Media Monkey: Steven Toast, John Hamm and Harry Enfield
Star spotting at the BBC, Sky’s new weather gets a dismal response and ‘subsistence alcohol’ on expenses• With BBC director of television Danny Cohen leaving and creative director Alan Yentob under...
View ArticleComedy is starting its own nostalgia industry – for better and worse
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse are touring their 90s characters around the UK, and trying to update them for the era of #piggate. But can they ever really work when comedy relies on the here and now...
View ArticleThe comedy trends of 2015: nostalgia, oversharing and new-school mimes
From newfound political awareness to a resurgence of clowning, 2015’s comedy landscape was bumpy but invigoratingIn election year, it was apt that political comedy seemed to be back on the agenda. We...
View ArticleImagine Rebekah Brooks roller-skating through the Sun newsroom...
Maxine Peake stars in Red Top, a TV satire that lampoons national newspapersImagine Rebekah Brooks roller-skating through the Sun’s newsroom as editorial staff, having been told to avoid making eye...
View ArticleDon't forget to watch Rebekah's roller-skating performance...
TV satire stars Maxine Peake, Harry Enfield, Nigel Planer and Johnny Vegas Lest you forget my original posting about Rebekah Brooks roller-skating through the Sun newsroom, the Comic Strip show is...
View ArticleTwo's company: comedy's five best sketch duos, according to Max & Ivan
The British double act pay tribute to their heroes – including Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, and the late Ronnies Corbett and BarkerDouble acts, duos, two-twos,...
View ArticleThe Windsors: behind the scenes of a right royal send-up
A star cast of comics impersonate our first family in this Channel 4 sitcom. But is it satire or something more affectionate?Inside a Portakabin near St Albans, Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton are...
View ArticleHarry Enfield to make theatre debut as movie mogul in Hollywood satire
Once in a Lifetime leads Young Vic season that includes a ‘grownup’ Midsummer Night’s Dream and a new show devised by sex workersHarry Enfield is to make his theatrical debut in a revival of Once in a...
View ArticleOnce in a Lifetime review – Harry Enfield is a legit hit in Hollywood satire
Young Vic, LondonPlaying a studio mogul at the dawn of the talkies, Enfield makes an assured theatre debut but this production puts visual bravura before verbal precisionHarry Enfield, as we know from...
View ArticleOnce in a Lifetime review – Harry Enfield stars in flat-pack revival
Young Vic, London… but the star turns are elsewhere in this thin adaptation of the 1930 satire on the Hollywood talkiesOnce in a Lifetime? That’s about right. Twice is pushing it. Moss Hart and George...
View ArticleKathy Burke: ‘Lifelong member of the non-pretty working classes’
That’s how Kathy Burke describes herself. But the famously outspoken actor and director has proved she can’t be pigeonholed. Stefanie Marsh meets her Midday at a café in Finsbury Park, north London:...
View ArticleFrom Roseanne to Partridge: what happens when TV characters get political?
Loadsamoney was co-opted by Thatcher, Roseanne is a Trump fan and Partridge could be the new face of Brexit. But do fictional allegiances make any difference?“Half the people voted for Trump,” said...
View ArticleHarry Enfield says blacking up as Mandela was 'so wrong it was right'
On Radio 4’s Today programme, the comedian justified decision to portray former South African president in blackface Harry Enfield has defended the use of blackface on television in an interview...
View ArticleHarry Enfield to star in stage version of The Windsors
The comedian will play the Prince of Wales in The Windsors: Endgame, due to play for 10 weeks in London this summerA new stage version of the TV hit The Windsors will star Harry Enfield both as and at...
View ArticleThe Windsors: Endgame review – a right royal disaster
Prince of Wales theatre, LondonThe sharp Channel 4 comedy becomes a lumbering stage show sending up King Charles and a band of boo-worthy buffoonsFor fans of the TV series, watching The Windsors:...
View ArticleFive of the best podcasts: laugh-out-loud fictional comedies
From the world’s rudest agony aunts to pirate radio DJs and mock-celeb chat, if it’s comedy you’re after, there’s a podcast for thatJulia Davis has spent the past 15 years cementing her position as the...
View Article‘Our whole show is complete bollocks!’ Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield on...
Gloriously spoofing Downton, Peaky Blinders, Jackanory and much, much more, the comedy legends reveal all about their riotous sketch show for the Beeb’s centenaryOnce a double act, always a double act....
View ArticleThe Liz Truss gags flowed like No 10 plonk: Friday Night Live proves our best...
From Ben Elton’s electrifying political routine to Harry Enfield’s force-10 performance, Channel 4’s comedy programme showed that nobody does spiky topicality better than 1980s starsIs a 40-year-old...
View ArticleThe Love Box in Your Living Room review – spectacular silliness from Harry...
The comics’ spoof Adam Curtis-style documentary celebrating 100 years of the BBC is full of deft satire, sharp insight and moments of utter oddness. It’s very clever – and very funnyDuring the recent...
View ArticleHarry Enfield on Bob Goody: ‘I was too frightened to approach him and tell...
In 1981 I saw Bob Goody and Patrick Barlow in the National Theatre of Brent while at university. It was a revelation to discover you didn’t have to be in Monty Python to be as funny as Monty Python....
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