British Comedy Guide

David Brown (I)

  • Journalist

Press clippings Page 5

Stephanie Beacham has been such a cracking addition to the cast in this second series. As store manager Lorraine we love her pillarbox-red talons and lipstick, that hair scraped into a Bet Lynch beehive and - most of all - her growling putdowns: "Friendships are overrated," she tells the simpering Julie (Jane Horrocks). "I had one once at school. Never again."

However, not everyone is impressed by the new regime - Andy, for one, despairs at the introduction of a ticket machine for customers. Could this be the start of a slippery slope towards a fully automated meat counter and eventual unemployment for all human beings? "It's just like Terminator," he frets.

David Brown, Radio Times, 7th September 2012

Is Celebrity Juice set to win the BAFTA audience award?

If you take a look at the view count on the official Bafta page on YouTube where actual votes are logged: at the time of writing, a clip of Celebrity Juice has been watched 22,983 times while the Sherlock excerpt has been seen on 17,394 occasions.

David Brown, Radio Times, 25th May 2012

Steve Coogan to guest on Question Time tonight

The Alan Partridge star will join the panel for this evening's debate in London. He will be joined by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, Liberal Democrat politician Shirley Williams, journalist Ann Leslie and former No 10 Director of Communications Alastair Campbell.

David Brown, Radio Times, 9th February 2012

David Jason doubts Only Fools US remake can work

The Del Boy actor fears that the classic comedy will get lost in translation.

David Brown, Radio Times, 1st February 2012

Only Fools and Horses to be remade in America

John Sullivan's classic comedy gets a US makeover on the ABC network.

David Brown, Radio Times, 28th January 2012

Robert Llewellyn: Red Dwarf X coming in September

The sci-fi comedy blasts back in 2012, according to the Kryten actor.

David Brown, Radio Times, 24th January 2012

Comedies have always been big on friendships, be they soulmates or odd couples. Men Behaving Badly's Gary and Tony were always the former and so it seems are actors Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey: writer Simon Nye admits that it was sometimes difficult to see where his scripts ended and real-life began. There's a chance to witness some of that spark here thanks to a montage of very funny bloopers. Of course, get the chemistry right and you have a mucker for life - as the 295 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine demonstrate.

David Brown, Radio Times, 28th November 2011

This is the kind of show for which the word "bittersweet" could have been invented. A social hub, wry chitchat among the regulars and the occasional ripple of pathos - it's all here in this new seaside-set sitcom written by and starring Ralf Little and Michelle Terry, and directed by Craig Cash.

Yet while The Café does, at times, capture the loneliness that people can experience when everything around them is all-too-familiar, it's not as subtle as the best of the genre, such as Cash's understated Early Doors. In fact, the programme it most resembles is the short-lived Angelo's, a 2007 comedy set in a greasy spoon that, oddly enough, also featured a living-statue among its patrons. As for whether The Café will disappear as quickly, there's a danger that viewers will find it all a little bit too inconsequential.

David Brown, Radio Times, 23rd November 2011

Ardal O'Hanlon is on good form as the headline act at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, his saucer-eyed wonder undercut by a surreal streak. Supporting him on this trip back to his local theatre are Gary Delaney (a one-liner machine in the same vein as Milton Jones and Tim Vine) and the whimsical Josie Long.

Of the two, Long is the more appealing performer, with her diatribe on The Sun's Page Three girls being particularly well executed. Delaney is perhaps someone more to admire than like - you can't help but be in awe of someone who remembers so many gags, although the fact that he finds his own material quite so amusing does start to grate.

David Brown, Radio Times, 17th November 2011

Andrew Davies & Peter Davison: A Very Peculiar Practice

The writer and star talk about the cult 80s drama as it's released on DVD.

David Brown, Radio Times, 9th October 2011

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