We Need Answers Spawns No More Women

BBC4 devotees should be quite familiar with the trio of Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne, the three-headed monster host of We Need Answers - the most outlandish TV quiz since the heady days of Channel 4's Remote Control in the early 1990s. Every Tuesday they invite two celebrities of varying quality to fathom out the responses to the 'wackiest' questions sent to text answering services - including those concerning themselves. Outraged Daily Mail readers should look away now as, not only have the BBC thrown licence-payers' money at such a vehicle (and not at something nice like My Family or The Green Green Grass) but they've even allowed them to come up with the only game show even less intelligible. Try it, it's fun!



Eagle-eyed viewers may recognise Tim (on the right) as the bloke from the Strongbow advert who is left paralysed and oblivious by the sheer taste of his first sip of fresh cider, but we won't hold that against him. He's also been at the helm of several popular stage shows, the excellent Radio 4 shows Cowards and All Bar Luke and has an amazing second life as 'poet' Tim Key. Mark's no slouch either: he famously runs 24 hour comedy performances, has had success on Radio 4 and 5 and has three published books to his name. Currently he is wetting himself on Twitter at the prospect over turning 30. Alex Horne (playing the commentator) is something of a multimedia expert, providing idiosyncratic graphics for the trio's endeavours as well as his own live shows including his current tour 'Wordwatching' which comes highly recommended and is also available in book form.

Has It Been A Good Year For British Comedy Then?

The British Comedy Awards really are unique in that their televisation represents the only time anything funny is ever actually shown on ITV - even if they are second hand clips from superior stations.  The nominations for this year's ceremony, to take place on December 12th with Jonathan 'Don't mention the granddaughter' Ross back in charge after a self-imposed suspension, were announced this morning with some interesting choices surrounding the reassurance that ITV1's only foray into chuckledom is a dumbed-down Harry Hill show where he mimics soap operas in front of an audience that have clearly been locked up since Game For A Laugh last hit our screens.

Topping the list of nominations is BBC1's Outnumbered written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin of Drop the Dead Donkey fame and starring Claire Skinner, Hugh Dennis and their three children who give the series its title.  It's perhaps the largely improvised performance from the chilldren - Ramona Marquez, Daniel Roche and Tyger Drew-Honey - that has seen all three of them receive newcomer nominations.  In fact, we should spare a thought for Dennis as the only main cast member without a solo nomination.

Whether the intention was to irk Charlie Brooker by sticking the rubber-faced 38 year old, a television veteran of nearly a decade, into a category with a nine and a thirteen year old, I'm sure it has worked.  'Comedy Newcomer' refers more to that performers arrival in the nation's consciousness and Brooker's work on Channel 4's You Have Been Watching, a rare terrestrial outing for Screenwipe, the brilliant Newswipe and various republications of his popular musings from The Guardian sees him deservedly nominated.

Elsewhere, Michael McIntyre's amiability and Alan Carr's...errr...teeth get them three nominations each, both vying with Harry Hill in the "entertainment" categories which, largely, have as much to do with comedy as World Wrestling Entertainment has to do with wrestling.

Looking elsewhere on the list, there are deserved nods for Psychoville and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (sadly the latter is, for the second year in a row, a nominated BBC show that has failed to be recommissioned - following last year's excellent The Peter Serafinowicz Show) and a must-win in a weak film category for the hilarious In The Loop.  Despite strong competition from Have I Got News For You and QI, the massively popular Mock the Week is a shoo-in for best panel show while the beleagured sketch show category edges closer to retirement with the patchy Mitchell and Webb Look heading a truly terrible set including the deeply unfunny Kevin Bishop and the long gone to seed Harry and Paul.

FULL NOMINATIONS LIST:
Best Comedy Entertainment Personality: Alan Carr, Alan Carr: Chatty Man (Open Mike Productions for Channel 4); Harry Hill, Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Avalon for ITV1); Michael McIntyre, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (Open Mike Productions Manchester for BBC1)

Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (Open Mike Productions Manchester for BBC1); The Sunday Night Project (Princess Productions for Channel 4); Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Avalon for ITV1)

Best Television Comedy Actor: Rob Brydon, Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special (Baby Cow for BBC1); Simon Bird, The Inbetweeners (Bwark for E4); Robert Webb, Peep Show (Objective Productions for Channel 4)

Best Television Comedy Actress: Ruth Jones, Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special (Baby Cow for BBC1); Claire Skinner, Outnumbered: Series 2 (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1); Katherine Parkinson, The IT Crowd (talkbackTHAMES for Channel 4)

Best New British Television Comedy: Alan Carr: Chatty Man (Open Mike Productions for Channel 4); Ladies of Letters (Tiger Aspect for ITV3); Psychoville (BBC Productions fo/r BBC2)

Best Television Comedy Drama: Dead Set (Zeppotron for E4); Psychoville (BBC Productions for BBC2); Pulling: Special (Silver River for BBC3)

Best Live Stand-Up Performer: Michael McIntyre, Live at the Apollo; Frankie Boyle, Live at the Hackney Empire; Stewart Lee, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
 
Best Male Comedy Newcomer: Daniel Roche, Outnumbered: Series 2 (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1); Tyger Drew-Honey, Outnumbered: Series 2 (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1); Charlie Brooker, You Have Been Watching (Zeppotron for E4)

Best Female Comedy Newcomer: Rebekah Staton, Pulling: Special (Silver River for BBC3); Ramona Marquez, Outnumbered: Series 2 (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1); Tanya Franks, Pulling: Special (Silver River for BBC3)

Best Comedy Panel Show: Have I Got News for You (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1); Mock the Week (Angst Productions for BBC2); QI (talkbackTHAMES for BBC1)

Best Sitcom: Peep Show (Objective Productions for Channel 4); The IT Crowd (talkbackTHAMES for Channel 4); Outnumbered: Series 2 (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1)

Best Sketch Show: The Kevin Bishop Show (Objective Productions for Channel 4); That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC Productions for BBC2); Harry & Paul: Series 2 (Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC1)

Best Comedy Film: Bruno (Universal Pictures); In the Loop (Optimum Releasing: Peter Capaldi/ Tom Hollander/ Gina McKee/ James Gandolfini); The Hangover (Warner Bros: Bradley Cooper/ Ed Helms/ Zac Galifianakas)

Just How Long Do The Simpsons Have Left?

Everyone loves The Simpsons - that's a given fact.  Well, ok...everyone loves The Simpsons apart from a couple I met earlier this year in my local pub, but two out of seven billion can be wrong.  This fact was re-impressed upon me yesterday when Channel 4 screened the classic episode 'Simpson and Delilah' (the one where Homer charges hair-growth formula to the nuclear power plant and becomes a powerful junior executive - until he is found out, the formula is spilt by Bart and eventually his influence weakens with every lost strand of synthetic hair) which was originally screened in October 1990 nestling among a universal clutch of "classic episodes".  This is an episode I have seen many times but, like so many others, it was with a friendly smile that I greeted this old friend instead of a derisive sneer of over-familiarity.  Contrarily, my normal response to The Simpsons on Sky One, where the episodes tend to be recent ones, is "I haven't seen this one - must be crap."  Sadly, it often turns out to be true.  The series will celebrate its twentieth anniversary on 17th December this year and many may argue this would be a suitable chance to finally call time, not just in Moe's bar, but on the whole town of Springfield.

It's long been said that it's difficult to pin-point the exact point when The Simpsons began to lose its magic, but general consensus puts it, sadly, at around the summer of 1997 when series creator Matt Groening began to look at his new venture Futurama with David X Cohen.  The series had run virtually flawlessly for eight triumphant seasons (although there were some near misses in season six!) but, with a disastrous season premiere finding The Simpsons in New York (which had previously been portrayed brilliantly by the fictional 'Capital City') and the first of many ill-advised character developments outside the family (Apu and new spouse in 'The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons') this was the beginning of the end for a show which had simply run out of stories.

From 1997, The Simpsons relied more on celebrity cameos.  Famous voices would more often than not play themselves as this previously normal American family increasingly found themselves coming face to face with Hollywood stars, Rock Gods, Teenyboppers and, in the abysmal 'British' episode, the incumbent Prime Minister - who, let's face it, has never been shy of doing anything for a stray dollar.  At least when Ricky Gervais was given the honour of becoming the first guest to write and appear in the show, he voiced the smarmy 'Charles', an extension of Gervais - just like David Brent or Andy Millman.  However, the wonderful irony at work here is that Gervais has been a long-standing advocate of "quit while you're ahead", wrapping up both The Office and Extras after two series and a special to tie up any loose ends.  To accuse Gervais of the same sell out tactics so often employed by his two most famous creations would be churlish, however.  This is the Simpsons after all!

That's possibly the problem.  Nobody really wants to admit that The Simpsons has gone stale, nor that it did a long time ago.  However, voluntary euthanasia may be the kindest gift Matt Groening can give his biggest cash cow.  The movie is quite literally in the can (one for you American slang enthusiasts there) and the show's greatest character has completed his journey from gruff, frustrated patriarch to a guff, frustrating idiot savant (minus the savant) with an over-reliance on a skin-crawlingly unfunny, exaggerated whisper.  It would simply be kindest to remember him on his greatest day ever...

Watch: 'Simpson and Delilah' (1990)

Restorative Justice Can Be Funny Too

I read with interest today that youth crime in Northern Ireland is being cut by having young offenders meet face-to-face their victims and that a similar scheme may be introduced for troublesome 10-17 year olds in England and Wales.

Hey, any attempt at rehabilitation is a good attempt - but how far will it go? Could this satirical sketch from 2001's "The Armando Iannucci Shows" actually become commonplace?




Knife Attack Reunion