BCG Daily Friday 8th August 2014

Walter: a wry new detective for BBC One?

Line of Duty's Adrian Dunbar is excellent in tonight's one-off detective drama Walter.

Shaun the Sheep to star in arts trail

Up to 120 giant sculptures, depicting Shaun the Sheep in a variety of guises, will form a major public arts trail across London and Bristol next year.

Edinburgh Fringe 2014 interview: Barry Ferns

If you haven't heard of Barry Ferns you've probably heard of one of his imaginative ideas, whether it's establishing Lionel Richie's rightful ownership of most things in the world, climbing up Arthur's Seat every day to perform a comedy show via a portable PA system or creating a fake review paper to help market his own show. Now Barry is channeling that creativity into his debut hour at the Fringe, a show that's been a long time in the works.

Why you won't find Paul Merton in the pub

Paul Merton, back on the Fringe for the millionth time, this year stars in My Obsession (Pleasance Courtyard), written by his wife, Suki Webster. Not that he's ever had much trouble in real life from obsessive fans.

Explain yourself: Clive Anderson

A profile of the presenter Clive Anderson.

Siblings episode 1 review

The light tone and broad humour put this more in tune with long running cult US sitcom It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia than the bedsit grime of Stefan Golaszewski's Him & Her.

10 questions for Romesh Ranganathan

Last year's best newcomer nominee returns - feeling pensive, paranoid and on the brink of a breakdown.

Radio Times review

It's a truth universally acknowledged that broadcasters don't put good new stuff on Friday nights at the height of summer. Which doubtless explains why Walter has washed up here where it will probably die quietly, alone and unnoticed.

It's a woefully under-written comedy/drama about a decent cop, the Walter of the title played by Adrian Dunbar, that's neither funny nor dramatic. So why are we reviewing it, you might ask, dear reader? Well, because it's new and the cast give their hearts and souls to material that doesn't deserve it.

Dunbar in particular (so brilliant as Line of Duty's closed, troubled anti-corruption cop Ted Hastings) is winning as the hapless Walter, a widower with money troubles and a really annoying teenage daughter. And he has a dippy but endearing sidekick (Alexandra Roach, from Utopia). Walter is obviously angling for a series, but I wouldn't bother.

Shaun the Sheep to star in arts trail

Up to 120 giant sculptures, depicting Shaun the Sheep in a variety of guises, will form a major public arts trail across London and Bristol next year.

Siblings: good idea held back by unlikeable characters

With a lineage that can be traced back to Fresh Meat, a mix of sharp observation and cringe-making farce and a heavyweight guest star, Siblings should be a sure-fire hit. So why did I not warm to this opening episode?

Laughs go global with international comedians at Fringe

There are performers from 47 different countries at the Edinburgh Fringe, but you won't find so many non-English speakers in the comedy section, for obvious reasons.

Joz Norris' Edinburgh Fringe 2014 blog: 02

I'm starting to worry about Ali Brice. Last night at 2am I found him in his room using an umbrella to stir a shirt around a bucket of soapy water while muttering "It's blue, it's just too blue" under his voice. His bedroom shelves are covered in jars of mayonnaise, and yesterday I watched him eat a bacon sandwich with a knife and fork and suck egg out of his own moustache.

Camden / Edinburgh Fringe interview: Harry Deansway

Harry Deansway is a character comic who moved from producing his own comedy magazine (The Fix), running his aptly named and charming club "Shambles" to making his Edinburgh fringe debut at last year's festival.

This year his new show is being spread across two cities so both Londoners and those in Edinburgh can catch the nonsense.

Audience member urinates on a bag & other extreme acts

Yesterday evening, I saw the Miss Behave Gameshow which involves a lovely male assistant called Harriet and which climaxed with the audience winner going into the street outside Bob & Miss Behave's Bookshop and smashing a mobile phone to bits with a mallet.

Fringe Q&As: Rob Rouse

Rob Rouse talks to us about catheters, crushed Twixes, and swimming in the North sea.

Fringe Q&As: Chelsea Manders

Canadian comedian Chelsea Manders talks to HeraldScotland about plaid push-up bras, imagining the audience naked and putting her dad on the naughty chair.

Feature: Circus Incognitus - everyday circus?

Jamie Adkins is a clown. Not the white-faced big-shoed kind that makes children cry, but just an "ordinary man". His show, Circus Incognitus, playing Edinburgh this month, is so called because "I understand no-one knows who I am and I don't take it for granted that people have taken time out of the day to come and see this show".

Preview: Jim Davidson

Love him or loathe him, there's no denying that when it comes to working a crowd, few do it better than Jim Davidson.

A blagger's guide to gigging at Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe - the largest arts festival in the world - runs throughout August every year, and is the ideal summer holiday for wannabe comedians wanting to turn their dreams of a standup career into reality. And you too could be a part of it this year!

Rob Gilroy: reviewing the reviewers

Following on from last week's Fringe-themed column, I thought I would talk about comedy reviews.

The Edinburgh Fringe in tweets... so far

A series of tweets covering the Fringe.

A funny thing has happened to comedy

It isn't necessary to be a Jim Davidson fan to recognise that human nature hasn't changed much since the Greeks.

Russell Grant wasn't prepared for nightly shows

Grant is performing his Strictly Edinburgh gigs in the capital over the next three weeks but admits, while he loves the city, he's maybe bitten off more than he can chew.

Walter, BBC One, review: 'suspense and laughter'

The BBC's new police comedy drama manages to be both profoundly silly and gripping, writes Jake Wallis Simons.

Review: Walter is the worst thing I've seen this year

If a tree falls in a forest with no-one to hear it, does it still make a sound? Philosophers remain divided on that one, so here's another puzzler: if a comedy appears on the BBC, but isn't funny, is it still a comedy? Approach it from a different angle: if the BBC fail to acknowledge good, new writers, whom I'm assuming are out there and pitching to the Beeb, should we still dutifully pay our licence fee?

Walter: A confident, amiable and intriguing pilot

If BBC One commissions a full series of Walter - and I really hope it does - then I'll happily tune in on Friday nights in August, and that is praise indeed.

Meet the queen of confessional comedy: Katherine Ryan

When Katherine Ryan caught her partner cheating on her she tracked down the glamour model he'd been seeing and built her latest stand-up show around the episode. Viv Groskop meets the ballsy Canadian stealing the limelight on TV panel shows and taking over the comedy circuit one Beyoncé shimmy at a time.

Why the hell should I?!

What happened when a theatre boss asked producer David Johnson for free comedy tickets...

Lloyd Langford: Off-grid at the Fringe

Welsh stand-up Langford enjoys a moan about techonology - how will he fare off-grid with no mod-cons at the Edinburgh Festival?

Cuckooed: the personal and the political

"I'm a show off", Mark Thomas tells us, as he launches into the story of his first arrest after he'd locked himself to the axle of a minibus carrying arms dealers to a London conference. For the past 10 years, Thomas, a comedian and investigative reporter, has been an active anti-arms-trade campaigner and it is this part of his life that is the subject of his new one-man show at the Traverse, Cuckooed.

The Slasher Musical: a rip-roaring ride

How can you make a musical about the slasher genre? Fundamental problems arise given that slashers have an ever-decreasing cast, jump-scares are impossible to recreate on stage and any inhuman villain will instantly lose credibility when they burst into song. Riptide: The Slasher Musical takes on the challenge and succeeds by means of a camp, tongue-in-cheek approach that shows up the absurdities of the genre.