Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

I think it might be Richard Branch.

*Vranch*

God, there's a name from the dim and distant past.

it was McBurney in the clip. If you google Simon McBurney Comedy Store it lists a quote from Sandi Toksvig's website although the link itself is dead.

Nerds!

(Thanks)

Is Two Doors Down supposed to be a comedy? They should put some jokes in it if so.

i am interested in seeing how Catastrophe deals with pricess leia dying, but not really anything else.

loved the opening to catastrophe ep 4, excellent and shocking use of a usually tiresome device.

So we never did do a separate thread for Catastrophe.

That's how you do a finale.

Happy to wait to discuss as spoilers are pretty crucial, but in retrospect the US trailer for Amazon Prime is full of clues to how it ends.

that ending
I feel like the other "surprise" is always a copout device in final episodes of shows.

Had we met 'Pat' before or were we meant to know who he was or why Rob hated him other than he got pally with the mom?

I don't know, but I couldn't remember if Rob hated Feargal that much in the previous series either. The ending was super dark right? It wasn't just a metaphor, maaaan.

Rob hated Feargal, yes. It all had to do with the timeshares (that it turned out in S4 were a long con by him).

I got the impression that Pat was much pallier with the mum than you're suggesting, that it was a long term situation and only concluded when the mother got wise. I actually initially thought he was the father of at least one of them, mainly because I can't remember the plot about the father.

There was a shot at the end which focused on the clothes on the beach which made me think that the end is a metaphorical tribute to Reginald Perrin and the decisions they have made about Rob's job will make them metaphorically new (and, implicitly, better) people (they hope).

I think I need to rewatch to see if Sharon looks at the sign at any point. Rob certainly does but maybe Sharon doesn't see it which would make it his decision?

Wait, I was confusing Pat with the Trump stand in (who *is* the dad?).

Pat just represents all the gaps Rob thinks he has in his life. The fact he was there for Rob's mum when Rob wasn't just makes his lack of self-worth more evident and he has to project his guilt somewhere. He's done it through the series - remember when he pulled Dave out of sobriety because he needed someone to get wasted with, but somehow it was Dave's fault?

yellow guy was their dad, right? but he'd not been around that much. weird casting, he totally pulled me out of the whole thing, looked like a character off of the Mighty Boosh

whereas Pat was perfectly cast for the script referring to him as Guy Smiley

But I think that's who new, sober Rob wants to be and maybe always did.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/feb/16/andrew-scott-fleabag-sexy-priest-uncharted-territory
Fleabag series 2 date is listed at the bottom of that - March 4th.

Pat just represents all the gaps Rob thinks he has in his life.

Also to contrast with what appeared to be Sharon's monstrous insensitivity with all the "do you think you'll want to go to the beach?" stuff. Which turned out to be a more honest and in the end more relatable and likeable reaction than the performative grief and faux-sincerity of a complete stranger.

The ending was magnificent (whether they make it or they don't is beside the point, but the metaphor is spoiled if they die). I think the series as a whole suffered from giving too much separate screen time to their considerably less funny or likeable friends.

Yeah, the supporting characters were generally well played but completely underwritten. Feargal the best of the bunch, but even him they kind of set up as this abrasive eccentric and then the wrting didn't really carry that through.

It felt like they originally intended it to be a much longer-running programme, but real life truncated everything. Extremely satisfying ending though.

I watched this on All4 and as soon as the credits started rolling the screen goes to like 1/4 size into the left hand corner of the screen with "you may also like" type links all over the rest of the screen so I couldn't even make out what was happening during the credits. Am I right in thinking that they are swimming back towards the shore but may not make it?

They’re swimming back to shore, but are extremely far out for no apparent reason - both have been swimming and paddling normally, not caught in a rip.

I'm not sure how I feel about that! I did like the episode and will genuinely miss the show and those two characters. Sharon is one stunning lady.

Share your annoyance at All4 shrinking the final moments, jed. Of course, stabbing around to try to find the button that expanded it again and instead quit the whole thing. Modern TV is rubbish.

They’re swimming back to shore, but are extremely far out for no apparent reason - both have been swimming and paddling normally, not caught in a rip.

I thought they were in a rip, simply because they were far out for no apparent reason and appeared to be making no headway back to the shore.

"The Canterbury Tales were written by the Shakespeare of bum jokes, Geoffrey Chaucer"

Cunk's return tonight was triumphant.

cunk is back??

Yes! She was on just now at BBC2, half an hour. She's doing a full history lesson now, from the big bang onwards, to noting that William Wallace shockingly looked like Mel Gibson etc etc

Repeat of the series from last year.

Oh is it? I had no idea, soz

I made it about halfway through one episode of Cunk On Britain and had to stop, you can just hear Brooker's voice coming through everything and it felt really lazy. It's the same thing that's put me off ever watching Black Mirror.

That definitely bothers me with Black Mirror, which I've long given up on. Cunk's still v funny to me in a 'have some easy laughs' way, tg Brooker doesn't bother me about it.

I heard Diane Morgan on Adam Buxton's podcast, and I am definitely with Buxton on this one. I don't like the awkwardness that Diane Morgan thrives on. So, while her pieces to camera are OK, her interviews are unwatchable for me.

I've always found Cunk overrated.

new Partridge starts next monday. info and podcast here:

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-02-18/this-time-with-alan-partridge-review-bbc1/

a "podcast" is like a radio show but with worse sound.

I mainly agree with that. Adam Buxton's is the only podcast I listen to.

i'm about halfway through robin ince and josie long's bookshambles series. tanita tikaram yesterday, which was the most book-centric one for a while (they do tend to ramble). the sound on that is mainly ok*, but they do love a 'live from hay / latitude / australia' episode where it goes downhill.

(* there were a couple of episodes where josie was icing her knee with a bag of peas and you could hear the rustling)

Burnistoun's 60% hit rate still better than nearly everything else on terrestrial television (or iPlayer given it was Scotland only).

Wish they'd get a regular writing gig.

I have been out of the UK for ages and back a couple of years and one thing I can't figure out is Jack Whitehall, is he supposed to be unfunny? Is he doing a parody of a posh guy who isn't funny but gets by on confidence alone? I feel like it isn't a joke, he is just that terrible, but then why is he always on TV, sometimes with people who are actually good? Do some people actually like him? Why?

Bantz, fella. The Archbishop of Bantlebury. Lord Bantlington. Etc.

Death to bantz, double death to posh boy bantz.

Hoping this is good tonight

Alan Partridge just emailed everyone in the BBC. pic.twitter.com/DM3POwgIDu

— Tim Johns (@timoncheese) February 25, 2019

and not forgetting
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0PjLY6WwAAgNHo.jpg

sending this to everyone at the bbc

Because I love the BBC and I always have. While others might say it’s a smug anachronism full of braying, know-nothing chancers doling out fat commissions to their braying, know-nothing Oxbridge mates, I don’t.

chef's kiss

why is he always on TV, sometimes with people who are actually good?

Who's actually good on TV?

Not falling for that one! If you like you can read it as "significantly less bad"

I saw a bit of Jack Whitehall on the Brits. Fucking hell. Does poshness act as a bulwark against the traditional comedian self-loathing? I hope not - it's more than well-earned.

he played a posh twat character on Fresh Meat, which was funny, but now seems to be trying to just be that character without the jokes or plots.

He isn't trying, it's who he is.