Mike McShane

Why Felicity Ward, Mike McShane and more are teaming up (Link expired)

Claire Smith meets the performers challenging the stigma around mental ill health and teaming up for a unique benefit show supported by The Scotsman - including Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn, who tell Susan Mansfield about raising awareness while raising a laugh

Mental Health Foundation announces Fringe comedy gala

Line-up includes Felicity Ward, Le Gateau Chocolat, Carl Donnelly, Bryony Kimmings & Tim Grayburn and an improv tribute to the late Robin Williams with Mike McShane and friends.

Review: Paul Merton's Impro Chums

Mike McShane in particular had a fantastic talent for taking a sketch or scene in a completely unexpected direction, to the delight of both the audience and his fellow performers.

Paul Merton's Impro Chums review

I laughed so much I thought at one point my last sight on Earth would be Mike McShane sitting imperiously as a King, waxing lyrical in perfect Shakespeare about an imaginary fish flapping at his feet, while Lee Simpson adopted the guise of a Geordie to trick the Princess into marrying him. Utter comedy genius.

The Stephen Frost extended interview

What Does The Title Matter Anyway? will feature improv favourites such as Greg Proops, Josie Lawrence, Mike McShane, Richard Vranch, Stephen Frost and Colin Mochrie, plus other special guest performers yet to be announced. Martin Walker talks to Stephen Frost and starts by asking the obvious question...

Radio Times review

Is now, or ever, the right time for a sitcom set among soldiers serving in Afghanistan? Bluestone 42 tested the question with its tales of a British army bomb-disposal unit.

Bluestone 42 is written by Richard Hurst and James Cary, who have both worked on Miranda and are experienced comedy technicians. They kept scenes to a minimum length, filled any gaps with gags, and efficiently established their characters and the central plotline of smooth captain Nick (Oliver Chris) chasing cute female padre Mary (Kelly Adams), who finds him attractive despite herself but constantly rebuffs him.

It was a bit too efficient. This was a fairly conservative workplace sitcom, hung on a talking point that was likely to get commissioning editors and journalists interested. There's no cause to doubt Hurst and Cary's research, or their interest in the subject matter. What is in question is whether the comedy and the subject matter meshed together in the right way.

The soldiers were comedy types: a fussy man, a tomboy, an exceptionally vulgar Scot, an omniscient boss (Tony Gardner) who pops up at inconvenient times. They schemed and joked with each other as the captain and the padre set a will-they-won't-they arc going. With Bluestone 42 unwilling to offer comment on the war itself, the driver for episode one's plot might as well have been a lost lever-arch file or someone scratching the MD's car.

In fact it was an American colonel (Mike McShane) being fatally shot in the head, the flip treatment of which might well have troubled you if you view Western soldiers in Afghanistan as making a grim but glorious sacrifice. But if you see them as oppressive occupiers, Bluestone 42 had that covered too. The Yank's death was softened in advance by his annoying habit of crowing endlessly about his tour of duty in Fallujah.

Fallujah. Fallujah. The word became a punchline. It's just one of those funny place names, isn't it? Like Penge, or Kidderminster. At least it might be for viewers who are a bit hazy on what happened to the locals there in 2004. Anyway, Nick the raffish captain sorted out all the palaver about the team being fired on by launching an RPG into the Afghans' hut, killing them all and letting us get back to the comedy.

Of course a sitcom in a warzone isn't off-limits. But Bluestone 42 shows that it's... a minefield.

Edinburgh Festival 2012: Mike McShane, interview

Improvisation whizz Mike McShane has prepared an entertaining, oddball play of his own for the Edinburgh Festival, he tells Dominic Cavendish.