Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen offers to pay 'Borat' mankini fines

Sacha Baron Cohen has offered to pay fines for six Czech tourists who were arrested in Kazakhstan for wearing nothing but 'Borat' inspired mankinis.

Sacha Baron Cohen latest role inspired by Philip Green

Creator of Ali G and Borat will channel the Top Man owner's appearance in a comedy centred around a retail billionaire.

Sacha Baron Cohen's rapping rude boy from Staines made his big-screen debut with this story that just about sustains its 90 minutes. Ali G is persuaded into politics by a conniving Charles Dance and then has to save PM Michael Gambon from a conspiracy, sort out world peace and ensure the future of his local community centre, where he teaches a Keep it Real class. All with the sort-of-subversive, gross good humour of the TV series.

Grimsby named one of biggest box office turkeys of 2016

Sacha Baron Cohen's spy caper Grimsby has been named one of 2016's biggest turkeys, according to business magazine Forbes.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Norman "Nobby" Butcher, a Grimsby Town football fan suddenly thrust back into the life of his elite government assassin brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), is sadly not a comedic gem of a character to rank with Borat and Brüno. There's some fun in the brothers' riotous, sub-Bond action antics, but the constant stream of gross body-fluid jokes and the mock-northern accent soon grow tiring, while a cast including Penélope Cruz and Ian McShane is pretty much wasted.

The stars who got their big break at the Fringe (Link expired)

Here are just some of the actors and comedians who made their name in the capital.

Sacha Baron Cohen to star as Mandrake the Magician

It was way back in 2012 that Warner Bros first revealed plans to bring Mandrake the Magician to the big screen, but the project seems to finally be gaining some traction thanks to the apparent addition of Sacha Baron Cohen as the titular character.

Cunk on Shakespeare saw the curious alter ego of comedienne Diane Morgan attempt to discover exactly why The Bard's plays are as well-loved as they are. As a character Cunk is a brilliant creation; a presenter who has no actual idea about the subject she's covering but one who won't let this fact stop her at all. As is the way with all these faux-documentaries the most interesting parts are the ones in which the character interviews real experts in the topic. It's always great to try and work out whether or not the experts were taken in by Cunk or not and for the most part I feel they were. I felt that poor Simon Russell Beale probably had the worst of it as he had to complete the famous soliloquy from Hamlet which Cunk described as 'a speech about bees'. Meanwhile Educating Yorkshire's Mr Burton were as a little bemused by the presenter's pronunciation of iambic pentameter and theatre director Iqbal Khan who attempted to explain what the audiences were like in Shakespeare's day. The structure of the show was also expertly laid out with Cunk's idiocy being perfect exploited through several clever segments where she discussed Shakespeare's most famous works. I personally enjoyed the way in which Cunk drew comparisons between Shakespeare's work and the plot of the film Taken with the presenter taking the view that the latter was a more entertaining experience. However the most hilarious moments came at the programme's end when Cunk almost made us believe that Shakespeare's final work was Game of Thrones. Diane Morgan must be given credit for creating a believable character whose presenting style and way with words makes her utterly convincing as a ditzy documentarian. If Cunk on Shakespeare is a sort of pilot to see if a series of shows featuring Philomena would work then I would say it was a success. As long as the scripts are as sharp as they were here, I think a full Philomena Cunk series would be a welcome return to the sort of shows that Sacha Baron Cohen used to make when he was funny. Overall I found Cunk on Shakespeare to be the better of the two comic looks at The Bard's work in comparison to Upstart Crow and it's a shame that it's only a one-off. But that being said I think if the show had been over thirty minutes it may have worn out its welcome rather than being the sharp, witty mockumentary that it ultimately turned out to be.

Cunk on Shakespeare, BBC Two, review

Diane Morgan offers a more complete performance than Sacha Baron Cohen. Ali G's interview sketches were often smash n' grab comedy, but with Cunk we get a satirical dissection of the whole genre. At their best, her jokes unfurled with mille-feuille Alice-In-Wonderland absurdity, the writing, direction and acting lining up perfectly together.