Tim Rice

Why Just a Minute hides a far more ruthless reality

Just A Minute has become one of the nation's most beloved radio shows -- but it began as a classroom humiliation, inflicted on daydreamers by a history teacher at Sherborne School in the Thirties.

In which Simon Day's progger attempts to stage a live performance of his Day Of The Triffids musical ("The Triffids descend from the skies/ To sting our eyes!") at Mount Kilimanjaro. What could possibly go wrong? Actually, aside from being mistaken for a racist, not much: Roger Moore's a hoot as the Richard Burton-style narrator, gamely ploughing on through a Triffid-human molestation sequence: as Tim Rice comments, "It didn't go down very well with Germaine Greer - or Percy Thrower."

Brian Pern: A Life in Rock was very funny indeed, and featured great cameos from, among others, Martin Freeman, Kathy Burke and Tim Rice. It's splenetic, hilarious and just wrong. Can there be yet another urgent need to send up the pomp of the prog-rock years when it has already been spoofed so sublimely by Spinal Tap, and The Comic Strip's Bad News Tour?

Simon Day is behind this, and very good he is too, and you should watch it if you haven't watched any other satire on 70s musical vainglory. But if you have, you'll simply be asking yourself: why?

Anybody who saw the faux documentary presented by Brian Pern (Simon Day) on BBC4 knows that the frontman of Genesis-esque prog rock band Thotch is a great comedy creation.

Director Rhys Thomas, who co-wrote the series along with Day, brilliantly portrays the life of an ageing rocker as he tries to keep himself relevant with a modern audience. The stories of Pern refusing to be in a room with his former bandmates (played brilliantly by Paul Whitehouse and Nigel Havers) were perfectly pitched. The creation of a Thotch jukebox musical was an equally enjoyable subplot especially when the show's director Kathy Burke decided to cut all of the overly long Thotch songs from the show.

I personally enjoyed the final few moments of the comedy as Pern was dragged into the police station in a manner that would suggest he was part of a Yewtree-type investigation. But the punchline itself was brilliantly delivered as was the reaction from Pern's manager John Farrow (Michael Kitchen).

Part of the charm of Brian Pern is the fact that everyone is willing to go that extra mile and, in the case of those playing themselves, send up certain elements of their characters. Martin Freeman is a prime example of this as he tries to capture Pern's mannerisms in order to correctly portray him in the musical.

Meanwhile, a cameoing Tim Rice perfectly sums up his feelings about the Jukebox musical and how they've taken away from his type of musical theatre.

Although some of the jokes don't hit the mark, Brian Pern: A Life in Rock is a perfectly constructed mockumentary that owes a massive debt to the work of Christopher Guest. The fact that the sitcom is only three parts means that it won't outstay it's welcome and at the same time will leave the audience craving for more from Day's egotistical prog rocker.

Silly ideas other sketch shows wouldn't consider, written and performed with care and expertise other sketch shows cannot match: that's this series in a nutshell.

Tonight! A time traveller goes back to 1969 to kill Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice before they can finish Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We ask Buzz Aldrin what Neil Armstrong really said when he stepped onto the Moon. Plus, the Amish Sex Pistols.

It's all great, with Kevin Eldon's bold decision to be at the centre of everything giving it an extra bit of authored uniqueness.

Norman Wisdom: tributes to brilliant slapstic comedian

Sir Tim Rice has led the tributes to Sir Norman Wisdom, who died at the age of 95, describing the actor as a "brilliant slapstick comedian".