Nancy Banks-Smith
- English
- Reviewer
Press clippings Page 5
Two comics talking together often look as if they are conspiring to blow something up. Ricky Gervais Meets ... Larry David (Channel 4) made for fascinating eavesdropping.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 6th January 2006When ITV finally showed the play - quietly, belatedly and late at night - Jack Rosenthal was dead. If he's listening, I found it full of wonderful things, as Howard Carter said, peering into Tutankhamen's tomb and seeing bygone glory.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 27th December 2005Broken News, which is very good in parts, would have been just as good on radio.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 1st November 2005The treat of the night was The Thick of It (BBC 4), a firework display of testosterone and undeleted expletives.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 28th October 2005The cast is surprisingly fine and the late slot means the writers can get away with murder. The funniest thing is probably the thought of the Blackpool Tourist Board's face.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 25th October 2005What Mike Bassett: Manager (ITV1) has going for it is the built-in bounce of Ricky Tomlinson as Bassett.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 7th October 2005A fool's paradise
The Green Green Grass is a pleasantly old fashioned sitcom. Boycie and Marlene bicker with the skill of long practice ("They don't like me!" "Nobody likes you but you never moved to Shropshire before"). There are crafty local yokels with comical monikers and an appreciative audience of, apparently, close friends.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 10th September 2005Extras (BBC2) is pushing laughter to the ouch point.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 12th August 2005Holy inappropriate
There are comedies that make you laugh and comedies that make you weep. Watching Extras I heard myself crying, as the salt stiffened on my cheeks, "Stop it! Oh, stop it. You're hurting me!"
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 5th August 2005Nude awakening
Still Game is a sort of Last of the Summer Scotch. Old men are bouncing back to childhood with some brio, dedicated to the great cause of cheering themselves up.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 23rd July 2005