The Week in Comedy: Roy Walker, Jerry Sadowitz & Dawn French
ITV are developing a new panel show that pits old comics against new stand-ups. Cracking stuff. Tom O’Connor, Roy Walker, Hal Cruttenden, Roisin Conaty and Rob Beckett will take part in next month’s run through for…Battle of the Ages.
Jo Brand and Frank Skinner will judge the next series of Let’s Dance for Sport Relief. Tim Vine, John Culshaw and Nina Conti are amongst the contestants.
Entries are now open for The Sitcom Mission 2013 – the comedy writing contest backed by the British Comedy Guide. Details.
Mrs Brown’s Boys could return for a forth series in 2014. Creator Brendan O’Carroll said: “I always said from the outset to my producer, Stephen McCrum, that it would be three series and that would be it. But it’s been so successful and they’re offering so much money, that we’re doing the movie this year.” He added: “Once we’ve finished that there may possibly be a fourth series.”
Meanwhile, Ricky Gervais has said he’ll make a second series of comedy drama Derek, “whether Channel 4 wants it or not”. He added: “I don’t need them, I’ve got four million Twitter users. I can just put it on there.”
Jerry Sadowitz: “Television is class driven and favours the ruling class, the middle class, homosexuals, paedophiles and those who are promoted by one of those groups.” Sadowitz was talking to the British Comedy Guide.
Four years after an Australian bush fire consumed his home and almost killed his family, Ross Noble admits he still has nightmare that they’re gone: “I’d wake up and think they were dead, and I’d have to check to make sure they weren’t. Then I’d be able to go back to sleep.”
Miranda Hart has added more dates to her 2014 stand-up tour, with extra shows in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield. Details.
Sarah Millican: “The only time I ever see a picture of someone who looks like me in a magazine it has the word BEFORE above it.”
The line-up for this year’s Altitude Comedy Festival has been revealed. John Bishop and Marcus Brigstocke are headlining, with one top arena comic to be announced on 4 March. (Our money’s on Lee Evans.) Details.
Finally, Dawn French will play James Corden’s mother in BBC2’s new comedy-thriller, The Wrong Mans. Executive producer Mark Freeland said: “We are trying to do a comedy with explosions, a lot of running about, murder, extortion, friendship and love.” Running about?
That’s all for this week, folks. Check back every Sunday morning for another brief round-up of the week’s paper talk and comedy chatter.
