BCG Daily Monday 9th August 2021

Tracy-Ann Oberman interview

As she stars as Camilla in The Windsors: Endgame on the West End, the actor talks about being told to hide her heritage, antisemitism and the problem with The Crown.

Edinburgh's festivals "poses risk to heritage status"

The Cockburn Association, a world heritage site watchdog, says a lack of future control over the number of events and their takeover of public spaces could result in Edinburgh following Liverpool in being stripped of its coveted international standing.

Alistair Green on his middle England satire

From foul-mouthed ad spoofs to reading Fifty Shades to his gran, the 'front-facing camera comic' has become a legend in his own living room.

30 years of Alan Partridge

In August 1991, Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci gave birth to Alan via the BBC Radio 4 news parody On The Hour.

Edinburgh Fringe - the best of opening weekend

From Henning Wehn to Josie Long, our critic Dominic Maxwell enjoys the festival's long-awaited return.

Chris McGlade 'cancelled' show now at Comedy Unleashed

'Anti-woke' producers Comedy Unleashed have invited him to perform it at their East London home, the Backyard Comedy Club, owned by controversial comic Lee Hurst.

Ghosts remake: Meet US Versions of the UK characters

CBS will air an American take on BBC sitcom Ghosts this autumn. Here's how the characters have been translated from the originals, and some brand new additions...

Remembering Ballard Berkeley, a.k.a. Major Gowen

Ballard Berkeley, who played the bumbling Major Gowen that seemed to always be locked in an endless quest for the afternoon paper in Fawlty Towers, would have been 117 on Friday.

Car Share could return for a Christmas special

Peter Kay excited Car Share fans as he revealed that he may bring the comedy series back for a Christmas special.

BBC New Comedy Awards - locations and prizes revealed

The search is underway to find the best new stand-up, sketch and digital comedians in the BBC New Comedy Awards and today the BBC has confirmed the prizes at stake and the locations for the six heats set to be broadcast on BBC Three later this year ahead of the final on BBC One.

Do you really need to be protected from 'Allo 'Allo?

Yet another much-loved sitcom has been slapped with a content warning.

Writing for animation: It's better than a proper job

In my binary head, there are two ways of looking at any kind of writing. It's either all about me, the tortured artist OR it's all about the audience; AKA the skynet 'algorithm' AKA being a 'hack' writer. My binary head is wrong and needs to shut up.

Q&A with Eleanor Conway

Eleanor Conway is known for her shows about sex, addiction and dating: Walk Of Shame, its sequel, and You May Recognise Me From Tinder. She is currently in Edinburgh unveiling her new show Vaxxed And Waxed.

Are You Being Served? actress and ex-glamour model dies

Glamour model turned crime writer Clare Dunkel has died aged 59.

The actress and Miss Nude 1982, who starred in classic British comedies like Are You Being Served? and The Two Ronnies under the name Candy Davis, passed away from motor neurone disease (MND) on 27th July.

James Corden's new show Mammals shut down by covid

James Corden had to isolate for a week after filming on his new British sitcom, Mammals, ground to halt following a positive covid test result on the set of the show.

His British comedy comeback got off to a faltering start last month, when cast and crew had to down tools just two weeks into the schedule.

Ghosts series three review

Hard-drinking toff Barclay Beg-Chetwynde seems set to be the next member of the phantom troop, in the only TV show that would benefit from bumping more people off.

Sue Perkins reveals diagnosis that left her 'destroyed'

Sue Perkins has revealed that she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour in 2015. The presenter, 51, said she didn't realise she was suffering from the condition until she underwent a health screening as part of a show she was working on at the time, Supersizers.

Ghosts, BBC1, review

Innocuously good fun undermined by too many storylines.

The fringiest Fringe show returns to Edinburgh

Whether you want to call it comedy, performance art, cult, or just a big waste of time, one thing is certain, this show has staying power. The show has been performed every year at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2009. Not even Covid, could shut it down. This month will see the thirteenth annual performance of the fringe-iest of Fringe shows, one where the long-winded title pretty much sums up the totality of the hour-long theatrical performance: A Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits Rocking In A Rocking Chair For Fifty-Six Minutes And Then Leaves...13.

The Comedy Arcade review

This is yet another podcast any comedy-seeker should have on their already overcrowded radars. Especially if you can see it live.

Clown Nipples and Nice Try reviews

Two new comedians, American expats both, share this hour en route to their first solo shows... but it looks like it's going to be a long road to the finished article.

Artificial Insmelligence

Well, you can't say the title didn't warn you. Artificial Insmelligence is often puerile and dumb. But frequently stupidly funny too, and performed with zest by a cast with dependable comic instincts.

Ghosts, series 3 episode 1 review

BBC One's supernatural comedy Ghosts, now in its third series, has the lived-in quality of old slippers.

How TV's The Windsors is making its unregal stage debut

The writer says the script of The Windsors: Endgame will try to keep up with the latest royal headlines, but that sometimes there are just too many to get in.