Simon Pegg

Laugh Lines: from Dad's Army to Hippies

Bruce Dessau's guide to TV comedy: Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews' underrated sitcom Hippies, starring Simon Pegg, could have been fathered by Dad's Army.

US Spaced: the wait (and the hope) is over

The US version of Channel 4 sitcom Spaced has become the stuff of TV legend. There was much excitement when Fox announced it was adapting the sitcom three years ago, to be helmed by none other than the director of Charlie's Angels director, McG. But fans feared the worst when it turned out that none of three people behind the original version - Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) - were involved in the remake. It was nothing to the reaction of Wright and co when they finally saw the finished version ("McSpaced" as Wright called it). Disappointed doesn't quite do it justice. "I am worried about the large amount of you who stabbed out their eyes or washed them with bleach after watching the US pilot. My sympathies," said Wright on Twitter today. For everyone else who hasn't seen it, the Stateside version has now made it to the web, so fans can finally see it for themselves. Pining for the original? Ah, that's better.

Simon Pegg plays infamous serial killer

Simon Pegg looks spooked - as he plays one of the infamous Burke and Hare serial killers.

More Burke & Hare Cast Announced

Details of the full cast have been announced for John Landis' Burke And Hare, and if you thought you were excited by the casting of Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, prepare to do geeky cartwheels at the news that Jessica Hynes, Bill Bailey, Reece Shearsmith and Sir Christopher Lee are all on board.

It might be a decade old, but back-to-back repeats of this flatshare comedy are still reason enough to stay in. Quirkily written and acted by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, as she was then, Spaced is still effortlessly cool and funny, with edits and camera tricks that are now used by everyone. This first episode introduces non-couple Tim and Daisy, manically intense artist Brian and their dipso landlady. Pegg and director Edgar Wright went on to make popcorn classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but this was better by miles: honed, inventive and sweet as a nut.

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's British zombie comedy is amusing, smart and, towards the end, genuinely tense. Shaun (Pegg), who's in a dull job and a fractious relationship, finds his humdrum routine disrupted when almost everyone else in the country turns into a zombie. There's a special geeky pleasure in spotting all the film-buff in-jokes.

Revisiting this flatshare comedy, quirkily written and acted by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, is an unalloyed pleasure. Although it's ten years old (noooooo!), Spaced is still effortlessly cool and funny, with edits and camera tricks that are now used by every Tom, Dick and Harry. This one introduces us to non-couple Tim and Daisy, as well as manically intense artist Brian and dipso landlady Marsha. Pegg and director Edgar Wright went on to make popcorn classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but this was better by miles: honed, joyously inventive and sweet as a nut.

'Spaced' brings the slacker to the small screen

This summer, I came to the realization that working from nine to five, Monday through Friday, is referred to as the "daily grind" for a reason. Even though I was working at an internship that I loved, with people I enjoyed, doing work that I felt was important, I still had a hard time adjusting to a schedule that didn't allow for afternoon naps and FailBlog breaks. I was filled with nostalgia for the time, only a few months earlier, when my days started at 11 a.m. and my afternoons were filled with macaroni and cheese and Comedy Central.

This nostalgia was a contributing factor to my newfound, yet deep and abiding, love for the short-lived British sitcom Spaced. The show was created by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the geniuses behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, two of my favorite movies of all time. Pegg and Jessica Hynes (who played Shaun's female counterpart, Yvonne, in Shaun of the Dead) star as Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner, two post-adolescent slackers who pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat whose advertisement proclaims it to be for "professional couples" only.

Simon Pegg excels in this comic tribute to George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead. When London becomes overrun by flesh-eating zombies, Shaun (Pegg) finds that the only solution is to head for the pub with the few survivors. From there, they use anything that comes to hand - such as Dire Straits LPs - to fend off the undead. It may slacken a little towards the end but the humour and gore just about suffice.

Big Train seems to be achieving belated cult status. There are several reasons for the delayed reaction, perhaps most notably the cast's subsequent successes: in the second series from 2002, which is showing this weekend, Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg and Green Wing's Mark Heap are joined by a pre-fame Catherine Tate and a pre-EastEnders Tracy-Ann Oberman. But it is the off-the-wall humour of the writers, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, the creators of Father Ted, that really makes this one comedy repeat worth devoting a significant part of your weekend to.