British Comedy Guide
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James Corden
James Corden

James Corden

  • 46 years old
  • English
  • Actor, writer, executive producer and presenter

Press clippings Page 55

Simon Amstell made this pop-music panel game outrageously, unmissably funny - but he also made it his own. It was Amstell doing a comedy act, with a quiz interrupting on occasion. Now he's made the logical decision to concentrate on his own stand-up, where he won't have to weave his jokes around asking someone from GMTV questions about Climie Fisher. So Buzzcocks has been left to go down the guest-host route. First to try to follow Amstell is James Corden, co-creator of both the untouchable Gavin & Stacey and the relentlessly (and slightly unfairly) panned Horne & Corden. His appearances on panel shows so far have been more fun for him than for us, but he's naturally funny and he knows his music. Also new, but full-time, is team captain Noel Fielding of absurdist rock-star comedy duo Mighty Boosh. He should slot right in opposite Phill Jupitus, who's now in his 14th year of humming intros and picking has-beens out of line-ups.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 1st October 2009

For those worried that they'd not seen much of James Corden on their screens recently, relax, he's back. He hosts the umpteenth return of Buzzcocks - along with Noel Fielding, who's back as a team captain. The quick-witted Simon Amstell is gone, so now it's a revolving-door host policy, with the ability to read an autocue and laugh generously at unfunny gags by Phill Jupitus the only qualifications that seem to be required. Fine, anything that keeps Mark Lamarr from clawing his way back on to our screens.

Phelim O'Neill, The Guardian, 1st October 2009

Pop World has never been the same since Simon Amstell left. Will Buzzcocks go the same way, particularly now it's going down the rudderless route of guest hosts? In fashioning himself into a TV personality, tonight's host, James Corden, hasn't been quite as funny as he thinks he is. Still, he made a good fist of things as a guest captain last year, and he's not the only newbie trying to impress here: achingly hip Noel Fielding is now a permanent fixture.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 1st October 2009

'Turkey' is too noble a word for a cinematic abomination that should have slunk straight to DVD, or ideally, straight to bin. Now more overexposed than Lindsay Lohan's lady parts, James Corden and Mathew Horne take time out from being unfunny on TV to do the same in this gaggingly desperateto-be-a-cult horror/comedy. Shot in digital soft-focus à la 300, it's basically a tribute (in the sense of lazy, utterly irony-free rip-off) to ye olde Hammer Horror movies, that sees heart-broken Jimmy (Horne) and his loveable fat friend Fletch (Corden) go hiking to a remote village, only to stumble across a coven of gay girl vamps. Boasting bare boobies galore, this might appeal to Nuts readers (if they're drunk), while women viewers will be universally repelled by the horrific levels of female-fear-and-loathing. Shaun Of The Dead this most certainly ain't - in fact, it makes Ant and Dec's feeble sci-fi effort Alien Autopsy a masterpiece to rival Aliens.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 11th August 2009

You can't blame BBC3 for constantly repeating its best-ever programme. Here's yet another chance to laugh along with a long-distance relationship conducted in Billericay (his home) and Barry Island (hers), complicated by the young lovers' ditsiness and their weird families and friends. The starry supporting cast (Alison Steadman, Rob Brydon, plus writers Ruth Jones and James Corden) provide the vulgar belly laughs, all as larger-than-life loons who never quite tip over into caricature, thanks to the earthy, affectionate script.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 3rd August 2009

Not for Kevin Bishop the diplomatic approach: his sketch show puts the boot into the foibles of the entertainment industry he's intrinsically a part of. Impersonations - a staple of Bishop's comedy - are pretty thin fare on their own, but this rapid-fire sketch show also hits some worthy targets. In tonight's show, we are shown the tragedy of Derren Brown's cab-driving brother, Darren, see Hugh Laurie's out-takes from House, and - most enjoyably - observe TV comedy's boom-and-bust duo James Corden and Mathew Horne in a remake of On the Buses.

The Guardian, 31st July 2009

Just hours after her 10-year run on This Morning comes to a tearful end today (we predict), Fern Britton is back on our screens as a team captain (together with Jason Manford) on a new TV trivia quiz hosted by Steve Jones.

Not quite as leftfield as Charlie Brooker's You Have Been Watching, on C4 - this is actually good fun with some cleverly inventive rounds in which the panellists show off their telly knowledge.

Bonus points tonight go to Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, for pointing out that their studio desk looks like a giant red toilet bowl. "We're like germs under the rim," he grumbles, accurately. And a prize to the wag responsible for providing us with a (possibly unintentional) shot of Steve Jones posed neatly between the nipples of a bare-chested James Corden.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 17th July 2009

It's Gavin & Stacey... and Tom

Gavin & Stacey show bosses are busy creating a new character in the series for Tom Jones.

The Sun, 4th July 2009

Bafflingly, this has made the move to BBC2, so in case you didn't see the first run of the sketch show that earned the ever-present Mathew Horne and James Corden such a mauling, here's a second chance. It's hard to know what's more bleak about it - how witlessly crude it is, the air of nastiness that comes with characters like gay reporter Tim Woodall (in a war zone! In tiny shorts!) or, crucially, the lack of anything even resembling humour - unless the repeated sight of a jiggling belly is your thing.

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 3rd July 2009

The golden boys of Gavin and Stacey, Mathew Horne and James Corden, were rewarded with their own sketch show on BBC Three, which attracted a record audience of 817,000 for the first episode. After that, it was downhill all the way. Directed by Kathy Burke, the show was roundly slated for being amateurish, crude and aggressively unfunny. Viewing figures collapsed, with only 434,000 bothering with the final episode. In one sketch, two teachers give a joint lesson to a class on how to draw penises; in another, James Corden keeps shouting "I'm going to come!" while having sex. Elsewhere, he pulls up his shirt and rolls his stomach in front of a burger bar as a form of consumer complaint. The acting is accomplished enough, but that's as far it goes. Viewers on terrestrial television can now find out what they haven't been missing.

David Chater, The Times, 3rd July 2009

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