Comedy

You shouldn’t watch Dapper Laughs. But you really shouldn’t let the likes of me stop you

15 November 2014 9:00 am

As you’ll know by now, I’m big on thinking the right things. Should a thought strike me that m’colleague Rod…

The subversive wonders of Kilkenomics – where economics meets stand-up

15 November 2014 9:00 am

‘What is a Minsky moment, anyway?’ asks Gerry Stembridge, an Irish satirist. ‘I’ve been reading about them in the papers…

The greatest sitcom that never was

8 November 2014 9:00 am

Funny Girl is the story of the early career of the vivacious, hilarious Sophie Straw, star of the much-loved BBC…

Rosamund Pike and family (L-R) Harriet Turnbull, Emilia Jones and Bobby Smalldridge

Outnumbered: The Movie (But Crap)

27 September 2014 9:00 am

What We Did On Our Holiday is written and directed by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, the pair who created…

Frankie Boyle is a cowardly bully, and I’m ashamed I ever stood up for him

30 August 2014 9:00 am

‘Outspoken comic Frankie Boyle has called on the BBC to sack “cultural tumour” Jeremy Clarkson.’ Can anyone tell me what’s…

Switching on to a new generation gap

30 August 2014 9:00 am

In the world of YouTube and Netflix, generations no longer share a culture

Alex Salmond has already lost — if the Edinburgh Festival is anything to go by

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Lloyd Evans tours the Edinburgh Festival in search of clues about the outcome of the referendum

An innocent graduate of Operation Yewtree, Jim Davidson, dazzles in Edinburgh

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Let’s start with a nightmare. Wendy Wason, an Edinburgh comedienne, travelled to LA last year accompanied by her husband, who…

The harrowing, inspiring life of Andrew Sachs

15 March 2014 9:00 am

Comedians always like to claim that they started making jokes after childhoods made harsh by poverty; that at a formative…

Is a new art form being born on Woman's Hour?

25 January 2014 9:00 am

In a comic-strip cartoon, beads of water apparently radiating outward from the head of one of the characters indicate embarrassment.…

An utterly charming, totally bonkers short novel

4 January 2014 9:00 am

This utterly charming, totally bonkers short novel is something from another age. There are elements of A Handful of Dust…

Don't flog a dead parrot - leave Monty Python in the past

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Monty Python was funny once. But a revival is a dreadful idea

burlesque

Burlesque is not as bad as stripping. It's far worse

13 July 2013 9:00 am

A sense of irony doesn’t make stripping feminist. It just makes it worse to watch