As so many people have said, Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, was a comedy giant. And his talent was evident – obvious – when I first saw him 40 years ago. I was then trying to make my way in comedy at Cambridge, and he, then president of the slightly loftier Oxford University Dramatic Society, had agreed to take part, rather to amuse himself, I suspect. He was by a mile the best thing in it. Clever, and very, very funny, as he always was subsequently.
Thursday 21 March 2013
Rowan Atkinson’s Archbishop of Canterbury sketch for Comic Relief has received another complaint-this time from his own brother.
Tuesday 19 March 2013
TV star Tony Robinson has admitted Channel 4's decision to axe its archaeology series Time Team has left him "frustrated".
Sunday 17 March 2013
It has raised over £800m in all, but this year's pre-watershed language wasn't funny, say furious viewers
Tuesday 29 January 2013
Atkinson gives a masterclass in awkward for return to the stage
Thursday 01 November 2012
Charlie Bean, the deputy governor of the Bank of England and key interest rate setter, has poured cold water on the chances of an imminent expansion of the £375bn quantitative easing programme.
Tuesday 09 October 2012
We’ve seen Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder going forth in the First World War, ruffed-up and ruffled as a courtier to Elizabeth I and trussed up in a wig as a stroppy Prince Edmund in the middle ages. But a ‘lost’ episode due to be revealed this week presents the character as we’ve never seen him before: Edmund Blackadder the Bethlehem innkeeper.
Wednesday 01 August 2012
Ben Elton has written a new sitcom set in the dysfunctional world of local government.
Friday 27 July 2012
Jonathan Brown watches the Olympic opening ceremony with a group of Congolese refugees and asks what they think makes Britain great
Sunday 08 July 2012
He's an English actor who's as authentically bluesy as a game of cricket – but Hugh Laurie does a great impression of an American roots original
Sunday 22 April 2012
Criss-cross between England and Scotland on this scenic Northumberland walk, says Mark Rowe
Thursday 12 April 2012
The UK Independence Party has more reason than any other to complain about the British election system: despite winning 900,000 votes at the last general election it has no MPs. In the European Parliament, which is elected by proportional representation, the party has a dozen MEPs.
Friday 24 February 2012
There are voices out there which traditional media neglect through their age, ethnicity, culture, sexuality
Sunday 15 January 2012
'We tried to write a sitcom together – I was hopeless, but we had the jolliest of times'
Saturday 06 August 2011
Actor rowan Atkinson left hospital in a wheelchair yesterday after crashing his high-performance sports car.
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