Comedy Slab

Rev (Series 2 Episode 2)

Rev is a contemporary sitcom about the daily frustrations and moral conflicts of Reverend Adam Smallbone - a Church of England Vicar who was 'promoted' from a sleepy rural parish to the busy, inner-city world of St Saviour's, in East London.

Adam's long-suffering wife - does her best to support him, but she's got her own career as a solicitor to worry about. And she is no-one's idea of a conventional vicar's wife.

Anybody can, and does, come into St Saviour's - and into Adam's life - from scheming MPs trying to educate their children on the cheap to Colin, a heavy drinking, unemployable lost soul who is one of Adam's most devoted parishioner.

Written by James Wood, Tom Hollander, Sam Bain
Produced by Hannah Pescod
Directed By
A bigtalk production for BBC.
Rev is available here: https://amzn.to/30gKEAj

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The Outlaws (Series 1 Episode 1)

The Outlaws follows seven strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete Community Payback sentences in Bristol.

At first, they seem like archetypes we can easily pigeon hole but gradually we see behind their façades, understand their hidden depths and what made them the people they are today. We are reminded that no one is all good or all bad. Everyone has a story.

As their unlikely new friendships intersect with their complicated private lives, the offenders must unite to protect one of their own from Bristol's most dangerous criminal gang. The show is part crime thriller, character study, and a state-of-the-nation commentary - with humour and heart.

Written by Stephen Merchant, Elgin James, Geoff Norcott, Fraser Steele, Will Truefitt, Chris Hale and Ross Willis
Produced by Nickie Sault, Stephen Merchant, Luke Alkin, Kenton Allen, Matthew Justice, Rhodri Thomas, Kate Daughton, Tanya Qureshi and more
Directed By Stephen Merchant, John Butler, Toby Sherborne and Jake Rollins
A bigtalk / Four Eyes co-production for BBC.
The Outlaws is available here: https://bbc.in/3d946Sp

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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The Tuckers (Series 1 Episode)

Set in the south Wales valleys, The Tuckers tells the story of a family of chancers, low on cash but high on spirit - determined to survive through any means necessary. They run a catering business, not always successfully, and a few things on the side, not always legit.

Peggy rules the roost, with Glyn, her son, next in command. His children, Billy and Bobby, are never far from trouble, and Bobby's ex-wife, Natalie lives next door - with Shaks, their young daughter who has an appetite for mayhem.

The family bicker endlessly amongst themselves, but if you cross one Tucker, you cross them all, and you'll think twice about crossing them again (especially Grampa Murphy, who spends most of his time in an outside toilet, armed with a gun).

The series examines the love/hate relationship between members of the clan, ultimately proving that blood is thicker than water.

Written by Steve Speirs and Owen Bell
Produced by Owen Bell, Steven Canny and James Dehaviland
Directed By Ian FitzGibbon and Geraint Havard
A BBC Studios Production.
The Tuckers is available here: https://bbc.in/3CJFQkk

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

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Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead (From 15th March 1971)

Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead, is a British comedy radio sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1971.

Two series of eight episodes were broadcast and in addition, there were two special episodes. A Christmas special, entitled Lines From My Grandfather Christmas's Forehead and a compilation of selected items from past editions, under the title Just A Few Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead.

The show was created by BBC Radio producer John Fawcett Wilson and Ronnie Barker and featured Barker together with Terence Brady and Pauline Yates and Gordon Langford at the piano. Some editions also featured guitarist Dick Abell.

Each programme was a sequence of comedy sketches, monologues and comic songs. The writers were credited on each recording but the items they wrote were not named, so identifying the author of a particular item is difficult.

Among the writers was Gerald Wiley, which was a pseudonym used by Ronnie Barker to submit material without using his own name whilst other writers included Jim Eldridge, Spike Milligan and Harold Pinter.

The then director of programmes for BBC Radio, Gerard Mansell, described the show as having a "very individual type of humour, quite unlike that of any other TV or radio programme".

Written by Terence Brady, Donald Churchill, David Climie, John Graham, Charles McKay, Spike Milligan, Peter Spence, Roger Till & Gerald Wiley.
Produced by John Fawcett Wilson
A BBC Radio Production.
Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead is available here: https://amzn.to/2YlosEb

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

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Saxondale (Series 2 Episode 1)

Saxondale is a sitcom by Steve Coogan and Neil Maclennan which focuses on the life of Tommy Saxondale (Coogan). Tommy is a world-travelled ex-roadie with anger-management issues who owns a pest control business in Stevenage.

Saxondale regards himself as a maverick and a free-thinker and takes every opportunity to impart his wisdom to his young assistant Raymond. As well as Pharaoh ants, mice and occasionally moths, during the sitcom Tommy has to battle with snowboarders, pigeon-loving activists... and people who talk about property prices.

While Tommy enjoys talking about himself, training Raymond in the mysterious and deadly art of pest control, and sharing a few life lessons, Raymond has little choice but to listen. He lives in Tommy's spare room and gets an uncomfortably close view of Tommy and Magz's sparky relationship.

Vicky, the receptionist who hands out the jobs for Tommy's Stealth Pest Control operation, takes 'banter' to the next level, knowing exactly how to provoke instant frustration... which inevitably results in a few more visits to the anger management course for Tommy.

Written by Steve Coogan & Neil Maclennan.
Produced by Ted Dowd.
Directed by Matt Lipsey & John Henderson
A Baby Cow Production for BBC.
Saxondale is available here: https://amzn.to/3m4lGwf

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

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Sam Simmons Is Not A People Person (Series 1 Episodes 1&2)

Comedian. Writer. Ex-Zoo Keeper. Bird Watcher. Definitely NOT a people person.

Sam and Henry are making a series about birds, and every week - armed with Sam's 'Big Book of Birds' they're looking for a different one.

Sadly, and despite Henry's very best efforts, Sam keeps being distracted by the people they run into. Each encounter sparks an investigation into Sam's past, because once they've sorted out his issues, then they'll really be able to focus on the bird-watching.

Written by Sam Simmons.
Produced by Joe Nunnery & Alexandra Smith.
A BBC Radio Production.
Sam Simmons Is Not A People Person is available here: https://bbc.in/3aIQMmr

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

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This week we review Alma's Not Normal (Series 1 Episode 1)

Alma's Not Normal follows Boltonian wild-child Alma Nuthall and her family of eccentric, unruly women.

With no qualifications and a rebellious streak a mile wide, Alma decides to become an escort to support her dreams of becoming a star and leaving Bolton. Meanwhile, Alma's mother Lin battles with both her addiction to heroin and her troubled relationship with her own mother Joan with the same chaotic fervour. Having only just discovered feminism and sexual liberation, Alma's vampish Grandma Joan, must contend with her daughter suddenly moving in with her.

Alma's Not Normal offers a bitingly funny and unflinching take on class, sexuality, mental health and substance abuse. It celebrates women dealing with the hand they were dealt while doggedly pursing their dreams. It explores the darker side of life but with genuine warmth and laugh out loud result.

Written by Sophie Willan.
Directed by Andrew Chaplin.
Produced by Gill Isles.
An Expectation Production For BBC.
Alma's Not Normal is available here: https://bbc.in/3uItqXm

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

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This week we review Nighty Night (Series 2 Episode 6)

Jill is a monstrously self-involved beautician whose husband, Terry, is dying of cancer.

Her reaction to such terrible news is to tell everyone that Terry has died and pursue her neighbour, Don, a doctor whose wife is suffering from MS.
She commits murder but successfully frames her admirer - a man called Glen who is subsequently detained in an institution for the mentally insane.

Meanwhile Jill is planning to move on with her life, but first she must visit Glen and relieve him of the burden of his chip and pin number.
However, Jill's one objective remains - to find Don and make him hers.

She hooks her caravan to her bright pink jeep and sets off to north Cornwall, where Cath and Don are currently working through their marital problems at the Trees Therapy Centre.

Written by Julia Davis.
Directed by Tony Dow and Dewi Humphreys
Produced by Ted Dowd and Alison MacPhail.
A Baby Cow Production for BBC Three.
Nighty Night is available here: https://bbc.in/3uItqXm

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

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This week we review The Cleaner (Series 1 Episode 2)

Paul 'Wicky' Wickstead, is a state-certified cleaning technician with a very special field of work: as a crime scene cleaner he is responsible for the removal of any signs of death.

Wicky works for Shropshire-based cleaning contractors Lausen and is usually found, together with his baby-blue pickup truck, at crime scenes after the police have concluded their detective work.

Armed with chemicals, scrubbing brushes and cleaning rags, Wicky removes the gruesome mess at the scene of the crime. When carrying out his duties, he stumbles across the strangest of people: from the victim's relatives, employers, neighbours and acquaintances, to occasionally even the murderers themselves. And because he's a sociable type, he sometimes gossips more than he cleans.

Written by Greg Davies.
Directed by Tom Marshall
Produced by Sam Ward.
A Studio Hamburg UK Production for BBC.
The Cleaner is available here: https://bbc.in/3zT1ssU

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

This week we review This Is Jinsy (Series 1 Episode 1)

This Is Jinsy started life as a pilot on BBC Three, but has now been turned into a full show by Sky.

The series follows Arbiter Maven (the 17th Arbiter and 'Wearer of the Hat') and Operative Sporall (nice hair and 'Wearer of the Beige Suit') as they keep a close eye on the 791 residents of Jinsy from the Great Tower in the parish of Veen.

Life on the island is rather Orwellian: each colourful member of the community is monitored by a surveillance system of tessellators, from local folk dribbler Melody Lane to weather monk Tracee Henge.

The tessellators include video cameras for surveillance, but also little screens to allow the residents to watch important island events, such as the tri-annual island cow wash (live from Glotters field). Additionally, they include a handy slot for paying fines, and a sphincter nozzle for product and pill downloads.

Notably, each episode of This Is Jinsy features a notable guest star actor. Some of the biggest names in comedy - from Stephen Fry to Olivia Colman have appeared in the show.

Written by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb.
Directed by Matt Lipsey
Produced by James Dean, Chris Carey and Margot Gavan Duffy.
A Welded Tandem Picture Company Production for Sky.
This Is Jinsy is available here: https://amzn.to/2XtJpMC

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.