Press clippings Page 57
Jack Whitehall worried about his use of Queen's English
Posh Jack Whitehall fears he has helped blow Cheryl Cole's chances of making it big in the US - by joining the wave of well-spoken Brits taking the States by storm.
Leigh Holmwood, The Sun, 19th March 2012At just 23, Jack Whitehall has been a fixture on TV's comedy panel game circuit for years and his recent appearance in the hit student sitcom Fresh Meat has won him a new set of fans. Now Channel 4 gives him a show of his own for the first time - in which he tours the country, mingling with locals and getting unsuspecting families to put him up before his gigs. He starts tonight in South Wales, playing a cameo role in Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm and, in inspired disguise, taking on the training session of a rugby team. It's all good fun but the broad humour definitely makes it deserving of this post-watershed slot. With guests Ruth Jones and Lethal Bizzle.
Gerard O'Donovan, The Telegraph, 19th March 2012Jack Whitehall's stock has risen exponentially recently, thanks largely to his impressively judged turn as JP in Fresh Meat. If only Hit The Road Jack were cut from such adventurous cloth. A tour with a difference, it begins with Whitehall's basically harmless but low-rent stand-up, before he is "embedded" in the local community with slightly more amusing consequences (he keeps a creditably straight face while posing as an Australian rugby guru in Wales). He's a vaguely charming Jack of all trades but ultimately doesn't excel at any, save the acting.
John Robinson, The Guardian, 19th March 2012Wish I'd been at the recent NME Awards because it sounds like Jack Whitehall did a fine job as host. Introducing the Kaiser Chiefs' singer he said: "Here to present the award is Ricky Wilson, a man who can predict riots seven years in advance. Here he is clad exclusively in Foot Locker." This is his comedy roadshow, beginning in Cardiff.
The Scotsman, 18th March 2012We're big fans of Jack Whitehall here at Digital Spy and we're dying to see whether he can shine in his first big solo TV outing. It's a bit of a strange premise, to be honest, blending together character-based comedy with elements of chatshows and travel documentaries as Jack sets off on a comedy tour of the UK. The first episode sees him joining a male choir and coaching a rugby team in Wales, before having a sit down with Miss Gavin & Stacey herself, Ruth Jones.
Digital Spy, 18th March 2012Jack Whitehall replacing Georgie Thompson on ALOTO
Comic Jack Whitehall is replacing Georgie Thompson as a regular on Sky1 sports panel show A League Of Their Own.
The Sun, 15th March 2012How do you transfer stand-up comedians from stage to screen? I can't say it's a question which pre-occupies me, but surely you just stick them in Moss Bros' finest and wire up a microphone. After all, that worked for Frank Carson. Ah, but he was funny. Comics now aren't, or at least not funny-funny. And viewers these days demand more than just gags which, as Eamon Holmes (not a comedian) clumsily put it after Carson's funeral service, are every bit as rat-tat-tat as the gunfire which once echoed round Belfast's streets. Thus, for our more sophisticated tastes, we get The Sarah Millican Television Programme. Oh dear.
The title sequence of spinning TV sets ("I absolutely love telly," Millican will inform us) is itself a relic, though maybe this is irony (ha bloody ha). The canned laughter is too loud. There are interviews (the first one was stilted and went on too long) and there is acting. This should be covered by a warning, like strobe effects are, because apart from Jack Whitehall in Fresh Meat, comedians can't act. Millican was trying to pick up men in a bar after coaching from a sexpert and it was awful. The thing is, she's funny - and filthy. She should have just donned a dinner suit for some of the old rat-tat-tat.
Aidan Smith, The Scotsman, 14th March 2012Jack Whitehall: don't hate me because I'm posh
The Fresh Meat star claims that his middle-class background infuriates the critics.
Radio Times, 13th March 2012The hilarious Secret Policeman's Ball is back to mark Amnesty International's 50th anniversary.
Recorded last Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York, it's the first time the gala event has been held outside the UK since John Cleese and his friends brought together musicians and comedians for the first show in 1976.
It might also be the first time that Coldplay and professional hecklers Statler and Waldorf, from The Muppets, have appeared on the same bill.
The all star-cast also features comics from both sides of the Atlantic, including David Walliams, Ben Stiller, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Carr, Noel Fielding and Jack Whitehall, with music from Mumford & Sons.
Jane Simon, The Mirror, 9th March 2012The Amnesty International benefit show returns after a four-year hiatus with a transatlanic special, taking place for the first time in New York at the Radio City Music Hall. Recorded on Sunday, the show celebrates the charity's 50th anniversary with a stellar comedy line-up including Russell Brand, Ben Stiller, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Silverman, Jack Whitehall, Jon Stewart and The Muppets. There's music, too, from Mumford & Sons and Coldplay, whose frontman, Chris Martin, announces onstage: "We take pleasure in being the least funny act here."
Patrick Smith, The Telegraph, 8th March 2012