Mark Heap-related stories
Posted Oct 6th 2009 1:00PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd
A few months ago, I ever-so-giddily wrote about the entire first season of the
British comedy Green Wing being available on Hulu to American viewers. It only seemed right to spread the good word, as it happens to be one of my favorite shows (it's like
Scrubs if it were a little less annoying and more demented).
Well, shame on me for being late with more news, because it wasn't until reader Erik pointed it out that I saw that the entire series of
Green Wing is now on Hulu. Having both seasons and the finale special means that you get the laughs
and closure. Isn't that nice?
Continue reading Green Wing finally available in full on Hulu
Posted Jun 6th 2009 2:10PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Hey, gang! It's time to get your sketch comedy fill and kick the
Saturday Night Live summer break shakes.
This week, I'm here to educate you on a little British program called
Big Train. It was created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, the brains behind
Father Ted, and ran two seasons/series in 1998 and 2002. Most of the sketches were surreal and played with the most beautifully serious deadpan expressions. There are people in giant cat and mouse costumes getting in fights, professional evil hypnotists lurking in hallways, as well as
jockeys being preyed upon by Prince, so it's a wonder the actors could ever keep straight faces.
Continue reading Sketch Comedy Saturday: Big Train
Posted May 11th 2009 6:29PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Web, Reality-Free
You guys, you guys (Americans, specifically)!
Green Wing is on Hulu! Exclamation mark!
All right, let me back up. I am a British comedy nerd. Some of you more eagle-eyed readers may already know that one of my favorite shows is something called
Green Wing, which aired on Channel 4 way back in 2004. It's one of those programs that perfectly blends the quickness and quotability of sketch comedy with the engaging story arcs of more traditional sitcoms. There is no laugh track (thank goodness) but a beautifully quirky score that heightens the comedy instead of fighting with it. Plus, it's just plain snazzy.
Continue reading Americans! Green Wing is on Hulu!
Posted Jan 5th 2007 12:01PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC
(S03E01) I have been looking forward to this Special for a very long time and, I'm sorry to say, I was a little bit disappointed. Although many questions were answered, I didn't think there was enough substance to justify an hour and a half of television. The whole thing could have wrapped up very neatly in about thirty minutes, I think.
Continue reading Green Wing: Christmas special (series finale)
Posted Sep 11th 2006 10:41AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Talent, BBC, Celebrities
The latest edition of
The Guardian features some fantastic interviews and articles about some of today's hottest British comedians. They're all great reads, but the photos of the comics re-enacting various moments in pop culture are what really reeled me in. My favorites include Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant (from
The Office) as McCartney and Lennon, the boys from
Green Wing as Queen, and Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (from
Spaced and
Shaun of the Dead) as Paul Gascoigne and Vinnie Jones. Hilarious.
Read the
text and then check out the
great pics by Karl J. Kaul.
Posted May 24th 2006 8:44PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Web
The
Green Wing cast and crew seriously sound like some of the loveliest people alive. Seriously. From all the great fan encounters I've heard, the brilliant interviews I've read and watched, and the fantasies I've had about working with them, they, and their fantasy-selves, just seem like all-around good people. To further my belief, the
GW folks have gathered a bunch of amazing stuff and put together some charity eBay auctions. 100% of the proceeds will go to the World Wildlife Foundation and, even better, the shipping is free.
Items include
signed DVDs and scripts (with unreleased scenes!) and a
costume lot with Martin's spiky raver shirt, Sue White's long-arm blazer, and Mac's coma tee and glorious bottomless scrubs (ass-less scrubs, is what they mean). These aren't the usual crappy auctions from programs that offer "a water bottle used in scene four" kind of stuff... Each piece was part of a fantastic moment in the show. If I didn't have student loans to worry about, I'd snap up all these items. Anyone want to buy me something? My birthday's only eleven months away.
Posted May 22nd 2006 1:22PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, OpEd
(S02E08) This season has been an absolute roller coaster ride. As if the first season's crazy relationships and antics didn't confuse us enough, this time around, everything stepped into the next realm of bizarre. There's love triangles (love quadrilaterals?), murder, babies, threesomes, pimps, affairs, proposals, and Guy being considerate. The first episode was relatively weak, but the rest of the season has had a lot of strong points. The plot thickened considerably without sacrificing any of the laughs.
Continue reading Green Wing: Episode 8 (finale)
Posted May 13th 2006 3:18PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, BBC
BBC America
will start airing one of my all-time favorite shows,
Spaced, starting June 23.
Spaced is an absolutely hilarious show, loaded with clever references to various aspects of stoner/pop/geek culture, from Tekken 2 to zombie flicks to
Star Wars. It's from the makers of
Shaun of the Dead, so expect that sort of material (but with less gore and a lot more
mimed gun fights). Plus, the show features a rather cool-looking Mark Heap (Dr. Alan Statham from
Green Wing) as a miserable, young painter. The now-defunct Trio channel aired the show to coincide with the American release of
Shaun of the Dead back in 2004, but I haven't seen
Spaced on TV since then. Now that it's on BBCA, maybe my American friends will know what I'm quoting all the time.
BBC America also has
Peepshow coming June 30 (I've heard a lot of good things). Apparently,
Peepshow and
Spaced will be a part of BBC America's late-night adult comedy line-up, "The Underground". Well, I would hardly consider
Spaced a candidate for this, but... okay.
Posted Mar 12th 2006 8:01PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd
There are some great new
Green Wing photos and
teaser trailers (and a nifty
behind-the-scenes blog) online, in anticipation of the new season starting
March 31st on Channel 4. I really like the group shot of everyone in ballet outfits... However, I'm disappointed that
Stephen Mangan opted for a kilt instead for a nice tutu. Tsk, sir. I don't see any Sarah Alexander (she played Rachel
Hunter) pictures for the new season... Did she do less
Green Wing to work on the new NBC comedy,
Teachers? Oliver Chris (Boyce) has been thrown into the new group shot, so maybe his character will be even
more prominent this season (more Boyce/Statham awkwardness! Hurrah!).
No word on when BBC America will air
the new season... if at all. However, the
season one DVD is going to be
released soon and, if you are an American lucky enough to have a region-free DVD player, you can relive some of the old
craziness until BBC America gets around to airing new stuff. If you haven't seen this show before, I strongly recommend
it. It's like a crazier, dirtier (and possibly even funnier) version of
Scrubs.
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