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Ben Elton
- 65 years old
- English
- Writer and stand-up comedian
Press clippings Page 24
If he hadn't actually written this himself, you'd have assumed some sort of Ben Elton sitcom generator had done the job for him. A short-fused health-and-safety manager (David Haig) with a gay daughter, and her live-in girlfriend, tries to get to grips with modern life: whether wrestling with taps or buying a birthday gift for a female co-worker. As mirthless as it is dated (pratfalls, innuendo, jokes about PC-ness), it's comparable to Extras' When The Whistle Blows, with a regrettably similar catchphrase: "Do not get me started."
Ali Catterall, The Guardian, 23rd April 2013The sitcom that proves Ben Elton is no longer funny
How is it possible this dire new comedy was written by the same person behind Blackadder and The Young Ones?
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian, 22nd April 2013Once the enfant terrible of British comedy, Ben Elton has diverted his considerable energy in recent years to writing brash satirical fiction and money-spinning musicals. He hasn't touched television in any major way since 2005 with his short-lived sitcom Blessed, an ill-advised riff on parenting. Now he's back, braving the genre with this six-part series based around the goings on at fictional Baselricky Council Health & Safety Department. It's a hit-and-miss affair. On the one hand, you get to spend time with the superlative David Haig who stars as pernickety department head Gerald Wright, six months post-break-up from his wife and living with daughter Susan (Joanne Matthews) and her ditzy partner Victoria (Beattie Edmondson).
High-octane Haig rules the screen with an admirably dextrous performance reminiscent of Elton himself in its attack and precision. The council setting also has potential, giving Elton the chance to challenge the bureaucracy of small-minded local government - tonight's episode tackles red tape around a rogue speed bump. But despite old-fashioned sitcom aspirations, it's tame stuff compared to Elton's politically charged persona of old, and the laughs are too few.
Toby Dantzic, The Telegraph, 22nd April 2013It is with relief that I can report that Ben Elton's new comeback series is hilarious! It is a classic situation comedy with great jokes and ... and funny characters who ... who ...
No. I'm sorry, it's no good. You see, it really is no good; in fact, it's a stinker. David Haig plays Gerald Wright (hence the title!), an annoying man who wants everything done a certain way. It's a perennial sitcom trope, done beautifully by Richard Briers in Ever Decreasing Circles, for instance, or decently by Chris Barrie in The Brittas Empire. He's a health and safety inspector for a local council, the department "that introduced the static seesaw and the horizontal slide [and said] babies must wear helmets when breastfeeding near the swings".
But what makes it a stinker are the jokes, which feel as though when the BBC moved out of Television Centre they found an old box at the back of the cupboard labelled "Leftover Sitcom Gags 1973". They are ancient, is what I'm saying, they have whiskers on them.
The main running joke involves Wright trying to wash his hands under a bathroom tap and soaking his trousers, and then someone coming in and thinking he's wet himself, and then shoogling about under a hand dryer and someone else coming in and thinking he's doing something filthy. And this happens three times.
Haig tries to make things sound funny by stretching and emphasising certain words - not a stammer, but a sort of word-mastication which would be excellent for someone trying to practice shorthand or audio typing dictation, if anyone still does that nowadays.
The show's token nod to modernity is that Wright lives with his daughter and her female partner (played by Beattie Edmondson, daughter of Elton's old chum Adrian - how cosy). He has to buy a present and they suggest a shop called Girl Shack - wait, Girl Shack? In 2013? I take it Chic Chicks or Trendy Togs or Burdz Boutique were all taken?
Finally, there is the catchphrase: "Don't get me started!" which Wright says when particularly exasperated. This is very nearly "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" from Ricky Gervais' spoof sitcom When The Whistle Blows. Sorry, Ben: this isn't the one that's going to win over your critics.
Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman, 19th April 2013Review: We Are Most Amused, Royal Albert Hall
Rowan Atkinson provided a fitting climax to last night's Prince's Trust Gala in front of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall as he appeared alongside Miranda Hart in a smart topical sketch written by compere Ben Elton.
Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard, 29th November 2012A look back on the alternative comedy movement
Rik Mayall, Jenny Eclair and Ben Elton are among the 1980s alt.comics who shaped comedy today.
Brian Donaldson, The List, 16th October 2012BBC orders full series of new Ben Elton sitcom
BBC One has ordered a six-part series of Slings And Arrows, a new studio-based sitcom written by Ben Elton.
British Comedy Guide, 24th August 2012Ben Elton pens new BBC One sitcom pilot
Ben Elton has penned a new sitcom pilot entitled Slings & Arrows, starring David Haig.
British Comedy Guide, 31st July 2012One of the longest running comedies on Radio 2 has made its return for the Olympics, as David Quantick presented a guide to the games for people who may not know that much about it...
The Blagger's Guide to the Games is full of information and rapid fire gags, cut in with sound effects and music left, right and centre. This is a four-part series, so it's longer and more informative that The Sinha Games, and covers certain aspects of the games further in depth. For example, there's an entire section about the austerity games in 1948 (when London last held the event), as well as a gymnastics guide.
The main aspect of this programme, for those who haven't listened to previous editions of The Blagger's Guide, is that it's so full of gags and material that often you miss some bits and have to listen to it again. My highlight of the show was a sequence about the austerity games, which featured impressions of Ben Elton, Kenneth Williams and Michael McIntyre all rolling into one. Excellent.
However, in the same section I was less keen on the rationing routine which featured a Dad's Army skit between Lance Corporal Jones and Mrs. Fox after the end of the war. It wasn't so much the lack of humour that was the problem, but my own pedantry. I'm a huge Dad's Army fan, and I know that in the final episode Mrs. Fox becomes Mrs. Jones. But that's just me...
There's much to enjoy from The Blagger's Guide..., though it's one of those shows that needs your full attention.
Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 30th July 2012For the non-sportive, David Quantick returned to Radio 2 to give us his Blagger's Guide to the Games. Finger poised above the effects button and daftness turned up to 11, Quantick initially seemed to be holding back his quick-fire mind to allow slower listeners to keep up. But five minutes in and we were back to his usual rat-a-tat gag-and-fact-packed action. Every aside was a gem ("Even though the war had ended three years ago - that's longer than the Saturdays' chart career - Britain was still full of austerity"). The show even bears another listen, so you can catch great jokes just tossed in, such as when a standup comic flips from Ben Elton to Kenneth Williams to Michael McIntyre mid-rant, with no explanation. Warning: all Blagger's Guides are a little like listening to a over-caffeinated, over-researched man-boy in the grip of quip mania but, as a lot of my conversations are like that, I approve.
Miranda Sawyer, The Observer, 29th July 2012