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Down The Line Returns

29 Apr

© BBC

Series Five of cult radio comedy Down The Line begins this week on Radio 4.

The show stars the legendary Rhys Thomas as DJ Gary Bellamy, hosting his usual live phone-in discussions with listeners, who just happen to be played by familiar names from classic comedy hits.

Thomas’ fellow Fast Show veterans Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day and Felix Dexter are joined by Look Around You star Robert Popper, Big Train (and It’s Kevin) actress Amelia Bullmore, Citizen Khan writer Adil Ray and another TVO regular (and Rhys’ wife), Lucy Montgomery.

As well as four previous radio runs, the show also spun-off into the much loved, dearly missed tv series Bellamy’s People in 2010, featuring the same cast.  Previous seasons of the radio show have also included other well known guest stars such as Kevin Eldon, Matt Lucas and Catherine Tate, so stay tuned to find out if any more big names turn up unannounced.

The show airs on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm on Radio 4, and will be available on iPlayer shortly after transmission.  The first three series have also been made available on cd, and whilst Series 1 is currently out of print, you can pick up Series 2 and Series 3, alongside Bellamy’s People from the TVO Amazon Store now.

Spice Up Your Lucy

25 Feb

© Viva Forever / Lulu Bell

Ok, we admit it. Sometimes, TVO is living in under a rock, inside a bubble, shrouded in secrecy and wrapped in cotton wool. And candy floss. And fog. And the emptiness of space.  You get the picture.

Anyhow, occasionally, we completely miss something that’s staring us in the face – such as the casting of Lucy Montgomery in Viva Forever! - the new musical featuring the music of the Spice Girls.

Written by Jennifer Saunders, who worked with Lucy on Absolutely Fabulous back in 2011, the show has been polarising critics but audiences are lapping it up – in much the same way We Will Rock You and Mamma Mia have ended up being long running West End smashes.

Lucy plays fitness fanatic Suzi in the musical, which is on every night at London’s Piccadilly Theatre.  For more info, visit the show’s official website, and we promise to try not to be so behind the times again in the future. All together now! Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, whooooo d’ya think y’aaaarrrrrrrrreeeeee!!!

Hey Diddly Dee, It’s Paul Kaye And Kylie!

18 Jan

Paul Kaye is part of the star studded cast of the next series of Playhouse Presents for SkyArts, starring alongside Peter Serafinowicz and pop princess Kylie Minogue in a one-off comedy drama.

©2013 Sky Atlantic

The series allows a number of big name stars a chance to direct their own short films – with the likes of Idris Elba, Matt Smith and Johnny Vegas amongst this year’s helmers.

Hey Diddly Dee, described as a dark comedy drama about the death of a theatre actor, is written and directed by Hustle star Mark Warren.  It’s leading lady is non other than legendary pop singer, and occasional actress Kylie Minogue, who was quoted by Radio Times as saying:  ”When the script was sent to me, I read it and knew instinctively I wanted to be part of this project. Marc has created a beautiful and quirky story.”

The project co-stars Paul Kaye, Peter Serafinowicz (pictured above with Minogue), Matthew Horne and David Harewood.  Serafinowicz has been confirmed as playing a character callde Roger, who is portraying Andy Warhol in a play – whilst Minogue plays actress Bibi, set to portray one of Warhol’s muses, Edie Sedgwick.

Kylie, who celebrated her 25th year in pop music in 2012, seems to be a fan of alternative comedy.  She recently posted a photo of a signed copy of The Peter Serafinowicz Show (which featured the work of Matt Berry, no less), to her Twitter page, including the glorious hashtag #bonbonbonbons, and since then posted a link to a sketch from CBBC show Fit featuring Serafinowicz as Butterfield.  Last year, she also waxed lyrical on Twitter about Julia Davis, so we’d be honoured if she ever graced our pages to find out what her favourite funny people are up to!

Hey Diddly Dee opens the Playhouse Presents series on March 14th exclusively on SkyArts, and the series will continue until May – culminating in a full series of last year’s one-off show Pyschobitches featuring Davis, Sharon Horgan and Katy Brand – with another TVO face, Lucy Montgomery on the writing team.  We can’t wait!

© Tiger Aspect / Sky Atlantic

Freshly Dug Bounty

28 Oct

A few weeks ago, we told you about the exploits of Doug The Bounty Hunter - a UK based spin-off of the US smash hit, directed by our very own Gareth Tunley.

© Finite Funnies

At the time, we were impressed how much its star looked like Tony Way, his wife Nancy looks like Lucy Montgomery, and how much their first target looked like Tom Meeten.

Three more episodes are now up to view on YouTube, which see Doug and Nancy test a new home-made taser and pepper spray, engage in a lengthy stakeout and a debate about acting brothers, then share a takeaway with a rather strange traffic warden.

You can see all four below.

Mongrels 2 Out On DVD At Last!

7 Oct

© BBC Worldwide

Monday 8th October sees the long-awaited, almost-cancelled release of Mongrels second (and sadly final) series on dvd.

Series Two of Adam Miller‘s foul-mouthed puppet show again featured Tony Way as Gary, the owner of a South London pub that just so happens to be surrounded by vermin – from meek metrosexual fox Nelson (Rufus Jones), and his best friend, simpleton feline Marion (Dan Tetsell), to psychopathic champion vulpine swearer Vince (Paul Kaye), and deranged, scheming pigeon Kali (Katy Brand).  With Gary’s pedigree chav dog Destiny (Lucy Montgomery) completing the line up, the show was an instant cult smash, and is sorely missed following its baffling cancellation in January.

The second series saw the gang fend off an invasion of horny zombie dogs, rehabilitate a showbiz chimp and go to a really shit house party, whilst Marion became a parent and Destiny dabbled in the world of showbiz doggery. Amongst the celebrity cameos this year were Richard O’Brien, Russell Tovey, Ainsley Harriot, Zoe Ball and Nina Wadia, whilst the TVO Links were extended with appearances from Rich Fulcher, Steven Burge and Waen Shepherd.

With a defiant looking Vince Fox on the front cover, this dvd is sure to leap off the shelves and ask you if you called it a **** in no time… and The Velvet Onion cannot recommend it highly enough.  Pick up a copy right now from The Velvet Onion Amazon Store for just £13.99 or check your high street or supermarket at the nearest opportunity.

If digital downloads are more your thing, the series is also available from iTunes in the UK, whilst US readers shouldn’t feel left out of the party… both series can be downloaded from our TVO Amazon US Store!

Sadly, unlike the first series, there’s currently no sign of a blu-ray release, but as the show was almost destined never to be released at all (we like to think our little stinking paddy about that decision helped change their mind earlier this year!), we’ll take what we can get!

That’s not to say a blu-ray release is still impossible.  We asked BBC Worldwide, who are handling the release, about the lack of a hi-def edition, who replied: “We have no immediate plans to clear and release this title on Blu-ray. However your correspondence will be kept on file as each quarter we review public enquiries and often revisit titles which are frequently requested.” 

So there you have it – if you want to see a blu-ray edition of Mongrels Series 2, email BBC Worldwide’s DVD Enquiry team at dvdenquiryline@bbc.com and let them know your desires. It might just happen!

Doug The Bounty Hunter

6 Oct

Fans of trashy late night American imports on low budget British Freeview channels, not to mention our friends across the Pond and fans of theme song composer Ozzy Osbourne will be acutely aware of Dog The Bounty Hunter.

Now it seems a London based spin off, directed by Gareth Tunley, is in the works… And our British star has an extra letter in his name. Episode one of Doug The Bounty Hunter is now online, and its star looks suspiciously like Tony Way to us.

Not only that but his wife looks like Lucy Montgomery and their first target looks like Tom Meeten in need of a good shower. See for yourself below…

The NTA is Back!

24 Sep

© ITV

It’s that time of the year again when the cream of the small screen will gather for the National Televisions Awards.

As usual, the results are all down to us normal folk and some TVO-familiar names are waiting for your votes!

First up Never Mind the Buzzcocks is nominated for Best Comedy Panel Show and with the hype of the upcoming season, Buzzcocks should hopefully be fresh in all of your minds! Next up is the pivotal, Best Situation Comedy; with Gervais’ Life’s Too Short featuring Matthew Holness and Colin Hoult up for the award, they also battle it out with Rev; which cameod James Bachman, plus the latest series of Absolutely Fabulous which saw the likes of our very own Katy Wix and Lucy Montgomery making an appearance.

And that’s not all… with the somewhat less-than-alternative Not Going Out starring Katy Wix and ITV1 ultra-populist behemoth Benidorm featuring Shelley Longworth also up for the nod. They may all be up for the gong alongside the latest-show-to-never-rest-on-our-tv-screens; The Big Bang Theory – but we reckon one of our lot could be in with the chance, no?

As we click through the categories we get to the ‘Bacon-style’ number categories; where Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Spencer Millman) is up for best Entertainment Programme, plus Noel Fielding has made a guest appearance on several of the nominees in the same category; The Jonathan Ross Show, Alan Carr: Chattyman and of course, Dynamo: Magician Impossible.

The NTA’s will be airing live on ITV on January 23rd and you have until October 11th to vote. To cast your votes click right here and let us know what you think of this year’s nominees!

Fabulous Disc, Sweetie…

4 Sep

© Warner Home Video / BBC Worldwide

The recent revival episodes of Absolutely Fabulous are released on DVD in America next week.

Seven years to the day since the show wrapped up for a second time, creator, writer and star Jennifer Saunders (recently seen in TVO’s very own Dead Boss), brought back the smash hit sitcom featuring herself and Joanna Lumley as media-whores and fashion-casualties Edina & Patsy.

The first edition, which aired in the UK on Christmas Day last year featured Lucy Montgomery as the threatening chavtastic blackmailer Baron, and Katy Wix as pensions department worker Anabelle.

Further episodes were screened on New Years Day, Sport Relief and ahead of the Olympics – and each edition later aired in the States on BBC America.  Now the series, which is already available on dvd in the UK, is set for release in the USA next Tuesday – and can be pre-ordered from The Velvet Onion Amazon US Store for just $19.99 now.

You can see a clip of the episode, featuring Lucy, below.

Phone Home

6 Aug

© Channel 4 / Lupus Films

A short film featuring the voice of Lucy Montgomery can now be viewed online.

Phone Home - in which the first astronaut on Mars chats to his wife on Earth – was written and directed by The Brothers McLeod – that’s illustrator Greg and writer Myles, not to be confused with similarly named musical brothers Colin & Norman McLeod!

The short was selected for the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival earlier this year and aired on Channel 4 in a low-key late night slot during the channel’s Random Acts series last month.

The short is not the first time they have collaborated with Montgomery: she can also be heard in their BBC Learning shorts Quiff And Boot and their BBC Bitesize special The Approximate History Of Maths.

You can see clips of both, and the Phone Home short in full on their website, which you can reach via this handy link - and there are loads more clips from the duo on their official YouTube page.

Blinkbox Booshdom!

6 Aug

© Copyright blinkbox Entertainment Limited.

Steve Coogan‘s sitcom Saxondale and anthology spoof Dr Terrible’s House Of Horrible are amongst a smattering of TVO favourites available to watch free online.

UK based video on demand service Blinkbox offers television and film from both sides of the pond to download or stream via pc, mac, games consoles, tablets and smart tv’s – and already offers a large back catalogue of programming for purchase.

This includes the TVO flavoured likes of The Mighty Boosh, Dead Boss, This Is Jinsey, Horrible Histories and Mongrels, and movies Come On Eileen, Weekender and The Boat That Rocked to name but a few.

Coogan’s work is well represented on the site, from films such as Tropic Thunder and Hot Fuzz (also featuring our very own Alice Lowe), and the televisual adventures of one Alan Partridge.

Now as part of a deal with the BBC, a number of comedy classics are available to stream free of charge.

These include Saxondale – which also featured Matt Berry, James Bachman and Tom Meeten, and underrated spoof Dr Terrible - featuring Julia Davis.

© BBC

Also up for free viewing is criminally ignored sitcom Lab Rats featuring Dan Tetsell alongside Chris Addison and Dead Boss star Geoffrey McGivern.

You can also take another look at Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive which co-stars Sharon Horgan and Alice Lowe, or That Mitchell And Web Look featuring James Bachman.

For something a little bit more ‘out there’, you can also catch rarely seen French animation series A Town Called Panic – which included Lucy Montgomery and Alexander Armstrong in it’s English dub cast.

To browse the full Blinkbox catalogue, click on any of the links above, or be really obvious and fall onto it’s home page via the word Battenberg - and of course, almost all of these shows, and more, can still be purchased the good old fashioned way on dvd and blu-ray via THE VELVET ONION AMAZON STORE!

Get Mongrelled! Pre-Order Series 2 Now!

5 Aug

© BBC

Series Two of Mongrels finally looks set for an October dvd release, as Amazon.co.uk have now joined other online retailers with a potential release date.  As a result, we can finally offer pre-orders via The Velvet Onion Amazon Store!

After a string of delays, denials and postponements since the show aired late last year, the final run of eight episodes from the cult classic looks set for a dvd only issue, despite previous announcements to the contrary.

The show was the brainchild of Adam Miller featuring Tony Way and the voices of Rufus Jones, Dan Tetsell, Lucy Montgomery, Katy Brand and Paul Kaye – plus cameos from Rich Fulcher and Waen Shepherd.

Utterly hilarious from start to finish, the show was inexplicably axed in January, as part of a proposed revamp of BBC Three by incoming controller Zai Bennett, who had previously expressed a fondness for the show just weeks before he put it to sleep at the vets.

When it’s expected release on home media failed to materialise, TVO turned to the BBC Comedy team to find out if we really had heard the last of Nelson and co.  Sadly, they confirmed our suspicions – the dvd and blu-ray had been scrapped.

Our announcement was treated with dismay across the interwebs, and it seems “just a little tap on the nose” was all it took to get the release back on the cards.

Sadly, there’s no sign of a hi-res release to match that of the first series, just yet… but it’s too early to rule it out just yet.  Standard practise for Amazon in the past has been to put up a placeholder for the dvd first, which is then joined by a blu-ray link closer to release.  It remains to be seen if this will be the case here, but we live in hope, and will keep you peeled if we hear any more.

In the meantime, you can pre-order the dvd edition for just £14.99 via The Velvet Onion Amazon Store now.

Funny Fortnight Forthcoming!

20 Jul

© Channel 4

Channel 4 have released more details of their Funny Fortnight next month, which features more than a smattering of TVO regulars and influences.

Over 30 hours of programming across two weeks of television, the season promises brand new shows, excellent stand up and familiar faces staging their returns to the channel.

A new video preview over on the Channel 4 press website showcases highlights from some of the channel’s flagship shows, and offers an exclusive look at a number of exciting specials.

© Tiger Aspect Productions

Amongst these new shows is Bad Sugar - written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show and Four Lions fame.  It combines three of comedy’s biggest names of the moment - Julia Davis, Sharon Horgan and Olivia Colman, and centres on a dysfunctional, wealthy mining dynasty, with an ailing patriarch and some greedy siblings.

The show also stars David Bradley, Peter Serafinowicz, Kayvan Novak and Reece Shearsmith, and it’s producer is Derren Schlesinger – who was previously responsible for both Four Lions and Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy.  Undoubtedly one of the most exciting shows on telly in some time, this Tiger Aspect Productions show has real potential to be a smash hit.

© Objective Productions

Also set to première is Toast Of London, the new sitcom pilot by Matt Berry and Father Ted/Big Train creator Arthur Matthews.  Matt stars as successful actor Steven Toast, who has recently made a career faux pass by electing to star in a controversial west end stage play.

Recently divorced, and attacked in the street by members of appalled public, the previously much loved actor auditions for a role in the long running television series, Inspector Somerset.  However, it’s producer has been imprisoned for racial chanting on set, so Toast auditions for the part of a gay corrupt detective during prisoner’s visiting time.  Made by Objective Productions, we’re keen to see if this show lives up to its potential.

Other new shows include: Them From That Thing  – a two part sketch show featuring Kayvan Novak, Sally Phillips and many more, co-written by one Charlie Brooker; The Function Room - a traditional looking sitcom featuring the likes of Reece Shearsmith, Kevin Eldon, Simon Day and James Fleet; Lucky Sexy Winners - a new panel show from Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer; Very Terry - a Phonejacker spin off from Kayvan Novak focusing on car salesman Terry Tibbs; Harry Hill: The Reunion - in which the madcap comic seeks out the cast of his old Channel 4 show to find out “where are they now?”; The Boyle Variety Performance  – a spoof of the annual royal-attended show from Frankie Boyle; Just Around The Corner  – from the creators of Drop The Dead Donkey; and I’m Spazticus  - a prank show featuring disabled performers which has been seven years in development since its pilot aired in 2005.

© Avalon Productions

And that’s not all!  As we previously reported, Channel 4 are counting down their 30 Greatest Comedy Shows, which will feature the Onion flavoured vehicles Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, The IT Crowd, Brass Eye, Father Ted, Star Stories, Spaced, Black Books, and Friday Night Dinner. 

These classics will be up against the likes of The Comic Strip Presents, Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out, The Adam & Joe Show,  Da Ali G Show, Trigger Happy TV, Pheonix Nights, Bo’ Selecta!, Peep Show, Green Wing and The Inbetweeners and more.

© Talkback Thames

The channel have also turned to the writers of classic shows to name their favourite episodes, which will air across the fortnight.  These include Graham Linehan‘s favourite ever The IT Crowd  and Father Ted; Chris Morris‘s legendary Brass Eye; mockumentary series Star Stories which featured Fergus Craig, Alice Lowe, Tom Meeten, Laura Patch, Rhys Thomas and Dolly Wells in it’s expansive cast; plus episodes of Spaced, The Inbetweeners, Peep Show and Vic Reeves Big Night Out.

There’s also a chance to catch tv premieres of live shows from Alan Carr, Peter Kay, Lee Evans and Micky Flanagan, plus the early and rare Vic & Bob special The Weekenders, Harry Endfield one-off Norbert Smith: A Life and Peter Cook’s interview with Clive Anderson, plus editions of Comedy Labs featuring Dynamo, Peter Kay, Karl Pilkington and TVO’s very own Anna And Katy!  Plus we’ll still have The Midnight Beast featuring Simon Farnaby every Thursday too!

Phew – we think we’ll need a lie-down after all that!  Exciting times indeed.  We’ll aim to bring you a complete run-down of exactly when each show will air as soon as possible, so stay peeled.  In the mean time, check out the video preview over on the Channel 4 press website – and you can pick up a string of Channel 4 classics in The Velvet Onion Amazon Store.

Mongrels Resurrection?

11 Jul

© BBC

Several online retailers are reporting that Mongrels Series 2 will be released on dvd in the Autumn.

The much missed show, featuring a bevy of TVO favourites but sadly cancelled by BBC Three earlier this year, was all set to be denied a full release of its second season outside of iTunes, as we reported recently.  Delays had become indefinite, and BBC Comedy confirmed plans for its release on dvd and blu-ray had been scrapped.

However, Play.com and a few other notable sites are now listing a dvd release for 8th October 2012.  Whilst Amazon (and as a result, The Velvet Onion Amazon Store), still have the title listed as unavailable, we’re hoping that Play knows something Amazon does not, and will be pushing to find out more information as soon as possible.  Stay peeled!

The Second Second Coming

28 Jun

A new spoof of The Stone Roses comeback emerged today.

The short from the mind of Nico Tatarowicz focuses on the return of the Manchester indie band of the early 90s, and sees the likes of Dan Renton Skinner, Will Andrews and Adeel Ahktar transform into the cheeky Northern chappies, whilst Peter Serafinowicz crops up as Morrisey and TVO’s very own Tony Way and Lucy Montgomery appear as Shaun Ryder and Bez respectively.

If it all sounds too good to be true… You can view the results below.

Montgomery Under Canvas

3 Jun

© Catherine Ashmore

Lucy Montgomery is appearing in the world premier of Canvas, a new play by Michael Wynne.

The play runs until June 16th as part of the Chichester Festival Theatre’s 50th Anniversary season. Lucy plays the part of Justine, one half of a couple who go camping on a farm in the Welsh countryside to get away from it all. They find themselves in adjacent tents to two other couples, but when the canvas walls let out all their secrets and it’s only the children who see eye-to-eye, it’s clear that the rural idyll isn’t so perfect after all.

Tickets are £29.50, but given the popularity of the production, there’s limited availability. For more information and to book tickets click here.

To find out more about the play and to read an interview with Michael Wynne, visit the production page.

TVO Live! The Aftermath of a Vandella Velveting…

2 Jun

You knew it was coming – but Thursday May 31st saw The Velvet Onion put on our very first live night, at the incredible new Shepherd’s Bush venue, The Vandella.

With a smattering of stars in the audience, and a VIP lounge so filled with comedy legends several people’s heads may have exploded, it was always going to be a special night – and the challenge for us was cramming so many fabulous names onto one bill.

Now, we’re a little biased, but we have to admit, it went rather well indeed – and judging by the post-show reaction everyone such a great time by the time Team TVO left the building we’d discussed coming back to do another, several times over!

The night was such an intimate affair that we knew deep down the vast majority of our Peelers would never be able to be there – but rest assured, we recorded the entire show in glorious high definition, multi camera action, and we’ll be cutting it together over the summer for a potential Autumn release – all online, all free, and for a limited period only – so stay peeled to be kept in the loop on that one.

In the meantime, we’ll be bringing you teaser footage as soon as we can, and we have a huge array of photographs of the evening for you to savour too.  The first batch are all included below, so enjoy them safe in the knowledge that, all being well, their teasing nature will be fulfilled later this year.

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We’d like to extend our huge thanks to everyone involved with putting on the night – especially to the sheer wonderment of Bob Pipe for his technical expertise and the living legend that is James Wren for all of his support throughout this whole process.  We’d also like to thank Sian Salsbury and everyone at The Vandella who have been the most accommodating team we could have ever hoped to have worked with – and our very hard working camera crew: Michael Bull, Jon Burgess, Michael Glynn!  Not to mention everyone who helped out on the day as friends of us all.

And of course, we really must thank our glorious guests, who all worked hard, played hard, and made us love them even more than we did before.  In order of appearance, our deepest, and more sincere thanks to: Mike Fielding, Dave Brown, Antony Elvin, Will Summers, Gareth Tunley, Alex Kirk, Dolly Wells, Laura Patch, Richard Glover, Stephen Evans, Holly Jane Shears, Suzy Evelyn-Hall, Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Tom Meeten, David McNeill, Dan Tetsell, Waen Shepherd, Rachel Stubbings, Richard Sandling and James Cook.

We’d also like to extend our thanks to those who couldn’t make it in the end, but we know wanted to be there – in particular Joey Page for trying to the very last moment to get there, and both James Bachman and Lucy Montgomery whose enormous workloads stood in their way.  Extra special thanks must also go to the legendary Rich Fulcher, who was drawn away for a charity event but still found the time to record incredible last minute voice overs to introduce each artist.

Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who came along to support us and the artists on the bill.  You are the reason we’re able to keep doing what we’re doing to help the people you admire, and we’ll go on for as long as you’ll all have us.  Until the next time… keep peeling!

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.

Mongrelled

17 May

© BBC

The Velvet Onion can confirm that the proposed dvd and blu-ray release of Mongrels Series 2 has been scrapped.

The cult puppet sitcom from the mind of Adam Miller, and featuring a bevy of TVO regulars, was given a big budget revamp for its return last Autumn, but the show was cancelled alongside almost every other show on the BBC3 roster by new controller Zai Bennett in January.

A dvd release was given a placeholder spot on Amazon during the run of Series 2, yet failed to materialise.  Six months after the show finished airing, we asked the bods at @bbccomedy on Twitter what was happening, and they confirmed: “There’s currently no plans to bring Mongrels 2 out on DVD, but it is available on download – for example on iTunes.”

© BBC

Ah yes, iTunes. The series has been available on there quietly for some time, bafflingly in standard definition only, despite broadcasting in hi-def and the first series being made available in the format.

At £1.89 per episode, and £15.99 for the entire run plus the behind-the-scenes mockumentary, it’s a costly alternative to a physical release, in a vastly inferior format, and in only one region – blocking out international viewers of which the show has legion – but alas it seems for Mongrels fans, it’s the best we’re going to get.

Of course, the situation may change – as long forgotten shows from yesteryear leak out onto disc on a regular basis.  If BBC Worldwide realise the commercial value of a real release, we’re sure it will happen.  The fan-campaign starts here… and we’re sure somewhere out there at least one of you is drafting your petition right now.

In the meantime, you can download Series Two here - and see a classic clip from the second series below.

TVO Live: Fresh Layers

30 Apr

Tickets available now!

The Velvet Onion is proud to announce two more names attending The Velvet Onion Live on May 31st at The Vandella, Shepherd’s Bush.

Joining our star-packed line-up are two of the stars of Luxury Comedy – the incredible Dolly Wells and the inimitable Mike Fielding!

Dolly, of course, is best known to Peelers for her role in Luxury Comedy, and she also appeared in two episodes of The IT Crowd, plus 2009 sitcom Free Agents alongside Sharon Horgan and Matt Holness, and prior to that appeared regularly in Star Stories alongside Tom Meeten and Alice Lowe.  She’ll be bringing her unique blend of comedic charm to our incredible line-up at The Vandella, alongside her frequent collaborator - Laura Patch.

We’re also pleased to confirm that Mike Fielding – Naboolio himself – will be spinning the decks with a live DJ set before the show, so get down there early to catch our favourite Shaman in action!

The Velvet Onion Live! takes place on Thursday, May 31st 2012. Tickets are on sale NOW via Ticketweb, priced just £15. Find out more about our amazing line-up RIGHT HERE! Please remember the venue is a licensed bar so it’s 18+ ONLY.

We’ll have a few more surprises tucked away on the night, so you’d be mad not to be there!  The full official line-up, minus said surprises, is as follows:

Alice Lowe ♦ Antony Elvin ♦ Dan Tetsell ♦ David McNeill

DeadDogInBlackBag ♦ Dolly Wells and Laura Patch  ♦ Gareth Tunley

James Bachman ♦ James Cook ♦ Joey Page ♦ Mike Fielding

Rachel Stubbings ♦ Richard Glover ♦ Richard Sandling ♦ Stephen Evans

Steve Oram ♦ Tom Meeten ♦ Waen Shepherd ♦ Will Summers

© BBC Comedy

Sadly, we must also confirm that due to work commitments, the fabulous Lucy Montgomery has had to pull out of her appearance on the night.   Lucy sends her sincerest of apologies and has tried to shift the earth to get there, but sadly these things are sometimes inevitable.

We at The Velvet Onion would like to thank Lucy for being willing to take part, and hope to work with her again soon.  She’ll no doubt be top of our list if we manage to pull off TVO Live 2…

Lot’s Of Lucy

22 Apr

© BBC

As we told you last week, Lucy Montgomery is appearing at Knock2Bag at Rich Mix on Friday 27th, if you’re still making your mind up we have more incentive for you, as Time Out is offering tickets at a bargain price of £7! Click here for details.

Fans of Lucy can get another treat this week as she is appearing in Another Case of Milton Jones  on BBC Radio 4, which also features Ben Willbond, star of Horrible Histories. Catch it on BBC iPlayer.

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