The best comedy on demand

The best comedy on demand.

Sid James: Not Just A Dirty Laugh

Sid James sings! And performs some straight acting roles! In this documentary from 2013, the centenary of James's birth, Lee Mack goes through the archives and rare recordings to find the comic's lesser-known work on radio, stage and screen, including previously unheard material from the family archives. And sketches found in the BBC's written archives are recreated by actor Christopher Fairbank. This documentary puts the emphasis on the unfamiliar, rather than the usual story of his Tony Hancock and Carry On performances. Listen here.

Headless: The Ed Shales Story

A strange documentary-style short about Ed, who lives with a detached head since a tragic childhood accident. It stars Nathan McMullen and Andrew Ellis, and was directed by Yousef Thaami.

Detectorists

The first series of Mackenzie Crook's charming and witty series about male bonding over a peculiar passion arrives on Netflix. And it's well-suited to binge-watching to get the full effect of the sumptuous images and slowly-shifting relationship between Mackenzie's unambitious character Andy and his best friend Lance (a wonderful Toby Jones) and wife Becky (Rachael Stirling). Watch. (And hat-tip to New On Netflix for the update)

Spotlight Tonight with Nish Kumar

The Newsjack host fronts a one-off topical comedy show, which is this week's Comedy Of The Week podcast episode from Radio 4. Its a sharp and funny contribution to the genre, very much in the mould of The Daily Show. However it sometimes feels as if Kumar is fighting with one hand tied behind his back because of the BBC's impartiality rules. Listen and download here.

Irving Benson

You may have seen our story earlier this week about the death of Irving Benson at the age of 102. A throwback to the variety age even in his 1960s heyday, you can see elements of The Muppets' Statler and Waldorf in the sharp-edged interjections his alter-ego played Sidney Shpritzer lobs down from the balcony. The footage of his scripted, zinger-filled insults at Milton Berle is well worth a watch. Watch here.

Published: 4 Jun 2016