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

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.

That Fleabag episode was quite traumatic, imo.

I'd never seen it before but hung around after AP and the news. I enjoyed it! Sharp, witty, fast-paced. And a bit traumatic, that too, yes.

LBI, you should definitely watch series one on iplayer.

Tonight's episode convinced me to do just that!

I'll stand alone in having been not completely bowled over by Fleabag S1. I thought it was fine, and well acted more than anything else, but (like many of its peers e.g. Flowers) we're supposed to as viewers draw a correlation between unlikeable and edgy/cool that I just don't get. Plus Crashing had been on not long before it on C4 where PWB played an unlikeable Manic Pixie Girl (look! She plays a ukelele! Edgy!) and I wasn't taken with that either. Pure also did a similar thing recently on C4, and only got away with it by virtue of it being a true story lending a veneer of belief that people would actually put up with their shit.

Talking of people inexplicably acting like cunts 100% of the time, Warren (the new Martin Clunes vehicle on before AP) is absolutely woeful. It's like someone watched One Foot In The Grave and thought what made it popular was unpleasantness and not comedy.

I'll summarise last night:

Warren's business is going badly, because he is a terrible driving instructor who rarely even lets people drive the car. A rival business has started and is getting successful results at the test centre so Warren tries to destroy the owner's life by making nuisance calls round the clock and leaving abusive messages. In a mix-up, Warren finds a dead cat in the road and is accused of running it over, leading to a hate campaign against him on social media, so his girlfriend (wife?) buys the bereft family a cat - which they don't want because of the source, so ends up in Warren's house. Warren is exposed as the nuisance caller and a car chase ensues which culminates in the rival being accidentally run over by a neighbour he had helped to pass leaving him with multiple complex fractures and unable to work for over 6 months which means Warren's business will survive. Hooray! But the jokes aren't over - as the picture fades to the titles the same neighbour runs over the cat. What fun!

A show where the punchline is that a man with a young family (it's explicitly stated there's a baby in his house) is potentially crippled and loses his livelihood and home, and a cat is killed. At prime time. On BBC1.

Have not seen Fleabag S2E01 yet, will watch tonight probably.

I caught the last 30 seconds of Warren. Had they nicked the joke from Friends about Phoebe teaching Joey guitar chords without letting him hold a guitar?

I couldn't believe how dire those 30 seconds were.

That was the 30s that had the jokes in it.

as the picture fades to the titles the same neighbour runs over the cat..

is that before or after they gave the cat a cat scan and found cat cancer

It's the central 'comedy' about his business, that he doesn't let students drive very much or do menial duties for him during their lessons (like take him to the supermarket to do the shopping).

There was a joke last week about fly-tipping asbestos.