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…
JO KEndall RIP
https://youtu.be/Cu4sCJiDhXU What a week for the I’m Sorry family. There were few brilliant funny women quite so under-appreciated and unfairly ignored as the great JO KEndall. Every female comic who has gone beyond ‘bimbo or old bat’ stereotypes follows in her footsteps. John Lloyd told me that when they were casting Not The Nine O’clock…
BARRY CRYER: “That’s it!”
Baz has gone, then. I'm Sorry, it's happened again. You don't ask for selfies when you're out the back of the pub having a fag and a natter, so this is one of the few photos of me and Barry – with Bath Comedy Festival boss Nick Steel and comedy music legend Ronnie Golden, just…
TALES OF BRITAIN: Not Quite Autumn 2021
Far away, in the top left-hand corner of Wales… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUodJgbfIhk As that crazy little thing called Mabon encroaches, I surely have to apologise for getting a little 'What-I-Did-On-Me-Holidays', but a honeymoon with my beloved in the folklore-steeped hills of Snowdonia, coinciding with the long-gestated second volume of TALES OF BRITAIN ON AUDIBLE, has meant a…
TALES OF BRITAIN: Only Just Summer 2021
Only days from Mabon and the autumnal equinox, after so long in the wilderness for Brother Bernard (besides one return to Tintagel, see above and below*), we have an exciting Folklore Thursday announcement! After months of graft (it was designed as a spring/summer release – thanks, Audible) TALES OF BRITAIN VOLUME 2 IS FINALLY UP…
