The Thick Of It Back On 8th SeptemberBookmark and Share

Saturday, 25 August 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The award-winning political comedy The Thick Of It returns to TV screens in the UK on Saturday 8th September for a seven-part series.

Previously described by creator Armando Iannucci as a cross between Yes Minister and The Larry Sanders Show, the satire, starring Peter Capaldi as foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (pictured), will be on BBC Two at 9.45pm for the start of its fourth series.

The show is set to feature government embarrassments, ministerial mistakes, Coalition rows, backroom deals, policy U-turns, spin-doctoring, political back-stabbing, wild media speculation - and more time spent with one's family.

Roger Allam is back as MP Peter Mannion, the new Secretary of State for The Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DoSAC), supported by his team of special advisers who are headed by Number 10's Director of Communications Stewart Pearson (Vincent Franklin), and thwarted by his new Coalition partner, DOSAC's Junior Minister Fergus Williams MP (Geoffrey Streatfeild).

Also returning is MP Nicola Murray, played by Rebecca Front. Both she and Tucker are now consigned to Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition but are still desperately hoping for a return to power. Front and Capaldi won BAFTAs for their roles at the 2010 awards, with the show also being named Best Situation Comedy.

The ensemble cast is completed by Chris Addison, Joanna Scanlan, James Smith, Olivia Poulet, Will Smith, Ben Willbond, and Rebecca Gethings.

Tensions are running high in DoSAC. It is launch day for "Silicon Playgrounds", the Coalition's new digital youth policy masterminded by Junior Minister Fergus Williams. Number 10's spin doctor Stewart Pearson delivers the bombshell that the PM wants digital-illiterate Peter Mannion to launch the policy, rather than Fergus. What could possibly go wrong with that? All Fergus gets left with is drawing up the list of staff redundancies, and Terri Coverley [Joanna Scanlan] is pretty sure she can make his hit list if she plays her cards right, finding help from an unexpected direction.

The Thick Of It
began life on BBC Four in 2005, and a feature film spin-off, In The Loop, was released in the UK in April 2009. As well as the four series there have also been two TV specials, which aired in 2007.

A US remake of The Thick Of It, announced in October 2006, didn't get beyond a pilot episode, despite networks such as ABC, HBO, Showtime, and NBC having originally expressed an interest in the series. In 2009, Iannucci entered into fresh talks with HBO over the possibility of an American adaptation and since then the series Veep, although not a direct spin-off, has been written, directed, and produced by Iannucci for HBO.




FILTER: - Comedy - BBC Two

Red Dwarf X Trailer ReleasedBookmark and Share

Saturday, 21 July 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
A trailer for the forthcoming new series of Red Dwarf has been released online.

Lasting 55 seconds, it teases the tenth series of the cult sci-fi comedy that will start airing on Dave this autumn.

The six new episodes comprising the series were recorded at Shepperton Studios between 16th December 2011 and 27th January 2012.






FILTER: - Red Dwarf - Online - Comedy - Dave

William Shatner Has Got News For YouBookmark and Share

Thursday, 10 May 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
ShatnerWilliam Shatner is to be the guest host on the BBC One panel show Have I Got News For You for the first time.

His appearance on the comedy quiz will go out on Friday 25th May at 9pm. Recordings usually take place the day before, and a 45-minute version of the half-hour programme – Have I Got A Bit More News For You - is usually shown on either the following Saturday or Sunday.

The 81-year-old actor, who most famously played Captain – and Admiral – James T Kirk in the TV series Star Trek and its subsequent films, will appear alongside regular team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton plus guest panellists Charlie Brooker and Andy Hamilton on the show.

Shatner said that he was looking forward to his first stint in the host's chair, adding: "English sense of humour is different from American sense of humour. Luckily I'm Canadian."

(newslink: BBC Media Centre)






FILTER: - BBC - Comedy

Red Dwarf X - The First Official PictureBookmark and Share

Friday, 4 May 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The first official publicity picture from the forthcoming new series of Red Dwarf has been released by UKTV.

The image shows, from left to right, Danny John-Jules as The Cat, Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer, Craig Charles as Dave Lister, and Robert Llewellyn as Kryten aboard the eponymous mining spaceship. Click on the thumbnail on the right for a bigger version.

The recordings for the tenth series' six episodes took place at Shepperton Studios on 16th and 23rd December 2011 and 7th, 13th, 20th, and 27th January 2012. Free tickets to attend the studio sessions were made available on 11th November and, somewhat unsurprisingly, demand was so high that the website of the supplier, Lost In TV, crashed and applications had to be made by e-mail instead, with all the dates getting booked up within about an hour.

The series is currently in post-production and due to air on digital channels Dave and Dave HD this autumn.




FILTER: - Red Dwarf - Comedy - Dave

Sherlock Is Named Best TV DramaBookmark and Share

Tuesday, 1 May 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
Sherlock has added another gong to its collection after being named Best TV Drama at today's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The BBC One series was co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and in an interview, which can be seen by clicking on the BBC News link below, Moriarty actor Andrew Scott praises the writing - with a subsequent forthright show of gratitude by Gatiss for his comment! During the interview, Gatiss refers to his and Moffat's "love of Conan Doyle's genius".

The BBC's mockumentary series Twenty Twelve, which had been nominated for Best Comedy, lost out to Channel 4's Fresh Meat at the awards ceremony, which was held at The Dorchester in London.

The first series of Sherlock won last year's BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series, and Martin Freeman, who plays Dr Watson, won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. Series 1 also scooped the Arqiva award for Best Terrestrial Show at last year's Edinburgh International Television Festival, Charlie Phillips won the 2011 BAFTA Television Craft Award for Editing: Fiction, and the show has bagged five BAFTA Cymru honours.
(newslink: BBC News)







FILTER: - BBC - Twenty Twelve - Comedy - UK - Drama - Sherlock

Sherlock And Twenty Twelve In Line For AwardsBookmark and Share

Monday, 2 April 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
Sherlock is in the running for a gong at this year's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The BBC One show, co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, has been shortlisted for Best TV Drama, alongside This Is England '88 and Top Boy, both from Channel 4.

Meanwhile, "mockumentary" series Twenty Twelve, starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, and Olivia Colman, with a narration by David Tennant, which has just started its second series on BBC Two, has been nominated for Best Comedy. It faces competition in the form of Fresh Meat (Channel 4) and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two).

The awards ceremony will take place at The Dorchester in London on Tuesday 1st May, to be televised on Sky Arts 1 HD at 9pm. Melvyn Bragg - who fronted the 1977 BBC2 documentary Whose Doctor Who - will be the master of ceremonies. He said:
Although this is a celebration of British arts by British artists, we have a world-class list of nominees. The South Bank Sky Arts Awards are the only one of their kind in the world, and we very much look forward to a great day, where we'll recognise and honour the best talent in this country.
The awards take their name from The South Bank Show - an arts magazine series for ITV that Bragg presented and which ran for 32 series between 1978 and 2010. It is being revived by Sky Arts from Sunday 27th May.
(newslink: Sky Arts)




FILTER: - BBC - Twenty Twelve - Comedy - UK - Drama - Sherlock