Press clippings

Sorry, Britain's NOT the funniest country

A study commissioned by money transfer company Remitly, featuring more than 6,000 respondents from the 30 countries, named the UK the 18th funniest country, with Czech Republic, Portugal and Ireland making up the top three. The USA came 29th.

Such Brave Girls review

Some sitcoms build up to a big wedding day, the second series of Such Brave Girls kicks off with one.

• Such Brave Girls

Such Brave Girls is bleakly funny, realistic and truly brave TV

The second season of Kat Sadler's Bafta-winning series radiates an almost feral comic energy while plumbing the lowest emotional depths.

• Such Brave Girls

Such Brave Girls creator Kat Sadler: "I lost my best friend to suicide - it's a scary time"

Such Brave Girls creator and star Kat Sadler on the big issues behind the return of her brutal, brilliant Bafta-winning comedy.

• Such Brave Girls
• Kat Sadler

Gavin & Stacey house inhabited by Doris up for sale

The mid-terrace property in Trinity Street in seaside town Barry, South Wales, is on the market for £220,000 and is said to be "brimming with warmth, personality and seaside charm".

• Gavin & Stacey

Taskmaster is a perfect summer show (and the funniest thing in decades)

In the wrong hands, this would be a series of minor acts of cruelty. In the right ones, it's a series of minor acts of cruelty that happen to be hilarious.

• Taskmaster

Steve Coogan: "Keir Starmer makes me admire Thatcher - at least she had a point of view"

The actor, screenwriter, and producer talks about the new series of his Alan Partridge podcast, a shift in focus for The Trip with Rob Brydon - and what Partridge would do about the rise of Reform.

• Steve Coogan

Blazer worn by Eric Morecambe at final Tewkesbury performance rediscovered

The blazer worn during his final live performance by beloved comic Eric Morecambe has been rediscovered by the theatre that played host to him.

• Eric Morecambe

"We told jokes in the camps" - but is Jewish comedy doomed?

David Baddiel, Howard Jacobson and others discuss the idea of 'Jewish wit' and whether anti-Israel hostility poses it an existential threat.

• Tracy-Ann Oberman
• Robert Popper
• David Baddiel
• Bennett Arron
• Howard Jacobson
• Rachel Creeger

Harry Hill will never bring back TV Burp - but he wants someone else to revive it

The comedian loves crime dramas but finds property shows "triggering".

• Harry Hill's TV Burp
• Harry Hill

Monty Python props go under the hammer

Dozens of props from Monty Python's final live shows are being auctioned. The items, from Terry Gilliam's personal collection, include a life-size llama and the iconic dead parrot, complete with cage, as well as costumes from the troupe's Live (Mostly) gigs at London's O2 arena in 2014.

• Monty Python Live (Mostly)
• Monty Python

Life Of Brian actor Kenneth Colley dies aged 87

Kenneth Colley, who played Jesus in Monty Python's Life Of Brian, died June 30th at his home in Kent.

• Kenneth Colley

'I'm not as grumpy as Ed' - Christopher Douglas on Ed Reardon's Week

The creator of the Radio 4 favourite on the impact of BBC budget restraints, the lack of new sitcoms and losing his collaborator Andrew Nickolds.

• Ed Reardon's Week
• Christopher Douglas

Jason Manford left furious after being forced to share a hotel bedroom

Jason Manford was left utterly furious after he was forced to share a hotel bedroom with his pal - despite booking two rooms.

The touring comedian, 44, blasted the chain as "naughty" after learning they had overbooked - and he would have to double up.

• Jason Manford

James Buckley and wife 'stalked by woman, 26, and threatened with violent acts'

The alleged stalker has been banned from using any electronic devices to contact the couple.

• James Buckley
• Clair Buckley

Seann Walsh was the victim of a mugging

Taking to his Instagram Stories, Seann revealed: "My phone was stolen (yes out of my hand and yes, I live in London) a week or so ago and it is now in China if anyone happens to be passing by."

• Seann Walsh

Kat Sadler on tackling mental illness in Such Brave Girls

The self-deprecating writer and star of BBC Three's darkest comedy talks to Isobel Lewis about how the single-parent family at the centre of her Bafta-winning show is inspired by life with her own sister and mum - and why she wanted to show serious mental health issues on screen, 'bones and all'.

• Such Brave Girls
• Kat Sadler

Stephen Merchant dusts off his 1994 Glastonbury appearance with Pulp

Stephen Merchant marked the Sheffield band's appearance by posting a clip of himself in the crowd singing along with Jarvis Cocker when they appeared there in 1994. At the time Merchant was only 19 and was studying for a BA in Film & Literature at the Univeristy of Warwick. He had not met Ricky Gervais. They met in 1997 when Gervais hired him as his assistant at Radio X and they went on to co-write The Office.

• Stephen Merchant

Such Brave Girls: TV so hilariously savage it will make you yowl with pleasure

Move over Julia Davies and Sharon Horgan - this devastating, ruthless sitcom is basically the British psyche on a screen. It's just the medicine.

• Such Brave Girls

'Better dead than single': The dark comedy inspired by 'bleak' dating scene

Horrible snogs. Hideous outfits. Heinous crimes. Between bursts of laughter, that's how real-life sisters Kat Sadler and Lizzie Davidson describe the new series of their BBC comedy Such Brave Girls.

• Such Brave Girls

The Fast Show slapped with trigger warning over infamous scene

Nineties sketch comedy The Fast Show has been given trigger warnings by the BBC including for one of its infamous Suit You Sir scenes.

The Corporation has flagged up two episodes of Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson's classic series on iPlayer for using "discriminatory language".

• The Fast Show

Do you recognise unassuming tower block?

This seemingly plain tower block appeared in a hit noughties sitcom - but could you recognise it now?

The flats featured in a much-loved British TV show, although it might look a little different to how you remember it.

• Peep Show

Chicken Town review

A comedy great gets lost in an English backwater.

• Chicken Town

The Ballad Of Wallis Island is a masterpiece of the extraordinary made ordinary

With The Ballad Of Wallis Island, Tom Basden and Tim Key have written a poignant and comical exploration of music, loss, nostalgia and hope.

• The Ballad Of Wallis Island

Chicken Town review

A larky comedy from the badlands of Lincolnshire.

• Chicken Town

Kim Wells on the never less than oddball British comedian Bob Flag

Kim Wells established and ran the legendary Earth Exchange Cabaret venue at a vegetarian restaurant in London from 1980 to 1989 - in the early days of Alternative Comedy in the UK... The Earth Exchange was situated on the Archway Road in Highgate, where I lived for a few years (in a flat beside the Archway Road, not in the road or in the venue). Kim brought up the subject of British performer Bob Flag.

• Bob Flag

The first thing we see in Alan Partridge's hotel room

The opening episode of the first series of I'm Alan Partridge, A Room with an Alan, was broadcast on the 3rd November 1997. What is the first thing we see Alan Partridge doing in his room at the Linton Travel Tavern? Oh, the usual stuff. Some bad programme ideas. The first of many dream sequences. But the very first thing we see is him doing is reading a newspaper article about Tony Hayers... the person who is about to deny him his second series.

• I'm Alan Partridge

Bleak landscapes and banjos: composer Bernard Hughes discusses his score for Chicken Town

Composer Bernard Hughes first met director Richard Bracewell when working on the film Bill, a 2015 Horrible Histories take on the life of Shakespeare for which he provided some of the score. The pair were keen to collaborate again but the pandemic put paid to their plans. The new black comedy Chicken Town sees the pair reunited.

• Chicken Town
• Bernard Hughes

Film review: Chicken Town

Typical. You wait ages for a gentle comedy about an unlikely drug dealer and then two come along at the same time. No sooner has Rosie Jones' C4 sitcom Pushers bedded in than Chicken Town is released, an engagingly quirky tale of dopey folk set on the fringes of Norfolk. Which is apt, because the characters here have norfolking idea how to be dealers.

• Chicken Town

Tributes paid to comedy producer Joanna Beresford after her death at 68

She was head of production at Avalon for more than a decade until her retirement in 2022, overseeing shows such as Catastrophe, Taskmaster and Not Going Out.

• Joanna Beresford