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

Brent is back with 6-minute songs before films I want to see in the cinema! Thanks, 2016.

I'm actually enjoying Fleabag more than the first one - getting rid of the wacky OOH SEXPOT element has really worked and it's clear the whole plot is about her failure to get over the death of the co-owner. It reminds me of Catastrophe probably more than it should, specifically the relationship between Sharon Horgan and Ashley Jensen, and Ashley's relationship with Mark Bonnar.

It'd be pretty easy to argue that the silent yoga retreat was a bit hackneyed but the empowered men seminar in the same building was great and Hugh Dennis was surprisingly good.

Ricky Gervais defends use of n-word in his new film

smdh

don't cut yourself on that edge ricky

Better for the populous

Fleabag 1 was on bbc2 last night. which is easier for me tbh.

not sure the world needs random 'big fat quiz'zes - it feels so much like a christmas / new year thing.

and that was probably the worst 8/10 catsdown so far on friday. the woman was useless, sub Roisin Conaty levels. and suzy shouldn't have to suffer character comedians.

I liked the woman and the character comedian guy! I enjoyed Big Fat Quiz as well, could do with less Jimmy Carr in both though

Fleabag's getting better and more depressing I think

I think Fleabag's remained strong, but I think it's not a sitcom, as such.
It reminds me of that Netflix show Love, which seemed to be a romcom but ended up being a show about depression and substance abuse; the base theme of Fleabag is grief, and I think it handles it really sharply and really subtly.

this this this.
so spot on stevie.
i have loved fleabag.
there are so many tickpoints in it that make me go 'ooooh yeah .. i did that .. '.
it's clearly written by someone who has been through the grieving process.
if not, then a lot of chats/research have been done.

i think it's brilliant.

i've only just discovered 'cats does countdown' wasn't just a comic relief sketch

Guy I work with thought it was the real Countdown, he was horrified that they'd turned it into 'some sort of comedy show'.

his reaction is otm. it's… odd

my wife managed 15 minutes and noped out

See, I quite like it, as a fan of panel shows, Sean Lock and game shows. I'm very much over Roisin Conaty being rubbish at it though.

yeah, i'm picking through old episodes and hadn't realised just how much scope there is to slot comedy into the countdown format. in some ways it's pretty inventive and like nothing else on television.

very much an acquired taste though. i didn't really get it until the third or fourth episode.

I've probably got more tolerance to it that most here (I can sit through it no problem mainly thanks to the ever excellent Sean Locke), but there's not really anything to get surely? It's comedians doing Countdown.

by 'get' i mean the pacing. if you come in cold and don't know what they're doing (or how it came about) it can be jarring, although the first episode i saw just wasn't a great one.

my wife gave up because she likes countdown for being countdown. she wanted it to be cats or countdown, and got annoyed when they were doing gags through the game bits.

sounds awful

countdown first

no format miscegenation

when they get it right it's fine and makes a weird sort of sense, but when the contestants aren't great and nobody cares about the game it's a struggle

The joe watsisface bits are tedious. Needs more actual Countdown. I think they've let up a little bit on the jokes about shagging Rachel Riley, which is a good thing I guess? I stopped watching at one point because it left a nasty taste.

ugh that sounds awful

when did I become so enamoured with the word grouping "sound awful"?

Is this a new version of the show or is it the same thing thats been going for years?

watched this weeks 8/10/countdown cos my lads insisted ..
fucking hell it was dire.
painful.
it was a lot better when it was the odd one off special.
turning it into a regular thing has made it desperate.
and i could quite easily live the rest of my life without ever hearing that false jimmy carr laugh again.

in other news : watched all of 'man down' in the last week.
rik mayall as the dad in season 1 was just genius, and a joy to watch.
the way they dealt with his real life death was wonderful, and brutally funny.
admittedly, some of it grated, but when it worked, damn, it worked (the interaction between greg and the kids basically).

hmm, rick mayall played greg davies' father?

I'm sure Carr's false laugh is his real laugh. He says he has trouble fading into the back of live comedy audiences because everyone recognises his laugh.

Watching this week's Catsdown right now. This guy in Dictionary Corner is the worst.

I'd say this is *not* the show to judge it on. That Natasia lass that's on is just dreadful too.

Who are the guests?

This week was some terribly unfunny lass who seemed impressed with herself for getting a three letter word, and a character comedian which is absolutely the worst form of comedy. They do sometimes have decent guests who add to the format, but this week was definitely not one of those weeks.

yeah, if the guest isn't funny and doesn't care about playing the game, there's no point in them being there (e.g. bob mortimer alternating between lazy dad jokes and not even trying to do words/sums). at least on 8/10 cats there's plenty of material for them to bounce off as comedians.

kinder:

The joe watsisface bits are tedious.

otm

Needs more actual Countdown.

otm

I think they've let up a little bit on the jokes about shagging Rachel Riley, which is a good thing I guess?

i hope they didn't let up just in response to the stalker thing.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2016/08/20/25594/bbc_sitcom_season:_whats_on_when

am i wrong to think this could be pretty good? at least some of it will fall flat on its face, and really the money should not be going into rehashing the past, but some of the new angles (e.g. young hyacinth, performing a lost steptoe & son script) could be loads of fun.

Watching this week's Catsdown right now. This guy in Dictionary Corner is the worst.

truly painful to watch.

hmm, rik mayall played greg davies' father?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/man_down/interview/rik_mayall/

"I would really like the opportunity to explore the character of Greg's dad fully"

8(

Fleabag episode 6 has got very dark. (Bit irritated by what looked like it may be a sentimental chink of light right at the end of the episode).

I'm not sure I like any of the characters in it very much at all, but it's still very watchable.

Yup. Thought it ended very well. Not really a sitcom though, after all. (And tbh I don't know what I would have done without that brief flash of sentimentality) Look forward to a second series, or whatever else she does.

i've finished ep 4 and fleabag has really turned into something extraordinary

bbc sitcom season anyone?

didn't bother with any of the rehashes of things that plagued my chidlhood.

Meet The Coopers - looked like an attempt at recreating Outnumbered

Home From Home - some big names, ok

Our Ex Wife - ironically one of the people on this reminds me of my ex-wife... bit too bitter and violent, i thought.

upcoming:

We The Jury - written by james acaster, who divides opinion (i like him).

Motherland - again, some big names in this. partly written by sharon horgan.

Missed Our Ex-wife, might give it a watch
Meet the Coopers was inoffensive, also thought it was like Outnumbered, not for me though

Anyone watch 'the circuit'? another Sharon Horgan thing. Wasn't quite sure what it was meant to be, a pilot I think, but not that great. I try not to judge on pilot episodes though.

Agree with The Coopers Versus The Rest and Outnumbered, but with more than a touch of the Tracey Beakers as well. I thought it was fairly inoccuous.

I have no idea how Home From Home would work as any more than a one-off and surely they've played through pretty much all the plots in the one half hour.

I quite enjoyed Our Ex Wife, but kept on confusing it with I Want My Wife Back, the recent Ben Miller vehicle. I could have seen it being picked up if the ambiguity had remained around the ex-wife but after the reveal I can't see the mileage in it.

I didn't actually mind Are You Being Served, I can't help thinking a lot of the criticism is rose coloured spectacles for exactly what the jokes were when it ran originally. And as David Lloyd pointed out in Comedy Connections, Mr Humphries has never been gay just a bit of a mummies boy. I could have done without most of the cast but Justin Edwards was great, and John Challis a cut above the rest. I don't think I'd hate a full series tbh, it was head and shoulders above Mountain Goats or The Wright Way.

Porridge was kind of pointless and dominated by the "how can we make it modern? COMPUTERS" lazy writing trope. Not a huge fan of Kevin Bishop in any case, but it was fairly sympathetic without ever entertaining.

I HATED Til Death Us Do Part. Shorn of the age, which render some of Alf's turns of phrase of their temporal context, it seemed stilted and unfunny and a poor attempt at catchphrasing. Maybe it was a poor episode. Maybe it was a poor cast. Maybe the staging was to blame. But the script was a stinker and no mistake.

I thought Kevin Bishop (who I don't particularly care for) was amiable enough to carry Porridge, which was incredibly slight but OK, as these things go. Are You Being Served was trying to hard to recreate nostalgia, though agree Challis and Edwards were good at what they had to do.

Haven't watched any of the rest of them - project for the weekend, I think.

god, british tv is making me glad that i emigrated.

Bar was set pretty low last week, but the reboot of Goodnight Sweetheart has been the best of the lot by quite some way.

omg goodnight sweetheart.

my boyhood hero: time-traveling bigamist gary sparrow

Jesus, 'The Outlaws' just got really dark
(not British btw)

leave won - get over it!

'are you being served' was masterfully done as cover versions go. the script was beautifully constructed and paced, and it even reincorporated elements for comedy value. the performances were universally great, and the set and wardrobe were spot on. every element was seamlessly faithful to the original and as a whole it just. wasn't. good.