My mates used to be in his band. I went backstage with them at wireless Festival before they played an early slot on the main stage. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but he was extremely arrogant in the worst way. He underpaid his band which he hired specifically for a season of gigs, including sell out headline slots, and mistreated them so much that that they all quit. Despite them travelling to London for each practice from the south he refused to pay them for rehearsals. Hes funny and brings something unique to projects but he's not a pleasant man
Monkey Dust was genius, their satire on corporatism and marketing bullshit was so spot on and relevant , this would never get on TV today. The sketch i'm talking about is the classic re-branding cancer, just sums up the lies that have crept into everything.
I think Catterick should have got a mention. As for Inside No.9,the 2nd episode of series 2,The 12 Days of Christine,was one of the best pieces of TV I've seen in years. Hand.
i agree Christine is my favourite episode. If you are going to watch inside for the 1st time don't start with this episode as you will peek too early, most of them are good, its just this one is a stand out.
Ah, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, definitely one of the best. It really does have quite a large cult following, though. And is Inside No 9 really that unknown? For my money it's not as good as either League of Gentlemen or Psychoville, but I had the impression it was actually quite successful.
EVERY EPISODE OF INSIDE NO 9 IS AMAZING AND people now are just starting to discover it after 4 series. Needs much much more attention. It's clever, dark, and funny as hell. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are such underrated writer-actors. Best in the bunch!
You need to make sure you've seen "Darkplace Illuminatum" and "Horrificata Illuminatum" too. That's an hour's worth of Marenghi, Todd Rivers and Dean Lerner doing the talking heads bits.
I am not an animal was great, but you needed to really pay attention to catch the jokes. I love it! Not something that you can just have on in the background though
Here's one: The High life, starring Alan Cummings, it's about 3 air hosts and hostess, it's heavily based in and targeted to the Scottish. Only one series, with only about 8 episodes, but still hilarious, with great interactions between characters. If you like the IT crowds trio dynamic in the workplace you may like, The Highlife.
And also Alan Cumming co penned The High Life with his costar. The show came out around 1995. Also in 1995 Alan Cumming was appearing in Goldeneye as a computer programmer working for the villains.
Dark Place is terrific, flawless even. Love Snuff Box. The Mighty Boosh and IT Crowd are some of the greatest tv comedies of all time. I just wish we could get more content from Mathew Holness - been a long time since Dark Place.
The IT Crowd is perhaps the straight up funniest sitcom I’ve ever seen. No question it’s top 3. Plus, it gatewayed me into Dark Things, Snuff Box, Brass Eye etc, and shows like Taskmaster and Would I Lie To You, though i was already a big fan of Mitchell and Webb. Semi-related, but Are You Being Served and Fawlty Towers both make my top 10 sitcoms of all time, with an honorary mention to Keeping Up Appearances. Also, Flying Circus was basically the Sgt Pepper of comedy, so they deserve an obvious mention, though sketch comedy probably needs its own category.
I remember seeing Darkplace on Adult Swim, so it did manage to get a little play across the pond. Garth Marenghi was like Stephen King x Tom Cruise, somehow existing on a steady diet of coffee and blotter acid.
Sean Lock was unlucky with the timing of 15 Storeys High. It was shown on BBC 3, when most people didn't have access to the channel. Also, he was already in his early 40s when it was made, so he must have been annoyed about waiting so long to get a show on, and then most people missing it. Is it ever repeated?
Where is the smoking room I absolutely love that TV show and even though it was awarded stuff I don't think anybody remembers it even though it helped boost a lot of peoples acting careers
Very pleased that Dark Place is No 1. Otherwise I would have to have written a strongly worded comment in all caps 😜 I can't believe I've never heard of The Asylum!
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Brilliant stuff. Saw it when it was first aired on Channel 4. That must be over 10 years ago now!! Great spoof of 80s UK sci fi. And very, very funny!
I’m in Australia so haven’t seen half of these and I’m pissed off about that. British comedy: when it’s good it’s brilliant. The Boosh, Man Down, Friday Night Dinner, IT Crowd, Raised By Wolves, Black Books- no one else comes close to producing such original and superb comedy.
On 2 August 2007, Langham was found guilty of 15 charges of downloading and possessing level 5 child pornography. Langham was jailed for ten months, reduced to six on appeal. He was made to sign the sex offenders register and banned from working with children for 10 years.
Chris langham lol that was a bit of a bad idea just after that he got done for having pics of children . Bad sort . Even worse that it was a clip of him with a child . Sick.
I first watched Darkplace in 2008 before I started Uni and when I had my first audio lecture my teacher asked us all about shows we liked or had recently watched that we could think of off the top of our heads and about their sound design. He was absolutely shocked when I said Darkplace as he didn't think any of us had ever watched anything so obscure. Ever since I've re-watched all 6 episodes at least twice a year since it's just that brilliant.
you were right. i havent heard of most of these. i only know of darkplace because its been mentioned on other lists here. i'd heard of asylum when they talked about it in the making of spaced. all of the others i didnt know
You could add to this list: Lee and Herring's Fist Of Fun; Big Train; Bruiser, which had the superb 'Do you sell poison?' sketch in it; Still Game, which is one of the funniest shows ever, period; Hippies, starring Simon Pegg; the sketch show Chewin' The Fat, the highlight of which, were the rants of psychopathic carpet salesman, Mr Carter; and Nathan Barley, who is the brainchild of Charlie Brooker, who originally had an hilarious mock TV listings internet channel called 'TV Go Home', in which Nathan Barley appeared regularly in his own show, about a self centred media tosser. The show had to have it's name changed, as in Brooker's dark world, it was simply entitled: 'Cunt'.
I only clicked on the link because I recognized the thumbnail from GMDP. As a Canadian, I approve of #1. I don't understand why it didn't last longer. Also nice to see early works of Richard Ayoade.
Serious question here; does ANYONE remember a short-lived British sketch show, early 00s, which periodically had a small kid interrupt the sketch (for example, to defuse a bomb), with the punchline, "he won a competition"??
