BCG Daily Sunday 7th January 2024

Jimmy Mulville: Making comedy is no laughing matter

Production company Hat Trick is behind TV favourites such as Father Ted, but soaring costs and a squeeze on commissioning are hitting the industry hard.

Ricky Gervais Netflix specials 'give excuse for trans hate'

Irish trans male comic Felix O'Connor says transphobic material is opportunistic and damaging.

Miles Jupp: 'A brush with mortality makes you see everything through a very different prism'

The comedian, whose new show draws on his experience of surviving a brain tumour, on finding humour in adversity, working with Ridley Scott, and why his scar won't be hidden for long.

Poor Things: Nicola Sturgeon weighs in on debate over adaptation

Nicola Sturgeon has said she is "curious" to see how the adaptation of Alasdair Gray's Poor Things manages to separate itself from the original work's Glasgow setting.

Nathan Cassidy accidentally smashes his own watch on stage

It happened at the Camden Comedy Club in London after Nathan Cassidy had become embroiled in a conversation with someone in the audience whose job was to make sales calls to conference attendees. The tedious nature of the business caused another punter to check their watch, causing the comic to tap his with the microphone in mimicry.

AI knows who Malcolm Hardee was but can't copy his inimitable comedy...

Last Friday (5th January) was the late comedian Malcolm Hardee's birthday. He was born in 1950. He died 19 years ago, in 2005. So I asked three AIs to write me an obituary of Malcolm Hardee to see what facts they had mined.

Call The Midwife viewers in tears as top comedian makes surprise show debut

Fans of Call The Midwife were left in tears as top comedian Rosie Jones made her debut on the show.

The story focused on Rosie's character, Doreen, experiencing pregnancy and childbirth as a woman with cerebral palsy.