Bea’s 2013 Fosters Comedy Award nominated Edinburgh show C’Est La Bea will be double-billed with Don’t Swim With Killer Whales - the new hour by Aisling’s former collaborator James Walmsley.
The duo were founding members of Dublin based comedy group H-Bam ten years ago, so their reuniting on home turf will no doubt go down a storm with comedy connoisseurs in the area.
You can see both shows together for €16.00 (two Euros less for students and OAPs), between Saturday 7th and Tuesday 10th September, with tickets available over yonder now.
London audiences will also be able to see Bea at The Comedy Pub, just off Picadilly Circus on October 18th and 19th. For tickets, see Ents 24. The rest of us, for now, will have to make do with this clip from recent BBC Three show Sean Walsh’s Late Night Comedy Spectacular, in which she has a bit of a rant…
A short story written and presented by Aisling Bea recently aired as part of the Afternoon Series on BBC Radio 4. And you can hear it on iPlayer for a further 17 hours!
Afternoon Reading is a radio series that features new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at last month’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Bea’s story is called ‘Kill Dilly’ and centres around a character called Larry. Larry has been happily married to Dilly for forty-five years. Unfortunately, things have deteriorated since he retired, and now Larry is contemplating murder. Indeed, there seem to be a fair few reasons for killing his wife.
The programme is 15 minutes long and can be heard by clicking here. There’s now less than a day to listen, so get in there quick!
She’s only just finished wowing audiences at the Edinburgh and Dublin fringe festivals, but Aisling Bea shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, with a string of dates lined up over the next few months.
First off, Aisling is acting as support for sections of Ardal O’Hanlon’s UK tour – appearing with the Father Ted legend at his forthcoming York, St Albans, Harrowgate, Huddersfield and Coventry shows.
In between these, she’ll be appearing at various events and on numerous bills. She’s one of a number of great comics (including Tony Law & Colin Hoult) due to appear at The Invisible Dot in Camden over the next few weeks, being booked for Saturday, 28th September alongside James Acaster and Bridget Christie – tickets for which are on sale here.
Miss Bea will also be appearing at Harry Deansaway’s regular comedy night Shambles on Thursday, 3rd October, and at Up The Greek in Greenwich a few days later on Sunday, 6th October.
The end of October sees her travel to Galway for the Bulmer’s Comedy Festival, where she’ll be performing her full length Foster’s nominated solo show, C’Est La Beaon Saturday 26th, plus a set alongside Roisin Dubh & David O’Doherty the previous evening.
With more dates planned across November already, it’d be a wise idea to keep a close eye on Aisling’s website for further developments and ticket links, and we’ll try to bring you more updates as soon as we have ‘em, so stay peeled.
A few weeks ago, we told you all aboutAisling Bea‘s hectic gig schedule over the coming weeks, including a stint at the London Irish Comedy Festival in Camden next month.
The festival, now in its second year, takes over the London Irish Centre in Camden Square between 11th and 13th October, and features a jam packed line-up of great comic talent.
As well as Miss Bea, the festival will also feature TVO favourites Andrew Maxwell and Abandoman, alongside Barry Murphy, Grainne Maguire and many more.
The team behind LICF have been kind enough to offer us a pair of tickets to see Aisling Bea on the opening night’s bill alongside Neil Delamere, PJ Gallagher and MC John Colleary.
The show on 11th October starts at 8pm, and tickets are on sale now for just £17, but thanks to LICF and TVO, you could win a pair for free!
To be in with a chance of winning 2 tickets, simply tell us the answer to this simple question:
What was the name of the BBC Three sitcom featuring Aisling Bea as the sister of Sharon Horgan’s leading character?
We’ll randomly pick one entry which reaches us in time with the correct answer, and contact them to arrange their name and a plus one on the guest list. For all the usual t&c please see below.
This competition offers 1 pair of tickets for the opening night of the London Irish Comedy Festival at London Irish Centre, Camden on October 11th 2013, which is scheduled to feature Aisling Bea. The winning entry will be selected at random, from all who correctly answer the question: “What was the name of the BBC Three sitcom featuring Aisling Bea as the sister of Sharon Horgan’s leading character?” The winner will be contacted via the email address they use to enter. Details will not be shared with any additional third parties beyond The Velvet Onion, the London Irish Comedy Festival, and the guest-list for the venue.
Only entries made to competitions@thevelvetonion.com will be accepted. The Velvet Onion will not accept entries as comments to this post, replies to our Facebook/Twitter pages, comments to any other posts in error or emails to any other email address in our domain, nor any entries received after 11:59pm on Friday, 4th October. This competition is being run entirely by The Velvet Onion, with prizes organised by London Irish Comedy Festival. One entry per person. Any entrants found making multiple entries from the same IP address will be disqualified, and banned from entering further competitions run by The Velvet Onion. The judge’s decision is final. There is no monetary value to this competition and no cash alternative will be offered. The winner will be responsible for their own travel and/or related expenses. The Velvet Onion reserves the right to withdraw this competition if any overriding issues arise.
For another ticket competition which also relies on your knowledge of Sharon Horgan’s back catalogue, you’ve still got until Sunday 29th September to win tickets to see Stephen Mangan in Jeeves & Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense’. Go here for more info!
Rich Fulcher is back in London in December, just in time to appear at the Knock2Bag Comedy Night at Bar FM.
This exciting evening of comedy is happening on December 11th at 8pm and also features James Acaster, Phil May, Mae Martin, Brian Gittins, Behemoth, Nick Dixon and Ed Gamble.
To buy tickets, at a very reasonable £8, and find out more about the show click here.
If you can’t wait until December, the Knock2Bag Comedy Nights are also on 16th October and 20th November. The November show stars Aisling Bea and Tony Law as well as Brian Gittins, Mike Wozniak and Mark Silcox.
Tickets and information about this night can be found here.
There are a number of radio shows featuring TVO names on at the moment and they’re available on BBC iPlayer for your listening pleasure.
A favourite on the site, Aisling Bea has appeared on the BBC’s Fresh from the Fringe, which showcases the best new comedians from the Edinburgh Fringe, hosted by Mark Watson. She is among those performing short stand-up sets on the show including Liam Williams, Romesh Ranganathan and Ellie White. The show has different video and audio forms, the video available on the BBC’s red button service until 10th October or online and the audio version can be heard for the next three days here. There are also clips featuring interviews and stand-up from each of the performers. All of this is well worth a watch/listen if you want to hear some fab comedy from comedians not normally given an outlet on TV.
Another show with a TVO connection this week is BBC Wales’ long-running topical comedy show, What’s the Story? which has Katy Wix as a guest and is available to listen to here until 12th October.
If that’s not enough radio for you, there are shows we’ve already reported on still available. Seekers, a new sitcom starring Tony Way and Steve Oram can be found here and Newsjack, a topical sketch show featuring Justin Edwards can be found here.
The final series of Horrible Historiesand the first of FIThave both been nominated for Children’s BAFTA awards.
For those who missed it earlier this year, FIT is a sports-based sketch show airing on the CBBC channel, featuring Tony Way, Rufus Jones and Aisling Bea in its ensemble cast. Most famously, however, was the inclusion of brand new sketches featuring Peter Serafinowicz as Brian Butterfield, most of which went viral due to the enormous popularity of the character.
It’s made by the same team as Horrible Histories, which features Simon Farnaby and Alice Lowe in its cast, and is wrapping up so the team can concentrate on Sky Comedy Yonderlandand a forthcoming movie project.
Both shows will battle it out for the Comedy award, alongside fellow CBBC shows DNN and Hackertime - the latter of which features former Mongrelspuppeteer Warwick Brownlow-Pike performing as Dodge and various other roles.
Elsewhere, Horrible Histories spin-off Gory Gamesis up for the Entertainment award, for which competition comes in the form of Help! My Supply Teacher Is Still Magic, Officially Amazing and Sam And Mark’s Big Friday Wind-Up.
The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, 24th November. For a full list of nominations, visit BAFTA’s website.
Every so often something manages to get past our eagle eyes and take us by surprise. This is one such time, and what has slipped under our radars is Aisling Bea‘s new radio series, Micks & Legends. We’re sorry.
The 4-part series on BBC Radio 4 offers comic modern rewordings of some of Ireland’s most popular folklore.
Written by and performed by Aisling Bea and Yasmine Akram, the series presents an unconventional way of telling these well-known stories, involving a strange collection of inappropriate modern-day metaphors.
Unfortunately the first two episodes of the series have already been and gone. However, episode 3, ‘Deirdre of Sorrows’, is available on iPlayer here for a further 3 days, and you can catch the final episode ,’Children of Lir’, on Radio 4 at 23.15 on 21st November.
Fans of Aisling’s comedy can also see her this Wednesday at Bar FM in London along with fellow TVO-connected artist Tony Law, plus Brian Gittins, Mike Wozniak and Mark Silcox. Tickets cost £8 and the doors open at 7.30pm; for more information about the show from Knock2bag and to buy tickets click here.
First up is Horrible Histories, which has picked up another award, this time for Best Children’s Comedy at the Children’s BAFTAs. In doing so, it pipped another TVO-related show to the winning post in the shape of FIT (a sports-based sketch show airing on CBBC, which features Tony Way, Rufus Jones and Aisling Bea in its ensemble cast – plus Peter Serafinowicz as Brian Butterfield). Click here to watch the presentation of the award to the Horrible Histories team.
Next, a look at the Southbank Sky Arts Awards, the winners of which will be announced at a ceremony on 27th January, presented by Melvyn Bragg. The nominations feature three of our lot, with AlanPartridge: Alpha Papa and Psychobitches both up for ‘Best Comedy’, and Philomena (co-written by and starring Steve Coogan) up for ‘Best Film’. For the full list of nominees click here.
Congratulations to everyone nominated, and the best of luck for the awards ceremony in January!
Aisling Bea will be bringing her 2013 Edinburgh show C’Est La Beato London in the new year.
The show, which was nominated for the Fosters Comedy Award for Best Newcomer in the summer, will be hosted by one of our favourite venues in the capital, the legendary Soho Theatre, for six nights at the end of January.
Rave reviews have seen the former Dead Boss star and So You Think You’re Funny award winning stand-up gain a cult following, which continues to grow, so a week of shows should help cement her as one to watch in 2014.
Don’t forget that the venue is also hosting a residency for Tony Law all this month, which has been extended to January 11th, and tickets can be found over yonder. They’re also hosting our good friends Late Night Gimp Fight until December 21st, so get on down if you can!
Earlier today, we announced Anna & Katy’s new show at The Invisible Dot, and now the venue has revealed yet more cracking line-ups for 2014 with many favourites of Onionland involved.
Just announced is the Live at the Chapel season for the new year which presents bills of stand-up legends alongside the next generation of exciting names. The first of the shows is on January 18th with Kevin Eldon heading an ace bill with Cardinal Burns, among others. The next, on 1st February, is just as impressive with Paul Foot headlining and rapidly rising star Liam Williams among the support. The March show so far lacks a TVO name but should still be fab with Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Bridget Christie topping the bill.
The shows aren’t yet on sale but they’ll appear on the Invisible Dot website at 2pm tomorrow. The shows take place at Islington’s stunning Union Chapel and will be priced at £18 (£16 concessions).
Can’t afford £18? Well, the Saturday Night Shows at the Invisible Dot’s own venue in Kings Cross may be more your thing at only £10 a ticket. These shows are taking place, you guessed it, every Saturday night – from January 11th to April 12th. There are far too many great names on the bills to mention but they include Tony Law on February 1st, Aisling Bea on February 8th and Kevin Eldon on March 8th.
And as we mentioned earlier today Anna Crilly and Katy Wix will be returning to the live circuit with shows there in March. Already it seems 2014 will be the year of the Dot, and Invisible or not, you should try to see it!
2013 has been a funny old year in Onion Land. We’ve seen our regulars scoop bucketloads of awards, from Best British Film at the Empire Awards to International Emmy Awards and everything in-between. Some names on our roster have reached new heights of success, becoming household names to people who have no idea of their cult origins. Others have just continued being quietly amazing, but all of them have been worthy of your attention.
As a result, we’ve been ploughing through the 12 months of TVO, to pluck out the best bits from over 700 news stories across 2013. This first instalment of our round-up covers January-March, and is jam packed with forgotten treasures and instant classics alike. Enjoy.
JANUARY
The year began quietly, with the only key new show on the box being, on the surface, designed for kids. FITwas a sports-based sketch show on CBBC from the team behind Sorry, I’ve Got No Head, and featured TVO regulars Tony Way, Rufus Jones and Aisling Bea in its ensemble cast. For the most part, however, it was the involvement of Peter Serafinowicz - reprising his beloved cult character Brian Butterfield – which got everyone’s attention…
On the other end of the spectrum, Michael Smiley, Dan Tetsell and Simon Farnaby turned up in the very-much-for-grown-ups cyber-thiller Utopiaon Channel 4. The show concerned itself with attempts to trace the only known copy of a graphic novel which left a trail of bloody carnage in its wake. With Four Lions star Adeel Akhtar part of its ensemble cast, as well as Kill List actor Neil Maskell as a creepy hitman, and The Thick Of It‘s Paul Higgins as a blackmailed civil servant, the show became an instant cult hit, and will be returning for a second series in 2014.
Closer to home, and the good folk of Onion Land seemed keen to dish out advice. Comedic agony aunt Rachel Stubbings was offering specially crafted miniature versions of herself for sale to anyone in need of a friendly ear. Or, to be more exact, a bit of unemotional plastic which happened to look a bit like her, in a variety of costumes. The Stubby Buddy was a quick sell out, though something tells me we won’t be seeing them in the shops next year…
Elsewhere, conceptual artist and Luxury Comedy star Kim Noble was offering handy tips on how to buy an oven…
Things started getting a little more manic on the googlebox this month, starting with the arrival of The Alternative Comedy Experienceon Comedy Central. Curated by the legendary Stewart Lee, the show gave the comic’s comic a chance to provide a welcome leg-up to acts who mean a lot to him, which included our own Tony Law and Paul Foot, as well as Isy Suttie, David O’Doherty, Glenn Wool, Simon Munnery and many more. Recently released on dvd, the show is building a cult following and will return next year.
Sticking with the satellite and cable theme, Dave Lambert directed series of comedy shorts, Common Ground, arrived on our screens this month. The likes of Paul Kaye, Katy Brand, Rufus Jones and Dan Skinner featured across the run, as well as Snuffbox legend Alan Ford, and frequent TVO collaborator Jessica Hynes. A delightful set of films, these were sadly tucked away on Sky Atlantic HD: a great channel but only accessible to a tiny handful, and we’re hoping there’s a dvd release in the offering at some point…
Where Common Ground was brilliant but tucked away, another TVO regular, Simon Farnaby, was taking on a new challenge which became not just a trending Twitter topic, but mainstream news in its own right. Simon presented the now legendary documentary The King In The Car Park, which focused on the efforts being made to verify a skeleton found in a car park in Leciester which was believed to be that of disgraced King Richard III. With the reveal kept secret (almost) up to transmission, Farnaby followed the story throughout its twists and turns, and was present at the revelation that the cadaver almost certainly was the monarch. You can see the entire documentary, now preserved by The Smithsonian, no less, below.
Whilst all of this excitement was going on, TVO and its readers were getting into a bit of a tizz over the final season of Being Human, which began this month. The show had previously featured Paul Kaye and Laura Patch as guest stars, but its Onion pedigree was enhanced by the announcement that Colin Hoult was to be part of its ensemble cast. Colin played the part of office loser, Ian Cramb, who has an unfortunate run in with Damien Molony’s Hal and is transformed into a vampire. Ditching his real life persona, Ian becomes known as Crumb, and embraces the hedonism that his vampiric nature now offers, but soon finds he’s bitten off more than he can chew…
To further cement Being Human‘s standing with TVO, this final run also featured a memorable guest appearance by one Julian Barratt, as weatherman turned werewolf, Larry. Sadly, Larry didn’t share any scenes with Crumb, which is probably for the best, as we’re still in love with Zimbani and would’ve been hoping for a rematch instead of paying attention to the action…
There was even more fun to be had online, as Hoult’s former comedy partner, Fergus Craig (who also appeared in The Governement Inspector with Julian, connection-fans) began fronting a series of web shorts for BBC Comedy. Our favourite of these featured Fergus as notorious sex addict, Devon Cornwall…
Meanwhile, if there’s one thing we can be certain of here at TVO, it’s that you can always rely on Steve Oram to bring on the weird. And in collaboration with Club Fantastico regular Sean Reynard (aka Sean The Prawn), that’s exactly what he did this month, with the debut of their short, 321.2.6.78. No, it’s best we don’t try to explain this one…
Back to reality then, and Noel Fieldingcaused a stir across the Pond, when he appeared on Russell Brand’s US based show Brand X…
TVO’s telly exodus continued apace this month, with not one but two new sketch shows to savour. The long-awaited full series of Anna & Katybegan this month, featuring Anna Crilly and Katy Wix building upon their critically acclaimed ComedyLab pilot from a few years ago. Sadly, despite becoming a cult favourite, it failed to find the audience Channel 4 were looking for, and was cancelled in the summer, with no sign of a dvd release, but it is, at least, still available on 4oD.
Receiving a slightly better reception was another show that was a long time coming - It’s Kevin. Designed as a vehicle for everyone’s favourite supporting comic actor, Kevin Eldon, the surreal sketch show featured a cavalcade of big name guest stars, including Julia Davis, Matt Berry, Johnny Vegas, Bill Bailey, Peter Serafinowicz and Stewart Lee, as well as everyone’s second favourite supporting comic actor, Paul Putner. Critics raved, though audiences were divided – much like Luxury Comedy before it, it seemed you either loved it or loathed it, and the numerous awards nominations should bode well for a second series…
March also saw the launch of a new web series from the mind of Forgery Club head honcho, Bob Pipe. After collaborating with Hen & Chickens mastermind James Wren and Pros From Dover veteran Phil Whelans, the trio concocted 50s B-movie pastiche The Day They Came To Suck Out Our Brains- and the result was brought to life by YouTube sensation The Multiverse. The channel’s mascot, acting legend Warwick Davis, continued his association with TVO (which began with Life’s Too Short in 2012) by appearing in the serial alongside a cavalcade of Velvety regulars. Richard Glover, Colin Hoult, Gareth Tunley, Alex Kirk, Richard Sandling, Antony Elvin, Will Summers,Neil Cole, Stephen Evans and Waen Shepherd all featured, alongside several friends of TVO, making this an absolute essential watch, so the fact that it was hilarious just made it all the more enjoyable. You can see the ‘movie’ version of the saga below.
For those who were able to drag themselves away from screens for a little while, Richard Sandling launched his Squat Betty Spoken Word nights this month, which continued throughout the year offering a mix of poetry and stand-up with big name guests including Phill Jupitus. Meanwhile, Phill’s Buzzcocks cohort, Noel Fielding, once again took to the stage with Russell Brand to present an evening of comedy at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust, alongside Tony Law and Seann Walsh.
At the other end of the country, Kim Noblelaunched an exhibition of his artistic works in Glasgow, in his own inimitable style, and last but by no means least, Alice Lowe and Antony Elvinreleased a Hot Brew studio track via Soundcloud entitled Hey Globe…
If you’ve previously taken a mosey through Part One and Part Two of our Review of 2013, you’ll already be aware that it’s been a busy old year in Onion Land. July to September was no exception, with news, reviews, new shows and live performances from both our regulars and the new names on our roster.
So here are the best bits from the third quarter of the year – hand-picked from over 700 news stories across 2013, and jam-packed with forgotten treasures and instant classics alike. Enjoy.
JULY
The month began with the release of Dan Clark‘s debut album, Dan Clark & The Difficult Three, which had been funded via a successful Pledge Music campaign. Combining genuinely funny lyrics with proper tunes played by a bona fide band, the record offered fans of Clark’s musical comedy an opportunity to re-live some of his live show classics and enjoy some newer compositions. For a wee taster, here below is a live recording of ‘Don’t Kiss Me’ (and if you fancy buying a copy of the album, head on over here):
On 19th July the world of comedy sadly lost one of its pioneers, in the shape of Mel Smith. Whilst Smith’s contribution to modern comedy is undeniable, we can also claim a link between him and the TVO family, with Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthew’s first TV sketches being written for Alas, Smith And Jones. You can watch one of them below:
In terms of new TV and film projects, this month saw the release of Ben Wheatley‘s hotly-anticipated follow-up to Sightseers, the psychedelically historical A Field In England, which launched simultaneously in cinemas, on TV and on DVD on 5th July.
Filming also began on the second series of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, and the Marmite-like TV adaptation of Graham Linehan’s Count Arthur Strong also hit our screens. Chris O’Dowd continued with his world domination of the airwaves with a role in the part-improvised US sitcom Family Tree:
Finally, fans of The Mighty Boosh got all hot and bothered over Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt‘s first live performance together since 2010 when the pair performed at The Barbican at a concert to honour the musician, Beck. Expect a bit more of the Boosh boys down below (honestly not as rude as it sounds)…
AUGUST
The long-awaited Alan Partridge feature film, Alpha Papa, finally hit the big screen in August – and got a big thumbs up from fans. The nation’s love for Steve Coogan‘s infamous hapless character has led to the comedian receiving an Outstanding Achievement Award at this year’s British Comedy Awards. If you still haven’t managed to see the movie, it’s available to purchase from TVO’s amazon store.
In other movie news, The Double, Richard Ayoade‘s follow up to the critically acclaimed Submarine, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. While we got ourselves in a tizz about a fleeting cameo from Chris Morris in the trailer, the critics spouted superlatives about the film. For us mere mortals, The Double should be on general release in 2014.
With regards to what was happening on the smaller screen, Richard Sandling bid farewell to US TV series Breaking Bad by creating this astonishingly awesome Walter White ‘My Way’ mash-up (so good even Bryan Cranston tweeted about it!):
And Bob Pipe built on the success of his youtube series The Day They Came To Suck Out Our Brains with Masters Of Celluloid – a series of spoof ‘making ofs’ starring Warwick Davies. Here’s one of them, featuring Colin Hoult as 50′s action hero Eric Shepherd, rehearsing his appearance as rough, tough Wade McGuff:
SEPTEMBER
After a relatively news-light August thanks to the Edinburgh Fringe, we had more to tell you about than we could shake a stick at (eh?), come September.
Ralfe Band announced that they would be touring in November; The Fast Show created a stir by saying that the cast would be reuniting in 2014 to commemorate the sketch show’s 20th anniversary; and a bevy of TVO artists started gigging, including Oram & Meeten (who you can see below, performing at our inaugural TVO Live!), Kevin Eldon and uber-prolific performer, Colin Hoult.
But the live performances in September which generated the biggest response from you lovely lot were two month end shows at Soho Theatre by The Mighty Boosh (sadly minus Rich Fulcher). Boosh management were kind enough to let us announce the shows before anyone else, helping to ensure that the real fans got their mitts on those precious few tickets. And, boy was it worth it – they’d lost none of their magic. We have to admit we got more than a bit emotional at TVO Towers!
We were also lucky enough to get our hands on a preview copy of the last ever episode of IT Crowd. The much-loved Channel 4 show took its final, geeky bow on 27th September.
A short film which we’d been getting excited about for a wee while finally got an online release: The Baron, starring Tom Meeten in hilariously silly form and co-starring Steve Oram, Barunka O’Shaughnessy and Stephen Evans. The film also features music from Waen Shepherd and photography from Sightseers cinematographer Nick Gillespie, so it has quite a TVO pedigree – and it’s darned funny!Take a look here:
And with awards season beginning in September, Steve Coogan started to sweep up with Philomena, a moving film based on a true story, co-written by and co-starring Coogan.
Tune in this weekend to see what the final few months of 2013 brought to bear, in Part Four of our Review of the Year…
Hello and a warm welcome to the final part of our Review of 2013. Although October to December may feel like it only just happened, prepare to be amazed by how much you’ve forgotten. We were, but then we’re getting on a bit.
So here are the best bits from the fourth quarter of the year – cherry-picked from news stories about both our regulars and a few new faces too. Enjoy.
OCTOBER
October was the month that Booshmania returned. Just as the fantastic Behind the Boosh exhibition started its run at Proud Camden, showcasing the history of that most Mighty of comedic troops via the majesty of Dave Brown‘s photography, the boys were back in town. Or rather, on the pier, as The Mighty Boosh went from the Soho Theatre to Tenacious D’s Festival Supreme in LA. A final (chaotic) UK warm-up show and a further run through at The Comedy Store, almost halted by a Visa saga, paved the way for a live performance that turned out to be one of the Festival’s highlights. Fan forums and social media platforms were buzzing with photos, footage and reviews of the show.
Another announcement that got us more than a bit over-excited in October was the news that Ben Wheatley is to direct the first 2 episodes of the next series of Doctor Who, starring the new Time Lord, Peter Capaldi. How good is that!? We’re itching to see what happens when you combine one of the UK’s finest directors with its biggest export, now in the capable hands of an Oscar-winning acting legend to boot. You can see the moment Capaldi became the Doctor in the 2013 Xmas special below…
More telly stuff, withthe launch of Matt Berry’s new series,Toast Of London. We’d been itching to see it since the pilot back in 2012, and it did not disappoint…
Elsewhere, Richard Ayoade established himself as a permanent fixture on prime time panel shows with a stint as team captain on Was It Something I Said? on Channel 4. Ayoade’s intellectual sparring with host David Mitchell certainly made our Sunday evenings feel a bit more highbrow!
What else? Well, in movie news, there was an update on the cast for Paul King‘s long-awaited Paddington Bearfeature film, which included mention of Rufus Jones and James Bachman. To end the month, TVO artists offered us a veritable smorgasbord of comedy options for Halloween night’s out, with special spooky performances from Colin Houltand Richard Sandling. And we were sad to lose the talented comedy actor Felix Dexter, who died at the too-young age of 52. He left behind an incredible legacy of great TV performances on shows like Bellamy’s People, Absolutely Fabulous, The Fast Show, Knowing Me Knowing You… With Alan Partridge, Mongrelsand Alexei Sayle’s Merry Go Round to name but a few. He will be much misse, and would typically hate all this fuss about him, so let’s remember him with one of his silliest moments – dancing for Sport Relief alongside Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery. What a dude.
NOVEMBER
November was a great month for TVO shows on the small screen; as the marvellous Toast ended, many more shows appeared in its wake. The first was Yonderland, a family comedy-fantasy series, written by and starring the main cast of Horrible Histories including Simon Farnaby.
The next major series was Crackanory, a show that brought together notable writers and performers to create a darkly comic adult version of storytelling shows like Jackanory. There was a huge number of TVO connections including Kevin Eldon, Tom Meeten, Steve Oram, Alex Kirk, John ‘Willie’ Hopkins, Waen Shepherd and Gareth Tunley. The whole series can still be caught here.
We were also visited by the spirit of Entertainment Yet To Come as we revealed that Colin Hoult and Tony Way would feature in the next series of Ricky Gervais’ Derek, Alice Lowe will be among the cast of feature film AmStarDam, Richard Glover will be joining an all-star cast of Hollywood A-listers in Disney feature film Into The Woods and Waen Shepherd will star in new futuristic radio comedy 2525. In the here and now, regular TVO live favourite Club Fantastico: the truly mad comedy night hosted by the fab Steve Oram and Tom Meeten, also returned to say goodbye to 2013. We don’t have any videos to accompany any of this, so here’s a classic slice of Oram & Meeten instead.
Booshmania also spilled into November with the continuation of the Behind the Boosh exhibition featuring a rather special signing by Dave Brown with live music, a DJ set by Dave and Mike Fielding and a huge pillow fight. And to round off the month, we released our exclusive interview with Dee Plume from her visit to New York in October, so make sure to head thisaway if you missed that, and check out her music video for 2 Degrees Of Seperation again below.
DECEMBER
From a comedy perspective, it was difficult to ignore the 2013 British Comedy Awards in December, with the nominations announced at the start of the month and the star-studded awards ceremony taking place a couple of weeks later. From a Velvet Onion perspective, we were delighted to see nominations for Psychobitches, Horrible Histories, Count Arthur Strong(plus star Steve Delaney)and It’s Kevin. It was subsequently announced that Steve Coogan would be receiving a well-deserved special award on the night for Outstanding Achievement to Comedy. In the event, the TVO-connected nominees didn’t fair too well, but on the positive side, we were able to have a natter with a few of the clebs that were there:
This was also the month that gave IT Crowd fans an opportunity to bid the show a proper farewell, with Channel 4 dedicating an entire evening’s scheduling to the programme, including a brand new documentary and an opportunity for fans to vote for their favourite episode. On Christmas eve we found out that ‘The Work Outing’ had quite rightly won the vote, and we also got the chance to re-watch Graham Linehan’s favourite episode ‘The Final Countdown’.
December was jam-packed full of TV happenings. A new series was announced for Matt Berry‘s Toast of London and for Steve Coogan‘s The Trip; Chris O’Dowd‘s award-winning TV series Moone Boywon a book publishing deal; Paul Kaye turned up in Ripper Street and the critically-aclaimed feature length drama, The Whale; there were Christmas episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocksand Big Fat Quiz of the Year (featuring Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade) to enjoy, and the TV premier of Sightseers occurred on Boxing Day.Phew! And we could look forward to 2014 too, thanks to details on Vic & Bob’s House of Fools, co-starring Matt Berry and Dan Skinner, and the second series of This is Jinsy being confirmed as airing from 8th January 2014 on Sky Atlantic (series 1 is available here).
Harry Hill extended his TV-based insanity into cinemas with the December release of The Harry Hill Movie, which featured Julian Barratt amongst its cast; and fans of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy got their chance to have Fantasy Man on their chest, with the launch of a new range of merchandise, designed by Dave Brown and Noel. Musically, Waen Shepherd‘s Gary Le Strange also re-released his fourth-ish album, Beef Scarecrow, which made us very happy. Live dates for 2014 were announced, with Anna & Katyand Aisling Bea amongst them, whilst Rich Fulcherwelcomed his F*cked Up Friends to the Soho Theatre stage for a wonderful pre-Christmas show, and sent us this special message to promote his own end-of-year review, 2013: Mashed…
As is traditional, we ended the year with a thank you to our peelers – a free download of TVO-connected music, which is available until January 8th. In Holoserica Cepa 2013features six tracks to download completely free, including some rather special exclusives. Just visit our Soundcloud page to get the EP, featuring the likes of James Cook,DeadDogInBlackBag, Stephen Evans, Richard Glover,Paul Kaye and Waen Shepherd.
We hope you’ve enjoyed coming on 2013′s journey with us – both the first time around and on this whistle stop review of the year. Thanks for your continued support – along with the artists that we write about, it’s you lovely lot that keep us doing what we do. Here’s to more fun and giggles in 2014!
Aisling Bea was named as one of the Guardian’s “Rising Stars of 2014″ in today’s Observer.
The comedian shares the honour with theatre director, Sam Yates, and dancer, Francesca Hayward.
The writer of the article, Stephanie Merritt, says of Bea’s first solo show, C’est La Bea, that it ”was one of the most accomplished debuts I’ve seen at Edinburgh in recent years.”
In the interview that accompanies the piece, Bea shares her thoughts about women in comedy, offering up a refreshing perspective: ”It’s honestly not something I gave a second thought to,” she says. The article goes on to explain that she grew up in Kildare, outside Dublin, in a family of strong women. Her mother was one of only two professional female jockeys in Ireland in the 80s – “a very inspiring woman,” Bea says. “Her job was to sit on a horse and make sure it went the fastest, not to complain about how much harder it is as a woman. My job is to make people laugh. You change things by focusing your energy on doing your job well.”
To read the interview in full click here. To buy tickets to see the comedian’s award-winning C’est La Bea show live at Soho Theatre (dates 27th Jan – 1st Feb) click there.
Aisling Bea appeared as one of the panelists on last night’s episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
The channel 4 panel show, hosted by the ubiquitous Jimmy Carr, mashes up the comedy of 8 Out of 10 Cats with pensioner-friendly spelling, maths and famous funky music of Countdown.
Bea was on Jon Richardson’s team (who’s scarily good), with Sean Locke and Miles Jupp on the opposing team.
Soho Theatre next Monday (27th) will be witness to a happening: Jon Breeze – The Guru of Relaxation, will be presenting his latest workshop entitled Touch Your Now at Soho Downstairs. There will also be some special guests to be announced.
You may be wondering why we’re telling you this, but if you look carefully at the picture of ‘Jon’, you might recognise Julian Barratt.
During the show you can “Enjoy One on one love-blasts. Take a gratitude plunge. Shake hands with your own heart. Smell the now.” – so what are you waiting for? It sounds like it will be quite an evening.
Tickets are £10 (over 16′s only) and the show starts at 9.45pm, which gives you time before to pop upstairs to see Aisling Bea!
Tickets and more information – including some very special reviews – can be found here.
Thanks to Bruce Dessau for bringing this to our attention.
The good folk of Manchester will a rare chance to see Aisling Bea in action in the Spring.
Nationwide female stand-up vehicle Laughing Cows Comedy Night rocks into legendary venue The Frog And Bucket, on Sunday 30th March, with our very own Ms Bea on the bill.
She’ll be joined by Ms B Haver, Madge Hooks, Hayley Ellis and host Kerry Leigh, and tickets are available in advance for just £7, or on the door that evening for £9.
Tickets are only available from TFAB’s box-office at the moment, so call 0161 236 9805 or call into the venue on Oldham Street to grab some.
With just three days to go before the event kicks off, we thought we’d bring you the lowdown on the many TVO names that can be caught at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival this month.
Having been oddly quiet of late, Colin Hoult is bringing two shows to the festival. First up is a work in progress show entitled Uninspiring People Inspiring People By Being Uninspiring, which was first seen last autumn at the Invisible Dot. With a more ‘stand-up-y’ approach than Colin’s ace character-filled shows – this one is well worth a watch. And talking of his character-filled shows, he’s taking Characthorse, his show from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, to the festival later in the month. This is a madcap adventure across the mythical town of Snottingham with a host of weird and wonderful characters and, we reckon, it’s a must-see.
Next up is a show from the fab Aisling Bea – presumably this will be her Edinburgh show C’est La Bea, fresh from it’s run at the Soho Theatre, but the website doesn’t specify.
For all you connoisseurs out there, Paul Foot will be performing a show he calls An Hour In February. Shedding no light at all on the matter, the show has this description:
No board games on this lawn, baybayyy! Face the frozen ships and dance while legless bar stools finally take their revenge. Even Auntie Eclair won’t talk and this town will never recover from the naked collage.
Paul will also be taking part in the Laughing Matters Fundraiser, along with Tony Law, and Harry Hill. Tony will also be doing an hour of new shouty bollocks, a Nonsense In Progress, on the same evening.
Another familiar face in Onion-land, Joey Page, will be making a couple of appearances at the festival. Towards the end of the month he’ll be performing his own show Golden Peacock Hour and, much sooner on the horizon, he’ll be making an appearance in Tom Stade And Co.
So, he’s a list of those shows in date order . They’ll all take pace at venues around Leicester and tickets and more information can be found by following the links:
The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society, or ACMS, returns for a new run of shows at the Soho Theatre next month and Tony Law and Aisling Bea will be performing.
ACMS is a new material night for both established and newer acts and encourages comedians to try out their more experimental material. The result is one of the best and most fun comedy nights out there, so we strongly advise you try to get to one.
Hosted by non-traditional double act John-Luke Roberts and Thom Tuck, the guests vary with each show. On 10th March, Tony Law is among the acts (as is an apparently very special secret guest) and on 7th April, Aisling Bea will make an appearance. For full line-ups visit the ACMS website.
It will return to the Soho Theatre on March 10th and there will be a show about once a month until July. Tickets are £12.50 from here but a discount code (for £8.50 tickets) is sent to the mailing list which you can sign up for here.
The ‘rival’ show AACMS (The Alternative Alternative Comedy Memorial Society) will be returning to the Good Ship in Kilburn on 17th March and tickets are a mere £4 from here.
Image may be NSFW.
