IN previous columns here and here I wrote about Homage to PG Wodehouse, a 1973 tribute compiled by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, sister-in-law of Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. Here are some more selections. The writer and actor Basil Boothroyd (1910-1988) knew a fair bit about comic literature, doing an 18-year stretch as assistant editor of Punch. His contribution is titled The Laughs and begins: ‘Ice […]
This is part 3 of a series. You can read the first two here and here. I MUST admit that the largely Scottish comedy sketch show Absolutely passed me by whenshown on Channel 4 between 1989 and 1993. I was however captivated by a subsequent spin-off Mr Don and Mr George, featuring two of its main characters. Moray Hunter played […]
IN a previous column I wrote about Homage to PG Wodehouse, a 1973 tribute compiled by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, sister-in-law of Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. Here are some more selections from this charming book. Claud Cockburn (1904-1981) was a leftie journalist who worked for the Times and contributed to the British communist newspaper the Daily Worker. But we won’t hold that against […]
This is Part Two of a series which began here. A GERIATRIC ward in an NHS hospital is, one might think, an unpromising setting for comedy. Yet Getting On, in three series between 2009 and 2012, provided giggles aplenty, interspersed with moments which could be incredibly poignant. It was written by Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and […]
AMONG the treasures in my book collection is a slim volume, Homage to PG Wodehouse. This was compiled in 1973, two years before the Master’s death, by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, a former Tory MP whose brother Peter Cazalet was married to Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. Contributors include Malcolm Muggeridge, who was tasked by MI6 with investigating Wodehouse […]
I HAVE already waxed lyrical here about Brass, Peter Kay and Father Ted, and think enough has probably been said on the subject of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, Dad’s Army, Rising Damp and Porridge. So I’d like to mention some lesser-known British comedy series in the hope of jogging your memories or even introducing you to […]
BACK in 2006, BBC Four started showing a cop show set in the seedy underbelly of Paris. There were eight episodes in that first series, shown two at a time on Saturday nights. It was the first French-language drama series to be shown in this country (with subtitles) and attracted a niche audience of 200,000. […]
WHEN I started out as a reporter on the Burnley Evening Star, the news editor was an irascible cove named Ray Horsfield, renowned for furious high-volume telephone conversations with his wife when the packed lunches she prepared failed to meet his approval. ‘You bloody well KNOW I don’t like kippers!’ Ray was based in Blackburn, where […]
AT the beginning of 1968, teatime television was turned on its head by a comedy phenomenon which had hordes of schoolchildren, myself included, racing home desperate not to miss a second of it. This was Do Not Adjust Your Set, an anarchic combination of sketches and music which was a direct antecedent of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. […]
FOLLOWING my parade of screen lovelies chronicled here and here, this is a selection of actresses suggested by you, the readers. First we visit The Avengers, the slightly camp, always entertaining British espionage series which ran from 1961 to 1969. I had forgotten, if ever I knew, that this franchise started out as a 1960 ITV series called Police […]
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