Comedy Slab

This week we review - Harry Hill's World Of TV (Series 1 Episode 4)

Whether this is one of those programmes that defies description, doesn’t inspire people to write more than the title or just so obviously "does what it says on the tin", the most that we could find written in explanation about Harry Hill's world Of TV was "Harry Hill takes the lid off a different genre of TV each week'.

In fairness, he does use amusing clips from the archives to have a laugh at different genres of telly, such as soaps and medical dramas, so that does pretty well sum up the show.

Very obviously drawing from the successful formula of the ITV show Harry Hill's TV Burp and despite the similarities, the BBC have perhaps wisely chosen to exclude the titular gastric expulsion.

Written by Harry Hill
Produced by David Price & Sam Terroni
Directed by Barry Castagnola
A NIT Production for BBC.
Harry Hill's World Of TV is available here: https://bbc.in/3hjHSAg

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

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

When Tony (Mark Steel) a working-class, left wing South Londoner, falls in love and moves in with Imogen (Claire Skinner), an upper middle-class property developer, their respective millennial sons Ashley (Elliot Steel), a disenfranchised Croydon 'rude boy', and Gideon (Ivo Graham), Eton and Oxbridge-educated and crypto-currency literate, are forced to live under the same roof and behave like the brothers neither of them ever wanted.

Class, compromise, hope, desolation, love, identity, step-sibling rivalry and Crystal Palace FC are all explored in this fresh comedy.

The characters get to experience how the other half live. Tony resents his newfound enjoyment of the finer things in life, while Imogen finds Tony's stories of being a working-class hero intriguing and endearing. Ashley's brash attitude belies both insecurity and envy of Gideon who, in turn, is secretly impressed by what he believes to be Ashley's streetwise knowledge of urban culture.

Written by Mark Steel, Elliot Steel & Barry Castagnola
Produced by Barry Castagnola
Directed by Barry Castagnola
A Golden Path Production for BBC Radio 4.
Unite is available here: https://bbc.in/3w3wjkw

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

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This week we review - Going Straight (Episode 5)

After four-odd years inside, Norman Stanley Fletcher has made parole. Aided and encouraged by his daughter Ingrid, her boyfriend - Fletch's old cell mate - Lennie Godber, and his teenage son Raymond, Fletch is determined to make it on the straight and narrow.

It's not destined to be easy though. From discovering his old nemesis Mr Mackay on the same train home, to finding and trying to hold down his first 'straight' job, Fletcher faces many trials and temptations on his path to an honest life - not least the departure of his previously loving wife, Isobel.

Will he make it, or will the temptation of an easy buck prove too strong?

Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais
Produced by Sydney Lotteryby
Directed by Sydney Lotteryby
A BBC TV Production.
Going Straight is available here: https://amzn.to/35Gy64q

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

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This week we review - Simon Bird: Debrief

Simon Bird, star of Friday Night Dinner and The Inbetweeners, makes his stand-up special debut.

Recorded during lockdown in an empty theatre, he tackles the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Simon, undeterred (or emboldened?) by empty seats and eerie silence, reckons with topics such as nationalism, sexism, the environment, and the NHS.

'Debrief' is a long-lens look at the decade leading up to the UK's much-criticised response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Written by Simon Bird
Produced by Rupert Majandie
Directed by Simon Bird
A Baby Cow / People Person Pictures Production.
Simon Bird: Debrief is available here: https://bit.ly/3iFWjzn

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

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This week we review - Bellamy's People (Episode 7)

Award winning journalist Gary Bellamy (Rhys Thomas), host of Radio 4's 'groundbreaking' phone-in programme Down the Line, transfers to TV to present the tortuously-titled factual entertainment show "Bellamy's People (of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)".

Bellamy abandons the comfort of his studio and jumps in his Triumph Stag "personality vehicle" to travel the length and breadth of the land meeting the people of Britain and trying to find out what makes them tick. His aim is to elicit their views on topics ranging from crime and religion to class and culture. Much like his radio phone-in show, each week will focus on a particular topic of discussion.

The show promises to deliver quintessentially British characters, including a 23-stone man who rarely leaves his bed; a pair of aristocratic sisters with an unhealthy love of totalitarian regimes; a barely reformed celebrity criminal; Christians, Muslims; and a host of other characters that make up modern Britain.

Written by Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Rhys Thomas, Simon Day, Felix Dexter, Lucy Montgomery, Rosie Cavaliero, Amelia Bullmore and Adil Ray
Produced by Ali Bryer Carron, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson
Directed by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson
A BBC / Down The Line Production.
Bellamy's People is available here: https://amzn.to/3isdapz

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

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This week we review - Fawlty Towers (Series 1 Episode 1)

Fawlty Towers, a 22-room hotel located in Torquay, the centre of the 'English Riviera', is a den of mishap and disaster.

Basil Fawlty, owner and manager of the hotel, is a man of infinite capability in impoliteness, caustic intolerance and general rudeness toward the guests he views as an unwelcome imposition.

His wife, Sybil, is of a more practical demeanour, but seems to have an immunity to work, so the running of the hotel is often left to waitress, maid, and all-round help Polly.

Meanwhile, Spanish waiter and porter Manuel is still struggling to adjust to life working for the outrageous and unpredictable Basil Fawlty.

Written by John Cleese & Connie Booth
Produced by John Howard Davies and Douglas Argent
Directed by John Howard Davies and Bob Spiers
A BBC Production.
Fawlty Towers is available here: https://bbc.in/3frcVc7

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

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This week we review - The League Of Gentlemen (Series 1 Episode 5)

The League of Gentlemen is a surreal British sitcom that premiered on BBC Two in 1999.

The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England, originally based on Alston, Cumbria and follows the lives of bizarre characters, most of whom are played by three of the show's four writers – Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith – who, along with Jeremy Dyson, formed the League of Gentlemen comedy troupe in 1995.

It originally aired for three series from 1999 until 2002 followed by a film in 2005 and was mainly filmed in Hadfield, Derbyshire.

The series ended in 2002, and was followed by a film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse and a pantomime themed stage production The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You! in 2005.

Written by Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson
Produced by Sarah Smith and Jemma Rodgers
Directed by Steve Bendelack
A BBC Production.
The League Of Gentlemen is available here: https://bbc.in/3vg3m5m

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

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

This week we review - Motherland (Series 1 Episode 2)

Motherland is a show all about navigating the trials and traumas of middle-class motherhood, looking at the competitive and unromantic sides of parenting - not the cute and acceptable public face of motherhood.

We meet the 'Alpha Mums' headed by Amanda, who is very much the Queen Bee: everything is organised, clean and sparkly - even the kitchen cork board is a statement of success. Yet at the other end of the spectrum, we meet Liz, who's totally chaotic and feels the kids should enjoy free expression.

Somewhere in the middle is Julia, who, when she forgets it's the school holidays, realises her organisational skills are nowhere near the level of the 'Alpha Mums'. Also in the mix is Kevin. He's the stay at home dad, who, rather than fighting against that, is embracing it with gusto - much to the irritation of the other mothers.

Motherland isn't the public face of motherhood, it's unromanticised parenting: competition, cafes full of kids, dog-poo bags standing in as replacement lunchboxes...

Written by Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh, Graham Linehan & Helen Linehan
Produced by Richard Boden
Directed by Juliet May
A Delightful Industries / Merman Production for BBC.
Motherland is available here: https://bbc.in/3ygcAAx

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

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This week we review - Frank Of Ireland (Series 1 Episode 1)

Frank Marron is a 32-year-old catastrophe. A misanthropic, narcissistic, fantasist in arrested development who thinks the world owes him something.

Frank lives in Dublin with his mother Mary, he's single and his pocket money hasn't increased in a decade or more. Frank is a musician but he hasn't written a song or played a gig in seven years and five months.

His ex-girlfriend Aine has a new boyfriend and Frank is finding this difficult to come to terms since they split up about seven years and five months ago, give or take a day.

Frank's wingman, Doofus, foolishly thinks they are best friends and it's his job to attempt to fix the relentless debris in Frank's wake. It's a big job.

Written by Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson and Michael Moloney
Produced by Rory Gilmartin
Directed by M J Delaney
A Merman Production for Amazon in association with Channel 4.
Frank Of Ireland is available here: https://bit.ly/3vQFuFt

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

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This week we review - Athena's Cancel Culture (Series 1 Episodes 1&2)

Over the last few years, if a celebrity has ever said or done anything remotely controversial, then they've probably been cancelled.

Largely performed through social media, some describe it as necessary evil to help democratise the internet and reflect the expectancy of an artist’s audience, for others it’s just a chance to shut up gobby celebs!

Whatever your view, it certainly helps empower fans by diminishing celebrity cultural capital and helping keep their egos and opinions in check.

Athena explores cancel culture and the world of offence in modern times.

Written by Athena Kugblenu
Produced by Gus Beattie
A Gusman Production for BBC Radio 4.
Athena's Cancel Culture is available here: https://bbc.in/3vKTWP6

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.