BCG Daily Friday 9th May 2014

How Ricky Gervais ruined atheism for the rest of us

He's been desperately trying to impress his mate Dawkins by smugly peddling his anti-religious agenda for years - and frankly, it's getting more than a little tiresome...

Frank: movie review

While this comedy-drama is sometimes wilfully absurd, it's also exhilarating cinema, telling its story with conflicting amounts of warm emotion and prickly abrasiveness.

Frank: funny peculiar

With its deadpan humour and slapstick heart Frank is incredibly funny. But without warning it suddenly turns to darker territory as you watch Frank, clearly a troubled soul with mental health issues, battling with his demons.

Film review - Frank

Lenny Abrahamson's superby eccentric movie about a group of supremely eccentric musicians reveals some powerful truths about art and the disordered mind.

Frank: Madcap comedy in bid to unmask character

Frank is a sweet, funny and deeply weird comedy with a winning performance from Domhnall Gleeson as a naive innocent negotiating the eccentric wonderland of rock and roll notoriety.

Radio Times review

The unlikely but lovable sitcom winds up its second series in reflective mood. There are more smiles than belly laughs as Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan's Italian travels reach Naples and they are joined by Steve's son Joe and his pregnant PA Emma.

But before the others arrive, Steve and Rob have a moment at some catacombs stacked with skulls ("It's like being at one of your gigs..."). Steve trots out the "Alas poor Yorick" speech from Hamlet and the references to a dead jester ("Where be your gibes now...?") leave Rob looking distinctly troubled.

As usual, on the surface The Trip is about seafood, wine and Roger Moore impressions; underneath it's something else altogether.

Graham Norton earned £2.3m in fees and salary last year

Pay for the host of The Graham Norton Show and BBC Radio 2's Saturday morning show was down 10% on 2012.

Film review: Frank

It's a shame the original Sidebottom's modest joie de vivre doesn't shine through, save for an allegedly 'mainstream' number Frank composes in a hotel room on the eve of the band's festival appearance. Instead, the focus is entirely on the complexities and troubles behind that mask.

Andrew Maxwell: a local comedy show for local people

The Dubliner is touring London, and only London, with an act about the capital. Is regionalism the next big thing in comedy?

Jason Manford launches new Birmingham club

Jason Manford is launching his Birmingham club on Saturday - fresh from helping Staffordshire teenager Stephen Sutton's amazing charity drive.

What's in a name?

In a world where artistic genres are constantly morphing and crossing-over, the issue of how to describe and categorise shows for the benefit of an audience becomes ever thornier.

The Trip to Italy: worth the return journey?

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's food-fuelled journey through Italy has an undercurrent of despair beneath the impressions. Would you join the pair on future trips?

The Trip to Italy - holiday fashion lessons for men

While Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon improvise their lines, their outfits have been planned to a T. Please take note, gentlemen.

10 great forgotten comedy shows

As BBC Two unearths some old comic gems for a new documentary, Michael Hogan looks at 10 shows that have been forgotten by history.

Exclusive clip from The Trip to Italy DVD

Need an extra helping of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's brilliantly tasty gastronomic tour of Italy? Then wait no longer. The DVD of their latest series, The Trip To Italy, is out next Monday, but just to whet your appetite here is one of the previously unseen extras from it in which affable but-not-quite-as-affable as his TV persona Rob Brydon persuades Steve Coogan to do an impression of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock as they cruise through Tuscany.

Cannes: BBC leads with comedy, with Mrs Brown movie

The BBC hopes to have the Croisette in stitches when it unleashes a wave of comedy films at Cannes designed to repeat the success of last year's Alan Partridge movie.

John Bishop sees funny side after crashing his bike

John Bishop goes down smiling as he tumbles off his bike during filming for his first ever one-man TV travel show in Australia.

The Newsnight referendum revue

BBC Newsnight is on the hunt for great performances that address the issue of Scottish independence and the future of the United Kingdom, whether through stand-up routines, sketches, mini-musicals, poetry, songs or dance - anything goes as long as it's thought-provoking and entertaining.

Sam Brady interview

Award-winning comedian and failed Buddhist Monk, Sam Brady, takes his comedy show Kindness on UK tour.

Simon Cowell on X Factor musical

Simon Cowell has acknowledged that the recently-axed X Factor musical I Can't Sing! "didn't work".

Pete Sinclair interview

Our first mistake was the clash between a very dark subject matter (essentially satirising someone who was using charity for his own ends) and the old-fashioned traditional sitcom format.

Andrew Maxwell on the tribes of London

Moving to London? The award-winning Irish raconteur has some advice.

The Sam Brady three minute interview

Award-winning comedian and failed Buddhist Monk, Sam Brady, takes his comedy show, Kindness on UK tour, starting in Leicester on 22nd February. The show is inspired by a simple act of kindness, from an unexpected source at a very low point in Sam Brady's life, which renewed his faith in human nature. The result is an extremely funny and uplifting show.