29 Minutes Of Fame, Fridays BBC1

[The Mumbler]

Having recently finished Graham McCann's terrific Frankie Howerd biog (featuring dialogue from stand-up performances that could make you guffaw without even seeing Howerd perform them), and then found myself watching the abysmal Jason Wood "doing" Liza Minnelli like he was the bastard child of Graham Norton and Phill Jupitus...well, words fail me.  

Perhaps even worse was to follow.  Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan (gay, property developers, in that order - and boy they never shut up about either) lent their presence to an already-showing-its-age Keith Barret Show.  (Look, I've had flu, and I'm going to watch the Fall doc tonight, OK?).  Just about worth watching for an insert with a chef where Brydon wore a chef's hat with hair sticking out that made him look (deliberately?) like Tommy Cooper wearing a fez.  The studio stuff was horrible - the worst tired gay innuendo which reached its nadir when one of them said "Gay rights?  No-one ever says 'Straight rights', do they?".  These young bastards - no sense of history whatsoever...

Anyway, as for 29 Minutes of Fame - it's been designed to fill a gap in that unexciting Friday night Comedy Zone.  No new Little Britains to hype till at least the autumn, Have I Got News is only 16 weeks a year, and anything else in that slot doesn't really get an audience.  Maybe Bob M needs the dosh - and I gather he has an arthritic condition, so maybe he needed a sit-down job - but it was hardly comfortable viewing.  The biggest surprise was finding that Patterson and Leveson were centrally involved - whatever you think of what it became, early Whose Line? was very enjoyable, with the likes of Sessions and Merton hating each other (but doing great stuff nonetheless), with special guests ranging from Arthur Smith to Griff Rhys Jones to Peter Cook.   That was genuinely innovative and sporadically exciting.  This was a lot of shrieking  "with newslines from Jon Holmes and Colin Swash".

[Rats]

Paul Merton hates John Sessions? He's gone up in my estimation. Yeah I saw a few minutes of Keith Barret, it's not as funny as the kumars, you can't say that about many programs. I gave it a chance when it first started but it's very flat isn't it? There's not much room for him to improvise. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and blaming it on the character and the set up rather than him maybe just being shit. It still looked watchable mind but I was trigger happy with the old remote.

[The Mumbler]

I wish Brydon had been able to do a second series of Director's Commentary instead.  Which looks increasingly unlikely, sadly.

[Jemble Fred]

Bob just looked a bit nervous to me. When he let himself go a bit (the cat impressions etc) he was superb. I felt bruised by the end of this show, mainly due to intensified cringing, but also down to a few spots of extreme laughter. I fucking hate the world of Heat magazine, and everything that it entails, but I should imagine this series will be quite well accepted, and I'll probably watch the lot, just 'cause Bob's there.

But, fuck, yes, kill the whoopsie.

[burpmitosis]

Whenever I see shows like this with about three funny lines from Stephen Fry, I always think 'Look, couldn't we have just have had Fry doing a monologue to camera for half an hour instead?'.

I agree!  That would be heaven.

Stephen Fry made it worth watching, as he does for just about anything.  I could watch cricket if he was involved somewhere.  (No offence to cricket people, the opportunity to get obsessed with it has just never come my way.  Maybe one day I will suddenly go mad on it, you never know.)
I don't think Fry will be on it next week, or any other weeks, so I don't know if it'll be worth bothering with to be honest. I'll give it a go for Jo Brand alone.

Oh and I liked Jason Wood very much.  There was only one moment of "look how gay I am" really, and I thought that was quite funny.  In the camp comedian stakes he's miles better than that twat Norton.

[The Mumbler]

I like Fry and Brand very much, but it can't disguise that both are lending their names to some right old pieces of televisual stink in recent years.  Much as I'd love to continue my support of them as "national treasures" and all that jazz, that doesn't automatically excuse them from rubbish of recent years like Nobody Likes A Smartass (BBC2), Absolute Power (BBC2), that appalling You've Been Framed! with willies (the name of which escapes me; ITV), and a ton of Harry Potter spin-offs (everywhere, always, seemingly).  

It was a pleasure to see Brand do her stand-up thing again on Jack Dee's Thing From The Apollo last year, if only because she's a first-class performer when she's in control.  Fry, likewise, is a superb writer/performer whom I'd love to see or hear do a show of his own again.  QI is an unsatisfying halfway house of looking forward to seeing Fry (and maybe Sean Lock) and finding the studio full of irrelevant bollocks who aren't allowed to use cliches, but that doesn't stop them using them (*and* they still make the fucking edit)..  Not enough for me to always want to tune in, quite honestly.

[burpmitosis]

Things you can see in the post above

While I agree that Brand has done some shite telly, I can't find fault with what Fry has done.  Absolute Power, I did originally think wasn't too good based on the first ten minutes of the first episode, mainly because James Lance's delivery annoys the shit out of me, but recently I watched the whole series and thoroughly enjoyed it.
As for Potter - as sickening as the popularity and success of the whole thing may seem, Fry's involvement has been brilliant.  I'm currently listening to him read the first book, and it's just superb.  He is the best reader I've heard - with most you become too aware of the fact that it's someone reading a book to you, and the characterisations can grate and often the way they stress certain words can really distract and annoy, but Fry is a natural.  
He brings the narrative to life and it's so absorbing my commute passes in a flash.
I never get round to the latest craze while it's still going on, I always see and read things years later, and so it has been with the Potter books.  I may even see the films one day.  They are really quite readable and compelling - more evidence that when a lot of people like something, it generally is actually good.

And finally  :)  QI.  Can't disagree with you more on that one.  I find it a brilliant show, funny and yes, interesting.  If you can take the Alan Davies in the manner in which it is intended (as a thing for Fry to take the piss out of) it is possible to overlook his ability to irritate.  There are always more than a few laugh-out-loud moments in each show, I find.  But then I'm probably biased.

I can't find fault with Stephen Fry to be honest.  :D

Edit:  No matter how many times I edit this it still sounds cunty.  Bugger trying to be eloquent.  I love Fry and love everything he's done. So ner.

[Angst in my Pants]

:
Oh and I liked Jason Wood very much.  There was only one moment of "look how gay I am" really, and I thought that was quite funny.  In the camp comedian stakes he's miles better than that twat Norton.

I had the misfortune of seeing his routine at a comedy club once.  It was dire, and very much in the "look at me, I'm a flamer" vein.  Peppered with half-arsed impersonations of the great divas, it seemed like a bad drag act without the drag.  I wondered at the time whether he started out in drag, but couldn't be arsed to look it up as I didn't want my computer to think I was interested in him.

[burpmitosis]

Mr Pants - oh well.  I think I was biased in liking him because he reminded me of The Host in Angel.  Love that character to bits.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Notice Fry not allowing himself to laugh during the Prince Harry gags? Mate of Prince Charles isn't he?

[Dr David V]

Fuck me, I'm a genius. 159. Must be why I didn't find this show incredibly funny. It was alright though.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I have to say- this isn't the worst thing I've seen on BBC1 recently...

[benthalo]

That's the first time I've braved the Bex/29 Minutes double-bill and... Jesus. Has Ricky Tomlinson officially replaced Richard Wilson as respectable actor who is a total, embarrassing waste of space on panel games?

[burpmitosis]

Had to turn it off.

[chand]

Bits of it were alright, but I cringed at the 'Dale Winton is gay' jokes.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Yes, the Dale Winton-ness was almost as tedious as watching Supermarket Sweep

[sick as a pike]

Bob wasn't as pissed as he was on last week's show, I thought.