BCG Daily Saturday 2nd August 2014

Fringe hosts its largest ever number of women standups

62% rise on last year hailed, but with women accounting for 17% of comics at 2014 festival, equality has some way to go at fringe.

Edinburgh comedy special

Previews of Ellie Taylor, Pierre Nouvelli, Julian McCullough, Natasia Demetriou, Dane Baptiste and Quint Fontana.

Modern Toss: The Edinburgh fringe is underway

A cartoon from Modern Toss about the Fringe.

Romesh Ranganathan & Seann Walsh personality swap shop

The Edinburgh mainstays switch identities to interview each other. It doesn't take long for the insults to start flying.

BJ Novak: out of the office

He's spent the last decade slaving away in The Office (US branch). Now with a bit of free time, the writer and performer is taking his comic prose to Edinburgh.

Act like you meme it: a comedy caption special

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So we gave Edinburgh gagsmiths 8000 words worth of pictures and asked them to caption.

Edinburgh Fringe 2014 interview: Laurence Owen

Laurence Owen was one of the highlights of our highlight-filled night of Disney comedy fun with a song about Disney's less than diverse attitude towards female characters. We expect his hour at the Edinburgh Fringe to be packed with similar cynicism and satire.

Nancy Dell'Lilo on Strictly, Sven and the Fringe

Who would have believed in the second decade of the 21st century Nancy Dell'Olio would still be adding to the gaiety of Britain?

Scotland's young pretender to comedy crown

"I'm a nice person," Daniel Sloss - comedian, young person, sometime teller of jokes about bodily functions, XBox obsessive, possibly soon-to-be American TV star - is telling me as we sit in the slightly messy living room of his house in Edinburgh.

Alan Davies: 'I didn't react well to fame.'

Overnight success left the comedian in an emotional mess and unable to do stand-up, but he's finally ready again for the Edinburgh Fringe.

Richard Ayoade on being true to yourself

Actor, author and 'coolest' man in London Richard Ayoade talks about life after The IT Crowd.

Dick Emery's daughter on how his womanising scarred her

"I couldn't call him Daddy because it didn't feel right," she says. "He wasn't around enough. I was desperate to get to know him. I remember when I was about eight, my brother, Michael, and I were staying with him in Southsea, in a hotel. After dinner one evening, a young lady arrived so he gave my brother and me some money, went off with this 17-year-old and left us for a couple of nights. We used to take ourselves off to the fair and went mad with room service."

Radio Times review

This nigh-on perfect episode is The Arthur Lowe Show in all but name. A training weekend for the platoon enables Lowe to run through his sublime Mainwarisms: the "throat-clutching choke", the £skewed cap and glasses£, and the rare but wonderful £trying desperately not to appear drunk£. (Almost as funny is Sergeant Wilson's teddy-bear hiding - an Embarrassment Masterclass from John Le Mesurier.)

It all comes about as a result of Captain "What! What!" Square and a bunch of whisky-swilling officers leading Mainwaring astray, to the scowling disenchantment of Frazer and co. And it takes a genuine crisis to restore him in the eyes of his men...

'Fallen Idol' is delicious to the last drop, when an "Iris Out" homage to the silent era provides the show's best-ever sign-off.

Radio Times review

At the height of its success, the BBC Light Programme series Educating Archie attracted 16 million listeners. Peter Brough provided the voice, but the star of the show was his wooden doll, Archie.

And so it was also in Brough's life -- Archie was the one everybody wanted to meet, not the man with his hand up a miniature Savile Row-made tailored jacket. Rob Brydon gets two gifts in this biographical drama -- to play Brough and Archie.

The play opens after the funeral of Brough's father -- symbolically, the very night he decides to lock Archie away for ever. But this manic-eyed doll is not going without a fight.

Celia Pacquola: Seeing how it all works out

Originally from Melbourne, Celia Pacquola has become a favourite at both her home city's annual comedy festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. And the new show she is performing at the Gilded Balloon this month was nominated for the prestigious Barry Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival earlier this year.

David Greig on art and the referendum (Link expired)

On the face of it, there are not many shows at the Fringe that deal with the referendum and its themes. But look again...

A cute dog, a dead pig and three women I don't talk to

In yesterday's blog, I mentioned an unwise act who sent me the same introductory e-mail three times then, the next day, phoned my mobile four times in an hour while I was driving up the M6 motorway. Yesterday morning, within half an hour, I received another three copies of the same e-mail from him within half an hour.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A brief look at some Fringe acts.

David O'Doherty to perform gig to support another show

The always marvellous David O'Doherty will perform an extra one-off show at SpaceCabaret @ 54 tonight at 10.30pm to help out another Fringe show, which was put in jeopardy when its producers were unable to negotiate down the theatre licence fee charged by Edinburgh City Council.

Tobias Persson interview (Link expired)

Swedish comedian Tobias Perrson on being a bilingual comedy act at the Fringe...

My Fringe: Tim FitzHigham (Link expired)

Comedian Tim FitzHigham gives us an insight to his experience of the Fringe...

Stephen Fry backs charter to switch mobiles off

A theatregoer's campaign to crack down on thoughtless behaviour has got the actor on board.

Axis of Awesome on the protesting over an Israeli show

My thoughts on this have been very mixed. I too have very strong views on Israel's aggression towards Palestine. But I find myself questioning whether picketing a small hip hop show at an arts festival is the best way to make a demonstration. Does the theatre company's receipt of a government grant really make them complicit in the assault on Gaza?

Opinion: how many previews does a comedian need?

Bruce Dessau talks about the problems over preview shows.

Sarah Kendall: the worst heckle I ever received

After I was threatened with sexual violence at a gig, I built a routine around it - but looking back, I betrayed the seriousness of the incident.

Behind the scenes at the Fringe: Dan O'Neill

We salute the tireless figures who devote their Augusts to making it all happen. This time, Dan O'Neill - Front of house manager for Pleasance.

Three acts pretending to be someone else at the Fringe

Neil Hamburger, Miranda Sings and Brains Mcloud on getting into character.

Feminism and the Fringe

A look at feminist shows at this year's Fringe.

Matt Lucas turns Charlie Chaplin in silent comedy

Lucas, 40, was spotted on the set of Pompidou - which uses no dialogue - wearing a cream bell-bottomed suit and platform shoes.

Don't Drop The Baton preview

When comedian Susan Calman checked her inbox one morning several months before the Commonwealth Games, her heart jumped.