The Week in Comedy: Rowan Atkinson, Cardinal Burns & Cuckoo
Rowan Atkinson is to appear as the Archbishop of Canterbury in a sketch on Red Nose Day.
David Baddiel is hosting a one-off radio game show called Don’t Make Me Laugh, where comedians have to do all they can to avoid getting laughs.
Cinemas across the north will be screening stand-up comedy for the first time later this month. The Comedy Store has teamed up with Sony Digital Cinema to produce four feature-length comedy shows, entitled The Comedy Store: Raw & Uncut.
The comedy website Chortle has launched their annual student comedy competition. Alumni includes Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, Tom Deacon, Iain Stirling and Lloyd Langford. Enter.
The BBC has ordered two special episodes of BBC One comedy Mrs. Brown’s Boys. They’ll be broadcast at Christmas. (Another unwanted present…)
E4’s sketch show Cardinal Burns has picked up two titles in the Broadcast Awards 2013: Best Comedy of 2012 and Best Multichannel Programme.
Russell Brand is returning to XFM with a series of radio shows with Noel Gallagher. Brand said: “I miss radio. It was lovely when we did the show. It’ll be great to get the old team back together.”
The Monty Python re-union, Absolutely Anything, begins filming in the UK this spring – but Eric Idle won’t be involved.
Stewart Francis is writing a sitcom – and three production companies want to make the pilot.
In an interview with Giggle Beats – to be published next week – Francis also confirmed that he wants to do a chat show with Canadian stand-ups Craig Campbell and Glenn Wool.
BBC Three comedy Cuckoo has been commissioned for a second series.
New animated comedy series Strange Hill High has been recommissioned by CBBC – before the first series has even started.
The Newcastle Stand are bringing kids’ comedy to the North East. The Newcastle Kids Comedy Club launches on Sunday 17 February.
Last but not least, the arena tour of Tim Minchin’s Jesus Christ Superstar has been postponed – due to ‘enormous demand.’ We don’t get it either.
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.
