Julian Barratt

The Mighty Boosh: behind-the-scenes photographs

For over a decade, Dave Brown has been taking photographs of his Mighty Boosh collaborators Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. Ahead of a new exhibition, Dave (better known as Bollo the gorilla) explains why he always kept a camera handy.

Mighty Boosh reunite for special Beck gig at Barbican

Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt are due to reunite for the first time in three years as The Mighty Boosh take to the stage at special performance hosted by Beck.

The Mimic, Channel 4, review

The Mimic (Channel 4) is a new sitcom with Terry Mynott playing a dull man, Martin Hurdle, a lowly maintenance operative who is also a brilliant impressionist. Terry Mynott is good at both halves. His dullness is like Julian Barratt's in The Mighty Boosh: understated and unattractive. He smiles like the horse in Picasso's Guernica.

Steve Coogan makes a suitably un-avuncular narrator in this nightmare-before-Christmas tale for older animation fans with a taste for something darker, as spouses Julian Barratt and Julia Davis supply voices. What to buy a boy who has everything? A giant crab, of course.

Joel Veitch - he of the dancing internet cats - writes, and Steve Coogan, Julia Davis and Julian Barratt star in this wonky animated tale of greying Uncle Wormsley and young, wealthy Johnny Goodington. Johnny wants a giant crab for Christmas, but the only person who has one is Wormsley. The boy's parents decide to call in The Crab Catchers to guarantee their precious boy his wish. But at what price? A skewwhiff morality tale that calls to mind Warp Films' superb Bunny and the Bull in tone, this is a weird, exciting half-hour break from the norm.

An earlier slot might have been more suitable for this rudimentary animated children's fable. It's a gruesome, cautionary tale about love, greed and a giant crab, written by Tim Gallagher and Joel Veitch, and produced by Baby Cow. Steve Coogan narrates the story of a miserably creepy, grey old man, Uncle Wormsley, whose sole companion is a huge crab that he keeps in a cage and to whom he feeds the neighbours' pets. Across town lives the spoilt Johnnie, whose parents are obscenely wealthy and who is given everything he wants. But the one thing he craves is a giant crab and so his father enters into a devilish pact with the mysterious "crab-catchers". Julian Barratt, John Thomson and Julia Davis provide the voices.

Julian Barratt cast in Lucy Kirkwood's play 'NSFW'

Julian Barratt is set to star in Lucy Kirkwood's new play, NSFW.

Noel Fielding confirms Mighty Boosh movie is on the way

Noel Fielding has revealed that a Mighty Boosh movie is 'finally' in the works, in which he will team up with Julian Barratt to reprise their roles as Vince Noir and Howard Moon.

Like many, it took me a while to get into The Mighty Boosh, but now I'm one of those people that gets into tetchy arguments while defending it against charges of gross hipsterism. So as a committed fan, I was fascinated to see what Noel Fielding's solo project, Channel 4′s Luxury Comedy, would be like...

Despite my love for Noel's work with Julian Barratt, I have to say I approached his new sketch show with a little trepidation. What really grabbed me about the Boosh wasn't the surreal characters and lo-fi, hand-made visuals, it was just Noel and Julian sat on a bench bickering like an old married couple. I embraced the oddness, but it was the traditional double-act stuff that grounded the show.

From the publicity, though, Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy appeared to be 100% surreal characters and lo-fi, hand-made visuals. They were always Noel's domain - he's had several art exhibitions around London - and without his verbal sparring partner, it seemed that 'grounding the show' was about as far from his mind as observational skits about aeroplane food.

After the first episode, I was left feeling a little flat. I'd chuckled, and the show did indeed look great thanks to the fantastic hand-painted sets and costumes, but the sketches didn't seem to hang together particularly well, and I didn't feel I'd quite got a handle on what Noel was trying to achieve yet.

Thank goodness I followed my own advice and gave a new comedy series a second chance then, as the second episode was a whole lot more enjoyable. Themed around art - with appearances from Andy Warhol and discussions about whether dressing up as a 'fireman baby' is a concept or a joke - the second episode had a satisfying cohesion that was lacking from the first. Is Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy laugh out loud funny? No. Is it interesting, cleverer than it likes to make out and, most importantly, going somewhere? Looks that way...

Noel Fielding: 'I've not ditched The Mighty Boosh'

Comedian says he wants to make film with co-star Julian Barratt.