The story will revolve around an unlikely friendship between two people who meet at a knee trauma clinic BBC Wales and BBC Comedy have commissioned a new comedy co-starring and co-written by Ruth Jones and Steve Speirs, that looks at the challenges and rewards of...
Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I, Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey, Stella) will co-star as Mr and Mrs Bennet in The Other Bennet Sister. Produced by Bad Wolf (His Dark Materials, Industry), the series is an adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s...
It’s hard to believe that, in the realm of greatest love stories told by the BBC - alongside Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, and Fleabag and the Hot Priest - we have a Welsh truck driver/sometime bouncer and a dodgy Essex plumber who never kiss, yet that’s what Gavin...
This year the BBC turns 100. Fundamental to Britain and funded by licence fee payers, the BBC has garnered a worldwide reputation for quality. For this special post highlighting the highlights of the corporation's massive contribution to television, I've decided to...
Sky One have announced they have commissioned 10-part fourth series of popular comedy Stella from Ruth Jones. Sky One/Tidy Productions Lucy Lumsden, Head of Comedy, Sky Entertainment commented: “Stella's continued success has been a massive part of comedy's journey on...
This time year I sat in a very different office, and oddly in a very different country pondering on what I'd enjoyed most in 2011. 365 days later (roughly) it's time to sit and ponder again on my personal highlights of a packed TV year. I knew before I compiled 2012...
This Friday sees the debut of a new Sky1 comedy. This new 10-part comedy series comes from the pen of Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey). Jones stars as Stella a 40-something mum who earns a living doing the locals' washing and ironing. And, most of the time,...
Did we like it? “It’s Chriiiisssstmaaasss!” hollers Smithy down the phone to Gavin, and indeed it is. Unlike some Christmas specials whose only relevance to this time of year is the transmission date, our December date with the Shipmans and the Wests was the...
The Surgery, BBC2Dreadful youth programme with the unremarkable Jeff Leach appearing as the trendy version of Kilroy in a yawnsome discussion on dating. Harry Hill's TV Burp, ITV1 ...and we have shock news. We were unimpressed by two items (the Heartbeat shaving foam...
I Know My Kid’s a Star You’ll be happy to know I’ve found my perfect job in television. One that will guarantee me some screen time on one of the BBC’s biggest reality series but with only the one crucial line to remember. That’s right, I want to take over from...
Did we like it? We won’t lie to you – truth be told, the return of this Essex/Wales sitcom is as welcome as a Grand Slam to a Welsh rugby fan. And fair play, at the end of the day, the writers and cast have managed to keep the quality of this second series as high as...
Last week I was lucky enough to speak to actress and Gavin & Stacey writer Ruth Jones. The series which premiered on BBC3 last year has become a favourite of mine. The series scooped Ruth and writing partner James Corden the best comedy newcomer and best new TV...
Did we like it? Steve Coogan returns as pest controller/ex-rock roadie Tommy Saxondale – still living the rock n’roll dream while everyone around him sells out to ‘the Man’. The great support cast of Ruth Jones as girlfriend Magz and Rasmus Hardiker as apprentice...
Did we like it? In the canon of Coogan creations, Saxondale is thankfully flying with Partridge, not hitting the low notes of Tony Ferrino. What was good about it? • It's not often these days that a British sitcom makes you laugh out loud, but there were several...
What to say if you liked it The return of the comedy which is, in essence, a satanic ritual in the form of a TV show. What to say if you didn’t like it The drabbest sitcom to hit earth since My Family, which has no laughter for the very good reason of it being utterly...
Thursday What to say of you liked it A welcome return for the heartrending drama in which the members of a northern slimmers’ club battle against domestic turmoil and their ever burgeoning waistlines. What to say of you didn’t like it A meandering herd of flabby...
Julia Davis was half of the duo (with Rob Brydon) who made BBC2’s Human Remains, the dark, cruelly funny portraits of a series of emotionally dysfunctional couples. Now she’s written, and starred in, a dark comedy drama of her own, billed by the BBC as “A West Country...