.

Bring you a song and dance number, The Incredible Moose Human, The Great Spagboletti, A Fictional Northern Man, John Lennon's Head, The Perspective Twins, some performance poetry, Wendy Wilson's White Coat Window On The World Of World Wide Wonders, a sketch with a doctor in it and Hitler, and we're still not halfway through the first episode.

Kevin said: "I have always liked chaffinches. The money I may receive from this show may well allow me to buy more pictures of chaffinches."

Written by Kevin Eldon, Jason Hazeley, Joel Morris, Arthur Mathews, Ali Crockatt, David Scott and Dan Maier.
Produced by Richard Webb and Mark Freeland.
Directed by Tim Kirkby and Al Campbell
A BBC production.
It's Kevin is available here: https://bit.ly/3tzTJQV

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

This time we review Sophie Willan's Guide To Normality (Series 1 Episode 3 & 4)

Break out comedy star (as she was at the time) Sophie Willan comes to Radio 4 with an exciting stand-up series looking at what it is to be 'normal'.

Sophie grew up in and out of the Care System and had an unconventional childhood.

In this, her debut series she will get to grips with - and often challenge - our perception of 'the perfect normal life', shining a light on the reality of the British experience.

Written by Sophie Willan.
Produced by Suzy Grant.
A BBC Studios production.
Sophie Willan's Guide To Normality is available here: https://bbc.in/3FhNOlU

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

Home (Series 1 Episode 1)

When new couple Peter and Katy and Katy's son John go on their first family holiday to France.

The plan is to bring back a tan, a few happy memories and six crates of vintage champagne but what they actually bring back is going to come as a big surprise.

Home follows the experience of Sami, a Syrian refugee who enters Britain illegally to claim asylum.

Living in with Peter, Katy and John while he waits for his application to be processed, Sami learns more than he expected about the people he's living with, himself, and his own family somewhere in Europe.

Written by Rufus Jones
Produced by Adam Tandy, Alan Marke, Jim Reid, Gary Matsell, Rufus Jones and Lydia Thatcher
Directed By David Sant, Timothy Wood and Andy Lumsden
A Channel X Jantaculum production for Channel 4.
Home is available here: https://bit.ly/3pRiFkB

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

Two Doors Down (Series 5 Episode 1)

Comedy centred around a couple and their insufferable neighbours.

Latimer Crescent residents Eric and Beth Baird are friendly, warm, and perhaps a little too polite for their own good.

They're more than happy to welcome son Ian and his boyfriend into their home; but neighbours Cathy, Colin and Christine regularly make their presence felt in a far more forceful manner.

Christine is a moaner, hypochondriac and freeloading single mother who's kept now-adult daughter Sophie on a short-lead of guilt trips for many years. The thoroughly pleasant Sophie finds her mother intensely embarrassing but gradually finds her own voice - and not without Beth's help.

These are the trials and tribulations of living on a suburban street with people you'd often much rather do without.

Written by Simon Carlyle and Gregor Sharp
Produced by Catherine Gosling Fuller, Margot Gavan Duffy, Jacqueline Sinclair, Steven Canny, Ewan Angus, Myfanwy Moore, Chris Sussman, Simon Carlyle and more
Directed By Simon Hynd, Sasha Ransome, Ben Gosling Fuller, Mark Ash and Carol-Anne Henderson
A BBC Studios Comedy production.
Two Doors Down is available here: https://bbc.in/3z2kVsh

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

The Goon Show (Series 7 Episode 1)

The Goon Show, originally under the title of Crazy People focused on the bizarre experiments of Prof Osric Pureheart, played by Michael Bentine working alongside Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.

After two series, Bentine left the show and as a result, a new title character was created - Neddie Seagoon.

Episodes tended to involve Neddie trying to achieve some kind of greatness, often with the help of the idiotic but happy Eccles and the young Bluebottle.

However, always willing to stop them and make as much money as possible were the impoverished Hercules Grytpype-Thynne and his French assistant Count Jim Moriarty. Also featuring alongside were the disgraced and flatulent Major Dennis Bloodnok, and elderly couple Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister.

Written by Spike Milligan, Larry Stephens and Eric Sykes
Produced by Dennis Main Wilson, Peter Eton, Pat Dixon, Charles Chilton, Roy Speer, Tom Ronald and John Browell
A BBC production.
The Goon Show is available here: https://bbc.in/3mb3v7K

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

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Rising Damp (Series 2 Episode 8)

An unnamed northern university town is home to Rupert Rigsby, landlord of arguably the seediest, most run-down boarding house that England has to offer.

His unlucky tenants include Ruth Jones, an administrator at the university; Alan, a medical student; and Philip, who is studying town and country planning.

Between them, Alan and Philip are the focus and foil of the majority of Rigsby's many prejudices, usually at the expense of his dignity and standing in the eyes of Miss Jones, with whom he is hopelessly and pathetically in love.

Written by Eric Chappell
Produced by Ronnie Baxter and Vernon Lawrence
Directed By Ronnie Baxter and Vernon Lawrence
A Yorkshire Television production.
Rising Damp is available here: https://amzn.to/3IORJti and https://apple.co/3ymbunp

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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