I recently found myself bewailing the fact that my last book release, Fab Fools, was over four years ago, and even that was released under lockdown. Currently I'm being massively mishandled in my quest to find a paperback home for one of my existing books. And although I started researching a new comedy history book…
TALES OF BRITAIN: Spring 2024
Happy Current Rainy Season, all! Brother Bernard has not been exactly dormant throughout the year-plus of silence from the Tales of Britain blog, though he has been known to hibernate for a generation or three. It's true that the arrival of Nephew Neddy has slowed the output of fresh folktales, or legendary site visits*, but…
THE FROOD: Fit The 42nd
I come to say "Bloody big congrats, Kevin!", not to blubber. It seemed wrong somehow to say nothing to mark the passing on of the Hitchhiker baton, as it were – as if the Adams legacy meant nothing to me, and I had nothing to say on the matter, a decade on. So here we are.…
FAB FOOLS: Dead Again
In most ways, I could not be less of a typically machismo-oriented man (to my delight, two separate old flames of mine independently described me as a butch man-hating lesbian trapped in a big man's body) but I often wish I was better at crying. I've spent most of this week feeling on the verge…
THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE BLACK ADDER STRIKES BACK!
The sound of hooves is coming back over the glen… Oh yes, the Blackadder 40th anniversary may be in evidence on Channel Davy Gold and suchlike, in the Royal Mail stamps and Sir Tony's new Cunningcast thing, but some of us have been building up to the 40th anniversary of the greatest sitcom in (and…
Bath Plug Award 2023: Julian Clary
Fatherhood out in the Bath bush makes it easy to feel all-but retired from leaping up on stages and making loud noises these days, and yet, besides the approaching joys of Tales of Britain in Ludlow in June and FAB FOOLS LIVE in Clifton in July, I have just survived a couple of the old…
FAB FOOLS: LIVE AT LAST!
What with a global pandemic and moving out to the Somerset sticks, getting married and producing a disarmingly cute small person, the LIVE! section of this website isn't one I'd been expecting to bristle with much activity ever again, compared to the years when shenanigans with The Unrelated Family begat playing burlesque filth on the…
TALES OF BRITAIN: Not Quite Winter 2022
Once upon a time, Tales of Britain updates used to be weekly, every Folklore Thursday, without fail. (Is Folklore Thursday even a thing now? There seems to be a similar hashtag every day of the week!) Then, the missives from Brother Bernard slowed down to become seasonal… and then… Girls, and indeed boys, this is…
Bath Plug Award 2022: Sandi Toksvig
https://youtu.be/iLXS_zig8q8 After losing Neil Innes, and then having two years of pandemic hiatus, to be honest, I thought that after a short run, The Bath Plug Award had had its day. We had tried, over the years: from Terry Jones in 2015 to Arthur Smith in 2019, but the original plan to have guests interviewed…
Clue at 50: I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Present!
Half a century ago this evening, the only partially suspecting Radio 4 audience were first treated to 'the sound of time wasting', the all-new quiz show spin-off from the most ribald and funky comedy show of the 1960's, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. Admittedly, the very first pilot had been recorded the previous November…
Jem Roberts 