Over the past few years, a new Christmas ritual has entered my life. I find it easily the most irksome of them all, far outstripping cranberry sauce and Whamageddon. I refer, of course, to the duty that falls to me to review Mrs Brown’s Boys, which never fails to disappointment me in its abject poverty of ambition.
But this year, in honour of the recently departed Victor Lewis-Smith, the brilliant satirist and the finest television critic of our times, I thought I’d try to give Mrs Brown’s Boys a bit of a reappraisal. Lewis-Smith, you may recall, was not only a rare blend of the eloquent, the profane and the downright vicious, but an original thinker, and his take on Mrs Brown’s Boys lay far outside the consensus. He praised it because, in his words, every scene in the “unashamedly Rabelaisian comedy ... brimmed over with so much innocent joy...
But this year, in honour of the recently departed Victor Lewis-Smith, the brilliant satirist and the finest television critic of our times, I thought I’d try to give Mrs Brown’s Boys a bit of a reappraisal. Lewis-Smith, you may recall, was not only a rare blend of the eloquent, the profane and the downright vicious, but an original thinker, and his take on Mrs Brown’s Boys lay far outside the consensus. He praised it because, in his words, every scene in the “unashamedly Rabelaisian comedy ... brimmed over with so much innocent joy...
- 12/26/2022
- by Sean O'Grady
- The Independent - TV
The writer, broadcaster and satirist Victor Lewis-Smith has died, aged 65.
The former Independent columnist and documentary-maker died in Bruges, Belgium, on Saturday (10 December) after a short illness.
Born in Essex, Lewis-Smith began his career at BBC Radio Medway. After working at Radio York, he moved to Radio 4 where he was a staff producer for Midweek and Start the Week during the mid-1980s.
Lewis-Smith went on to work as a film, TV and radio producer, predominantly through his production company Associated Rediffusion Productions Limited.
He worked on Spitting Image and the short-lived Channel 4 comedy show TV Offal.
He was also a restaurant critic and columnist. He wrote a regular column for Private Eye, and was the chief TV critic at the Evening Standard for 15 years.
In 1993, Lewis-Smith co-wrote and presented the BBC sketch show Inside Victor Lewis-Smith, which starred Roger Lloyd Pack, Annette Badland, Moya Brady, Tim Barlow, Nickolas Grace and George Raistrick.
The former Independent columnist and documentary-maker died in Bruges, Belgium, on Saturday (10 December) after a short illness.
Born in Essex, Lewis-Smith began his career at BBC Radio Medway. After working at Radio York, he moved to Radio 4 where he was a staff producer for Midweek and Start the Week during the mid-1980s.
Lewis-Smith went on to work as a film, TV and radio producer, predominantly through his production company Associated Rediffusion Productions Limited.
He worked on Spitting Image and the short-lived Channel 4 comedy show TV Offal.
He was also a restaurant critic and columnist. He wrote a regular column for Private Eye, and was the chief TV critic at the Evening Standard for 15 years.
In 1993, Lewis-Smith co-wrote and presented the BBC sketch show Inside Victor Lewis-Smith, which starred Roger Lloyd Pack, Annette Badland, Moya Brady, Tim Barlow, Nickolas Grace and George Raistrick.
- 12/12/2022
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
As cult comics speak to us from beyond the grave, Julian Clary and Airplane display their enduring popularity
Best of this week's news
Cult comics speak to us from beyond the grave this week, as Film Four announce a new film loosely based on the life and career of Chris Sievey and his alter ego Frank Sidebottom. Sidebottom was the large-headed wannabe pop star who became an unlikely phenomenon in the 1980s – which isn't exactly typecasting for the X-Men and Prometheus star Michael Fassbender, who's slated to play him. The movie is by screenwriter Peter Straughan and writer Jon Ronson, who has tweeted to deny that the film is explicitly about Sievey/Sidebottom.
No such coyness from the wife of Peter Cook, who has released 40 hours of unreleased material by her husband to mark the relaunch of The Establishment club (see last week's Laughing Stock) in Soho. Says record label boss Mike O'Brien,...
Best of this week's news
Cult comics speak to us from beyond the grave this week, as Film Four announce a new film loosely based on the life and career of Chris Sievey and his alter ego Frank Sidebottom. Sidebottom was the large-headed wannabe pop star who became an unlikely phenomenon in the 1980s – which isn't exactly typecasting for the X-Men and Prometheus star Michael Fassbender, who's slated to play him. The movie is by screenwriter Peter Straughan and writer Jon Ronson, who has tweeted to deny that the film is explicitly about Sievey/Sidebottom.
No such coyness from the wife of Peter Cook, who has released 40 hours of unreleased material by her husband to mark the relaunch of The Establishment club (see last week's Laughing Stock) in Soho. Says record label boss Mike O'Brien,...
- 9/11/2012
- by Brian Logan
- The Guardian - Film News
Naomi Watts takes leading role in Caught In Flight, the first serious feature biopic about the princess
There have been many films about 9/11, but surprisingly few about 8/31, Britain's own day of trauma – when Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
The announcement of a new film, Caught in Flight, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who made Downfall) and starring Naomi Watts in the leading role, is the first serious feature biopic about the princess. It reportedly focuses on the last two years of her life.
Cinema has not been entirely silent on this subject. Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006) was all about the media-constitutional crisis in that frantic week between the princess's death and the funeral, but the focus was not on Diana: it was on Helen Mirren's shrewd yet troubled monarch and Michael Sheen's callow prime minister Tony Blair, the heroic survivors of this trauma.
There have been many films about 9/11, but surprisingly few about 8/31, Britain's own day of trauma – when Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
The announcement of a new film, Caught in Flight, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who made Downfall) and starring Naomi Watts in the leading role, is the first serious feature biopic about the princess. It reportedly focuses on the last two years of her life.
Cinema has not been entirely silent on this subject. Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006) was all about the media-constitutional crisis in that frantic week between the princess's death and the funeral, but the focus was not on Diana: it was on Helen Mirren's shrewd yet troubled monarch and Michael Sheen's callow prime minister Tony Blair, the heroic survivors of this trauma.
- 2/10/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Adrian Chiles's exit from the BBC caused quite a stir in media circles last week. The new GMTV presenter's decision to abandon Match Of The Day 2, The Apprentice: You're Fired and The One Show for the famous ITV sofas, prompted many to speculate about the usually laid-back Brummie's frosty relations with Beeb producers and his long-time co-host Christine Bleakley. But how much do you really know about 2008's 'most watched person on TV'? Keep reading for 10 fast facts about Mr Chiles. 1. Adrian Chiles was born on March 21, 1967 to a Croatian mother and English father in Quinton, Birmingham. He moved to Hagley, Worcestershire, aged 4. 2. The Evening Standard's Victor Lewis-Smith has been fond of penning barbed, bile-filled columns about Chiles's blokey TV presenting style during recent years. It hasn't gone (more)...
- 4/28/2010
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
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