Category: British
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Starting From Scratch
There’s always something to be found when thumbing through a giant reference book of television, and today I came across the US sitcom Starting From Scratch. This was a syndicated show starring Bill Daily and Connie Stevens, and aired from October 1988 to April 1989, but more interestingly it was created by Brian Cooke. Cooke…
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Proto Birds
Shooting The Pilot by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran is a remarkably good book by the writers and creators of The New Statesman and Birds Of A Feather (among so many others). As well as getting to read the pilot scripts for some of their best series, they also introduce each one with some great…
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Fast Forward x 2
Fast Forward was an Australian sketch show that ran on the 7 Network for 74 episodes between 1989 and 1994. It’s worth quoting Mark Lewisohn in full from his excellent Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy: An earthy and funny sketch show, spoofing film and television and featuring, in its original version at least, some…
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Then Churchill Said To Me
It’s not unusual for an episode of a TV series to be postponed because of current events. There are numerous examples, such as Red Dwarf‘s Meltdown, or Bottom ‘S Up. But it is rare for an entire series to be shelved. Opening my Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy on a random page, I found…
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Proctology: A Bottom Examination
For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…
