October 2013
Typical. You wait ages for a sitcom about an unhinged actor and then two pitch up. Hot on the heels of Count Arthur Strong comes Matt Berry as Steven Toast, first seen in a C4 pilot in 2012. And there is another uncanny spot of synchronicity too. Strong is co-written by Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan, Toast is co-written by Berry and Linehan's Father Ted chum Arthur Mathews.
Magic and comedy have become familiar bedfellows in recent years with the likes of Pete Firman, Barry & Stuart, Chris Cox and, of course, Derren Brown blending and blurring genres with notable success. And then, of course there is Jerry Sadowitz, who has been garnishing the same combination with a liberal sprinkling of expletives for three decades. There is nothing new here, though. Tommy Cooper and Paul Daniels were among those who also conjured up a similar mix with great success, albeit without the potty mouth, years ago.
Stephen Merchant's new sitcom, Hello Ladies, in which he plays lonely Brit Stuart Pritchard looking for love in LA, is on Sky Atlantic on Wednesdays at 10pm from October 16. You can read more about it here. I interviewed Merchant recently for the Independent on Sunday. He was in LA having just had brunch, I was in South London with Crocodile Dundee on ITV in the background.
Update 6/11/13: Final part of Ambassadors tonight. This has been an enjoyable, all-too-short, departure for David Mitchell & Robert Webb. When I think of double acts moving into straighter acting roles together I guess the benchmark is Fry & Laurie as the admittedly more comedic Jeeves and Wooster, while then nadir was Hale & Pace in a long forgotten early version of detective drama Dalziel & Pascoe before Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan took over.
After last week's frenetic activity on the London circuit this week there are only three gigs to catch and if you haven't got a ticket for the first one yet you might as well enjoy your night in.
Some guys have all the luck. Two years ago I was watching Stephen Merchant do short stand-up spots in grubby London clubs bemoaning his lack of success with women. A little later he went on tour with his first full live show, Hello Ladies. He got rave reviews and ended up doing the show in America where some HBO bods saw it and asked him to turn it into a sitcom. The TV version based on the comedic stage persona starts in the UK this week.
These days it feels as if everyone should be taking notes at gigs and not just if you are reviewing it. A few years ago there was a fear that stand-up was dumbing down. That we were destined to live in a world where we did nothing but put useless odds and ends in our man drawers. This week, however, I've been struck by how often comedy currently opts for the high brow option.
Jo Brand has defended Lee Mack, who she says was unfairly treated by the press for expressing views on Desert Island Discs recently that women weren’t cut out for comedy.
A very rare occurrence last night. I actually paid for a ticket to see a comedy show. Due to a cock-up on the cinema screening front I found myself at a loose end with a friend in swinging Soho and decided to see Susie Essman. I'd initially been told I could have a press ticket for Wednesday's performance but then discovered this week that critics were not invited after all. So what the heck, I thought. Gatecrash the first night anyway.
I caught Paul Merton on The One Show the other night promoting his new tour. He was not able to say too much about it, of course, because it is with Paul Merton's Impro Chums so it will be different every night.
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