The comedian, 60, talks about growing up wild in the Black Country, marrying her on-screen grandson and finally being able to be a grumpy old womanMy childhood was unusual, an Indian family plonked in the middle of the Black Country. I was a Midlands w…
Simon Amstell review – shame, self-analysis and great gags
Soho theatre, LondonThe comedian flops in a New York hotel room, sheds his inhibitions at an ayahuasca ceremony and visits a Berlin sex club as he explores his midlife crisisNo one zeroes in on the human comedy, the gulf dividing who we wish to be from…
Reservation Dogs: a groundbreaking, hilarious sitcom about Native American teens
The dark comedy from Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi set in rural Oklahoma is a watershed for indigenous representationThe second episode of Reservation Dogs, FX’s mirthful dark comedy about a ragtag group of indigenous teens in rural Oklahoma, takes p…
The Toll review – toll booth man with no name fights back in jokey Welsh western
Michael Smiley is the toll operator facing up to his murky past in this fusion of western and black comedyFather Ted meets the old west in this entertaining black comedy set in rural Pembrokeshire – “where English people come to die”, according to graf…
The Last Bus review – a cliche-packed vehicle for Timothy Spall
A widower takes a nostalgic journey from John o’Groats to Land’s End using his free bus pass in a well-acted but overly sentimental filmTry as I might, I couldn’t make friends with this weirdly unreal and sentimental Britmovie in the last-journey-with-…
Sex, Succession and sci-fi nightmares: the must-see TV of autumn 2021
More teenage hookups in Sex Education, a killer Olivia Colman and the long-awaited return of the Roy family … here is all the unmissable TV coming soonAnnie Murphy moves straight from Schitt’s Creek to another swearily titled series, this time a bold m…
25 Playwrights and their Plays, 1700-1799
Mary Pix (1666-1709): Manchester Metropolitan University recently posted a complete performance (production credits) of Mary Pix’s comedy, The Beau Defeated (1700). The play was also adapted by the Royal Shakespeare Company under the title The Fantasti…
Joe Thomas: the post-Inbetweeners comedown
The ex-Inbetweener’s new work-in-progress standup show, about breaking beyond being typecast, has a self-lacerating characterThe maladroit comic parlaying their anxiety into humour is as old as standup itself. But it’s a highwire act: other people’s ne…
Stephen Colbert mocks ‘poorly handled regime change’ at Jeopardy!
Late-night hosts discuss the hosting controversy at Jeopardy! and the Republican fight against Covid safety measuresStephen Colbert addressed “the big story everybody’s talking about right now” on Thursday’s Late Show, “which continues to be the chaos …
Seth Meyers rips America’s forever wars: ‘There was never a good time to withdraw’
Late-night hosts discuss the Afghanistan withdrawal, anti-vaxxers in California and United Airlines’ instruction not to use duct tape on passengersSeth Meyers tore into 20 years of American foreign policy and its forever wars in the Middle East on Wedn…