Why I'm returning to stand-up
20/11/2009 … Peter Kay is to perform at Manchester’s MEN Arena for four nights after a break of almost seven years from stand-up.
2009 Features
Interviews with comedians, comedy reviews, Perfect Playlists and other comedy features, all collected in one place.
Fri 20 November 2009
Sun 15 November 2009
Roll up, roll up, the circus is coming
Behind the scenes on BBC One's Big Top
15/11/2009 … Making a big studio-audience sitcom these days can be something of a highwire act – get the delicate balance right and the rewards are huge, but get it wrong everyone…
Fri 06 November 2009
© BBC 'There will never be another series. We are definite about that.'
Gavin and Stacey stars speak about the final season
06/11/2009 … Gavin And Stacey returns to BBC One in later this month for its third - and final - series.
Mon 12 October 2009
In a sniper's sights...
Extracts from Frankie Boyle's autobiography
12/10/2009 … It was during teacher training that I finally started doing comedy, aged 23.
Wed 07 October 2009
'The telly lot are never going to make any sketch shows'
07/10/2009 … The world of comedy can seem obsessed with youth, driven by the perpetual quest for the next big thing in a sea of rising stars.
Tue 01 September 2009
© ITV What Katy did...
Q&A with Katy Brand as her series returns
01/09/2009 … How did it feel to win best female newcomer at last year’s British Comedy Awards? It was very exciting but mainly it was a relief! I hadn’t really been drinking…
Comics on film
As Funny People is released, Jay Richardson examines the relationship between stand-up and cinema
01/09/2009 … Comedians love cinema.
Tue 18 August 2009
'Comedy feels serious now'
Vic and Bob on the return of Shooting Stars
18/08/2009 … When he’s not making comedy, Vic Reeves runs an electrical contracting business installing Ethernet cabling in offices near his Kent home, with Bob Mortimer working…
Thu 18 June 2009
It's like 24 – with laughs
Steve Pemberton on Psychoville
18/06/2009 … Reece and I got together two years ago to write this, after League Of Gentlemen had come to a stop.
Mon 01 June 2009
For Krod's sake...
How BBC2's sword-and-sorcery comedy came to the screen
01/06/2009 … ‘I don't recall many sitcoms featuring a bisexual Cyclops.
Thu 28 May 2009
The Cat's Whiskers
Steve Bennett reports from the Carlsberg Cat Laughs Festival
28/05/2009 … Tuesday June 2, 2.
Tue 26 May 2009
'I don’t go out of my way to be controversial'
Steve Bennett talks to Sandra Bernhard
26/05/2009 … I think I’ve just woken Sandra Bernhard up – and with the fierce reputation she has, that’s a slumbering lioness you don’t want to prod.
Sun 24 May 2009
The comedians Looking For Eric
How Ken Loach recruited a gang of stand-ups for his new film
24/05/2009 … One of the biggest hits at the Cannes Film Festival Ken Loach’s atypically feelgood film Looking for Eric, which scooped the Ecumenical Jury Prize.
Wed 06 May 2009
'It can't be anything other than a disaster'
John Cleese looks back on Fawlty Towers
06/05/2009 … ‘A collection of clichéd situations and stereotypical characters which I can't see as being anything other than a disaster.
Thu 23 April 2009
We’re not the best fricking show on TV....
Seth McFarlane on American Dad and Family Guy
23/04/2009 … Does American Dad owe everything to George W.
Tue 07 April 2009
© Bruce Dessau High on comedy
Bruce Dessau visits the Altitude Festival
07/04/2009 … It's not every day that a man in a yeti suit attempts to sell you a comedy festival ticket, but the Altitude Comedy Festival is no ordinary comedy festival.
Fri 03 April 2009
Laughing in the face of terror?
Brian Logan meets the vent act who always bombs...
03/04/2009 … Is comedy scared of fundamentalist Islam? According to some critics, stand-ups are ever-ready to lampoon Christianity, but sheepish when it comes to belief with…
Sun 22 March 2009
Famous by accident...
Paul Whitehouse on celebrity, mortality, and the joys of shouting \'arse\'
22/03/2009 … Despite hiding behind a myriad of characters, The Fast Show made Paul Whitehouse one of the most recognisable faces in comedy.
The headlines again...
22/03/2009 … Four nights a week on America’s Comedy Central channel, Jon Stewart satirically savages the White House and their policies on The Daily Show.
You don't have to be mad to work here...
John Antrobus remembers the strange days of Associated London Scripts
22/03/2009 … It was an inauspicious, and unlikely, birthplace for some of the finest comedies this country has ever produced.
The old uns are the best
Steve Bennett chats to Barry Cryer
22/03/2009 … At 67, and after a career that's involved just about every comedy legend you can think of, some comics might start thinking about taking things a little easy and…
Mocking the afflicted
22/03/2009 … Almost every successful British comedy of the past 40 years has used disabled characters as figures of fun, a Radio 4 show has claimed.
Winging It
Interviews with the Green Wing cast and creator
22/03/2009 … Channel 4's acclaimed sitcom Green Wing returns for a second series on March 31.
The future of satire
22/03/2009 … A week of events about satire at South London's Greenwich Theatre kicked off with a debate entitled The Future of Satire - Safe and Smug or Edgy and Offensive? Here's…
Aussie rules!
Mark Little on Australia's comedy heritage
22/03/2009 … During the Eighties, Mark Little was best known for his role as lovable rogue Joe Mangel in Neighbours, though his real love was stand-up comedy.
Go Jerry
22/03/2009 … Phoenix Nights deservedly made a star out of Peter Kay, but also raised the profiles of other stand-ups in the cast - perhaps none more so than Dave Spikey, co-writer…
Festival: The Movie
22/03/2009 … You probably wouldn’t have noticed her among the hundreds of desperate performers thronging Edinburgh’s Royal Mile during last year’s festival.
I'm not that interested in comedy..
22/03/2009 … Small Time Crooks is more reminiscent of your earlier films, more slapstick and less serious.
Apocalypse now
The League of Gentlemen talk about their big-screen debut
22/03/2009 … The League Of Gentlemen’s first movie Apocalypse opens next month; and yesterday some of the team held a Q&A session for invited journalists in central London.
Meet the makers
22/03/2009 … It might seem like sacrilege to its legions of fans, but the new Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy movie has taken liberties with the characters, lines and script…
'It's hard not to become the Chucke Brothers...'
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in A Cock And Bull Story
22/03/2009 … Late autumn light filters through the great oaks surrounding Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, a little-known National Trust gem that is one of the most authentic 17th Century…
Filth sells!
Interview with Aristocrats director Paul Provenza
22/03/2009 … It’s changed Hollywood attitudes and altered the landscape of stand-up comedy.
Pure filth
22/03/2009 … Can you explain the joke that’s the subject of The Aristocrats for those who haven’t heard it? PENN: You get to hear it a lot in the movie, so why ruin it here.
Acting funny
22/03/2009 … Dylan Moran is making his movie acting debut opposite Michael Caine in the new comedy The Actors in a story, by Conor McPherson and Neil Jordan, of two dead-end…
That's dead funny
Radio 4\'s new pathology comedy
22/03/2009 … Comedy writer Laurence Howarth (pictured) reveals how he found the inspiration for his new Radio 4 sitcom Rigor Mortis while watching an old episode of Quincy and…
Doubled up...
Parsons and Naylor\'s comedy careers
22/03/2009 … Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor are returning to Radio 2 on July 24 with a new series of Pull-Out Sections, some of which will be recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Noble thoughts
22/03/2009 … As Ross Noble embarks on new series of Radio 4 travelogues from around the world, he reveals a few favourite anecdotes: What was the best place you visited for this…
World of the News
25 years of Radio 4's topical comedy quiz
22/03/2009 … The News Quiz celebrates its 25th anniversary on Radio 4 on September 7.
Making an exhibition of themsleves
...in The Museum Of Everything
22/03/2009 … In the new Radio 4 series The Museum Of Everything, Marcus Brigstocke, Dan Tetsell and Danny Robins examine every dusty, waxwork-populated museum they were ever…
Robin's best...
Ince introduces 28 comics to radio
22/03/2009 … Digital radio station BBC 7 launches its first original comedy commission next month Spanking New On Seven.
A Dent in the univers
22/03/2009 … Radio 4 concludes its adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy with an eight-part series, starting on May 3, taken from Douglas Adams’s third and fouth…
On another planet...
Simon Jones on the return of Hitchhikers\' Guide
22/03/2009 … When Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy star Simon Jones left California following the funeral of his friend Douglas Adams in May 2001, it was with a heavy heart.
Adam and the rants...
Adam Bloom talks - and talks - about his new radio show
22/03/2009 … As the next series of The Problem With Adam Bloom prepares to hit Radio 4, with a longer running time and the prime 6.
Write good advice...
Expert advice on getting that sitcom off the ground
22/03/2009 … "I'm looking for people to bring us their worlds, rather than the worlds they think we want to see.
Queen Victoria
22/03/2009 … Victoria Wood is back on TV, having written new episodes of her Acorn Antiques spoof for a new programme about the history of the comedy sketch.
Hiding behind laughs
22/03/2009 … Great tomes have been written on the psychology of comedians.
Brigstocke: 'To be honest, I'm a bit of a tart'
22/03/2009 … As fictional historian David Oxley BA (Hons) returns to our screens for a new series of We Are History, Marcus Brigstocke, shares his thoughts on the character he…
The Christians told me where to shove it...
22/03/2009 … You might imagine that returning to a job you haven’t done for five years to be a bit disconcerting.
Heeere's Johnny!
Vegas on his new show: 18 Stone Of Idiot
22/03/2009 … Grilling Johnny Vegas is not a job to be taken lightly.
A couple of Tossers
nterview with Modern Toss creators Mick Bunnage and Jon Link
22/03/2009 … Channel 4 launches its deliberately offensive mix of animation and live-action sketches, Modern Toss, on July 11.
Strictly off message
Armando Iannucci on his new Whitehall comedy
22/03/2009 … Hot on the heels of Labour’s third election victory, satirist Armando Iannucci has created a new political comedy to help lighten the mood of the often serious-minded…
The saviour of ITV sitcoms?
22/03/2009 … Frank Skinner is struggling to remember the last ITV sitcom he really enjoyed.
The Family Guy guy
Seth McFarlane discusses his creation
22/03/2009 … nimated comedy Family Guy was brought back from its cancellation after network executives saw the impressive DVD sales of previous series that had performed disappointingly…
The key to serious acting? Snot and dribble
How Sally Phillips learned to forget her comedy instincts
22/03/2009 … As one third of the Smack The Pony team, Sally Phillips is known for her broad comedy, cruel parodies and over-the-top physical gags.
Silly Runt
22/03/2009 … Animated comedy Rex The Runt was inspired by the most unlikely of sources - grot.
Iraq-naphobia
Rory's fears over the Middle East
22/03/2009 … Saddam's regime may have been toppled along with his statue, Iraq's problems are far from over, as Rory Bremner - along with his partners-in-satire Johns Bird and…
Gloria in excelsi
Melvyn Hayes enjoyed his latest role
22/03/2009 … Johhny Vaughan is hoping to make the leap from likeable blokeish presenter to serious comedy writer with his new shpw 'orrible - in whicaMelvyn Hayes, who carved…
Here's Johnny come lately
How Vaughan's hoping to make the move into comedy
22/03/2009 … Johhny Vaughan is hoping to make the leap from likeable blokeish presenter to serious comedy writer with his new shpw 'orrible - in which he also plays the anti-hero,…
Not a black and white issue...
Matthew Coniam on Love Thy Neighbour
22/03/2009 … There may be an old joke that runs; there are only three great ITV sitcoms: Rising Damp series one, Rising Damp series two and Rising Damp series three.
Comedy hero
Ardal O'Hanlon on Thermoman, stand-up, and disappointing his parents...
22/03/2009 … Ardal O'Hanlon has always been the unlikeliest of superheroes.
They don't believe it!
Fans still won't accept Victor's death
22/03/2009 … Even a year after his alter ego Victor Meldrew was killed in a hit-and-run accident, actor Richard Wilson cannot escape people coming up to him and wanting to talk…
Gareth and me...
22/03/2009 … His star may be rising, but Mackenzie Crook is worried.
Grammer schoolboy humour
22/03/2009 … You've seen the trailers promising 'comedy in unexpected places' well, this must take the biscuit: Kelsey Grammer, the $1.
Jee whizz
How Jocelyn Jee Esien ended up with her own TV show, when she never even wanted to be a comedian
22/03/2009 … Not many stand-ups get to tackle both Dickens and Shakespeare in a year.
You've got to feel the fear
Johnny Vegas on Dickens, stand-up... and the cello
22/03/2009 … Not many stand-ups get to tackle both Dickens and Shakespeare in a year.
Hancock at ATV
Peter Gordon reappraises a forgotten series
22/03/2009 … Unloved and virtually unseen since its original broadcast in 1963, the ATV Hancock series, made following his move from the BBC, is in fact very revealing.
Billy the kidder
22/03/2009 … Billy Bleach, the pub bore Simon Day created for The Fast Show, is to star in a new sitcom for BBC3.
Office politics
Ricky Gervais on why his show was a hit...
22/03/2009 … Ricky Gervais seems to have cornered the market in arrogant, swaggering buffoons.
Know your Friends
Little-known facts from the hit sitcom
22/03/2009 … Jennifer Aniston is from a Greek family.
That Friday feeling
Interview: Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins
22/03/2009 … Channel 4’s Friday Night Project is back on January 6, but with new presenter.
Fools' paradise
22/03/2009 … Del Boy and Rodney last graced our screens, their wildest dreams came true, and they did become millionaires.
Paul and Angela hit the jackpot
22/03/2009 … The worlds of medicine and comedy have long been linked.
In stitches
How Phil Hammond mixes medicine and comedy
22/03/2009 … The worlds of medicine and comedy have long been linked.
‘I'm going,’ Ron told me. Days later he was dead
22/03/2009 … Ronnie Corbett may be turning 75 on Sunday, but a mischievous, schoolboy twinkle still shines through his trademark glasses.
Fags of life
Why Smoking worked wonders for writer Brian Dooley
22/03/2009 … As a comedy writer, Brian Dooley's career wasn't exactly soaring.
Sibling ribaldry...
Vic and Bob are back... as brothers
22/03/2009 … Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are about to return to TV with a new comedy, Catterick, playing two brothers, Carl and Chris Palmer.
Book Group's new chapter
Script gets sexier second time around...
22/03/2009 … The Book Group is returning to Channel 4 on January 24 and this series is going to be sexier than the last - at least according to the cast.
Turning over a new leaf
Tamsin Greig on Black Books' return
22/03/2009 … For Black Books star Tamsin Greig, there's only one thing better than working with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey and that's when Simon Pegg joined the cast.
All their yesterdays...
22/03/2009 … It looked like becoming one of the most expensive mistakes in the BBC's history.
The forgotten man of comedy?
22/03/2009 … Stanley Baxter is the neglected icon of British comedy, say the makers of a new tribute programme.
The true Ronnie
22/03/2009 … He was a star on top of his game - a staple of prime-time TV, and critically acclaimed for his unforgettable role in a groundbreaking sitcom.
Stroke of genius?
22/03/2009 … “Growing up is a total pain in the arse, but we all have to do it at some point.
Anything goes? That's lazy
Armando Iannucci on his new satire
22/03/2009 … You wouldn't describe Armando Iannucci as a one-trick pony.
The G spot
Ali's director talks about their experiences in the US
22/03/2009 … After reaching saturation point in Britain to the point that no celebrity could ever be genuinely duped Ali G creator Sacha Baron Cohen wisely moved to America…
Fab to be back, darling
Lumley and Saunders discuss their sitcom's return
22/03/2009 … Five years after downing their last Bolly, Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone are back for another run of Absolutely Fabulous - but the new series proved a little more…
Tue 17 March 2009
'Young, vulnerable and cheeky...
On the anniversary of his death, Richard Beckinsale's first wife remembers their meeting
17/03/2009 … Thirty years ago today, March 18, Richard Beckinsale – star of two of the most successful British sitcoms of the Seventies, Rising Damp and Porridge – died of…
Fri 06 February 2009
Pot Noodles, drowning your sorrows at 11am and the the Podimore Services Travelodge...
Jon Richardson on the life of a comedian
06/02/2009 … How did you get started in comedy? The same as anyone else really.
Tue 03 February 2009
Eddie Izzard: In his own words
Highlights from his iTunes interview
03/02/2009 … Last week, Eddie Izzard was interviewed in the London Apple store by Simon Amstell, for later release on iTunes.
Mon 02 February 2009
© BBC Mack's back
Lee Mack talks to Steve Bennett about the return of Not Going Out
02/02/2009 … We may be living in tough financial times, but economic meltdown isn’t bad news for everyone.
Thu 15 January 2009
Lowe and behold!
15/01/2009 … Alice Lowe – probably best known for Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace – stars in her own BBC Three comedy LifeSpam at 11pm on January 23.
Tue 13 January 2009
Writing history...
Steve Bennett meets Galton & Simpson
13/01/2009 … The BBC has offended public decency.
Sat 10 January 2009
Famous by accident
Paul Whitehouse on celebrity, mortality, and the joys of shouting 'arse'
10/01/2009 … Despite hiding behind a myriad of characters, The Fast Show made Paul Whitehouse one of the most recognisable faces in comedy.
Thu 08 January 2009
Riches from rags
08/01/2009 … It’s the morning after his new Steptoe and Son play has opened in York, and writer Ray Galton is happy with the verdict.