Category: Sitcoms
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Mr Swainey’s Dark Peccadilloes
Mr Swainey is an excellent supporting character in One Foot In The Grave. He provides an optimistic counterpoint to Victor, but is rounded enough to have moments of depression and self-doubt. What’s more, he has some seemingly dark peccaddiloes. When he first returns at the start of series two, in In Luton Airport No-One Can…
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Shaping Up
Just watch these opening titles, and see if you do a double take, like I did, at the tonal shift once the actors’ credits begin to appear. Shaping Up was an ABC sitcom, which aired in 1984, and had quite the pedigree. It was created by Emmy-award winners Sam Simon and Ken Estin, who wrote…
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A Ship Off The Old Block
Here’s a fun article from The Stage, marking the transition between series two and three of Red Dwarf, including some gossip about movie and US TV adaptations, and a chat with the writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.
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The British Broadcasting Century
Comedy on Air: Hysterical History from The Co-Optimists to Bottom The British Broadcasting Century is a fabulous podcast, with the excellent Paul Kerensa, that charts and explores the true story of British broadcast’s forgotten pioneers. Every episode is well worth a listen, and I had the pleasure of chatting to Paul about all things comedy…
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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Clippings
It’s publication day for my new sci-fi comedy novel, and I am trying to resist my most British of urges to just cough politely, and never mention it again. In so doing, I thought I’d have a look at some early newspaper coverage of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and there’s very little of…
