British TV Comedy

' Laugh Out Loud Funny ' Sunday Telegraph
' Smashes Everything Over The Comedy Boundary '
Britain’s Got Idiots is the stunning debut DVD of Andy Parsons, the star of Mock The Week and Live at the Apollo. Recorded at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue at the zenith of his sell-out UK tour. Britain’s Got Idiots proves once and for all that Andy Parsons is not only the topical comedian of his generation but a damn fine dancer.

Controversial tabloid favourite, radio DJ, writer, ladies' man, and now Hollywood star, Russell Brand, goes back to his comedy roots in this live stand-up show. Fresh from his scene-stealing turn as a pretentious rock star in FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, Brand brings his unique, often surreal, observational musings to London's O2 arena as part of his 2009 SCANDALOUS tour.

Superbly written, directed and acted, the BAFTA nominated series takes a long, hard look at sex, love, friendship and the loneliness of having too much fun, living in zone three but with zone one aspirations. Includes all the episodes from the show's first and second series.It's wonderfully funny and wonderfully filthy !

Michael McIntyre doesn’t hang about; he can take claim for having the fastest selling debut stand-up DVD ever with Live & Laughing, along with being the quickest-selling comedian at the Edinburgh Festival packing out 26 consecutive nights. Now he’s started, there appears to be no stopping London-born Michael, who is the rising star of British comedy. His brilliantly engaging delivery and effortless rapport with the audience have led to him to be hailed by audiences and critics as one of the best-stand-up talents currently performing in the UK. Michael observed the world unpaid until 2003 when he began his stand-up comedy journey and was nominated for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Since then he has sold out theatres across the country, become a regular face on television and has been nominated for a whole host of prestigious awards. Michael’s ever-increasing fan base has grown via word-of-mouth popularity rather than from a regular weekly TV slot. Michael says: “I don't really do jokes. I just talk about things that I find funny. I tend to laugh at them myself as well because I find them funny. I don't do gags, just observational comedy. I just collect all these stories and try them out and if people laugh I do them again and make them better.”

Michael McIntyre doesn’t hang about; he can take claim for having the fastest selling debut stand-up DVD ever with Live & Laughing, along with being the quickest-selling comedian at the Edinburgh Festival packing out 26 consecutive nights. Now he’s started, there appears to be no stopping London-born Michael, who is the rising star of British comedy. His brilliantly engaging delivery and effortless rapport with the audience have led to him to be hailed by audiences and critics as one of the best-stand-up talents currently performing in the UK. Michael observed the world unpaid until 2003 when he began his stand-up comedy journey and was nominated for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Since then he has sold out theatres across the country, become a regular face on television and has been nominated for a whole host of prestigious awards. Michael’s ever-increasing fan base has grown via word-of-mouth popularity rather than from a regular weekly TV slot. Michael says: “I don't really do jokes. I just talk about things that I find funny. I tend to laugh at them myself as well because I find them funny. I don't do gags, just observational comedy. I just collect all these stories and try then out and if people laugh I do them again and make them better.”
In 2008, Michael won Best Headliner at the Chortle Awards and was nominated in the same category the previous year. Michael proved he’d earned his place as one of the country’s most popular comedians when he was nominated in the Best Live Stand-Up Performer category alongside Alan Carr and Russell Brand.

Michael has twice hosted the popular BBC show Live at the Apollo and performed for Prince Charles on his 60th Birthday on ITV’s We Are Most Amused as well as well as the Royal Variety Performance. Consequently, he’s now on first name terms with his Royal Highness, Prince Charles.

Outnumbered follows the daily chaos of family life with two parents and three young children locked in an unequal contest. Containing strong elements of improvisation, this comedy is an honest portrayal of the well meaning parental incompetence that happens in most homes, as Mum and Dad attempt to raise their kids with the minimum of emotional damage for all concerned. Includes all the episodes from the show's first and second series.

According to Mack Carter, whoever said crime doesn t pay was a moron. But when Mack is sent down for a four year stretch, his wife Lindsay Carter (Amanda Redman) starts to think that maybe the moron had a point and it's time the Carter family gave up the family business of theft, fraud and the odd bit of forgery. This revelation comes as something of a shock to the Carter off-spring who start to wonder if Mum has truly lost it but eldest son, Taylor, who has just graduated as a lawyer, proves for Lindsay exactly what can be achieved with a little honest hard work. Siblings Vin, Kacie and Lianna will not be best pleased when they find out what Lindsay's got lined up for them and exactly how hard this honest life is going to be.

“Funny, quirky and very well written, with some excellent comic performances” - The Daily Telegraph
Martin has two best friends, Patrick and Carl, who couldn’t be more different. One is an irresponsible, unreliable, feckless womaniser and the other is dead. Guess which one slept with his wife?
Martin Grantham is happily married to Jen. They have a son Dan, a nice house, the works. One day his best friend Carl throws himself under a train, setting off a disastrous sequence of events that will change Martin’s life forever . Into this mess steps Patrick, a friend from way back. Patrick is everything Martin is not – glib, self-confident, popular and pathologically immature. He’s the last person Martin needs in his life right now. Or is he?

FM is a hilarious British sitcom that takes you behind the scenes of fictional indie music station Skin FM. Chris O'Dowd (THE IT CROWD) stars alongside fellow comedy stalwarts Kevin Bishop (STAR STORIES, THE KEVIN BISHOP SHOW) and Nina Sosanya (NATHAN BARLEY) as the dysfunctional DJ/producer team spinning discs and discussing the 'perils of skinny jeans'. This release includes all 6 episodes of the show's first series.

The cult BBC comedy about the self-made millionaire who likes to keep it in the family... Roman's Empire might have started as a caravan park but now it’s a multi-million pound leisure and travel agency, branching out to places people never knew they wanted to go. Like Somalia. Roman has three beautiful daughters, one of whom used to be Leo’s girlfriend, until she returned from filming B-movie thriller The Squid (They're Killermari!) with a new boyfriend… Can Leo prove himself better than the wang-shape pulling, rugger-loving Seb? Will his only ally, Jase, finally succeed in escaping Roman’s eldest daughter, Jenny and their child? Can Leo avoid dealing with the family’s strangest – and richest – member, the deeply-creepy, Uncle Jesus? Or, does Leo’s only hope of winning Nikki back lie in helping Roman build his theme park "Romania"?

Reggie Perrin (Martin Clunes) retells the story of a sales executive on the edge: an average man who finds it increasingly difficult to put up with the monotony of life. A disappointing marriage, the office grind and the daily commute: rebellion begins to build in his mind, in the form of increasingly surreal flights of fancy. And, slowly, Reggie begins to say what he really thinks.
This new adaptation of the classic sitcom has been written by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) and the writer and creator of the original Seventies show, David Nobbs. Martin Clunes leads a fantastic cast, including Fay Ripley (Cold Feet), Wendy Craig (Butterflies, The Royal), Geoffrey Whitehead (The Worst Week of my Life), Neil Stuke (Game On) and Lucy Liemann (Moving Wallpaper).

Introducing loveable old codgers Jack (Ford Kiernan) and Victor (Greg Hemphill) in series one of Still Game, a sitcom about sex, violence and scones. Ready for adventure and always game for a laugh, this pair of Glasgow pensioners prove that growing old is about more than just a free bus pass.
For the first time all five side-splitting series of Still Game are available in one box set. Come to Craiglang, pour yourself a Midori and enjoy a comic feast with Jack, Victor and the rest of the gang, as Britain's favourite OAPs take on the world and all it has to throw at them.... usually by the local neds!
Jack and Victor may be in this box but there's life in the old dogs yet, as they prove they're very much Still Game.

All your favourites from the smash-hit sketch show together on one disc for the first time ever. Classic antics featuring Ronald Villiers, Scotland's best-loved but worst actor, steamy recollections from Betty (the OAP with the X-rated love life), and a glimpse of Jack and Victor when they were young(er) and still game for a sing-song. Plus don't forget the Big Man, the Banter Boys, News for Neds, Ballistic Bob, Bish and Bosh the painter n' decorators, the Lonely Shopkeeper and the Invisible Boss. It's an orgy of laughter and hilarity - enough to make a certain uptight female science teacher get all flustered and scream "That's enough!"

Whether mesmerising us with the sheer visual mastery of Mr. Bean, beguiling us with the acerbic wit of Edmund Blackadder, or simply entertaining us as the suave, but rather hapless British Secret Agent Johnny English, you surely won't have escaped the comic genius that is Rowan Atkinson. In Rowan Atkinson Live, co-written with Richard Curtis (4 Weddings & a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually) and Ben Elton, Atkinson runs the whole gamut of his remarkably versatile 30 year career, with sketches, mimes and monologue's that are guaranteed to have you shedding tears of laughter. Performing live on stage alongside "straight man" Angus Deayton, the show features a number of original and familiar routines, including sketches that appeared in the original Mr. Bean series.

The Kumars at Number 42 is fantastic spoof chat show, in which the Kumars, a fictional immigrant family, have indulged their son Sanjeev by building a television studio in their back garden! Each week a selection of real celebrities are grilled by Sanjeev and the rest of the Kumars. Guests include Richard E. Grant, Michael Parkinson, Gary Lineker and Richard & Judy.

The Thin Blue Line is the wickedly funny story of a rather down-at-heel police station headed by Inspector Raymond Fowler (Rowan Atkinson), a pompous, repressed but well-intentioned anachronism who wants to do the right thing but who is constantly hampered by his own shortcomings, not to mention his blundering CID colleagues. Atkinson expertly balances his character's inflated sense of self-importance with the insight born of old-school police values, for which his galumphing, shiny-suited CID counterpart, DI Grim (David Haig) has no time at all.
Strongest among the supporting cast is Sgt Pauline Dawkins (Serena Evans), who also happens to be Fowler's live-in lover--a moral dilemma that his traditional values won't allow him to resolve. He salves his conscience by avoiding sex with her whenever possible, an amusing subplot enhanced by Evans's brilliant performance.
Scripted by Ben Elton, this series manages to satirise provincialism, institutionalised pig-headedness and dated moral values in one fell swoop, while also being chock-full of quick-fire, Blackadder-esque dialogue.

Welcome to Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show, a noisy, anarchic and hilarious new sketch show where Katy’s celebrity parodies meet original comic characters to create a world which looks like a lot like ours, only louder, ruder and better. Katy Brand takes household names and puts them through her wringer – they’re not so much impressions as approximations. You’ll see Kate Winslet living her normal life on Normal Farm, as a NORMAL MUM and Kate Moss as a 15 year old school disco bitch, terrorizing classmates Sadie Frost and Stella McCartney. Katy’s original characters include Capt. Rosie Fielding facing up to ‘civilian slags’ in Armed Forces TV’s ‘The Woman’s Slot’; Caroline, whose life is ruled by glossy magazines and the complex mathematics involved in ordering a glass of white wine for lunch; and Jesus’s Girlfriend, who finds dating the Son of God a mixed blessing. All this and much more, including musical spoofs of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse.

Channel 4's critically-acclaimed drama follows the angst-ridden lives of its teenage characters, as they grapple with issues of race, religion, sexuality, drugs, and eating disorders. Skins' portrayal of these characters as poster children of the hedonistic lifestyle is unflinching in its candour. Expect plenty of bitching, backstabbing, and general bad behaviour in the show's debut series, presented here in its entirety.

Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and a superb ensemble cast serve up the laughs in dinnerladies - the critically acclaimed comedy (written by Wood) set in a factory canteen. The banter and good humour are never short supply as Bren (Wood) and the team - managed by laid back Tony and ably assisted by handyman Stan and Human Resources manager Philippa - muddle through their daily routines. And just when you think everything is under control, along comes Bren's eccentric and disturbing mother Petula (Walters). It's the perfect ingredient for chaos, making the perfect comedy dish!

This is Jasper Carrott at his best, although there was no new material here it is a display of his greatest hits a few of them polished up and broad up to date with the modern world. Each show and there were near 20 of them in successive nights was different as the content of the shows were voted for by the people who had bought the tickets. I went to the final night and it was a fantastic atmosphere as Jasper said thank you for all the support of the city. I was way up at the back of the NIA but you could still see Jasper moving around and screwing his face up as only he can. Had me in stiches the whole show and wishing for more, the DVD will be fantastic and will have you spplitting your sides with laughter.

World's Greatest Stand-Up - Vol. 1 features a superb compilation of some of the best stand-up comedians in the world, including Dave Chappelle (whose last DVD release in the US sold over 3 million units), a rare performance from David Hyde Pierce (star of Frasier), plus some big names from the UK, such as Lee Evans, Dylan Moran and Dara O'Briain. In addition to over one and a half hours of stand-up the DVD also contains extras.

Created by and starring Bolton-born comic Peter Kay, Phoenix Nights is one of those rare gems that few saw on first showing but that everyone was soon talking about. The first series introduces wheelchair-bound Brian Potter (Kay), who runs the titular Phoenix, a shabby social club populated by an assortment of wonderfully observed characters. It's grim up North and despite the best efforts of the staff to inject life into the proceedings--be it an alternative comedy night, a version of Robot Wars in Potter's beloved Pennine Suite or a Wild West extravaganza--each evening's entertainment always ends badly. Undaunted, the Phoenix denizens continue to strive for their dream: a world in which "clubland never dies".
The beginning of the second series sees Brian Potter's beloved Phoenix Club lying in ashes and the staff scattered to the four winds. Even club compere Jerry St Clair is reduced to singing "Come get your black bin bags" to the tune of Men in Black in the local supermarket. But not even being barred from having a licence for the rest of his natural life can deter the northern Svengali from reopening the club and making it bigger and better than before--even if that means making Jerry the licensee and offering up-market Chinese nosh.

Series One:
The week before a wedding can be stressful at the best of times, but as hapless publisher Howard Steel (Ben Miller) prepares to marry the lovely Mel (Sarah Alexander), it becomes a nightmare of gargantuan proportions. Everything that can go wrong does. Howard’s earnest attempts to do the right thing only seem to make matters worse and his situation isn’t helped by his dad’s new girlfriend, a besotted old flame and a family funeral. Will Howard and Mel ever make it up the aisle?
Series Two:
Having finally made it down the aisle after the worst week of his life, it seems as if everything is finally going well for Howard. He and Mel are about to move into a new home together, and are expecting their first child; two life-defining events, and for once everything is perfect. If only life was this simple!
The Worst Christmas of my Life
Howard and Mel are looking forward to their first Christmas as a family with their new baby daughter, Emily. However, with suicidal secretaries, maniacal relatives, homicidal boyfriends and belligerent Santas, circumstances conspire to make this a Christmas to remember… for all the wrong reasons.

Bang Bang - It's Reeves and Mortimer continues the anarchic and surreal blend of offbeat comedy that has made the duo so popular. The series is arguably a continuation of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, although a number of new characters were added. There's also a spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary about Baron's Night Club – a clear precursor to Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights . The high-voiced Stott brothers--who appeared in Vic Reeves Big Night Out --return to terrorise celebrities. The show capitalised on the duo's success with the spoof game show Shooting Stars and brought in a darker edge to their humour.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer display their own inimitable brand of anarchic and surreal comedy in a DVD set containing both series of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. Having switched from Channel 4 to the BBC in 1993, the duo introduced a host of new characters for their loyal fan base. These included the spoof folk duo Mulligan and O’Hare, the bra-wearing men, and their own take on the glam-rock group Slade. The series mixed studio-set comedy silliness with pre-recorded sketches, the latter of which frequently involved parodies of other television programmes. The second series of the show returned in 1995 and continued to display Reeves and Mortimers’ offbeat and bizarre sense of humour.

The bizarre yet critically acclaimed BBC television series The League of Gentlemen is to sitcoms like The Good Life or even Friends what David Lynch's films are to Frank Capra movies. Instead of the usual one-family-in-suburbia or group-of-pals set-up, Gentlemen centres on the whole town of Royston Vasey. A Northern village of, to say the least, eccentric characters, the weird people of Royston Vasey (actually, the real name of lewd northern comic Roy Chubby Brown) look like they've been intermarrying for too long and are suffering from a particularly demented variety of xenophobia that drives them to extremes of tetchiness and psychosis. There are the local shopkeepers Edward and Tubbs, who go to murderous lengths to ensure their shop remains for local people only; the Denton family, toad-breeders obsessed with maintaining their household rituals at all costs; inept veterinary surgeon Dr Chinnery, who's never yet saved a patient; Barbara, the local transsexual taxi driver (one of the show's more well adjusted characters); Pauline the demonic Restart Officer at the local Job Centre; and Lance, the sadistic owner of Lance's Joke Shop which sells poisonous sweets and the ever-popular finger in a matchbox (with a real finger), among many others. Most of the characters are performed by the three core members of the group, sporting a disturbing variety of prosthetic demi-masks and latex make-up, who started the concept off with a stage show and then transferred it to radio before taking it on TV, which may explain why The League of Gentlemen seems blithely oblivious to normal sitcom conventions and has a stately air of surrealism that feels like The Archers as written by playwright Eugene Ionesco. Brilliant stuff.

The Guinness Book of World Records' holder for telling the most jokes in an hour, and star of 'The Sketch Show', comedian Tim Vine, known for having more punch lines per minute than any other comedian, presents his first ever DVD, Tim Vine Live. Tim's unique style and trademark quickfire puns have established him as one of Britain's most talented comedians. Tim Vine Live is jam-packed with an inspired medley of one-liners, a hatful of silly songs and enough props to fill a charity shop. With a live audience present, Tim Vine Live also features some priceless moments showing Tim's witty improvisation. His continual barrage of side-splitting jokes will have you begging for mercy.

Filmed at London's Gielgud Theatre at the culmination of his 1998 tour, Jack Dee Live and Uncut offers the UK's favourite "whinger" in his element--on a stage performing stand-up comedy. Dee has presence in his orange shirt and tailored blue suit, but although he's derogatory about himself--he's a stay-at-home man, he's short, he's fat--he's also unapologetic.
Dee isn't afraid to throw harsh words at his audience or swear like the proverbial navvy along with an onslaught of observational humour. He doesn't go in for surrealism, one-liners or complex structural payoffs. He prefers to tackle one subject at a time, explore it, then move on. His themes are universal rather than original but he usually brings a fresh perspective. Take builders… he puts himself at the centre of their Neanderthal attentions rather than women. With relationships, he brings his own experience into the equation and he's particularly hilarious about the division of wardrobe space and the structure of marital arguments in his own home. There isn't much here you could say was overtly political but he does have a dig at ridiculous censorship laws by imagining himself in a world that takes the likes of David Cronenberg's Crash literally.

Voted as Britains funniest man Johnny Vegas hosts his first ever entertainment series. Re-live the best bits of the hit show Johnny Vegas:18 Stone of idiot as Johnny invites you into his bizarre but comical world. Vegas is joined by a host of celebrity guests Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Elvis Costello, David Soul, Huey Morgan and Rhys Ifans who he interviews in his own unique way. For the first time ever the very best bits from the series are presented here on this essential jam-packed DVD alongside all the bits too outrageous for TV and loads of never before seen material This is Johnny at his crude, rude, hilarious best!

Produced exclusively for DVD, with nearly 3 hours of the hottest standup comedians performing in the funniest program on TV. Mock the Week –" Too Hot for TV" contains all the best laugh out loud moments that couldn’t be shown on TV or anywhere else, for reasons of taste, decency and sheer outrageousness. For the first time see unbroadcastable material from Dara O’Briain, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis, Andy Parsons, Russell Howard and a host of the funniest stand-up comedians on the circuit. In addition the DVD features exclusive DVD Extras including: ‘The Producer’s Cut’ of the top 3 episodes from series 5 (2007) re-edited with another 17 minutes of "too hot for TV" material restored. A must for any fan of the show or anyone who wants to see the most outrageous comedy ever!

Three features. The Australian housewife and megastar appeared on the television series 'An Audience With...' three times to share her views and answer questions in front of a celebrity audience. Also includes clips from various chat shows from the seventies and eighties.

Members of the general public beware - Dom Joly is back, and this time he's going global! Features such characters as British Bob the Stuntman, Guido the Colombian Gigolo and Alan, the World's Liveliest 77 Year Old Man. Features the complete episodes from the first series of the programme, as well as a never-before-seen episode.

Described as the 'female Little Britain' this 'filthy but fabulous' new BBC3 sketch show is packed with outrageous, grotesque and perverse characters that might make you cringe but will certainly make you laugh out loud. Meet the oh so shy Italian Maid 'Don't look at me'! Maxine Bendix whose addiction to plastic surgery has taken her down a messy route 'it's just a little bit of seepage', the creepy Don Peacock who loves to have a 'little wee-wee' on his ladies; Paula the twitching darter; a group of refined ladies who like to crochet with nothing on underneath and horny necrophiliac pathologists - it's anything but boring.

On the Smack The Pony - The Best Of DVD Sally Phillips, Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan flex their unique brand of absurdist, post-feminist humour. This "Best Of" collection contains all the funniest sketches from series 1 and 2 of the hit television programme.

Victoria Wood Live at the Albert Hall provides proof, if any were needed, that after two decades at the top of her profession, Wood is one of a small handful of British comedians of either sex capable of filling the country's largest venues. For the consistently high quality of her penetrating observations of the mundane she has no equal. Recorded in 2001, this performance has all the hallmarks of her microscopic examinations of life's perplexing minutiae and trivia. From her recent hysterectomy to Paul Daniels, from the NHS help line to wheelie bin covers, from Americans in Disneyworld to the ageism of catalogue mailing lists, nothing escapes Wood's attention. Not even in-vogue authors: she refuses to read "Captain Corelli's friggin' Mandolin" as it sits reproachfully at her bedside.

This series is a follow-up to 'Mike Bassett - England Manager'. In 'Football's coming Home,' Mike, having been sacked from England, Newcastle, Norwich and Colchester, accepts a call up to Wirral County much to his wife's dismay. She's been looking forward to a life on the Costa Del Sol and is now facing a less than glamorous lifestyle at Ellesmere Port. The series follows the Mikes final attempt to succeed in management. Also includes episodes 'Going Dutch', 'Flat Pack Four', 'Return Of The Paralytic Son', 'Seven Brothers For Seven Brothers' and 'Abide With Me'.

Ransacking the worlds of politics and broadcasting in the name of comedy. No public figure is safe from this exceptionally talented team of impersonators and their satirical digs at subjects that range from the newsworthy to the naughty. Celebrities and politicians are mercilessly lampooned - Russell Crowe, Judi Dench, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robbie Williams, Nigella Lawson, George Bush, Tony Blair and Iain Duncan Smith crop up in strange places, doing the oddest things. Movies and television also get a new twist, as 'The Elephant Man' appears on the grooming-for-a-date show Would Like To Meet, and 'Tom Baker aka Dr Who' befriends the Daleks. Sharp, clever and exceptionally funny, this is satire at its finest.