Alan Yentob

Imagine... French And Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter review

Only Alan Yentob could make French and Saunders unfunny!

Imagine... French And Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter review

Honesty, agony and hilarity with our greatest double act.

Imagine: Lenny Henry: Young, Gifted and Black, review

A remarkable - and occasionally uncomfortable - look at the many faces Lenny Henry.

Lenny Henry has had quite the career. From teen star of talent contest New Faces to his controversial role as the only black performer on The Black and White Minstrel Show, his 80s sketch show Three of a Kind and then his reinvention as a Shakespearean actor and activist for media diversity, Henry takes Alan Yentob through his tumultuous past as detailed in his recent memoir, Who Am I, Again? Packed with glorious archive clips, this is is a fitting tribute to a comedy giant.

Alan Yentob enjoys the company of self-confessed "scruff-bag" Jo Brand as she discusses her career and why she is proud to be a lipstick feminist. An intimate encounter with a character summed up by fellow comic Mark Thomas as: "hard work, playful, compassionate, funny as fuck".

Classicist Mary Beard to make cameo in W1A

The presenter and classicist has been given a small turn in the new series alongside BBC creative director Alan Yentob, RadioTimes.com can reveal.

BBC security correspondent sets sights on W1A cameo

Frank Gardner is to follow in the footsteps of Clare Balding, Carol Vorderman and Alan Yentob by appearing in the mockumentary.

Imagine… Monty Python - And Now For Something Rather Similar opened with a series of interviews given by the comedy team in 1999. Each, in turn, gave a professional, personal, artistic or logistical reason why they would never perform as a group again.

Fast-forward 14 years, and the Pythons have announced a reunion. It was going to be a one-off performance in London's O2 Arena, but when this sold out in 45 seconds they quickly expanded it into a very lucrative tour.

Imagine… and Alan Yentob tracked the Pythons down to various parts of the globe, where they were all engaged upon individual projects, to discuss the forthcoming tour. Most expressed mild enthusiasm, John Cleese declared curmudgeonly ambivalence, while Terry Gilliam announced that he wouldn't be able to attend any rehearsals as he had a film to launch in Paris.

Only Eric Idle appeared genuinely committed to the undertaking. Moreover, he wasn't content to stage a greatest hits sketch show but took it upon himself to produce an authentic stage spectacular, complete with an all-singing, all-dancing chorus.

The other Pythons seemed happy to let him do all the hard work, put in the hours, shoulder the stress and accept the responsibility. Which, in my experience, is pretty much the template for all creative 'teams'.

Radio Times review

Over the years the Flying Circus and their completely different style of humour have been pored over like a dead parrot, but this particular Pythonic probe is a different beast altogether...

The reverence in which the gang are still held 31 years after their last film, and 40 years after the TV series, is reflected by their forthcoming reunion shows selling out quicker than you can say "albatross".

Of course, the gang hasn't been the full Monty since 1989, when Graham Chapman went to join the choir invisibule. But "Gray" will make his presence felt in the shows via hand-picked clips.

Alan Yentob pursues the remaining Pythons as they pursue their individual projects, and as they come together for rehearsals. The fun comes from guessing which sketches will make the final cut. Will this be the right room for an Argument - "I've told you once" - or will the Four Yorkshiremen still be competing in onedownmanship? ("We were evicted from our hole in the ground"). The latter routine might lend itself to a more reflective interpretation now, with lines such as "I was happier then when I had nothin'." I wonder if the Pythons were, too...

Highlights include a mickey take of The Office and a brilliantly-observed version of The Killing that mixes the dark thriller with children's television character Pingu.

Harry and Paul don't shy away from the controversial parts of the BBC's history, with a version of Call My Bluff in which the chosen word is paedophile. And after a picture of a BBC chief called Bert John is flashed up that bears more than a passing resemblance to ex-director general John Birt, fictional head of drama Jonathan Oxford-Cambridge (played by Whitehouse) refers to Bert John as, "a total c..." before he is cut off.

Enfield plays main narrator, the historian Simon Schama, plus Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry and Ian Hislop, while Whitehouse's characters include Paul Merton, Mary Berry and BBC creative director Alan Yentob - who he plays as a mixture of Gollum and Yoda.

Yentob showed he could take the joke though. Most of the show was filmed around the old BBC Television Centre in west London which is being redeveloped. Originally Harry and Paul were denied access but Yentob sorted it out for them. Harry said at a screening of the show: "Yentob made it happen. I think he might live to regret it don't you?"