For A Few Reviews More » British Television

Black Books

September 19th, 2008 admin

Black Books – Season One
Created By: Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews
Starring: Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Tamsin Greig
Air Date: 09/29/2000-11/03/2000
Network: Chanel 4 UK

Another zany slice of eccentric pie from the creative force behind Father Ted, Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, Black Books is named for a quaint little bookshop owned by the foul tempered and eternally drunk Bernard Black. Bernard has only two loves in this world, alcohol and books. Unfortunately, the only thing he is more passionate about is his unbridled hatred of everything and everyone else, especially customers. Bernard’s only company comes in the form of Fran, the hormonal, flighty owner of a decor shop next door. Fran, being so bored and disinterested in her own affairs, delights in meddling in Bernard’s. Enter Manny, a listless accountant who comes into Black Books employ after a shitfaced Bernard offers him a job. Once sober Bernard realizes what he has done and sets about ridding himself of Manny by any means necessary, lest Manny bond with customers, sell books and upset Bernard’s established order of things. Bernard looks on in horror, as Manny sells lots of books and gets on well with the customers, but that’s just not how things work in Black Books. A wonderfully surreal show, Black Books is an extremely sharp and lively comedic romp that proves that the sitcom is alive and well. All good comedy needs is a man eating scrambled eggs – with a comb out of a shoe.

Jam

September 18th, 2008 admin

Jam – Complete Series
Starring: Amelia Bulmore, Kevin Elden, Julia Davis, Mark Heap, David Caan, Christopher Morris
Air Date: 03/23/2000-05/20/2000
Network: Channel 4 UK

Yet another brain child of the genius that is Christopher Morris, the man behind Brass Eye and The Day Today. The show was adapted from his popular but short-lived radio series Blue Jam and remains to this day one of the darkest and strangest ideas ever conceived for the screen or anywhere else. Jam is a stream of consciousness sketch show simply marauds through every taboo and touchy subject known to man, stepping right over the line of good taste, picking it up, sealing it in concrete and dumping it in the North Sea. This show is sardonic, surreal, spectacularly offensive and certainly an acquired taste. But if you like your comedy as black as soot, then dive right in.

The Mary Whitehouse Experience

September 13th, 2008 admin

Written by and Starring: Rob Newman, David Baddiel, Steven Punt, Hugh Dennis
Original Air Date: 01/03/1991 – 03/23/1992
Network: BBC2

Long before Paul Whitehouse and The Fast Show made sketch show comedy culturally relevant again, and light years before anyone had heard of Vicky “yeah-but-no-but” Pollard, there was The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Born out of a radio show, this hip blend of sketch comedy and observational stand up was the brainchild of its four stars that met up at Cambridge. Named for an infamous Daily Mail campaigner who became notorious for trying to enforce her personal stance of orthodox Christian morality onto broadcast media, the show was an introspective ponder on the nuances of British culture and was at the time with its fresh format and intelligent material the spearhead of the so-called new wave of British comedy.

Marion and Geoff

September 2nd, 2008 admin

Season One
Starring: Rob Brydon
Created By: Rob Brydon
Original Air Date: 09/26/2000 – 11/28/2000
Network: BBC2

Keith Barret feels pretty optimistic about things. Sure Marion has run off with the high-flying Geoff, but Keith doesn’t feel like he has lost a wife – it’s more like he has gained a friend. He may have had to take a job as a mini cab driver and he may never get to see his two “little smashers,” but that is alright. The ten hour round trip to Marion’s house gives him time to think. So Keith plods along, somehow always a little too early or a little too late to ever actually see his family, but it’s alright. He is happy to watch from the car.

I’m Alan Partridge

September 1st, 2008 admin

$I\'m Alan Partridge, BBC, 1997$

I’m Alan Partridge – Season 1
Starring: Steven Coogan
Air Date: 11/03/1997 – 12/08/1997
Network: BBC/BBC America

After the dismal failures of his chat show Knowing Me Knowing You, Alan finds himself in a bad way. Having sunk somewhat in terms of celebrity prestige, he now hosts the midnight to 6am slot on radio Norwich, Norfolk’s fifth most popular broadcast station. His wife has divorced him and he is living in a travel lodge just off of the M11. His company, Pear Tree Productions, is in serious danger of folding and his only ally is long suffering PA Lynne. The continuing saga of Alan Partridge is still a painfully cruel and excruciatingly funny account of a man who has a singular vision of himself while the rest of the world clearly wears blinders.

In A Room With an Alan, Alan finds a lifeline as he secures a pitch meeting with chief BBC commissioning editor Tony Hayers. Can Alan convince the man who canceled his chat show to give him another series? If that fails Alan has other ideas; Knowing M.E, knowing You where he talks to M.E sufferers but makes a point of keeping the energy up. If that fails there is always Inner City Sumo or Monkey Tennis.

Knowing Me, Knowing You, with Alan Partridge

August 30th, 2008 admin

Starring: Steve Coogan
Air Date: 09/16/1994 – 10/21/19995
Network: BBC/BBC America

Welcome to Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, the show that puts the “chat amongst the pigeons.” Join Alan Partridge, the massively self important, utterly humorless and offensively narrow minded host of the chat express, bound for Chattertown and screening the on board film Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Through his pathological need to always be the center of attention, Alan manages to offend, humiliate, embarrass and infuriate his guests through six episodes of his bottom drawer talk show never once realizing the true roots of his show’s abysmal failure, himself.

Some of those unfortunate enough to be accosted and have chat thrust at them include a fashion designer who introduces her new winter collection as a meditation on the futility of mortality. “What’s wrong with sports casual?” asks Alan. The new host of this is your life has a surprise coming to him when Alan brings his young son out onto the stage. Alan will of course make sure that he doesn’t come within 30 feet of him as per the court’s instructions. Alan agrees to host the finals of the Miss Norwich contest and the main criterion for winning appears to be which contestant likes him and his show the most. These and many more unfortunate souls follow. Alan takes on prime time television and crashes and burns spectacularly, ending as all good hosts do every week; “And on that bombshell…”

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Brass Eye

August 25th, 2008 admin

Starring: Christopher Morris
Created by: Christopher Morris
Air Date: 01/29/1997-07/26/2001
Network: Channel 4 UK

Written by and starring Christopher Morris in various different guises, Brass Eye is a razor sharp satire on sensationalist media and portentous investigative journalism. Morris lampoons our irrational obsession with the media and its overblown scare tactics of manufactured hysteria. Brass Eye is black as coal comedy – sometimes offensive, frequently over the line, but always provocative and scathingly funny.

Human Remains - The Complete Series

August 22nd, 2008 admin

Starring: Rob Brydon, Julia Davis
Created By: Rob Brydon & Julia Davis
Air Date: 11/13/2000 – 12/18/2000
Network: BBC

Written and performed by Rob Brydon and Julia Davis in various guises, Human Remains is a superbly rotten and dark mock documentary about the painful underbelly of relationship bliss. Each episode focuses on a couple and examines their dysfunctional union in depth, looking for the essence of love. Brydon & Davis delight in making themselves completely invisible as they immerse themselves into their grotesque and sad creations. Human Remains is consistently hilarious, with an outstanding level of invention that utterly refuses to conform to sitcom convention. Never wasting an opportunity to be mercilessly cruel and finding comedy gold in the dark, the bitter and the despairing.