January 2016
It has been announced that actor Alan Rickman has died. He was 69 and had been suffering from cancer.
Rickman was probably best known for his role as Snape in the Harry Potter films. He was an eminent classical performer but also a skilful comic actor who knew when not to take himself too seriously. Most famously he was the villain in the first Die Hard movie and played the Sheriff on Nottingham in 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves with a panto glint in his eye.
Ricky Gervais has talked about how he went from being a fan of David Bowie to being a friend.
Jemaine Clement has revealed how he and co-star Bret McKenzie tried to get David Bowie to play himself in an episode of the Flight of the Conchords TV series in 2007.
In the episode, entitled Bowie, the rock star visits Bret in various dream sequences and offers him advice. In one scene he advises him to wear an eyepatch. The show famously includes the duo’s musical tribute Bowie’s In Space, in which they reference various Bowie musical styles.
The Glasgow International Comedy Festival has revealed its full 2016 programme, running from Thursday 10 – Sunday 27 March.
Headline acts set to perform include Frankie Boyle, Reginald D Hunter, Bridget Christie, Adam Hills, Paul Merton, Ardal O'Hanlon, Julian Clary, Rob Delaney, Jenny Eclair, Jerry Sadowitz, Russell Kane, Mark Watson, Dylan Moran, Shappi Khorsandi, Paul Sinha, Mark Steel, Paul Foot, Rob Beckett, Chris Ramsey and Richard Herring.
Daniel Kitson is working on a number of new projects in 2016.
He used to try out new ideas at The Hob in South London but the venue no longer runs comedy nights so he is now going to be hosting a comedy night in Nottingham in the basement where the Just The Tonic club used to be. The dates and guests are as follows:
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer have confirmed the dates for their 25th anniversary Poignant Moments UK Tour.
The opening autumn leg of their tour had to be postponed after Bob Mortimer had to have a triple heart bypass in October.
Earlier this month the duo confirmed that Mortimer had been given the medical all-clear and the winter leg of the tour would go ahead as planned, starting in Leeds on January 30. The duo held a press conference in London today to announce it officially.
Shona McCarthy has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. She replaces previous Chief Executive Kath Mainland, who announced that she was stepping down last November to take on the role of Executive Director of the Melbourne Festival in February.
Notebooks and pens out, Robert Newman has a new show. The one-time rock and roll stand-up has always been a bit of a clever clogs and in recent years he has taken his comedy in a distinctly professorial direction. His last show, in which he bashed Richard Dawkins and proposed his own theory of evolution made Robin Ince look like Roy Chubby Brown.
A new comedy featuring young people living together? If you are looking for something to fill a Peep Show-shaped void in your life I’m not sure if Crashing will do the job. It's fun but the cast is far too good looking. This new series focuses on the lives and mainly the loves of a group of people who have circumvented high rents by becoming property guardians and are living in a disused hospital.
Always save your correspondence. I learnt that when Ricky Gervais became a global superstar. Back in 1998 I was working for Time Out and received a neat typewritten letter from Gervais asking politely if I would review his first-ever TV pilot. It was a one-off for C4's Comedy Lab strand called Golden Years. In it Gervais played a Bowie-obsessed office worker who dreams of rock stardom. I think I gave the programme a reasonable review but in one of my annual purges I threw the letter away.
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