Frankie Boyle

Alex Reid: C4 must apologise for Boyle's comments

Katie Price's husband Alex Reid has called for Channel 4 to apologise for the 'disgusting' comments made by comedian Frankie Boyle about Jordan's disabled son Harvey.

It seems we have Weekend Watchdog to thank for Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story.

Sarah Townsend's intriguing film about the comedian began with a snippy and ill-informed report on the consumer programme, which accused him of recycling material from an old tour. Virtually every minute of the film that followed might have been designed to prove that taking easy shortcuts is the very last thing that Izzard would do. Hurt by the suggestion that he was short-changing his fans, he took a break from stand-up to concentrate on acting; this film both recorded his preparation for his comeback tour and explained how he went from comic no-hoper to the kind of star who can sell out Wembley Arena.

What really wounded Izzard about the charge of recycling was that he'd never made any secret of his working process, which involves ever-wilder excursions from the previous shows. It's a process of evolution, which means that by the end of a tour the material he's using will be completely different to the show he started with. This time round though, sensitive about any suggestion that he was building on old foundations, he effectively began with a pre-tour, popping up in tiny venues in places like Frome to slowly lick the new show into shape. And in between doing that he reminisced about his past, and revisited places that had been important to him.

"Living here was the best part of my life," he said, looking around the Northern Ireland house he'd lived in as a small child. "After that it all went crap." The reason for that was the death of his mother from cancer, after which he and his brother were consigned to a school in Eastbourne, where Izzard rapidly absorbed the most crucial lesson the English boarding system delivers: that it's probably safer to repress the emotions. "I thought, 'Crying equals losing in arguments'. So I didn't cry from then on." Instead, in a classic displacement for the unhappy and vulnerable, he showed off a lot. And when Izzard saw Monty Python he decided to make it big in comedy.

That isn't the sort of thing you're supposed to be able to decide for yourself, but the fascination of Townsend's film lay in its evidence that Izzard - apparently the most insouciantly natural of comedians - had conjured himself into existence by sheer force of will. His phrase for it was "personal nepotism". If no one else would give him a break, he would do it for himself. So, though he could be described as an overnight success, after a single charity gig that really made his name, years of obscurity had led up to that night - on the cobbles of Covent Garden, where he learned to work a crowd round to his way of thinking, and in the rash of comedy clubs that sprang up in London in the Eighties. Izzard would come back to his flat from compering open-mike spots and plot his progress on a map of London, colour-coding what material worked where.

He'd also learned something crucial earlier, after an escapology act went humiliatingly wrong in Covent Garden piazza. "If you think you cannot get out you will not be able to get out," a colleague told him. "You have to believe you can get out." He now seems almost addicted to performance risk; when he felt in control of stand-up he went off to Paris to do his act in a language he could barely speak. It was a disaster, so he plugged away at that, too, and now he can even make Frenchmen laugh. "Why do you want to be a so-so actor when you're a brilliant comedian?" someone asked, just after he'd added that to his to-do list. "Well, once I was a so-so comedian," he replied.

It might all strike you as ruthless - if it wasn't for the man behind it. After one gig in America, a weeping woman dressed as a bee came to the stage door to thank Izzard for bringing her through a recent medical ordeal; she'd been reciting one of his routines as she was wheeled out of the operating room. He reached out and gave her a big hug - which isn't something you can imagine Jimmy Carr or Frankie Boyle doing. And there's a humanising need behind his drive, too. Towards the end of the film, Townsend filmed him shortly after he'd read some old letters his mother had written, expressing her concern for the boys she knew she was about to leave behind: "Everything I do in life is about trying to get her back," Izzard said with tears in his eyes. Personally, I didn't think we needed "Mama Can You See Me Now" on the soundtrack as Izzard opened at Wembley to press the point home. We got it already. But that misjudgement aside, this was a film that began as a fan's DVD extra and steadily deepened into something far more substantial and moving.

Is Frankie Boyle actually funny?

As comedian Frankie Boyle comes under fire for a 'vile' joke about Katie Price's disabled son, Heat's TV editor Boyd Hilton and Time Out's comedy editor Tim Arthur debate whether he is amusing.

The curious title is US Beat novelist Jack Kerouac's term for life-affirming weirdos. It's apt for a set that gently mocks - among others - doomsayers, MPs and Howard's mum. Since making his name as Mock the Week's cheeky chappie, the 30-yearold Bristolian is blossoming into a comic heavyweight. Here we see him at Brighton Dome on his 2008 tour, delighting the crowd with exuberant tales, impish mimes and the obligatory topical gags. Nor does Howard shy away from his excruciatingly uncool childhood. He'll never be razor-sharp, but could teach erstwhile Mock the Week panellist Frankie Boyle a thing or two about enjoying life's vagaries.

Given that he only had enough decent material for one episode, Frankie Boyle really could have done with making his Tramadol Nights series into a one-off special.

Perhaps a half-hour festive programme with the tagline: 'something to offend all the family this Christmas!' would have been a runaway success.

Unfortunately, the third week in the series heralded the second episode in a row that was more gratuitously offensive than it was amusing.

Boyle re-hashed a few gags used only last week involving the supposed gravitational pull of overweight people and there wasn't one sketch that wasn't morally dubious at best. "I'm genuinely surprised I'm getting away with this," he said at one point.

Frankie, my friend, you probably aren't. Give it a few days and Ofcom will be beating down your door once again.

On the plus side, Boyle's stand-up was generally pretty sharp and quite funny and while some viewers might have winced at his one-liners, the audience members seemed perfectly happy to sit back and take in the personal insults.

But instead of starting his writing with the question: 'What will be funny?' he seems to have begun with, 'What's most likely to offend as many people as possible?'

Almost without exception, the sketches were wholly unfunny and the in-house audience seemed to be struggling to raise even the smallest of titters.

However, those who accuse Boyle of being talentless should consider this: during the course of one half-hour television show tonight, Frankie managed to offend grandparents, fat people, Colombians, cancer victims, AIDS victims and victims of sexual abuse... Now that is a unique talent.

While my howls of pain at the continuing run of Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights - aka a televised version of the Nirvana b-side I Hate Myself And I Want To Die - were unnoticed, The Morgana Show gets stronger and stronger.

The show by a relative newcomer is full of great characters and solid sketch comedy. Comparisons with Kenny Everett's show with its grotesque gallery of characters and childish desire to shock have been made and they're on the money.

I loved Kenny Everett's schtick as a kid and Morgana carries on that tradition. Her takedowns of Cheryl Cole, Danni Minogue and Fearne Cotton are particularly brilliant. Skip Frankie Boyle's boorish balderdash and watch the Morgana Show instead.

Jordan: Let's boycott sick Frankie Boyle's DVD

Katie Price is urging fans to boycott sick comic Frankie Boyle's Christmas DVD over his 'jokes' about her disabled son.

Channel 4 defend Boyle over Katie Price joke repeat

Channel 4 has defended the right of comedians to make jokes which "push boundaries" after reality TV star Katie Price complained about Frankie Boyle.

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights review

Mark Smith reckons the Glasgow comedian should concentrate on the jokes, not the shocks.