British Comedy Guide
British Comedy Guide
Graham McCann
Graham McCann

Graham McCann

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Graham McCann features

Neil Innes Features

Comedy Chronicles: Do I have to spell it out? Neil Innes own right

Sunday 17th November 2024

A profile of Neil Innes, the comedy writer and musician who so many times managed to dip our hearts, as well as our brains, in joy.

Duggie Small Features

Comedy Chronicles: Up and away - The big fall of Duggie Small

Sunday 3rd November 2024

The sobering, warning story of comedian Duggie Small. He won TV talent show New Faces in 1986 but things did not go smoothly for him.

Image shows left to right: Derek Nimmo, Bill Maynard Features

Comedy Chronicles: Stage fight: When comics fall out in plain sight

Sunday 20th October 2024

A look at squabbles between stars that took place in the full glare of the spotlight. When Bill Maynard was paired with Derek Nimmo it turned out to be a particularly notable recipe for resentment, rage and revenge.

Jokers Wild. Ray Martine. Credit: ITV Features

Comedy Chronicles: A Hackney diamond - The much-misunderstood Ray Martine

Sunday 6th October 2024

A record-straightening reappraisal of comedian Ray Martine, usually either forgotten or lazily maligned, his career heights and boundary-pushing bite are long overlooked.

Roy Jay Features

Comedy Chronicles: You'll all be doing it tomorrow - The strange ways of Roy Jay

Sunday 22nd September 2024

'Slither!'. 'Spook!'. Graham McCann recounts the slow rise and rapid fall of Roy Jay, the comic with a strange zig-zaggy walk. Graham McCann recounts the slow rise and rapid fall of Roy Jay, the comic with a strange zig-zaggy walk.

Betty Marsden Features

Comedy Chronicles: Tell me darling - am I going too far?: The protean powers of Betty Marsden

Sunday 8th September 2024

The overlooked and untold subject in this article is the chameleonesque comedian and actor Betty Marsden, best remembered for roles in Round The Horne and Carry On Camping.

Eric Barker Features

Comedy Chronicles: Hark at the other Barker - The many achievements of Eric Barker

Sunday 25th August 2024

A profile of Eric Barker. He is best-remembered these days for his roles in countless British film comedies from the middle of the 20th-century, including several of the Carry Ons. That, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Peter Sellers: A State Of Comic Ecstasy. Peter Sellers Features

Comedy Chronicles: 'A very small pebble in a very large pool' - When Peter Sellers broke up with the BBC

Sunday 11th August 2024

Graham McCann recounts the bitter feud between Peter Sellers and BBC executive Tom Sloan.

Image shows left to right: Benny Hill, Dennis Kirkland Features

Comedy Chronicles - A dubious double act: Benny Hill and Dennis Kirkland

Sunday 28th July 2024

Benny Hill is noted as one of British television's great comic minds, but, entwined with producer Dennis Kirkland his fall from grace at the end of the 1980s is more complex than is often described.

Martin Lewis Features

Comedy Chronicles: The increasingly big balls of Martin Lewis

Sunday 14th July 2024

There has never been anyone quite like show business operator Martin Lewis. This profile particularly focuses on his work helping to create and grow Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball comedy fundraising shows.

Till Death Us Do Part. Image shows left to right: Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell), Arthur Blenkinsopp (Eric Sykes). Credit: BBC Features

Comedy Chronicles: Up the polls! - Election campaigns and comedy

Sunday 30th June 2024

Comedy and politics regularly mix, but there has long been a significant hesitation amongst television broadcasters to poke fun during election campaign periods.

On The Buses. Jack Harper (Bob Grant) Features

Comedy Chronicles: The bus stop - The post-fame fate of Bob Grant

Sunday 16th June 2024

Bob Grant found fame in 1970s sitcom On The Buses. It was the role that made him, but also, alas, the one that broke him.

The Queen and Bernard Delfont Features

Comedy Chronicles: Bernard Delfont's theatrical reign

Sunday 2nd June 2024

There was a time, roughly from the 1950s to the 1990s, when it seemed as though just about anything that was funny, as well as dramatic, that was going on inside a British theatre had arrived there courtesy of Bernard Delfont. Here's an in-depth profile of the entertainment impresario.

Image shows left to right: John Junkin, Barry Cryer Features

Comedy Chronicles: Taking on the tabula rasa: Inside the writing room

Sunday 19th May 2024

Writing comedy. Some like to do it standing up; some prefer sitting down; and others have ended up lying flat out on the floor. Graham McCann examines how some of Britain's finest comic minds got their words down on the page.

Lew Grade Features

Comedy Chronicles: How Lew Grade knocked entertainment into shape

Sunday 5th May 2024

A profile of Lew Grade, one of the most powerful TV executives who - via companies such as ATV - defined the comedy that appeared on television from the 1950s onwards.

Deryck Guyler Features

Comedy Chronicles: Oh yes! - The comic guile of Deryck Guyler

Sunday 21st April 2024

A profile of Deryck Guyler, the comic actor who for much of the Sixties and Seventies on British television was the comic embodiment of the Jobsworth.

John Le Mesurier Features

Comedy Chronicles: Playtime - The leisure of John Le Mesurier

Sunday 7th April 2024

Marking 112 years since his birth, biographer Graham McCann explores the truth behind the private life and pleasures of actor and beloved sitcom star, John Le Mesurier.

Val Parnell Features

Comedy Chronicles: The Duce of Entertainment - Comedy, commercial TV and Val Parnell

Sunday 24th March 2024

Val Parnell was one of Britain's most significant and influential impresarios of the twentieth century. A major manager of the live variety circuit, a powerful promoter of talent and one of the pioneers of commercial television, he helped shape, maintain and move on what passed as popular entertainment in this country for the best part of fifty years.

Jimmy James Features

Comedy Chronicles - The Comedians' Comedian: The art and impact of Jimmy James

Sunday 10th March 2024

Who influenced comics as diverse and star-studded as Peter Cook, Morecambe & Wise, Frankie Howerd, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock? The great Jimmy James, that's who.

Rita Webb Features

Comedy Chronicles: Rita Webb

Sunday 25th February 2024

On the 120th anniversary of her birth, Comedy Chronicles looks back at the life and career of Rita Webb, the comic actor who often played working class characters.

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