British Comedy Thread

[nathansmart]

Yeah, I watched a few on Friday and then watched the rest over the course of 3 days.

[Victor]

Trailer for the new Andy Samberg featuring British sitcom 'Cuckoo'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDoXTW41fk

[nathansmart]

I love the guy from The Inbetweeners. I'm guessing that's Greg Davies?

[BillBrasky]

Wow! I just watched the first episode of a sitcom called "Moone Boy" which was created and written by Chris O'Dowd, and it was so great. The series takes place in 1989, and O'Dowd is an unseen-by-everyone-else "invisible friend" to a young Irish boy (the Moone boy of the title). The show deals with him being bullied at school, his family life at home with 3 older sisters, turning 12 and getting a birthday present of a bicycle that was bought with cereal coupons, etc. It's very much in the vein of "A Christmas Story", and you can tell that the young boy in the series is a stand-in for O'Dowd himself when he was younger. I'm sure the series is very autobiographical. But it's so warm and funny, with vivid characters and lots of laugh out loud lines. There's even some animation woven into the show in a clever way.

The series was produced by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow Productions, and apparently Coogan appears in the second episode. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that this is one of the best British (well, Irish) sitcoms that I've seen in many years, maybe the best new sitcom since "Phoenix Nights". Everyone here who has a thebox.bz account should watch it immediately. You won't regret it.

[rotation]

i like chris o'dowd but i find the kid to be really bad at trying to emulate his style (and a bad actor in general). i mean really, casting? I loved coogan's appearance in episode two. it was perfectly awful and hilarious at the same time in a way not many people can pull off. i will watch this begrudgingly, only for the rare laughs from o'dowd and cuteness from parts of the story.

[rotation]

Trailer for the new Andy Samberg featuring British sitcom 'Cuckoo'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDoXTW41fk

Now that looks like fun!

[Victor]

Wow! I just watched the first episode of a sitcom called "Moone Boy" which was created and written by Chris O'Dowd, and it was so great. .

Watched the first two episodes, and it really is a lot of warm, charming fun. Coogan being hosed down in the second episode will haunt me for some time.

It came out of a series of one off specials called, I think, Chirstmas Crackers, as did another short series from earlier this year that is really worth seeking out; called 'Walking And Talking', written by Kathy Burke. Like Moone Boy, it's autobiographical and set in the past.

[BillBrasky]

The second episode was really good too. There are so many nice little details in this show, from the bullies being introduced to the strains of the "Grange Hill" theme, to the scene where the father gets sick of his family and has to leave the house where you can hear a song by Crowded House in the background.

Coogan's cameo in the second episode was excellent too. Up until now, we have known O'Dowd to be a good actor of course, but I am surprised at how top-notch the writing is in this series. It may be the rare series where 6 episodes will leave me wanting more and wishing the series could be longer.

[BillBrasky]

Just a quick recap of things that are airing right now on British TV that people here might be interested in:

MONDAYS- Ronna & Beverly - 9 PM Sky Atlantic
Hunderby (Julia Davis)- 10 PM Sky Atlantic
Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Music quiz show) -10 PM BBC2
TUESDAYS- Cuckoo (Andy Samberg) - 10 PM BBC3
THURSDAYS- New series of Red Dwarf starts this Thursday on satellite channel Dave*
FRIDAYS- Moone Boy 9:30 PM Sky 1
SATURDAYS- The Thick of It - 9:45 PM BBC2 (Also available on Hulu, right?)
SUNDAYS- 2nd series of Friday Night Dinner starts this Sunday on Channel Four

*A quick note about this: I was a fan of Red Dwarf during the early seasons of the show when the special effects were fairly simple and it was more of a character-based comedy revolving around the four main characters. As time went on, the plots got more and more complicated and the show became more about how showoffy the special effects could be instead of on comedy. The last couple of series of the show I have to admit I've never even seen. There were 3 specials made for this "Dave" channel in 2009 which I also haven't seen, but reportedly this new series is going for a "back to basics" approach, being shot in front of a studio audience like a traditional multi-cam sitcom and focusing more on just the 4 main characters.
These production stills look promising anyway. Although everyone's obviously a lot older now, I'm sure they still have the good comic timing they always did.

[Victor]

Series 2 of 'Threesome' just started on Comedy Central, too. Only seen one episode, but it gets decent notices.

Very excited for new Red Dwarf, it's been getting great reviews, and I'm so happy it's gone back to the old style of shooting.

[nathansmart]

FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER!! yes baby awe yeah that's what I like

[perdothegit]

FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER!! yes baby awe yeah that's what I like

Caught the first season on iTunes and was a bit skeptical for the first couple of episodes but was really enjoying it by the end.

[nathansmart]

You can never go wrong with "a casserole from dad's asserole"

[nathansmart]

The first few episodes of the second season of Friday Night Dinner have been just okay so far but this last one was a return to season one glory. So funny!!

[BillBrasky]

Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's sketch comedy show "Harry and Paul" has also returned for a new series on Sunday nights. The quality of this show's kind of up and down, but there is the occasional funny sketch and they're both obviously funny performers.

[nathansmart]

Have people talked about Fresh Meat at all on here? I just finished the first series and it's been pretty funny so far. Joe Thomas from The Inbetweeners is on it and he's great. All of the characters are great and the actors are really funny. I can't be anymore vaguely impressed by this show.

[BillBrasky]

Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's sketch comedy show "Harry and Paul" has also returned for a new series on Sunday nights. The quality of this show's kind of up and down, but there is the occasional funny sketch and they're both obviously funny performers.

Harry and Paul do dueling Ricky Gervaises. nathansmart will probably like this:

[nathansmart]

That's really more of a dueling David Brent clip but I do sort of like it.

[Kelsow]

Should have been wearing black T-Shirts, ya?

[anantp]

peep show back