Just tuned in for the first time to Clive Anderson’s Chat Room; a simple, honest formula with a good selection of guests providing radiophonic mirth on Saturday lunchtimes.

What we have is basically a topical discussion chaired by Anderson and contributed to by a group of comedians and veteran broadcasters, as well as some minor contributions from the audience; think Question Time with laughs.

 On Saturday March 8^th we the audience were treated to Gyles Brandreth (bear with me), Andy Parsons, Helen Lederer and Paul Sinha – not a name I’m currently familiar with.  Former Liberal party leader Charles Kennedy was for some reason absent.

So what we have is a sideways and frankly honest look at the issues of the day; texting while driving, widening motorways, European Union Referendum, and anything you can think of, really. 

If we had some sort of recommended five star “Tune In” system, Clive Anderson’s Chat Room would be up there with 5 stars. 

The remainder of the series features:

Programme two - 13 March:
Arthur Smith, Kirsty Wark, Dom Joly and Miles Jupp

Programme three - 20 March:
Dave Gorman, Carole Malone and Frankie Boyle

Programme four - 27 March:
Kelvin Mackenzie, Julie Kirkbride MP and Griff Rhys-Jones

Programme five - 3 April:
Ed Byrne, Will Self and Nick Clegg MP

Programme six - 10 April:
Tony Hawks and Miranda Sawyer

Meanwhile you can find out more about the show at the BBC webpage.

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As far as transatlantic comedy goes, it really hasn’t ever been any funnier than The Muppet Show.

Jim Henson’s amaxing creations had been entertaining kids around the world in the educational Sesame Street before ATV supremo Lew Grade offered Henson a deal that would see the show filmed at Elstree in England, networked to ITV stations around the UK and then sold overseas via Grade’s ITC Entertainment.

The result was television and comedy gold.  Once ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev had appeared with the Muppets, the series turned into a marionette Morecambe and Wise Show, with big names flocking to appear; John Denver, Elton John, John Cleese, Alice Cooper, Liberace, Raquel Welch, Danny Kaye, Sylvester Stallone, Lynn Redgrave all appeared, all were gently mocked, and all were remembered for it.

I could go on with the list; eventually the biggest movie stars of the day – the cast of Star Wars, even Superman himself and the James Bond of the day turned up for the Muppet Show treatment.

Disgraced comedy writer and performer Chris Langham worked as the only British scriptwriter among a largely American cast and crew, and also bizarrely appeared as the guest in one episode when Richard Pryor was busy setting himself on fire. 

The Muppet Show is still just as funny today as it was from 1976-1981, and deserves serious reappraisal.  The 1990s attempt at a remake, Muppets Tonight was initially well received, but sadly failed to make any real impact. 

DVDs are available too!

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As a bit of a follow on from yesterday’s post about comedy DVDs and supermarkets, during a brief visit today I spied two BBC DVDs, one of Tommy Cooper and another of Les Dawson.

Two giants of British comedy, going for a cool fiver each.

There’s a caveat, however; what are the BBC doing with just 48 minutes of Tommy Cooper? That’s hardly worth the bother of buying it. Sure, he was a bloody funny, talented man, but devoting just 48 minutes?

One suspects that the existing material might well have been sat in the BBC archives waiting to be burned. That the BBC has just 48 minutes to put on a DVD of The Best of Tommy Cooper is frankly a crime. Cooper might well have spent much of his television career on ITV, but still.

Of course, bearing in mind how much Les Dawson did on the BBC single volume of his work which totalled closer to 85 hours than 85 minutes, is a bit of a shortfall too.

Get your fingers out, BBC DVD!

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That’s right - Gervais turned up on Harry Hill’s TV Burp this week, closing off a montage of celebrities exclaiming “Ear Cataracts?!?” We said recently that he dreams of Hill’s audience figures, and this just underlines it!

Alright, alright, Ricky Gervais isn’t quite as bad as I might make him out to be - he can obviously laugh at himself, and he has done remarkably well.

But his rise has been far too quick, there are better comics and writers out there who deserve to receive the adulation that the press have unfairly laid at the “Fat Chancer’s” feet, and it would be nice for Mitchell & Webb, Ben Miller, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, Paul Merton and Jack Dee to all appear in Hollywood movies.

Congratulations to Harry Hill, meanwhile - a superb series, the best yet.

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Ahh the Gervais bubble - could it be about to burst?

It seems that the recent tribute to a comedian who has been with us five minutes attracted just 1.6 million viewers, an insignificant fraction of the available figures. As TV Scoop put it:

Did you watch it and enjoy it? Well, you were almost on your own as the show limped in last in the ratings battle, trundling in with a pathetic 1.6 million viewers. If you want some perspective on it, despite a Radio Times cover, saturated TV spots and publicity, the show was beaten by Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach

The reviewer then goes on to point out that “New Heroes” should refer to just that - upcoming giants. Sure, it might be difficult to judge, but comics like Frankie Boyle are on television far too rarely, and restricting them to panel shows isn’t a way forward.

And in any case, Gervais has all but abandoned the UK. He’ll be enjoying a very big, very nice pool in LA inside 5 years in a grandiose house that he won’t want to leave.

What is of particular note is that Channel 4 gave us Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Comic Strip; they shouldn’t be farming out rubbish like this under the guise of new programming when the broadcast comprises 70% old clips.

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There’s no getting away from it – Al Murray is the new Dame Edna Everage.

Inviting guests on to the show, he then takes the mickey out of them and attempts to charm them, incorporates references to his past, and once a week gets one of them to do something a little embarrassing.

A case in point in this week’s “My Way” duet with the thoroughly unlikeable Piers Morgan.

However that wasn’t the best bit by a long chalk.  In fact I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much as I did at the story from Morgan in which he revealed that at a book signing he was announced as Pierce Brosnan, and his appearance was met with disappointment by the Americans in the store.

Only in America…

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Absolutely delighted that the great Sir Anthony Hopkins has unveiled the long overdue statue of Tommy Cooper this weekend.

It is a little-known fact that one of the funniest entertainers ever was a Welshman – Cooper was born in Caerphilly in 1921.

The statue is 9ft high and made from bronze, and played host to Hopkins and a fair crowd who were thrilled with Sir Anthony’s own celebrated Tommy Cooper impersonation

“It is a pleasure to be here – Tommy Cooper is a comedy legend and I’ve always been a fan.

“The wonderful thing about him is simplicity – his one-line jokes still have me in stitches.”

(Hello)

It’s 24 years since Tommy Cooper died whilst performing onstage.  Definitely one of my favourites, and an all-time great.

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So Bruce Forsyth was 180 years old last week.

A massive happy returns; it’s amazing that he survived the Boer War and forged such a successful career in showbusiness.  He was of course too old to be called up to WWI and WWII.

Seriously though, he has his detractors, he has had his embarrassing moments and he has even had hi flops (both of those last to mainly on Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night in 1978…)

Yet here is a man who can act, dance, sing, tell jokes and present.  He might not be all that good at any one of those, but he is a consummate professional, and amazingly sprightly for his advanced years.

If he has been born in America, he would have been in movies.  Think about that – we don’t know how lucky we really are…

So Brucey, Happy Birthday.

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There’s little better time to start the Quintessential Comedy blog than on a Saturday night.

In recent times we’ve been spoilt for choice comedy wise, whether family friendly stuff like Harry Hill’s TV Burp or the mixed but generally fun to watch Thank God You’re Here, or repeats of Have I Got News For You, Saturday evening comedy entertainment is light years ahead of what we have had during any period over the last 20 odd years.

My personal favourite – despite a fondness for anything Paul Merton does – is Harry Hill’s TV Burp. On a weekly basis Hill deconstructs and even takes part in some of the most notorious and most popular television shows, often focussing on the bizarre (“Freaky Eaters”) and the ridiculous (bonkers astrologer to the stars lady whose name I will remember after watching tonight).

In recent weeks we’ve seen Hill poke fun at Hugh Fearnley Whittinstall and his campaign to rid the world of battery farming (which, as I have since found out, does not involve a battery-induced electric shock to coerce the hens into laying eggs…) and incorporate film of Jamie Oliver bashing up some biscuits into his own mini routine of having lost his glasses.

It’s all done gently and with genuine warmth, and puts Harry Hill in an unenviable position – “superstars” like Gervais, Brand and the Carrs can only dream of audience figures like TV Burp gets.

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