Après Broadchurch - Vicious!

[jayne lee wilson]

Not as far as I know - I understand that the working title of the show was 'Vicious Old Queens'

Definitely an improvement! Missed a trick there... and PM Cams would have something to spout about after The War of Suarez' Teeth...

Anyway Ams., could have been worse - it might have been "Heading Out"...... talk about car crash tv, so bad its good, etc...

(Great post no.22 - Exactly. And remind me - why did Lip Service finish so soon again...?)

[amateur51]

Definitely an improvement! Missed a trick there... and PM Cams would have something to spout about after The War of Suarez' Teeth...

Anyway Ams., could have been worse - it might have been "Heading Out"...... talk about car crash tv, so bad its good, etc...

(Great post no.22 - Exactly. And remind me - why did Lip Service finish so soon again...?)

I guess it was brave to set Lip Service in Glasgow, jlw - people further south (ahem) can be notoriously sniffy about having to concentrate and well as enjoying themselves

I thought it was a promising series - almost unique in fact

Not seen Heading Out ... and you're not tempting me

[eighthobstruction]

Heading Out....yes a shame, because Sue Perkins is capable of so much more....I hope she tries again with a different comic premise.....(and less telegraphing of jokes and characters....)....

Another complete DISASTER is Wright Stuff BBC1 Tues....So dated, so obvious, such a waste of time....written by Ben Elton + another....it clangs and clunks with cliched codswallop commissioningisation.... (and hasn't the head of BBC1 just been promoted within the Beeb)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/23/bbc-appoint-danny-cohen-director-television

.... Vicious described in next weeks RT as 'this terrific new comedy'....

[Barbirollians]

I thought it was very old fashioned in its setting but the hamminess of the lead characters was deliberate . The rape line was very crass though. The marvellous forgetful funeral guest was funny .

The curtain joke was definitely the best one !

The Job Lot, however, was much superior and very promising indeed especially the frantic manager , the ghastly colleague who was reinstated after a tribunal and Russell Tovey as the frustrated graduate . He is clearly leading the way in crushing old attitudes that an out gay actor cannot play straight men .

[Mr Pee]

Heading Out....yes a shame, because Sue Perkins is capable of so much more....I hope she tries again with a different comic premise.....(and less telegraphing of jokes and characters....)....

Another complete DISASTER is Wright Stuff BBC1 Tues....So dated, so obvious, such a waste of time....written by Ben Elton + another....it clangs and clunks with cliched codswallop commissioningisation.... (and hasn't the head of BBC1 just been promoted within the Beeb)

.... Vicious described in next weeks RT as 'this terrific new comedy'....

Oh yes, Heading Out was another disappointment. I only lasted one episode. And The Wright Stuff- again, a waste of a fine actor in David Haig- (another of my acquaintances). It's hard to believe this unbelievably lame and dated sitcom comes from the pen of Ben Elton, who wrote most of the Blackadder scripts. I lasted about 5 minutes!!

I can't understand RT's enthusiasm for Vicious, but each to their own. Are you their reviewer, Amsy?

The two funniest shows on TV at the moment for me are both American; Modern Family and- even after all these years- The Simpsons.

[french frank]

(and hasn't the head of BBC1 just been promoted within the Beeb)

2007-2010 Controller, BBC Three > 2010-2013 Controller, BBC One > 2013 - BBC, Director Television

Danny Cohen, b. Jan 1974. http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/ins...s/cohen_danny/

[johncorrigan]

The two funniest shows on TV at the moment for me are both American; Modern Family and- even after all these years- The Simpsons.

It's the 'Big Bang Theory' in our house.

[Mr Pee]

It's the 'Big Bang Theory' in our house.

Heard of that one but never seen it. Do you know what channel it's on?

[Barbirollians]

Heard of that one but never seen it. Do you know what channel it's on?

Evidently not Sky

[Mr Pee]

Evidently not Sky

[Richard Tarleton]

The two funniest shows on TV at the moment for me are both American; Modern Family and- even after all these years- The Simpsons.

Let's make that three - re-runs of Seinfeld on Sky Atlantic

I came across Seinfeld in its original (in the UK) BBC2 graveyard slot, circa 1992. Sublime, sharp situation comedy.

[eighthobstruction]

Heard of that one but never seen it. Do you know what channel it's on?

....E4

[Mr Pee]

....E4

Thank you. I rarely venture to that station....

[Flosshilde]

To revert to the subject under discussion, I also found 'Vicious' excruciatingly bad. The rape 'joke' should have been cut during script discussions. Like Mary Chambers I didn't thing the young man was especially attractive (this aging queen still has some standards ). I thought that some of the lines were OK, but smothered by the awful over-the-top campery (I assume that this was the result of the direction - who was the culprit in that?). A waste of two (at least) splendidly talented actors.
It was surprisingly bad given the two writers. Perhaps Mark Ravenhill isn't used to writing comedy, & the 'Will & Grace' writer not used to working without a large group of people contributing. I think one of the reasons that USA comedies work so well (generally) is because they have a group of writers contributing plenty of material & can afford to reject most of it (I assume that's how it works), & consequently they can have a much quicker pace; if one joke falls flat there's another one along immediately, whereas British comedies tend to be the work of one or two writers & are much slower.

I thought that the most interesting aspect (retrospectively) was being able to compare the naturally aged Derek Jacobi with the artificially aged Derek Jacobi in 'I Claudius' the next evening.

[alycidon]

The trailers were more than enough for me - even F de la T couldn't persuade me.