Archive by Author

Fielding’s Favourites on 6 Music

2 Jun

© Unknown

Noel Fielding will be guesting on Nemone’s show next week on BBC 6 Music.

Noel will be sharing the first half of his Most Played playlist with Nemone (suggesting that there will be a second part to come at a later date). The programme airs 7-10am next Saturday, 9th June.  Also appearing on the show is DJ, Bestival founder and musicologist, Rob Da Bank.

We’ll add the iPlayer link here as soon as it’s available. And if we hear anything about part 2 of Noel’s Most Played playlist, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Choose Your Winners

30 May

Voting for the 2012 TV Choice Awards is now open, and there are a few Booshinverse-related shows nominated.

© BBC/Hulu

Amongst many others you can vote for:

  • Black Mirror (Written by Charlie Brooker and featuring Julia Davis) and Holy Flying Circus (starring Rufus Jones) in the ‘Best New Drama’ category
  • Facejacker (featuring Kayvan Novak who also starred as Waj in Four Lions) in the ‘Best Entertainment Show’ category
  • Mongrels and This is Jinsey (featuring Alice Lowe and Colin Hoult) in the ‘Best Comedy’ category (given Mongrels’ lack of support from the powers that be, we say let’s unite in support of it!)

You can cast your vote here; voting is open until midnight on Friday 15th June.

Another Movie Jewel From O’Dowd

28 May

TV and movie news about Chris O’Dowd is coming thick and fast at the moment – and his latest acting role to warrant our attention is in the Australian movie, The Sapphires.

We first caught wind about The Sapphires last August, but only last week it premiered in Cannes to positive reviews. The Sapphires is set in the late ‘60s and tells the story of four young, talented singers from a remote Aboriginal mission who are discovered by an unlikely talent scout (O’Dowd), and branded as Australia’s answer to The Supremes. It’s an adaptation of the successful Australian stage musical of the same name, and is inspired by the true story of writer Tony Briggs’ mother and her family.

The Sapphires is released in Australia on 9th August. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer by clicking on the image below:

Digital Dee

28 May

© Dee Plume

Dee Plume launched her new website today.

The site features general information about Dee, her DJing, and her involvement in Robots in Disguise and Psycho Delia. There are also photos and a gallery of her art, which you may not have seen before.

Click here to access Dee’s website.  From the look of it, she’ll be updating the site on a regular basis, so keep your eyes peeled for more Plume-related snippets!

Sightseers Wows The Crowds

25 May

© Rook Films / Big Talk Pictures

Sightseers, Ben Wheatleys’s dark comedy written by and starring Steve Oram and Alice Lowe, has been impressing the critics in Cannes this week.

Reviews of the film have been springing up everywhere, offering up a consistently positive perspective.  Comments have included: “The script is also well-written, with plenty of laugh out loud moments”, “flesh-creepingly funny” and  ”Sightseers is the perfect film for horror fans and dark comedy aficionados looking for a refreshing break from the norm.”

Furthermore, according to reports on twitter, the film received a ten-minute standing ovation!

To read the latest reviews in full check out The Telegraph, Evening Standard,  CineVue, The Guardian and FirstShowing.net.

How awesome does that sound?

Read About The Early Days

24 May

© Go Faster Stripe

You Are Nothing, a new book by Robert Wringham, tells the story of the early performances of a host of TVO-related comedians at Cluub Zarathustra

Cluub Zarathustra was an unorthodox comedy club based beneath an Islington pub between 1994 and 1997. Audiences got to see Kevin Eldon, Waen Shepherd, Graham Linehan and Julian Barratt, amongst many others. According to the book they were also insulted, dribbled on, and forced to wear dunce’s caps. We like!

The book is based on new interviews with the principal cast, supporting artists, and audience members, and includes “drunken half-memories from two decades ago.”

For more information and to purchase a copy for £12 click here.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to @elincat for this information.

Ayoade Watch

23 May

Back in April we wrote that feature film Neighbourhood Watch, starring Richard Ayoade, had revised its marketing approach in light of recent news events.

The film features four everyday suburban Dads (Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Ayoade), who accidentally discover that their hometown has become overrun with aliens posing as ordinary people. They have no choice but to save their neighborhood – and the world – from total extermination.

The name of the film has been changed to The Watch, and the new promotional campaign for the film has stepped up a gear. We can now bring you two trailers for the movie – one of which premiered today in the US. You can view one of the recently-released trailers by clicking on the image below:

…and here’s an exclusive reworking of it that was released earlier today, featuring additional footage.

At TVO Towers we have a bit of a soft spot for the original trailer, so for the sake of completeness here it is.

For news updates about The Watch check out the film’s Facebook page.

It’s Fantastico Again!

23 May

© Mog

If you managed to catch Club Fantastico‘s triumphant return last month, you’ll be excited as we are that it’s back again in July!

Steve Oram and Tom Meeten‘s unhinged comedy night returns for a second show at the Vandella on Thursday 12th July. Tickets are only £8 and can be purchased here.

Club Fantastico offers a very welcome burst of comedic refreshment for fans of new wave comedy. However, if you’re still not convinced, take a look at the shenanigans that went on last time. Awesome stuff.

And if you can’t wait that long, don’t forget that you can see Oram and Meeten at TVO Live! at the Vandella NEXT THURSDAY! We hope to see you there.

Bunny & The Beast

20 May

Many of you may already be familiar with the internet-based comedy band, The Midnight Beast. What you may not have noticed is Simon Farnaby guesting on the webisodes!

© The Midnight Beast

For the uninitiated over a certain age, TMB is a British comedy band, arguably most famous for their YouTube cover-parody of the 2009 single TiK ToK by American pop artist Ke$ha The group consists of its three founding members, Stefan Abingdon, Dru Wakely and Ashley Horne.

The Midnight Beast has now been adapted to a TV series for E4, and Farnaby’s involvement  in the show is reported to be continuing. If its Booshniverse credentials were in any doubt, the series is being overseen by producer Mary Burke, whose previous credits include the films Submarine and Bunny and the Bull. Furthermore, it’s being produced by Warp (production company of many TVO filmic favourites)!

The TV series follow the band as they try to claw their way towards pop stardom. We’ll see the band having to cope with day-to-day challenges like sharing a dingy East London flat and trying to impress girls when they have no cash and one of them has to sleep in the kitchen. All this will be interspersed with their music videos.

Transmission is currently fixed for Summer 2012.

From Geek To Glory!

20 May

Anyone with the remotest interest in the comedy we cover on The Velvet Onion will be aware of Chris O’Dowd’s recent Hollywood ascent. Today Chris was interviewed in The Guardian – about his move to LA, his A-list movie credentials, and his relationship with Dawn Porter.

© Empire

He’s asked if he feels overwhelmed about the success he’s enjoyed off the back of the $300M grossing Bridemaids: “Not really,” he says, “I’m never overawed by a situation and I think that’s because I’ve always looked several years older than I am. So because people were treating me like I was 40 when I was 29, I’ve always felt in control of a situation. People used to say, when you’re 32, you’ll look 32. I’m still waiting for that moment, where my age catches up with my appearance.”

IT Crowd fans can also enjoy the rosy glow that the mention of a one-off special gets in the article, with the interviewer saying that Chris, “hopes at some point to return to The IT Crowd, if not for another series, then at least a special.”

Chris adds, “It’s just everyone’s schedule is kind of crazy. Richard [Ayoade] is planning his next thing to direct; Katherine [Parkinson] is broody. But between those things, we’ll work it out.” We live in hope!

To read the interview in full visit The Guardian here.

Fulcher’s Time Of The Month

16 May

© RichFulcher.com

Rich Fulcher will be performing as part of the bill for the forthcoming Conway’s Time of The Month on 7th June.

Time of the Month is a live chat show presented by comedian and self-confessed ‘pop star stalker’, Eleanor Conway at. It takes place at Concrete @ Pizza East in Shoreditch. Each night features stand-up sets from two leading comics before they join Eleanor on the sofa to grill the audience. Rich will be appearing with Joel Dommett and Lloyd Griffith.

For more information about Conway’s Time of the Month click here, and for a brief introduction to each of the performers and to purchase tickets give this one a click too. Advance tickets are only £5 (£7 on the door).

Wowzers, with this and The Automated Psychedelic Forgery Club Machine (see below), 7th June is going to be a busy night!

This Way To Deansways

16 May

© Mog

There are two TVO-related nights coming up at Deansways Comedy Club!

Tomorrow, Thursday 17th May, the excellent Rachel Stubbings will be performing with Gareth Morinan as an Edinburgh Double Bill. Tickets are only £5 in advance and the show start at 8pm. To purchase tickets click here and follow the ‘Buy Tickets’ button in the box at the top of the web page. Clever eh?

Then, on Friday June 1st, you’ll be able to enjoy  the considerable talents of Steve Oram and Tom Meeten, plus Arnab Chanda. They’ll be appearing alongside John Kearns, Ross Lee, Dan Cook and Pat Burtscher. The show starts at 8pm and tickets cost £8 in advance. To buy tickets click here. Based on Oram & Meeten’s recent form at Club Fantastico, this is one for the diary!

Don’t forget that you can also catch Rachel Stubbings and Oram & Meeten at The Velvet Onion Live on 31st May. For more information and to buy tickets take a look here.

See Some Sightseers!

13 May

At TVO Towers we’ve been getting very excited about the impending release of Sightseers, Ben Wheatley’s follow up to Kill List.

One of the reasons for our giddy excitement is that the film is written by its two stars – the splendid Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (playing the parts of caravaners, Tina and Chris). It will be premiering at Cannes soon, but in the meantime some new production photos and a short clip of the film have been made available online (with French subtitles – presumably for the folk at Cannes).

A word of warning though: one look at this will make you even more impatient to see the full movie. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long…

© Rook Films / Big Talk Pictures

© Rook Films / Big Talk Pictures

Resistance On Radio 2

12 May

© Zimbio

Katherine Parkinson  is set to star in a new sci-fi sitcom pilot for BBC Radio 2.

The show, called The Resistance, follows the story of Katrina Lyons (Parkinson), who inadvertently finds herself in the middle of an alien invasion in the small English village of Cresdon Green, while visiting her parents for the weekend.

The village is soon controlled by an alien race called The Geonin, who have decided to start their invasion with a single English village instead of the standard all-at-once approach to global domination. The pilot follows Katrina’s attempts to establish a resistance movement against the invasion.

The seminal Alison Steadman and Dr Who star Peter Davison will  play Katrina’s parents in the show. As yet no airdate has been confirmed, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything.

The pilot will be recorded in front of a live studio audience at the BBC Radio Theatre on Wednesday 13th June 2012. Unfortunately the recording is already fully-booked (boo!), but if you’ve managed to bag a ticket already, we’d love to hear all about it after the event!

Double Quick For Ayoade

12 May

© Total Film

As all good peelers will know, Richard Ayoade‘s directorial follow-up to Submarine will be an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel The Double. Well now some new information about the film has been released!

Submarine actors Yasmin Paige (Jordana Bevan) and Noah Taylor (Lloyd Tate) have been added to the cast, which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska in the lead roles, with James Fox and Wallace Shawn also set to appear.

The film focuses on Simon (Eisenberg), an insignificant man whose world is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of James, his exact doppelganger, who takes a job at Simon’s firm. While they may look the same the two men are very different, and it isn’t long before Simon begins to worry that James is taking over his life.

No release date has been confirmed for the movie yet, but filming begins  on 20th  May, so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long!

Another Gun For George

11 May

© Warp Films

Matt Holness’s debut short film A Gun for George is being repeated on Monday 14th May at 1.35am on Film 4, as part of the revenge season, and can be seen an hour later on Film 4+1.

The dark, violent comedy from Warp Films follows the fortunes of Terry Finch, a frustrated pulp fiction author and loner who is looking for revenge on the mean streets of East Kent. It was first shown in November last year, and is well worth checking out.

Matt fans may recall us mentioning a few weeks ago that he’s written and directed The Snipist, a black drama starring Douglas Henshall. We can now confirm that The Snipist will be shown at 9pm on Thursday 24th May as part of the Playhouse Presents season on Sky Arts HD.

Channel 4 Gets Gold

11 May

© Channel Four / Charlie Brooker

Channel 4 is celebrating success at the Rose D’Or festival today with 3 wins.

The channel won awards for Friday Night Dinner (Best Sitcom), Million Pound Drop Live (Best Gameshow) and Black Mirror (Best Comedy). The Booshniverse was well-represented as Matt Holness made an appearance in Friday Night Dinner, Black Mirror was written by Charlie Brooker and starred Julia Davis, and Chris O’Dowd recently appeared on Million Pound Drop!

The BBC also won an award for Horrible Histories (best Children’s show), which as we all know features Simon Farnaby and Alice Lowe in its cast.

Although we like to think that these artists’ participation in the programmes is what gives them their winning edge, we’d like to congratulate everyone involved in the shows!

Here Is My Car

8 May

© Chris O’Dowd

Twitter fans may have spotted Chris O’Dowd attempting – and failing –  to sell his car online yesterday.

Chris has put his baby blue 1969 VW Karmann Ghia on the market for the bargain price of $5000. As you can see from the photo, the car looks great; unfortunately it doesn’t start and Chris no longer has the key! If you’re still interested, and you live near California (which is where the somewhat inert car can be found), drop him a line on twitter. Don’t mention the facial hair, however. As Chris pointed out mere minutes after putting the car up for sale: “There are 60% more moustache comments and 100% less offers for ‘Carmen’ than i’d like.”

While we’re on the hot topic of driving, don’t forget there’s still time to listen to Dave Brown‘s radio show about the Highway Code on BBC iPlayer.

Noel Fielding, Creative British Icon

8 May

© British Council

The British Council (the UK’s international cultural relations body) has launched a new campaign to promote collaboration between creative industries in the UK and Australia. What’s more, it features Noel Fielding as part of a very select group of creative Brits!

The campaign uses cartoon imagery and iconic British creative figures, including Noel, Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Fry, to symbolise creativity in Britain. It’s part of the British Council’s long-running Realise Your Dreams competition, aimed at “emerging leaders working in the creative industries, primarily aged 18 to 35″ (according to them).

The winners of this Australian competition will be awarded a return trip to the UK, $10,000 and a professional development program which includes introductions to creative leaders in the UK.

You can take a look at the viral video by clicking here. For more information and to enter the competition check out the campaign site.

One Leg, One Wheel, Half Gay

5 May

Last month we invited you to vote for the topic that you’d like to see Paul Foot develop into a comedy routine. The vote winner has now been announced!

‘A discussion of the semi-disabled: one leg, one wheel, half gay golfer’ was the undisputed winner with 45% of the votes (double the number of votes for the runner up: ‘A recipe for crumbed melon, served front saddle to a wife who’s on the back buttocks’ – clearly an inferior subject matter).

You can watch a film of Paul performing the winning topic below. He promises that there will be a new vote commencing soon!

Foot Connoisseurs can also buy tickets to secret preview gigs for his new Edinburgh show Kenny Larch Is Dead. For more information join his Guild of Connoisseurs by visiting his lovely website.

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