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chriswyc
Reviews
The All Star Comedy Show (2004)
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how diabolical was this show exactly?
the cast may have been have been 'all-star' but the outcome was anything but comedy.
the sketches seemed to be cast offs from the comedians' other shows that weren't funny enough to be used earlier.
the one-offs such as "ladder crazy" weren't too bad, mainly because it had Steve Coogan at his best- charicatured loony- but the repetitions of vic and bob's material, such as "monkey trousers", "I'm a nightmare" and the Roxanne spoof, were just not funny.
It seemed to be an attempt to copy the Fast Show's surreal skits, with repetition the main comic technique, but they forgot to include any humour.
I just hope that for the majority of the people involved (Coogan, John Thomson, David Walliams, Reece Shearsmith), this was just a one-off and that they had some fun acting out the sketches, cos there is little fun to be had watching them.
Stella Street (2004)
Tired dead horse flogging
the 10 minute TV episodes were good fun, in the times before the dreadful john culshaw or one-trick alastair mcgowan, but the 75minute film seemed old, trying to cash in on celebrity impressions that Sessions/Cornwall helped mould themselves.
they employ the talented ronni ancona (good to see her without mcgowan to bring her down) but used her sparingly, often as just a prop, to save sessions/cornwall from cross dressing too much, and i only found out she played so many different characters in the credits.
There is a sort of storyline, which i guess you need in a 75min feature, but they end up re-writing all the past series to make it work, virtually eschewing the TV work in favour of the film.
it passed the time, and made you appreciate good impressions, but i would have preferred a re-run of the tv series.
Brass Eye: Paedophilia (2001)
what's all the fuss?
the fact that there was so much fuss is ironic, as the whole point of the programme was to highlight the way the media treat such 'taboo' subjects, such as paedophilia. the newsdesk set, the suits, the smug presenters, the men-at-the-scene shouting about things you can see behind them, the pointless cgi graphs and stats, the whole thing was a satire, a very very funny satire. the way c-list celebrity's will say absolutely anything if their agent tells them it'll be good for their career ("there is no evidence for it, but it is scientific fact"). It may be hard to watch (with milly dowler and the cambridgeshire girls, as well as 9/11), but satire is supposed to be challenging, and we shouldn't be afraid to stand up against the blatant scaremongering and headline grabbing media, just because it's a delicate matter. How this show failed to win any TV awards for it's intelligence, observation, courage, acting and thought provocation is shameful, but, as watching it will show you, not in the least bit surprising.