That’s BAFTA-WANG!! May 22, 2007

It is very safe to say that it wasn’t a great night for comedy, but then 2007 hasn’t been a great year for comedy overall, so it was slim pickings indeed. The Vicar Of Dibley was nominated more than once, but why I am surprised I don’t know. Dibley seems to get nominated at every single awards ceremony, every single year whether it’s been on TV or not. Perhaps in a few years time we can look forward to it being awarded the ‘Best Comedy Never To Have Been Awarded A Music Prize’? Plus Richard Curtis was getting the Lifetime Achievement Award…say no more.

As for Best Sitcom we had IT Crowd, The Royle Family, Green Wing and erm…that other one that nobody had heard of… Pulling…? Or should that have been ‘Scraping (The Barrel)’?

IT Crowd was passable but even the brilliant Chris Morris as Denim couldn’t really make it better than average. Talking of Morris many people see Green Wing as a cheap Morris (specifically Jam/Blue Jam) rip off with it’s jumpy camera work, music and speedy-uppy/slo-mo effects, but against the other nominations I think it should have won- I think The Royle Family, despite it being of a high quality, has had it’s day. Green Wing was at least a truly contemporary success, plus I can’t ignore the fact it has two young female writers involved. Oh and did I mention that I actually find it funny?

Best Comedy Performance was a wash-out, a total waste of a category. Dawn French for Dibley, Liz Smith for Royle and Merchant and Gervais for Extras. Yawn. Oh what I would have given to see Chris Morris win it for Denim, the crazy boss in IT Crowd! Or failing that, I think Joan Rivers should have taken it for her intro-

“Gervais, he slept with my cousin, and never called her again. A mean thing to do to a Jew with a hare-lip… and she had just learned to say ‘Riii-cckyy!’”

“Stephen Merchant, I don’t know who the fuck he is so he can’t help MY career!”

Poor Merchant, I think they only nominate him so that when Gervais wins and ‘is unable to be there as he’s filming in America’ there is somebody to carry it home for him. I say Poor Merchant, but he seems to enjoy playing second fiddle to Gervais…I’m certain this wasn’t the first time he’s gone up to accept a BAFTA on his behalf…or maybe I’m wrong and it was the other way round- Gervais going up to accept Merchant’s? Either way it smacks of smugness, on both their parts.

So, the last comedy related category of the night was Best Comedy Series and the nominations here were quite a mixed bag. In the introduction, reference was made to the nominees reliance on catch-phrase, which in the cases of Little Britain Abroad and The Catherine Tate Show is a fair point- it’s what those two programmes base their success on (as well as crude, lazy writing and a lack of originality or vision…), but when was the last time you heard anybody quoting the very poor and slightly obscure Little Miss Jocelyn? Come to think of it when was the last time you spoke to anybody who had ever seen it?

That Mitchell And Webb Look does have it’s catch-phrases, granted, but it seems to sit on the fence in this respect- never going all out and using them as a launch pad for dolls, pencil cases and a whole host of meaningless merchandise, but they still, if not exactly flog their catchphrases to death, certainly in some cases they beat them into submission. ‘Numberwang’ being the main example of this. However what saved Mitchell and Webb with this particular sketch is that the more they did ‘Numberwang’ in different variations it ended up going past the point of being a repeated catchphrase and actually could have been seen as a comment on televisions predilection for the repetition of a single idea/sketch thinly disguised in various forms. I don’t know if this move into what could be tentatively called a meta-sketch was intentional or not, but I really hope it was.

 

I was of course very pleased that That Mitchell And Webb Look won this award despite feeling that it wasn’t really the best they have to offer us- a fact a fact we all know deep down but some of us don’t like to admit. In addition, winning the award could be seen as faint praise when it was clear to any true comedy fan that the other nominees were completely dire. But I don’t see it as faint praise considering the commercial popularity of The Catherine Tate Show (and Little Britain) as we all know that ‘they’ (the TV producers, execs, commissioning editors etc.) like to try and give people what they think they want. For once the award seems to have been given on merit. And if nothing else they’ll now be able to use one of those ‘BAFTA Winning’ stickers when their DVD comes out rather than just ‘BAFTA Nominated.’

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for, and what was possibly the highlight of the whole show for me…the screen caps of Catherine Tate’s face when Mitchell and Webb won the award. I’ve gone for before and after shots of course.

“No BAFTA?? How very dare they!!!”

 

My Gawd… May 15, 2007

Just a quicky…

So ‘Shooting Stars could be set to return.

Good news for Vic and Bob fans?

I don’t think so. After all the 2002 return of the show was distinctly lacklustre, it felt like it was trying too hard. It upsets me when comedians who are capable of alot simply repeat past commercial successes.

They should be bringing us a new series of something as original as ‘Catterick’, which if you haven’t seen I strongly suggest you invest in. To me, it felt like all their past work had been leading up to this one programme, but without being a direct ‘copy and paste’ job. A true one off, I suppose. Which is a shame.

Hand.

“Such detail!” The League get scribbling again… May 14, 2007

No, I’m sorry to disappoint you but they’ve not come up with a new series (well not just yet…) The Gents have been busy compiling a new book. Thanks to Deborah (Geoff Tipps Joke Writer) from Local Shop forum for posting the heads up on this little beauty which is sure to be gracing my bookshelf as soon as September comes around…

The League Of Gentlemen’s Book Of Precious Things

Now clearly I can’t do an advance review of it, but judging by their past efforts, and the care that they put into any endeavour, this book should be another gem which I can sit pouring over for hours and yet still manage to find that extra little detail when I pick it up again days later.

Their two previous books have been much more than just ‘TV tie in’ books, cobbled together by somebody who knows little about them and consisting of little more than screen grabs of the TV show. They have both been wonderfully creative in format and rich in detail (I’m sure Geoff’s art teacher would be proud )

The ‘Local Book For Local People‘ took on the format of a scrapbook created by the shopkeeper character Tubbs, found after the Local Shop burned down. An interesting premise which allowed them to include items such as newspaper clippings, photos, and other scraps (of the paper kind, not scraps of Special Stuff) found around Royston Vasey and simultaneously provide the reader with a new insight into their existing characters (providing the sections of backstory they would never have time for on television) and also introduce new ones. It also allowed them more freedom with material- they could include mock ups of television magazines, record covers and also show off their artistic ability’s- alot of the art-work was doodled or painted by themselves.

‘Scripts And That’ was not only a comprehensive documentation of their scripts from all three series plus the Christmas Special, but it again included exclusive behind the scenes photos and most exciting of all it had notes from The Gents themselves, which included doodles, deleted and never-before-filmed scenes, character ideas, lists of quicky-gags, newspaper cuttings and much more. It would have been so easy to simply put together s script book but, as ever, The Gents add that extra little flourish to make it something extra ’special’.

I do have a slight gripe about the new book however, it seems that despite them wanting to leave behind Royston Vasey…they just can’t seem to do so. Don’t ge me wrong, I think reading about their influences etc will be interesting and that they will create something fresh and creative allowing an insight into their work…but in a way I would love them to move on completely. We all thought their latest tour ‘The League Of Gentlemen are Behind You’ was a fond farewell to Royston Vasey, but it seems that the ‘village of the damned’ lives on, but just in another format.

Oh mommy! Oh daddy! Let’s all play Kabadi! May 14, 2007

Just a quicky observation or two here…probably totally inconclusive though…

After watching ‘Perfect Night In‘ with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (ahh the beauty of syntax, I can make it sound like they were round my house!) they showed two episodes of Spaced that they had picked themselves. First was the clubbing episode and second was the gun-fight episode- the real names escape me…will edit later!

Anyway, first thing I noticed was the presence of an ad break. I was rather shocked at this unexpected punctuation of the episode, but at the same time I was interested to see where Edgar, Jess and Simon had decided to break off the story for maximum effect. You see I’ve watched them mostly on DVD, where I can pick and choose when to go and get my Jaffa Cakes from my coat pocket and eleventh cup of tea (twelve’s my limit though ).

Which brings me to my next observation- that this was probably (almost certainly) the first time they’d been repeated on terrestrial TV since they were first aired (possibly series 1 got a repeat, but I’m certain series 2 didn’t) and this, to me, is a complete crime! Possibly one of the most original sitcoms of recent years just doesn’t get the air time it deserves. But I suppose it’s not hindered them really has it? Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead obviously did really well, and talking to some folk it seems they’ve done well without people even knowing about Spaced. I have since tried to persuade these ‘folk’ to go and get the Spaced box set and give it a whirl. Which goes back me being annoyed that the episodes have not been repeated and people not being aware of the show.

As I have somewhat come full circle with my observations, I think it’s as good a place to end as any.

Be lucky! Oi! Oi!