Interview
There is no doubt that Olivia Colman is on a winning streak at the moment. Last year she made waves in the seaside murder mystery Broadchurch alongside David Tennant. Last night she was the betrayed wife in the BBC drama The 7:39. She seems to be everywhere.
To mark his imminent appearance alongside Steve Coogan in The Trip To Italy, here's an interview I did with the wonderfully talented all-round entertainer Rob Brydon in 2007 for The Times. He was about to appear in the Old Vic's 24 Hour Plays, adding serious acting to a CV that ranged from acutely observed comedy to the voice of Toilet Duck.
Katherine Ryan has been on the UK comedy circuit for a few years now but she is currently having a well-deserved surge in popularity. Panel show stints plus her Live at the Apollo appearance in which she sang the praises of Beyoncé's sex face have helped to bring her to the attention of a much bigger audience. It also helps that she is a much sharper comedian now than she was when she first emerged.
It must be one of the most eagerly anticipated musicals in recent years. And also one of the most bizarre. When I first heard that Harry Hill was working on a musical based on the X Factor I assumed, like most people, that it was an elaborate joke. After all, wasn't Hill the man who spoofed the talent show monster on TV Burp with The K Factor featuring knitted toys?
Mark Thomas has been winding people up for three decades. He is currently appearing at the Leicester Square Theatre with his new show, 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, which charts his ongoing project of a century of protests, from busking illegally in Camden to putting stickers with slogans where they shouldn't be put. I interviewed him in a coffee shop near Clapham South station close to where he lives. This is very much Thomas's manor.
I last interviewed Josh Widdicombe in late 2011, when he was first starting to be tipped for stardom. You can read that interview here.
Be still my beating heart. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith return to our screens with Inside No 9, six self-contained comedies with some delicious shocks and surprises. They talk about the series, their other plans and the inevitable prospect of a League of Gentlemen reunion.
BD: Six one-off comedy chillers? How exciting. Does it feel like a departure for you?
It’s not a sentence that you hear every day - “Excuse me, I must go and get rubberised” - except in certain Soho clubs. Or if you are visiting the Red Dwarf set at Shepperton Studios and talking to Robert Llewellyn, who plays the valet Kryten, the latex-faced mechanoid in the cult science-fiction sitcom.
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer return to our screens on Jan 14 with their new sitcom House of Fools. Read a preview of the programme here. BTJ spoke to Bob Mortimer about the programme, which co-stars Matt Berry, Dan Skinner, Daniel Simonsen and Morgana Robinson. It is very childish, very odd and very funny indeed.
Mark Steel is currently on tour with his "In Town" show in which he researches the area he is performing in and makes the show specific to that place. The veteran comic has recently been keen to do more than mere off-the-peg stand-up. Here is an interview from The Times in 2006 when he was working local references to the French Revolution into his touring set. Details of his current tour here.
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