Beyond The Joke

Multi-award winning comedian Russell Howard returns to Netflix with a two-part instalment featuring his second stand-up comedy special striving to make sense of a world that is spinning out of control, Lubricant and documentary mapping his attempts to keep performing throughout the Covid 19 pandemic, Until The Wheels Come Off. 

Scottish comedian Fern Brady takes on a tough line-up this week on Richard Osman's House of Games. There's fellow Scot, DJ/broadcaster Edith Bowman, Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and Will Kirk.

Brady has been building up a big following on the comedy circuit in recent years with her tough, uncompromising confessional shows. She was recently diagnosed as autistic and has been typically outspoken on the subject, how she has difficulty, for example picking up conversational cues and has trouble making smalltalk.

In My Skin, the BAFTA award winning five-part series from writer Kayleigh Llewellyn returns for a second series. It continues to follow the story of Bethan (Gabrielle Creevy), a Welsh teenager leading a double life as she negotiates a mentally ill mother, played brilliantly by Jo Hartley, and an abusive father, friendships, and sexuality.

The very first situation comedy commissioned by Channel Four, “The Optimist” is being released on DVD via a crowdfunding campaign. First shown in April 1983, and running for two series (13 episodes), The Optimist hasn’t been seen on British TV screens since 1985.