Be Excellent To Each Other

Much as I like some of those a combined greatest hits album would probably be about a quarter of the number of bangers that the Beatles put out if that.

Shamefully no mention of The Teardrop Explodes.

Wait, not better than The Beatles though… isn’t this the UK tv thread?

And no mention of The Wombats? Shameful

No Ken Dodd…

Channel 4 is showing Uzumaki.

The first episode is so fucking good I’m tempted to wait until it’s all out to binge it.

https://youtu.be/_qcENAxFZCk?si=c-6IkkSoNErpLPMY

Goddamn the art is so good you could be reading a moving manga.

One of the delights of this season of Taskmaster, other Andy Zaltzman being Andy Zaltzman, is watching Jack Dee involuntarily and repeatedly break character.

Currently on the Iplayer so I watched Threads for the first time in about 20 years last night.
The post-event sections remain as haunting as when I'd first seen it, and some bits are more graphic than I'd remembered. Also there was far more use of tableau and short vignettes to show the world rather than extended sequences.

Although there is a sense of dread during the build-up, it does also serve as a period piece of Britain in the 1980s. Even all the smoking felt archaic. I didn't really engage with the love interest between the main characters, and I guess attitudes to relationships have changed a lot in 40 years. I think these days we'd just have the same kind of sketches for the world-building of the day-to-day rather than the kitchen sink stuff. Not sure about the need for the narration either.

The Protect & Survive sting is still some of the most disturbing notes ever recorded.

It remains worth watching and reminding yourself of the potential horror of the Bomb.

Unintentional pained-hindsight-laugh:

I only watched it once, about twenty years ago too.
Not sure whether I’m in the right frame of mind to do so again now.

Same for On The Beach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film)

I did watch By Dawn’s Early Light for the Nth time which is nowhere near as bleak but does suggest how quickly things could go wrong.

The War Game is the other that I need to see at some point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

Oh, and Fail Safe is good too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_Safe_(2000_film)

Isn't it?! I wasn't even born when those PSAs were made, but just hearing that 'jingle' at the end of each broadcast sends shivers down my spine.

Started watching Slow Horses. Fuck, it's good.

Gary Oldman is clearly having the time of his life.

So much. I read book 4, which is the latest series, and thought it had spoiled it, but it hadn't. And having seen it only makes reading it better (mostly when imagining Oldman delivering x line).

I'm enjoying this series. The last episode was the best with some really good tasks.

As for the line up, colour me surprised but Rosie is the one who I like the most. I've never rated her at all on anything but have really warmed to her on this.

Dee and Zaltzman have both been solid. Emma is good. The other guy is stealing a place being on there.

I know I’m going to be in the minority here, but I think Taskmaster has run out of ideas and lost its way.

There have been series where I’d have to pause the tv to get my breath back and go and have a wee because I’d laughed so much, but the last few have felt so flat. The tasks have grown lazy with minimal set up and the quality of the guests isn’t high enough that they can work with a minimal set-up (like ‘push the envelope’ - Emma did three shit cartwheels and stuck it in a statue. Not clever. Not funny. Not worth even being shown).

There used to be so many great tasks with large scope, with clever little hidden red herrings. Tasks where contestants were trying to find something that was graffiti’d in huge letters behind them on a bridge the whole time, or where they had to perform six tasks and the order they chose to do them in would lead to an impressive time or complete mayhem.

Rosie is the only contestant that is enjoyable to watch. A combination of clever fun and willingness, and an ability to laugh at herself. Jack and Andy, yeah, okayish. Not the worst but neither fun or clever, and the schtick is so old. I find anyone that brings their crafted personas with them is just not very good as they have to perform in character. Like when Jo Brand was on. If your persona is that you don’t care enough to do the tasks, and you aren’t prepared to drop that, maybe say no to the gig. Emma and Baba are just awful. They should not be there at all.

I think that now the producers have run out of ideas, the contestants have run out of ideas and feel they need to force being ‘wacky’ not because it’s clever, but because it’s what they’ve seen before.

When someone applies themselves to the task (like pushing a barrier with an envelope with it for three miles) then the producers can usually work with that and make something great.

If you haven’t already you should take a look at the NZ version, Mimi.

I haven’t, but will do. Thanks for the tip, GC!

I get what you're saying, Mimz. The big issue is that you don't see the contestants working things out. It's just task reveal and then the final product.

Re: Taskmaster. I feel like they need to do a full series with the five best ever contestants. Not the best scoring, I don't care about them being champions. But I just want to see Liza Tarbuck, Mike Wozniak, Tim Vine, Bob Mortimer and Sally Phillips all together.

But mainly just Liza and Mike. On every season basically.

Some of the funniest moments have come from Greg’s personal connections to people. Someone stole his trousers. I think someone else took a photo of him sleeping, and someone else might have taken his mum out for the day. His genuinely reactions to those moments make wonderful TV.

Rhod Gilbert tormented him a lot with that sort of thing. That was all funny.

Even smaller minority here - have never watched it and don't really know what the fuss is about. Should I put this on my watch this? Bearing in mind I don't watch much telly because I'm so incredibly lazy I can barely be bothered to scroll through the lists to find something.

Is there a UK version of 'Have You Been Paying Attention'?

Cos the Aus version was great, super funny, and still is good entertainment but now it's at something like the 12th series it can at times seem like it's getting a little bet leggy. This is the only scheduled thing I look for on live TV.

Nope, but it sounds pretty close to Have I Got News For You.

I think taskmaster went a bit downhill after series three or four as it seemed to me "Greg and Alex and their mates" and then the Lou woman appeared and she was unbearable. Also the contestants wised up a bit too much removing some of it. Mcaster constantly telling Alex to fuck off was funny though

The first few were enjoyable to me, though.

I think this is a pretty key thing.

My favourite task though is still probably the one where John Kearns had to sabotage the task without them knowing. I was in pieces.

I'm halfway through the first season of taskmaster Nz, a few thoughts.

It's weird seeing the production exactly as the UK version, but without UK people in it or the UK house.
The nz Greg is not very good, very wooden.
The nz Alex is great in the tasks and pretty good in the studio, be interesting to see how he develops.
The house is uninspiring
The tasks are OK so far, nothing super imaginative.

Angela, fantastic, no idea how much is an act or how much is real, but frequently unexpected and hilarious.
Brynley, very funny in the tasks and super enthusiastic, not quite as funny in the studio
Guy, not anywhere near as entertaining as he thinks he is, has his moments but I don't like him
Leigh, very dry and more switched on than he likes to portray, I enjoy Jim in the tasks more than the studio.
Madeline, obviously talented but a bit of a nothing contestant, OK at everything but nothing really unique.

The studio bits are all a bit laboured, there isn't really the flow between all of them as there is in the UK, but I put that down to the main host being crap.

I'll carry on as its amusing enough, I'm very interested to see how it settles down in series 2 and see what whether they learn from the crap bits of series 1.

I watch the UK one despite Greg presenting it, and I'm not that into Alex Horne usually. That's why I was 6 or 7 seasons late to watching it, as they put me off. Alex has grown on me, but Greg still grates.

I had wondered if I was missing anything as my only exposure has been compilation jobs on YouTube, which I have had quite some enjoyment from every so often.. Sounds like probably not so much. Excellent.

In some ways it is, but HYBPA is a lot snappier and faster paced. It's more 'quippy' than I recall HIGNFY, and in presented a bit more of an everyman style. I haven't watched HIGNFY in a long long time though, so perhaps I misremember.


There's a lot of overlap with the TV funny-people over here, many of the NZ comedians also appear on the 'Have You Been Paying Attention' show. I find Ray o'Leary and Guy Montgomery are funny in the quippy style when they are riffing off other things.

Season 2 of TM:NZ is one of the funniest and best seasons of TM full-stop, across all of the international and original versions. And it's almost entirely down to David Correos.

Part of the charm of the series is building a relationship with the contestants over the course of a series, especially when it's someone I've not previously had a much time for. So while the tasks themselves can be fun, there's a side of a show a compilation won't capture.

Like the Simpsons, I tend to forget that HIGNFY is still a thing. I'll catch it occasionally and find it hit and miss, often due to the choice of host.

I've felt for many years that they really should ditch the guest host approach and return to having a third regular Hislop and Merton can play off.

I stopped watching HIGNFY *because* of Merton. He just grew steadily unfunnier until he had no idea what to do and kept gurning or pulling faces/making noises to fill time.

The Dog House has been BRUTAL these last two weeks. It's such a nice programme but the human interest angle has been tragically sad. Even moreso than usual.

They seemed old and grumpy when I last watched it, which was probably late 90s but that's probably also cos I was young(er) too. For me, that sarcastic almost bitter style of humour wears thin after a while.

Didn't one of them (Metron I think) quit in some acrimonious circumstance some years ago? And Deayton was embroiled in some scandal which - these days - probably wouldn't even have people batting an eyelid?

I agree with Mimi about Taskmaster and HIGNFY. Taskmaster has been going downhill for a while and has lost some of the genuine sincere fun that they had in early seasons. I think it might have been after the move to channel 4 and being more over produced for main stream TV and getting more attention, I reckon, but whatever happened it lacks something that it once had.

I feel like some things just outstay their welcome, or they get old faster than others - and of course the world, and myself, change.

Like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, when Simon Amstell was hosting - it was an absolute scream, laugh out loud funny, something I genuinely looked forward to each week and caught often on the repeats channels. But recently I watched some of it again for the first time in a long while and.... I felt kinda bad, it wasn't as funny as I remembered it, a lot of it felt really 'mean' and while there was a lot of impressive quick-wittedness, at times it looked like a bit of a 'pile on'.

It's all about the hosts and regulars, I gave up on Buzzcocks after Lamarr left. Would I Lie To You has remained fun and always will be with those three I reckon, as soon as someone moves on it's usually the death knell for these sorts of things.

All hail our sardonic overlord Metron.

Speaking of David Mitchell I'm enjoying Ludwig. Amiable stuff with some proper lols.

Me on Amstell from 12 years ago

Amstell is like a tickbox.

From the Wiki:

We watched Ludwig. It was enjoyable enough, though I don’t know if David Mitchell can actually act. He’s just ‘David Mitchell’ in this, as well as everything I’ve ever seen him in. I’d hoped he might exercise his acting chops for this. I’m hoping he might build on this with an assumed second series.

To be honest, I wonder if my sense of humour isn’t just broken. We started watching Lego Masters (Aus) on Channel 4, and every advert that comes on for a ‘comedy’ series is not only unfunny but makes me feel tensely annoyed. The ‘Alan Carr As A Kid’ one, or ‘Stef Let’s Flats’ or any of the others. Just deep annoyance.

Talking of the (Coren) Mitchells, I’ve started fast forwarding through Victoria’s intro/outro bits on Only Connect.

You don't like her increasingly insane attempts to cram a racy Michael Portillo pun into a tv show title?

Just bored of hearing the same thing. The Michael Portillo bit isn’t the annoying bit, but ‘good news, we’ve had a word with the lawyers and they’ve said we CAN use chat GPT to write the intro (gasp and swallow) and so I’ve typed in the prompts’ etc. I think I’ve just grown bored of it, and years ago I noticed that she favours run-on sentences, or can’t rest her sentences properly. She runs out of breath and has to gulp half way through, and once I noticed it I could never unnotice it, as she struggles to finish the last words of her rambling with her remaining breath. Just stop, breathe, deliver the line.

I know it’s an irrational thing to be bothered by, but there we are.

I feel much the same. I see trailers for new comedy series and with a lot of them I won't even give the first episode a try because I know they'll just annoy me. It's not only comedy, I avoid quite a lot of new drama after only watching the trailer.

We started watching Ryan Sampson's 'Mr Bigstuff,' even though I had my doubts about it. I like Ryan and thought he was brilliant in Plebs. But our opinion of Mr Bigstuff was that it was dire.

I've got all these on my 'Do not watch list,' after either watching just the trailer or the first episode; Colin from Accounts, The Cleaner (possibly a bit controversial and I might need to give this a second chance), Two Doors Down, Mammoth, The Power of Parker, Gavin and Stacey (I know, very controversial, but I just can't stand it), Daddy Issues, The Wrong Mans, Black Ops, Murder on the Blackpool Express, Murder They Hope, Cunk on Earth, Death on the Tyne, Ladhood, Mandy, Our Flag Means Death, The Outlaws, Such Brave Girls, The Witchfinder (mainly because I can't stand Time Key)..... OK, that's the BBC covered. Now I need a rest.