Dork Adore » Comedy

Sky’s new comedy Spy and Strictly Come Dancing: What We’ve Been Watching

Anna Lowman — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:40:42 +0000

I’ve been burnt many times before, so when a new comedy comes along that looks promising, I’ve learned not to get too excited. Perhaps it was that trepidation, then, that ultimately enhanced my enjoyment of a new sitcom featuring Green Wing alumnus Darren Boyd and a My Family-free Robert Lindsay…

With my little eye…

Sky hasn’t been known for its homegrown comedy, but it has put a surprising amount of time and energy into changing that recently. Mount Pleasant and Trollied have already aired, and Craig Cash’s very-good-looking-indeed The Cafe starts soon; for now though we’ve got Spy, starring Darren Boyd, with Robert Lindsay making the odd cameo.

And you know what? I really loved it. I know, a Sky One comedy! (It’s fine, we’re all telly snobs here.) Darren Boyd has been around for years – you’ll know his face, if not the name, from Green Wing and Whites – but I have to say I’ve never taken much notice of him before. But I’m happy to say that he’s genuinely brilliant here as under-achieving divorcee dad Tim who stumbles into a job with MI5. His pious, genius son is a great character, and Horrible Histories‘ Matthew Baynton is really funny and very well cast as Tim’s weird best friend.

It has to be said that elements of this felt familiar – I suspect writer/creator Simeon Goulden is a big Spaced fan, and the scene in which Tim disrupts the entrance exam is pure Men In Black. But none of that lessened my enjoyment – Goulden is borrowing from the best there, after all – and I was chuckling throughout. Give it a go.

Razzle Dazzle ‘em

It’s been in the papers over the last couple of days that Strictly Come Dancing is really holding its own against The X Factor juggernaut in the ratings this year. Maybe that’s because there’s actually more talent on show over on BBC One – it’s a seriously strong year. Jason Donovan‘s camp tango ruled this weekend, and I love watching Chelsee dance, even if she is generally under-marked. Saturday nights are sofa nights…

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Comedy Showcase’s Chickens and The Jonathan Ross Show: What We’ve Been Watching

Anna Lowman — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:04:35 +0000

You can’t fault Channel 4‘s commitment to new comedy. Every year they try out a bunch of pilots in a primetime slot in their Comedy Showcase strand, and over on E4 that’s backed up with slightly more left-field offerings in Comedy Lab. So how did the first of this year’s crop, Chickens, fare?

Inbetweeners Goes Forth?

Much like Peep Show, it’s understandable that some people assume that the stars of gross-out-but-sometimes-oddly-sweet teen sitcom The Inbetweeners – Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison – actually wrote the show, as they seem to fit their characters so well. Not so, however — that honour belongs to (Damon Beesley and Iain Morris) but Bird and Thomas are in fact pretty experienced comedy writers, having performed (and impressed) at the Edinburgh Fringe with their show ‘The Meeting’, created with award-winning stand-up comic Jonny Sweet.

For Chickens, these three have got back together and produced a properly entertaining half hour pilot in which they play the only three men left in a pretty Heart-of-England village during the First World War. They each have their reasons for staying behind: Cecil (Bird) isn’t allowed in the army on account of his flat feet, teacher George (Thomas) is a conscientious objector and Bert (Sweet)… well he just finds it difficult to remember there’s a war on, what with all the girls (and women, and old ladies) of the village distracting him the whole time.

There was an element of farce about this — Cecil ends up accidentally peeing on a tree planted in remembrance of a dead soldier — but as with so many sitcoms, Chickens actually works best when it’s just the three leads chatting and bickering. Jonny Sweet, I think, pretty much steals the show. As a self-centred lothario, he’s simultaneously incredibly creepy and massively watchable — here, as with his stand-up, it’s his delivery that makes him so much fun. All the best comics can make an apparently simple word sound hilarious and Sweet is no different. Just take a listen to how he says the word ‘crow’.

Saturday night with Jonathan Ross

I’ve always been a Wossy supporter. Friday Night… was great fun, and his Saturday morning Radio 2 show was superb until Sachsgate meant the Beeb stopped it going out live. What’s the point if there isn’t that little element of danger? Boring. So I’m very glad indeed he’s back on the telly — but Jonathan Ross on ITV1? It feels odd, doesn’t it? Although he does seem to enjoy saying “we’ll be back after these messages”, like he’s some American TV anchor from the 1950s…

There are some superficial changes to the format (neither the 4 Poofs nor their piano have made it to ITV) but basically this is the same Jonathan Ross chat show we’re used to, and if you liked it before and can stand the adverts, you’ll still like it. He was funny, he made a few slightly naughty comments, he fawned over his guests. It was business as usual. Welcome back.

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WWBW: reaction to the TV BAFTAs 2011

Anna Lowman — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:52:20 +0000

The TV BAFTAs (or, as we’re meant to call them, the British Academy Television Awards) are, I think, the really prestigious awards for that there telly-box, so it was pretty wonderful to see some of the shows we’ve celebrated here on Dork Adore come away with a golden mask this weekend. Let’s look back at a few, shall we?

First up, huge kudos to the Academy for recognising Daniel Rigby (Best Actor) who shone so very brightly as Eric Morecambe in the Christmas biopic Eric and Ernie. Up against the likes of the Doctor himself Matt Smith, and the excellent Benedict Cumberbatch, he could easily have been overlooked, but frankly it was the sort of performance that simply doesn’t come along very often, and as such I am just delighted that he won. Here’s a little taster…

I liked that programme. Quite a lot. You might have noticed.

A-ha! A win for Coogan

Another programme which I’ve often praised here in What We’ve Been Watching — right from the first, low-key episode — is BBC Two’s The Trip. A real looker of a sitcom thanks to Michael Winterbottom’s glorious direction (not to mention the English countryside), it also made me laugh out loud consistently, even when watching on my own, and it had the capacity to really get people discussing the characters — unusual for a comedy show.

The programme itself actually missed out to Rev (no real complaints there, it was a great show with an excellent cast including Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman and Miles Jupp) but Steve Coogan was, I would say rightly, rewarded for his own superb performance. Want to see him in action? Sure you do.

Best of the rest

Elsewhere, I was very happy to see Martin Freeman get the award for Best Supporting Actor for his impressive turn in Sherlock; though his “distinctly unimpressed” face when The Only Way Is Essex took the Audience Award was also rather gong-worthy. I would have liked Downton Abbey to be recognised, but that Drama Series category wasn’t half strong — the ITV period drama was up against Misfits, Being Human and the winner Sherlock (bit of a theme).

It was a shame too that the brilliant Human Planet had to miss out, but when a Flying Monsters 3D producer pointed out that Sir David Attenborough‘s involvement means he can boast awards for shows in black and white, colour, HD and 3D, you could hardly begrudge him that unique honour.

Next week, there’s a new Adam Curtis documentary to sink our teeth into, and Paul Merton takes us through the Birth of Hollywood.

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 5 – Dork Review

Toby Knowles — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:11:36 +0000

Over the past year there have been some excellent new comedy series on the BBC. First there was the gentle Rev, then Alan Davies’ boisterous Whites, and more recently, Episodes. I’m just on iPlayer, flicking through them now.

What’s this programme at the top of the comedy listings, positioned just above Cool Runnings? Yes, Being Human, it’s called. That’s bound to be funny – look, they’re even pulling wacky, contorted faces in the picture! (see above).

Must be some improvisational thing. Maybe that new one with Hugh Dennis.

My friend Olly clicked on to Being Human — The Longest Day through iPlayer Comedy the other day, in search of a bit of a post work pick-me up. “It was distressing.” he told me.

Frankly, I sympathise. It would be like stumbling across Snog Marry Avoid? while looking for a wildlife documentary. This was by far the most harrowing instalment of the houseshare horror since it started back in 2008.

From Here To Insanity

The story to The Longest Day focused on a revived, deranged Herrick – a very bad man, and furthermore a vampire – who had appeared without warning in the psychiatric ward of Barry hospital.

Although familiar to our protagonists, Herrick was suffering from amnesia (a plot device so old it’s lost its own memory), and was visibly traumatised by the efforts of his old flame, Cara, to reinitiate him as a vampire. Whether conscious of his past or not, Herrick was still something of a meanie – ‘You’re nothing.’ he told Cara with a cold rationality, before cutting right to the bone with, ‘You look ugly when you cry’.

She subsequently forced a stake through her heart, hilariously. I think that may have been where Olly switched off.

It would be churlish to pick holes in the story of a a werewolf, vampire and ghost attempting to adopt a vicious, reincarnated, amnesiac vampire through social services. So I won’t do that. But there were clear contrivances by the writers to exaggerate the tension between the characters, thereby eliciting big, stagey performances from the leads, and sweary showdowns between Mitchell and just about every other cast member.

Even so, the performances were as assured as ever, especially Sinead Keenan as Nina.

The mood and look of The Longest Day were also impressively bleak, and the recasting of chief baddie from Herrick to Mitchell was skilfully handled. Spooks‘ Nicola Walker tried her best to raise a smile as Wendy the hapless social worker, but her material was creaky and her presence in the story, like Wendy herself, soon began to grate.

Battle of Barry

It’s unlikely that there will be many more laughs next week, judging by the trailer, which suggests that the producers will attempt to wring every last drop of tension out of Herrick’s arrival and Mitchell’s impending comeuppance.

This is a shame since, misfiled as it is, Being Human usually does comedy extremely well, finding humour in the most tragic and horrifying circumstances. Just don’t expect to see repeats of it on Dave.

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 4 – Dork Review

Toby Knowles — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:57:02 +0000

Barging in with the force and velocity of a season finale, Episode 4, The Pack, was one of the most exhilarating Being Human episodes to date, rapidly weaving several plot lines and characters together, before spinning unsentimentally towards a tense and bloody climax.

An episode of this quality raises questions. Namely, why has such an engaging, sharply written drama never made the transition from BBC Three, home of Help! My Dog’s As Fat As Me and Hotter Than My Daughter, to terrestrial TV? And why has the third series been scheduled for Sunday evenings, a territory more closely associated with warm bath dramas like Cranford, Downton Abbey and the late Monarch of the Glen?

Back in the Saddle

After the transient characters of recent episodes, it was reassuring to see the return of two favourites from episode 1: Richard, the carpet selling swinger and McNair the vampire hunter. Richard was enlisted by a terrified Mitchell to protect him from McNair’s merciless vendetta, whilst expectant parents George and Nina sought counsel from McNair as an unlikely expert on the werewolf facts of life.

As McNair, Robson Green‘s quietly menacing performance was outstanding, and his civilised, gentlemanly streak provided an enjoyable contrast to his murderous instincts. After all, what kind of hardened vampire killer shoplifts Bonne Maman jam?

Clearly a man with a past, the only link to McNair’s murky history was Tom, who may or may not have been his biological son, and was the owner of the most anxious eyebrows seen on television. Tom, a walking campaign commercial against home-schooling, was a lost puppy, naïve to the ways of the world, women and fashion, having only ever known what McNair taught him. Yet Tom was happily oblivious, carving Polynesian-style figurines, fantasising about a mythical werewolf ‘pack’ and lusting dreamily after Nina.

Sweet Emotion

Meanwhile, a more requited, though no less complicated partnership was underway between ghost Annie and vampire Mitchell.

Although the pair concluded that, in light of Annie’s spectral presence, their love would have to be more emotional than physical, this was only reached after several coital false starts, during which Mitchell proved unambiguously that he was mean, surly, and sexually polarised between psychotic (nearly killing his surrogate lover) and a complete wet blanket (‘Can we just cuddle a little?’, he gulped at Annie.) I’m beginning to wonder what Annie sees in him.

What It Takes

Episode 4 gripped me right until its nail-biting, violent resolution.

In fact, it was so compelling that I even forgave the scriptwriters their running gag of including cult TV references in each episode. “Will you stop being so bloody Cranford about everything?”, an exasperated Annie fired at the gallant McNair, a joke that is surely first in line to be axed when translated to its American counterpart.

Who knows which TV dramas future episodes will mention? I’m holding out for Monarch of the Glen.

More Being Human on Dork Adore | Review – Being Human Series 3, Episode 3

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 3 – Dork Review

Toby Knowles — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:30:39 +0000

Do you remember The Sixth Sense? I’ll never forget the indignity I suffered at the final dénouement, as it transpired, shockingly, that Bruce Willis had spent the entire film with a gunshot wound the size of a teacup in his lower back. I had been too engrossed (or dim) to spot the silent treatment he’d received from everybody he met, the fact that his wife had thrown out all her non-black clothes, and that even the Reader’s Digest had stopped sending him Prize Draw invitations.

Plainly put, he was dead, and neither Brucie nor I had known it.

Funny Face

But what if the dead just didn’t get it? This was the premise of Episode 3 of Being Human, which saw Annie the ghost collect another wandering soul, a ‘Type 4‘ (or ‘Zombie’ to the uninitiated) called Sasha. Sasha was a Welsh WAG, the belle of rugby league player, who enjoyed nothing more than a night out and a good fight at the end of it. Zombification (post car accident) had done her few favours; recent consequences included hideous disfigurement, torture and being impaled on her boyfriend’s Man of the Match trophy.

Still, Sasha didn’t understand that she was dead. At one point I wondered whether the writer was building up to some kind of social commentary. ‘Don’t be dead-ist!’, Annie chastised an unsympathetic Mitchell. Yet it soon emerged that conversely Sasha, as she came to terms with her death, could teach us a little something about living. ‘Seize the day!’ she quoted to Annie, as she eventually departed for the great beyond.

It’s nice to know that WAGS have a working knowledge of the Classics. She even extolled the virtues of having children to a pregnant Nina, who after a recent full moon fling with George had been anxiously weighing up whether to bring up a were-child.

Annie, Get Your Guy!

Meanwhile, Mitchell was busy fending off the advances of a psychotic fan-boy, and reflecting on the more amorous advances of his flatmate, Annie. The first dilemma was easily solved — Mitchell killed him. The latter ended more predictably with Mitchell, having initially expressed concern, mainly as to whether one could actually perform coitus with a ghost, soon engaged in a lengthy and passionate snog with the spectral Annie. Hopefully this put his fears aside. After all, vampires, for all their inner torment, can be quite uncomplicated creatures.

More Being Human on Dork Adore | Review – Being Human Series 3, Episode 2

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 2 – Dork Review

Toby Knowles — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 08:40:58 +0000

Viewers of last week’s Being Human will be well aware that our four leads — Mitchell the vampire, Annie the ghost and werewolf couple George and Nina — were forced to leave Bristol after Mitchell issued a chilling complaint to South West Trains by savagely murdering a carriage-load of commuters on the 8.15 to Taunton.

Unsurprisingly, this attracted unwanted attention from the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, so our quartet decamped to the middle of nowhere, or South Wales, as it is better known, in a vain attempt to keep their collective nose out of trouble.

I say in vain, because it wasn’t long before a little local colour livened up our protagonists’ drab routine.

New Blood

This week opened with a startled Nina discovering plucky teenage vampire Adam — a welcome antidote to the feebly sensitive demons of the Twilight series — picking over his father’s bones in the local hospital. Rather than moping around looking like a lovestruck mime artist, Adam was a real adolescent, with the hormones and puerile humour to prove it. Nina and George swiftly adopted him.

Next came a visit from Richard, an affable businessman vampire who offered not only to take the orphaned Adam in, but also to transport Mitchell to South America on a container ship full of luxury carpets. Now, I’m no economist but isn’t Wales a very long way from Puerto Rico? Couldn’t you just get your carpets from, say, the U.S.?

Needless to say, Richard’s kindness was nothing but a warm front and he was soon revealed, like many fictional Welshmen, to be a sexual deviant of the highest order. After introducing his human pet, Number 7, he proceeded to orgy like it was 1973, before forcibly inviting his young ward to enjoy the energetic delights of his equally mad wife, Emma (played by Gavin and Stacey‘s Melanie Walters).

This was a wake-up call for Adam, who learnt at once that sex, in the wrong hands, could be very frightening indeed, and upon escaping promptly assumed a far more chaste and mature approach to life. Much like the vampires in Twilight.

At any rate, his rather touching transformation made George and Nina excessively proud, and by the end of the story he had even softened up crotchety old Mitchell.

Pumping on the Stereotype

This was a highly enjoyable episode, far lighter, less gory and more thoughtful than last week’s foray into purgatory, in what promises to be another excellent and compelling series. The only questionable note was its rather clichéd view of the Welsh. I mean, was it chance that the first episode set in The Land of Our Fathers was also the first to feature a masochist in a gimp suit? And with Doctor Who and Torchwood already stationed in Cardiff, can’t we have some, I don’t know, Geordie vampires for a change?

More Being Human on Dork Adore | Review – Being Human Series 3, Episode 1

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Chekhov Shorts and Peep Show: What We’ve Been Watching

Anna Lowman — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:33:48 +0000

To misquote Helen off Big Brother, I like laughing I do, and thanks to the box in the corner, I did quite a lot of it last week. BBC One’s Saturday night comedies Walk On The Wild Side and Armstrong and Miller continue to be consistently wonderful, but this week it was the return of Peep Show, now in its seventh series, that really warmed the (very chilly) cockles.

“Terri-brill”

The received wisdom is that comedies shouldn’t run for long: ’Fawlty Towers only ran for two series’ is the dullard’s cry. In fact, lots of long-running shows kept their quality — they change undoubtedly, but not always for the worse. Friends is a good example, it had a series 6/7 dip, but came storming back towards the end and lost the over-sentimentality of the first couple of Ross and Rachel-obsessed seasons. Thank goodness the writers of Peep Show did not succumb to the myth — they’ve kept going series after series, and I genuinely think it has got better over time.

The first episode of this series was an absolute winner, and even allowed a little emotion and optimism into proceedings (not often present in the show, it has to be said) with Mark’s baby entering the world just at the moment that he also discovered that the broken boiler back in his flat had only caused ‘minimal water damage’. Heaven. Of course, he had spent much of the birth in a nearby games arcade, and Jez was chatting up a girl whose boyfriend was in a coma, but get past all that and this was Peep Show at its absolute sweetest. And, as ever, the turn of phrase in Mark and Jez’s slightly messed up minds was inspired.

“Alan! Alan! Alan!” Repeat to fade…

There aren’t many scripted programmes that can genuinely claim to be proper family entertainment — your Strictlies and X Factors dominate the market these days, although there’s still a corner for a bit of family fantasy, with Doctor Who, Merlin, and the soon-to-return Primeval. BBC One’s Walk On The Wild Side does the trick very nicely however, and I’m not sure it really gets the credit it deserves.

For the uninitiated, it’s the brainchild of Jason Manford, and does for animals what Animal Magic did for… well, animals. Yes, it’s essentially Animal Magic in the jungle (and savannah, and underwater) but thanks to a fine voice cast and writing team packed with great comics including Jon Richardson, Sarah Millican, Alex Horne and Manford himself, it carries off a really charming mix of the silly, clever and actually-quite-bizarre.

Laugh-out-loud Chekhov

He’s not really known for his gags, Chekhov, but Sky Arts’ more ‘highbrow’ station, Sky Arts 2, has been on a mission to show us that the Russian playwright was actually a fun kinda guy, by screening half-hour adaptations of his shorts starring comedy actors including Mathew Horne, Steve Coogan and — in the particularly impressive cast of The Bear — Julia Davis, Julian Barratt and Reece Shearsmith.

It’s a comedy super-group! Yes, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen came together for this, and while it didn’t perhaps hit the heights of those modern classics, it was a hell of a lot of fun. It was hard not to be a little distracted by the incredibly stagey direction, but it was hard not to get excited at seeing real-life couple Barratt and Davis performing together as a pair of quarrelling strangers who find themselves attracted to each other, and their huge capacity for subtle comic acting was put to great use here.

Next week, I brush up on my German art (ahem) and Frankie Boyle finds his spiritual home in Channel 4, with his sketch show Tramadol Nights.

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The IT Crowd review: Series 4 so far

Nick Bryan — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:00:08 +0000

There isn’t a lot of ‘proper’ geek TV on at the moment, as our Editor bemoaned in a recent post. Many might take this as a sign to run for their DVD stacks, but there is one show which aims for the dork audience, but some forget because it’s a mere sitcom: The IT Crowd.

The new batch is half over already, but if you’d somehow missed it, like I did, it’s available on 4OD still, along with all the previous series. So if you’re particularly behind on your IT Crowd, there’s the potential for a marathon there.

Even if you’re not, the new series is looking like a good one. The most recent episode, “Something Happened”, has probably been the best of the three so far, which helped put me in a complimentary mood when writing this blog post. The parody of Scientology is not low key, as is often the case in this show, but something so ridiculous is hard to mock subtly.

The IT Crowd stands out in the world of modern TV comedy via old school values. With the three-sided sets, studio audience and clear punchlines, it’s resolutely upholding sitcom tradition. And I love Peep Show and The Thick Of It as much as the next trend-following internet commentator, but it’s good to know that the traditional format can still work without being on ITV, utter rubbish and featuring a former cast member from Men Behaving Badly.

All of the above would still be true even if the show wasn’t about geeks. And it’s certainly affectionate towards them, if not striking a killing blow for nerd PR. Writer Graham Linehan isn’t breaking his back to prove hardened dorks can be socially normal and have meaningful relationships with the opposite sex. Well, I suppose Roy does okay.

In fact, it reminds me a little of Will & Grace at times. We had Will, who was a standard white male aside from sleeping with men, and his friend Jack, who was camper than a whole season of Glee. And here, there’s Roy, who could pass for normal if he stopped wearing such stupid clothes, and Moss, who couldn’t.

But it’s a comedy, and again like the sitcoms of yore, it’s here first and foremost to make us laugh, not change our world. And it does a very good job, with added geeky references for we who swing that way. So if you’ve been affected by the Nerd TV Drought of summer 2010, give The IT Crowd a chance.

IT Crowd on Channel 4

IT Crowd Series 1-3 DVD boxset | IT Crowd Series 4 on pre-order

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Dave – it’s not just for boys

Anna Lowman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Not Dave the name. I’m all for equality of course, but to be honest, I’m not overly worried about reclaiming (or claiming, I suppose) the name for womankind. We probably have bigger fish to fry. Such as – to make a devastatingly neat link that will leave you stunned – Dave the channel!

Because Dave the channel is, apparently, for men. That’s ‘Dave – The Home of Witty Banter’ of course. So, what… we don’t like witty banter? Heck no, we *love* a bit of witty banter! Why do men get all the witty banter? It’s an outrage, and I encourage you all to write letters.

Not really. A Twitter uprising will do… or you could just watch anyway. Yeah, let’s go for that. Because it’s true that, for us geeky girls especially, witty banter on Dave is one of the key components of a cosy, relaxing night in. A nice cup of tea, some Haribo and a Never Mind The Buzzcocks repeat from 2001. We don’t ask for much.

Dave occupies an odd position in the telly-watching community, really. To some, its somewhat predictable schedules (Top Gear and Traffic Cops during the day, Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You during the evening) mean that it is just another repeats channel to flick past when scrolling through the EPG. The butt of jokes, in fact.

For others – for me – it is a haven. We’ve all been there: you can’t find anything you fancy watching on the usual suspects (BBC One, Two, Four initially – telly snob, me?!) and while there are no unwatchable episodes of Friends, E4 are showing one of those early ones where Rachel’s a bit annoying.

So you turn to Dave, and Simon Amstell or Dara O’Briain are there waiting, armed with comedy panel show goodness to make the evening fly by. Lovely.

But in fact there is more to Dave than panel shows, and as time goes on it is getting a little bit braver. Among the satire and pop quizzery, you will now find the likes of That Mitchell and Webb Look (a sketch show that is both better and odder than most give it credit for), its own commission Argumental with Rufus Hound and Marcus Brigstocke – not just repeats then – and, most thrillingly of all, the British sitcom that saw in the 21st century with verve, heart and innovation. Spaced (Mondays at 10pm). With its pop culture references and killer soundtrack, it is very much *our* sitcom. But it’s also so, so much more than that. Sure, we have the boxset, but it’s different on TV – so thank you, Dave, we salute you.

Yes, of course I do watch and enjoy the channels which target a female demographic (“there are nine beautiful girls in front of me…”) but quite honestly, they don’t really provide a healthy diet of TV on their own, do they? We need Amstell’s quick comedy brain, we need Daisy Steiner, we need silly police chases. We need witty banter.

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Dork Adore » Comedy

Sky’s new comedy Spy and Strictly Come Dancing: What We’ve Been Watching

With my little eye…

Razzle Dazzle ‘em

More stories like this

Comedy Showcase’s Chickens and The Jonathan Ross Show: What We’ve Been Watching

Inbetweeners Goes Forth?

Saturday night with Jonathan Ross

More stories like this

WWBW: reaction to the TV BAFTAs 2011

A-ha! A win for Coogan

Best of the rest

Next week, there’s a new Adam Curtis documentary to sink our teeth into, and Paul Merton takes us through the Birth of Hollywood.

More stories like this

Being Human: Series 3, Episode 5 – Dork Review

From Here To Insanity

Battle of Barry

More stories like this

Being Human: Series 3, Episode 4 – Dork Review

Back in the Saddle

Sweet Emotion

What It Takes

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 3 – Dork Review

Funny Face

Annie, Get Your Guy!

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Being Human: Series 3, Episode 2 – Dork Review

New Blood

Pumping on the Stereotype

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Chekhov Shorts and Peep Show: What We’ve Been Watching

“Terri-brill”

“Alan! Alan! Alan!” Repeat to fade…

Laugh-out-loud Chekhov

Next week, I brush up on my German art (ahem) and Frankie Boyle finds his spiritual home in Channel 4, with his sketch show Tramadol Nights.

More stories like this

The IT Crowd review: Series 4 so far

More stories like this

Dave – it’s not just for boys

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