Laura Solon

New US deal for Laura Solon

Laura Solon is to write a new sitcom for American TV.

Laura Solon heads to Sundance Film Festival

Comedian Laura Solon is set to compete for a prize at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

If that's a slow-burner, Laura Solon's Talking and Not Talking is rapid-fire and harder-edged and shows that BBC comedy is still alive and kicking. I liked Dargon the alien invader falling foul of health and safety legislation, and the posh MP - "When I was Minister for Rural Affairs I had to visit over two farms." And I loved the former East European tyrant over here looking for work: "People used to call me 'Olga the aaaaagh!'" She'd have had Evan Davis for breakfast.

New comedy improvisation show with a very talented cast. Hugh Dennis hosts and the performers include The Thick Of It's Justin Edwards, Perrier-winner Laura Solon, The Penny Dreadfuls' Humphrey Ker and Greg Davies from The Inbetweeners. It's a pacey mix of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Dan Patterson created that and this) and Mock the Week but in a good way. It's new comedy, so try to give it at least two episodes before you whine endlessly on Twitter about how rubbish you think it is.

Second helping of this new comedy improv show from the makers of Mock The Week. Hugh Dennis, of the aforementioned topical comedy vehicle, is the most prominent name involved, but Fast and Loose is also a showcase for some of the most respected names on the live comedy circuit, such as Laura Solon and Justin Edwards (aka hilarious drunken children's entertainer Jeremy Lion).

This improvised show promises to leave viewers gasping like Gillian McKeith facing a bucket of maggots.

Created by veteran producer Dan Paterson, it sounds like his Whose Line Is It Anyway? for a new generation no bad thing.

Comedy talent, including Laura Solon, Justin Edwards, Marek Larwood, Pippa Evans, Humphrey Ker, David Armand and Greg Davies, will be pitting their wits in a series of games spoofing films, TV programmes and music.

Host Hugh Dennis says: "We have electronic trickery, animated chickens, songs and games including a fantastic sideways scene. It's half an hour of controlled improvised silliness and there is no scoring and no stars."

Laura Solon, the quick-thinking queen of improv comedy

The Perrier award winner riffs on being funny in just two seconds for BBC2's Fast and Loose.

The running gag about the hapless middle-ager who's fallen hopelessly in love with the Polish girl at his local café definitely draws on a dynamic in which the humour lies mostly in what isn't said. Laura Solon is syllable-perfect as the contemptuous Pole, and Harry Enfield wonderfully glum as a man who can't give up hoping, despite knowing that things are hopeless. I'm always glad to see the establishing frame which tells you its coming, which isn't always the case in Harry and Paul, an odd mixture of running gags that still have legs and those that have long run their course. It's a question of taste I guess. "Parking Pataweyo", a cod-children's programme built around a Nigerian traffic warden, struck me as being only just funny enough for a one-off, and a recurrent sketch in which two old clubland buffers discuss the sexual orientation of celebrities is so unvarying in its script that even the energy of the comic acting can't revive it. But I can take any amount of the lubricious Italian prime minister or (a genuinely trenchant bit of social satire this) I Saw You Coming, which revolves around the endless gullibility of ladies who lunch. This week the character had gone into the spa business and was offering a novel activity he called "Detoxerboxercize". "I literally beat the crap out of you," he explained. His mark looked momentarily doubtful until he added the magic words: "It's good for releasing toxins."

Laura Solon: My Edinburgh

With all this youthful enthusiasm and unfettered clutter, the festival is crying out for a big Fringe Mum to come along and tell everyone to tidy up.

Laura Solon: My Edinburgh

When it comes to titles, the more obscure-sounding and animal-heavy the better.