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):

We also featured a series of introductions to the TVO-recommended artists you could see at 2013′s Edinburgh Fringe. We intentionally mixed up the folk who we already write about with the people who we define as “beyond the Onion”; those featured included Colin Hoult, Tony Law,  Paul Foot, Spank, Joey Page, Aisling Bea, Late Night Gimp Fight, Tim Fitzhigham, Jonny & The Baptists (+ Jonny Donahoe), Pete Heat and Glen Wool.

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…