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That's what this shall be. 

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Haven't seen any mention of this on here so far. According to Chortle, Vic and Bob are planning a new live show, with a tour in mind if the first dates go well enough.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2012/01/25/14726/vic_%26_bob_to_tour_again

Given recent form on Shooting Stars, and at least a good chunk of Afternoon Delights, this is very welcome news if true.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ15z8YqB8Q

try to follow this recipe

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This looks exciting. A series in which David Steinberg sits and chats with comedians about their careers. In the first episode, it's Don Rickles, then Jerry Seinfeld.

Although, as the review states, 'We live in an era overflowing with venues for the dissection of comedy, including blogs, podcasts (there’s little chance Inside Comedy is ever going to offer up the sort of in-depth analysis and confrontational psychodrama found on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast)', I can't get enough of shows like this. Plus, with Steinberg's comedic connections, there's a lot of potential to get some great insight here. I'm not familiar with his interview approach, but it looks like it could be the closest to a televisual equivalent of something such as WTF that we've had in a good while.

I think I'll have to track down its predecessor too - Sit Down Comedy With David Steinberg - which featured interviews with the likes of Robin Williams, Larry David, and Garry Shandling.

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http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2012/01/26/14732/sky_orders_a_new_julia_davis_comedy

Shades of Nighty Night - 'Davis will play the scheming housekeeper Dorothy, who believes the newcomer cannot compare to the pastor’s dead first wife, Arabelle.'

I thoroughly enjoyed Lizzie and Sarah, and Human Remains, but found Nighty Night a tad jarring by series 2. Still, could be promising.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16744299

Terry Jones is directing the science fiction film, Absolutely Anything - 'Jones revealed John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin were on board and he still hoped to sign Eric Idle.' Robin Williams is on board too.

Also looking forward to the animated film about Chapman too - who still made the effort to be involved despite being dead since 1989, as opposed to Idle, who's probably too busy writing The Meaning Of Life in the style of a Shakespearean play, or some such lucrative bollocks.[1]

1.	Spamalot has finally arrived in my general area. Starring Marcus Brigstocke, Bonnie Langford and Todd Carty.

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There’s an intrinsic conflict with the alternative being a success, with the anti-telly comedian being on television, with the outsider being, to some degree, part of the mainstream. And it’s something he’s well aware of. It leads him to believe that many of his fellow comedians “increasingly dislike” him. He’s not exactly kind to them either.

“For a long time, I was a sort of totemic figure for them. Popular and successful comedians like to be able to appear magnanimous, and so it was very nice for them to be able to go ‘but of course, my favourite comedian is. . .’ and then they would say me. But I was not in their orbit, so it’s a patrician pat on the head.”

But his increasing success changes that. “When I used to do stand-up making fun of how comedy works or complaining about commissioning procedures, or whatever, I did that from a position of being in an 80-seater attic in the Fringe, or in an arts centre somewhere. If the perception of you is a success, things that seem heroic when you’re perceived as an outsider very quickly look arrogant.”

Then there’s the question of being ripped off. “As soon as that happens, people will be irritated with me by association because it [Lee’s stand up] will start to feel not an alternative thing, but actually a trope.”

While being influential might be flattering for some, Lee has instead dumped some of his trademarks for Carpet Remnant World . “I think it’s pretty obvious why I haven’t done them – because there are 19-year-olds doing them. Things like long silences, lots of repetition that slightly changes over a 20-minute bit, stating very cruel things, very bluntly as if they were facts, getting off the stage and performing from unlit, unamplified areas of darkness, all those things I’ve done a lot of – I haven’t gone near them in this show because I’ve seen little kids doing them in open-spot nights.”

Seeing younger comics perform like him doesn’t exactly give Lee a warm fuzzy feeling. “It’s kind of like a Lego version of you. Reduced. Oh dear. It’s a bit annoying. I sort of think, that’s what I do, and I’ve got two kids and I’m 43 years old and I’d quite like to be able to eek this out until I die, and yet you’re making what I do a cliche and you haven’t even got any dependants, you horrible, selfish child.” He pauses post-rant. “But, on the other hand, it forces you on.”

From http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0125/1224310701798.html

While there is a degree of sarcasm in what he's saying, I do think this is a bit of a ridiculous stance to take. In the past I've seen Lee admit that when he started stand up that he was a 'poor man's Ted Chippington' or words to that effect. Obviously every artist is going to have  formative influences.

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I'm willing to sell this idea to the highest bidder.

A series of internet shorts, just 5 minutes a piece. Each one follows Jo Brand's husband through his day, as he gets the kids ready for school, does the grocery shopping (including cakes!!!), makes Jo a nice tea, drives her to her nightly comedy venue, and finally gets home, grabbing a sacred half hour to himself after tucking the kids in and reading them a story.

Each episode, at this juncture, Mr Brand will think 'Oh, lovely Jo is doing her show live tonight on Channel 4. I think I'll tune in, I'm in the mood for a good chuckle!'.

He switches on the TV, just in time to hear Jo complain about how fat and ugly he is, as well as shit in bed.

A single tear rolls down Mr Brands cheek, which he wipes away with a piece of lemon drizzle cake.

Fin.

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Been re-listening to the NTNOCN albums.  Some random observations:

• I think I'm a bit in love with Mel Smith.  He was such a great, exciting comedy performer and a terrific actor, able to convincingly play a thuggish lout one moment and a buttoned-up academic the next.  Makes me realise just how bad a lot of modern sketch performers are.  Mitchell and Webb, for instance, have done the odd cracking sketch here and there but they have zero acting chops whatsoever outside their Peep Show personae.  Has the rise of stand-up in British comedy seen a corresponding decline in actual comic acting? Maybe.
• The viciousness of the Two Ninnies sketch has been much commented on, but perhaps even more surprising is the viciousness of Curtis and Goodall's Barry Manilow parody, particularly in the version contained on the LP of the stage show Not in Front of the Audience.
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  What does a Barry Manilow fan look like?  Well, she buys her clothes from C&A.

  Oof!  Bit of class-based punching down there!  She doesn' teven have her outfits made by a tailors in Jermyn Street.  How pathetic she is.  Even more shocking to my ears is the line:
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  She dreams of the day she will marry, A hook-nosed homo called Barry

    Ouch!  Care for a side order of anti-semitism with your homophobia, sir?  Seems quite hard to reconcile these nasty lines with the cuddly charity boss/Britfilm saviour image with have of Curtis and with the all-round-good-egg and posh music academic that Goodall has become.
• The Laker musical Rice/Lloyd webber parody is a wonder to behold.
• The material on the LPs and TV compilations is so familiar that when you find something you haven't seen possibly since its original broadcast, it's quite astonishing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfuN9HRDVZY