Press clippings Page 32
Having become something of a success during the Paralympics last year, Channel 4 has brought back this live chat show looking at the week's events - and trying to ask questions no-one else would.
Hosted by Adam Hills (disabled - one foot), and featuring contributions from Josh Widdicombe (not disabled) and sports journalist Alex Brooker (disabled - one leg, hand deformities), The Last Leg features interviews with guests (this week it's actor Idris Elba - not disabled), as well as topical discussion.
However, the main feature is the contributions from online, especially under the Twitter hashtag #IsItOk, where people are encouraged to ask more uncomfortable and difficult questions, without fear of judgement. In this case I would like to ask my own question: #IsItOk that the mentally disabled get so much less TV coverage than the physically disabled?
I ask this because I'm disabled myself, but my disability is Asperger's syndrome. It's something I have written about before but I'm willing to bring it up again; the only disabled people you ever see on TV are those who look different, whether it's in terms of their appearance (e.g. missing limbs) or whether have to use some form of equipment (e.g. artificial feet). If you're disabled but look perfectly normal - because the part of you that's been affected is your brain, like mine is - then you might as well forget getting any coverage.
Over the next few days the Winter Special Olympics, which are the games for the mentally disabled, will be held in South Korea. The amount of coverage being given to it is minimal. The British have got seven alpine skiers going to the games, but will we see their efforts on national television? I somehow doubt we will. I fear that the names Wayne McCarthy, Jane Andrews, Mikael Undrom, Elizabeth Allen, Luke Purdie, Clare Lines and Robert Holden will not be remembered, or even acknowledged by most people.
However, for what it does, The Last Leg seems to cover most things rather well. My main problem, other than what I have already mentioned, is that half-an-hour seems too short. A live show like this needs more airtime to get comfortable.
Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 28th January 2013Josh Widdicombe interview
Comedian Josh Widdicombe talks to Rupert Hawksley about the new series of The Last Leg, disability . . . and Nick Clegg
Rupert Hawksley, The Telegraph, 25th January 2013This comedy chat show first saw the light of day as a cheeky late-night companion to the Paralympics last summer. Hosted by Australian stand-up Adam Hills, flanked by comedian Josh Widdicombe and presenter Alex Brooker - and tonight joined by Luther star Idris Elba as a special guest - the show boldly bowls into territory the PC police would declare off limits as it reviews the week's events. During the Paralympics, Hills and co dared to treat competitors as real people rather than brave saints and they encouraged viewers to join in - the show's Twitter hashtag #isitok is still live, so expect to see photos of Paralympic snowmen for openers.
Carol Carter and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 25th January 2013There were many triumphs of the sporting summer but one of the less trumpeted was Channel 4's late-night Paralympic chat show. Free-wheeling and sparky, it felt like a new, relaxed angle on the comedy "gang show", with Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker backing up suave Australian host Adam Hills. Their reward is a series of non-Paralympic, Friday-night slots in which to "celebrate all that is best about Britain". And of course they'll still be asking their fateful, PC-skirting question, "Is it OK..?"
David Butcher, Radio Times, 25th January 2013Adam Hills was one of the Paralympics' more unlikely stars, widely praised for his comic yet pointed take on the Games. So much so that this new series sees him being offered the chance to widen his brief: tonight, he'll return alongside regular sidekicks Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker to cast his eye over the last seven days of news. Expect regular updates, too, on Brooker's quest to participate in the Rio Paralympics. Well, as Games aftermaths go, it'll surely have more to recommend it than Tom Daley's Splash - Idris Elba, for one, who is the guest for tonight's opening edition.
Phil Harrison, Time Out, 25th January 2013Their naughty nightly chat show during the Paralympic Games deservedly became a cult hit. Now likeable Australian stand-up Adam Hills and his two sidekicks, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, present this weekly live review of the past seven days. Joining them on their opening show is actor Idris Elba.
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 24th January 2013Thanks to the success that was The Last Leg during the 2012 Paralympics - no less a critic than Clive James said it was almost the best bit of the whole shebang - genial Aussie comedian Adam Hills returns to present a round-up of the week's events in the news. He's joined again by stand-up Josh Widdicombe and sportswriter Alex Brooker. Doubtless their easy-going chemistry and quick quippery will snag them an even sturdier audience than the one they earned over the summer.
Ben Arnold, The Guardian, 17th January 2013A new comedy series in which three comedians (this week Frank Skinner, Josh Widdicombe and Roisin Conaty), presided over by Jack Dee, mock the lives and habits of four selected (and willing) audience members. Each round sees the spectator with least comic value being voted off. Desperately unfunny.
Simon Horsford, The Telegraph, 26th October 2012If you're missing Josh Widdicombe from Adam Hills's Paralympics show The Last Leg, then you get another dose of the droll comic in this belated Edinburgh dispatch as he hosts Welsh wonder Mark Watson, cosy Iranian Shappi Khorsandi and Radio 4 regular turned Spamalot star Marcus Brigstocke.
Sharon Lougher and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 13th September 2012The Last Leg with Adam Hills is something of a high-risk venture, and the comedian fronting it reminds us frequently that he has a prosthetic leg, giving him licence to crack jokes that most of us wouldn't dream of.
The fact that he's an Australian helps - no one expects him to be subtle. "You will say the wrong thing," he said in the first show. "Don't worry." Then he went on to ponder whether in the equestrian events it should be the horse rather than the rider that is disabled.
Rather more edgy was the contribution of Josh Widdicombe, a vaguely recognisable comic who has no disabilities. His report on the day's events included an item on how horses defecating in the arena was supposed to be beneficial to their performance. If horses are to be the focus of attention at these Games, then someone in the production department has got the wrong idea. No wonder that Balding is anchoring the coverage.
But it's not quite as wrong as Widdicombe's jokes about how the weightlifters don't have to lift the weights very high. Joshing Josh may have to raise his game a little - or they may as well go for his namesake Ann. Or Frankie Boyle.
Andrew Tong, The Independent, 2nd September 2012