Gigglebox Weekly #59
Gigglebox Weekly With Ian Wolf
This week Ian Wolf encounters a grown-up baby and some sheep shearers…
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Another series of music-based panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks began this week. It’s the 26th series, and it has to be said it’s starting to show…
Although they still have Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding onside, producers are still sticking with guest hosts. This week’s host was Katy Burke – who did an OK job – but the panellists are, like always, a mixed bunch. Sarah Millican is usually always reliable, but then you had Fazer from N-Dubz, who I think was only called on because he was the only member of the band who had not appeared on the show before…
Another guest on this episode was Olympian long jumper Greg Rutherford, whose contribution was somewhat dubious. While Burke managed to get some good one-liners from him, I thought that the round entitled “Name that Ginger” was slightly tasteless.
The “Identity Parade”. was also problematic. Usually the round features band members – but they must be struggling to find anyone new because instead the line-ups consisted of the now grown-up baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind album, and someone’s super-fan…
Hopefully this was just a blip, but I can’t help but feel that it’s time to for Never Mind the Buzzcocks to either shape up or stop.
Russell Howard’s Good News
Russell Howard’s Good News returned to the telly box this week, and is one of BBC Three’s better shows. Howard is able to get laughs from the simple things in life, but he can also handle the bigger stories of the week.
In this episode there were several highlights, from a news report about an American man who shot himself in the backside at the cinema, to people getting the sack from work for burning toast – and meeting the fastest sheep shearer in England.
Being the first episode, some of the stories were a bit dated – such as the story about the dodgy Jesus fresco restoration – but these kind of old reports are usually covered in opening episodes anyway.
Good News is still one of the best stand-up comedies on television. It’s just a shame that BBC Three’s sitcoms can’t be as good…
If you like Russell Howard’s Good News, we’ve got two copies of ‘The Best of Series Two’ to give away on our Twitter page: @GiggleBeats.
