The British comedy awards….Oh Alan!

Well last saturday saw the most important night in the comedy calender, the British comedy awards. The evening that brings together and celebrates the best that Britain and the world has to offer in terms of comedy.

 The night was hosted by Angus Deayton after Jonathan Ross pulled out because of him and Russell’s famous phone call. I must say that i am a massive fan of these nights, the chance to see so many comedians in one room is incredible and it is somewhere that I would love to be in a few years time.

The only problem that i had with the whole evening was the host, Angus in my opinion has become almost wooden and boring in his style of joke telling. I know that he is meant to come across as very dry and sarcastic, but i personally feel that after all the hassle that British comedy has been through, we needed to see someone up there who could make everyone laugh and feel good about the array of talent.

Instead we had Angus making guest hosts looking stupid and making you almost cringe everytime he opened his mouth.

Mention of the night had to go to Russell Brand , who wasnt at the awards but instead was working with Adam Sandler in America on their new movie  ‘Bedtime stories’ , who during his speech for his award for best stand up, thanked Jonathan Ross, the room laughed but i think it was more a polite chuckle followed by a room wide groan.

Well here at student giggles, i wanted to bring you the list of the winners:

Best Television Comedy Actor
Ricky Gervais – Extras Christmas Special

Best Television Comedy Actress
Sharon Horgan – Pulling

Best Comedy Entertainment Programme
Harry Hill’s TV Burp

Best TV Comedy Drama
Drop Dead Gorgeous

Best Live Stand-Up
Russell Brand

Best New British Comedy Programme
The Inbetweeners

Best TV Comedy
Gavin and Stacey

Best Comedy Panel Show
QI

Best Male Comedy Newcomer
Simon Bird – The Inbetweeners

Best Female Comedy Newcomer
Katy Brand – Katy’s Big Ass Show

Lifetime Achievement Award
Jasper Carrott

The Writer’s Guild Ronnie Barker Award
David Renwick

Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award
Geoffrey Perkins

The only award that i had any real opinion on was the winner of best new comedy female, i am sorry but Katy Brand is not funny, she does rubbish impressions and isnt funny at all.

well until next year, where hopefully I can make a name for myself, well i can dream cant I.

Live at the apollo to replace Ross.

It has been Announced that Jonathan’s Ross ‘ Friday night chat show has been replaced with Live at the Apollo for the next few weeks while he serves his suspension from the BBC. The shamed TV host is currently fighting to save his career after the now famous remarks made on Russell Brand’s radio show.  

Live at the Apollo, which was formerly shown on a Monday night will be hosted by Michael McIntyre, who has appeared on Mock the week and Have I got news for you.  The comic has become popular for his views on Modern Britain.

I have to say that I am a big fan of Live at the Apollo as it has show cased some very promising talent in the world of comedy, this series, which is the fourth, will run till the end of January when Ross is expected to return.  I think that it was important that the BBC didn’t lose it’s sense of humour all together and it has made the right decision in replacing like for like and not using the empty slot to just show old films.

As for the decision to have McIntyre as the host, I am unsure that this will work, I think that he is a funny comic but I feel that it would have been a chance for someone like Andy Parsons from Mock the week to step into the limelight. I just find that McIntyre often takes too long to get to a punch line and many times when I have watched him I find that I am bored of him.  However, I think that it is a great chance for him.

The show is being filmed this week and will be shown the following Friday.

At least were not talking about the Eyeliner anymore….

dennis and gnasher

Well , what a week it’s been , I thought to myself at the end of  last week that there wouldn’t be much for me to talk about, so instead decided to focus on some other stuff, then these two had to go and make a phone call didn’t they!

When the story first broke, my reaction was that it was incredibly funny, I will be the first to admit it, but now after it has cost at least two people there jobs and there is talk of suspensions and sackings, I can’t help but feel that it has gone on for long enough. I can’t turn on a TV or read a newspaper without it being mentioned, everyone seems to be having a say on it, and personally I am waiting for Obama or McCain to mention it in a speech!

It seems that everyone though is in agreement that it was Ross and Brand’s fault, “O they should know better” “I can’t believe they would be so rude” “Sack them from radio”. Are just some of the nicer things that people are saying? But for me, the blame must solely be placed with the bosses at the BBC, yes Jon and Russell said horrible things that shouldn’t be said on National radio, but the show was not broadcast live, meaning that at least one person will have heard it before it went out last week.  I personally would have heard that and thought to myself the trouble that it could cause. But instead it went out at the same time as every other week and nobody at the BBC batted an eye lid.

And after all the fall out of the lewd remarks, it seems that Russell has come out of this a lot worse, I know that him having to rebuild his career was his own fault. (If you were unaware Russell used to present on MTV but was sacked) But he has been forced to quit his radio show and leave the BBC, whereas Jonathan Ross has been seen more as someone that has been led astray a lot like a younger brother who should know better, And the talk of him losing £2million is laughable as he will make that back very quickly working on his own radio show and for ITV.  The fact is though that after all the fuss and story after story hitting the headlines, was it really that bad?

Ironically as Ross has a career which is caught in limbo, Brand will only come out stronger from the whole ordeal. Max Clifford speaking in the Daily Telegraph thinks that it will have no negative effect on his career and I would have to agree, the fact is that not a single complaint has come from anyone who listens to his show on a weekly bases.

I am fairly confident that if you ask people in the street that you will see that older people would be more offended and Brand’s target audience the 18-25 market would properly just laugh it off and say that it was what they had come to expect from his show and his type of humor.

It is worth pointing out as well that Andrew Sachs , the actor whose phone was “abused” has said that he has accepted there apologies and wants to forget the whole thing.

The whole episode looks like it will do the BBC more harm than good, as the small amount of money that Russell was on, compared to the money from films and book sales, and is a small price to pay to keep one of the most popular comedians in the UK.

The fact is though, after all this mess and the BBC having their reputation dragged through the mud, you have to ask yourself, whether they are going to regret more losing a great British comedic talent for the sake of a few people that don’t even stay up late enough to listen to his show?