News roundup
Here's three comedy stories currently in the press...
Alan Coren dies aged 69
Alan Coren, former editor of the satirical magazine Punch, former team captain on Call My Bluff and regular on Radio 4's The News Quiz has died of cancer at the age of 69.
Coren was one of The News Quiz's most regular contributors, having appeared on the show ever since it started in 1977, where he was originally a team captain. The original series were split between a team from Punch and a team from Private Eye captained by Richard Ingrams.
Controller of Radio 4, Mark Damazer said "Alan was the heartbeat of The News Quiz - the man around whom so much turned for nearly 30 years. It was not only that he was consistently brilliantly funny, but above and beyond that, his humour burst with humanity and warmth. He could pick out the foibles of the mighty - and his own - with pinpoint accuracy, and yet at the same time he evoked sympathy for the human condition. He was fabulously well-read - and there was no subject which was ever beyond his wit."
Thursday's Aren't Funny
The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, lost nearly a third of its viewers last night. The third instalment of the half-hour talk-show satire attracted just 900,000 viewers (a 4% share). The Peter Serafinowicz Show was also down in the ratings, just 800,000 viewers saw the show last night. The Graham Norton Show managed to boost BBC2's audience back up to 1.5 million at 10pm.Some American Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
The Fox Network has ordered several scripts to be made of an American version of the 1970s British sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. The deal was made between Sony Pictures TV and BBC Worldwide. The scripts will be written up by Phil Stark, who has previously worked on That Seventies Show and wrote the film Dude, Where's My Car?. He is also to be executive producer.
Paul Telegdy, from the BBC Worldwide said "Even now, if you sit US executives down to watch an episode they will fall around on the floor laughing. There is nothing quite like it and the fact that it makes people laugh makes it relevant."
Langham loses Appeal
Chris Langham has lost his appeal against his ten-month sentence for downloading child pornography from the internet. A High Court judge told the former star of The Thick of It and Help in a private hearing that he would not be released before Christmas.
A prison source said that Langham was "genuinely gutted", and that "he is having a hard enough time of it from other prisoners and now he knows he will have to spend Christmas and New Year in jail instead of with his family."