Wednesday, March 25, 2009

"If it launched today, The 11 O'Clock Show would be strangled at birth by embittered comedy bloggers."

Quote from Andrew Newman, Channel 4 head of entertainment and comedy, from an article about the failure to recommission 'Tonightly', a topical weekly comedy series I'm ashamed to say I've never even heard of, let alone watched.

However, I do remember The 11 O'Clock Show, which was as big a pile of shit as ever was poured through a cathode ray tube. Really really poor, as generally acclaimed as such at the time, although weirdly, it seems to be having some kind of critical revision, due to 'launching the careers' of Sascha Baron-Cohen and Ricky Gervais, although I'm reasonably sure they'd have exactly the same level of success whether they'd been on it or not.

It's this weird notion of 'bloggers' as some kind of homogenous group that confuses me, as if 'bloggers' aren't actually a complete mish-mash of viewers, interested bystanders, professionals, and, I dunno, household pets, probably.

Still, I love the idea of 'embittered comedy bloggers' having the power to get shows cancelled. Most promising.

*makes a list*

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did catch "Tonightly", whilst channel-surfing in the wee small hours a while back. It was billed as a topical comedy so I watched in vain for around 10 minutes for something (anything!) funny to happen. Nothing did so I switched over. I'm not surprised it wasn't recommissioned. A shouty presenter and a couple of weak sketches do not a comedy make.

? said...

I didn't like Tonightly, but I did find a lot of The 11 o'Clock Show very, very funny. Daisy Donovan cracked me up just as much as Gervais and Cohen. It wasn't that bad, was it? Although, I was about 19 then, so what did I know.

James Henry said...

Ah well, there you are, you were 19, your brain was only half-formed.

Anonymous said...

Never heard or seen Tonightly, was it trying to emulate 'Drop The Dead Donkey' - the most brilliant topical comedy of its time!

James Henry said...

Don't think so, sounds more like it was trying to be a UK take on The Daily Show. But then I haven't seen it - did anyone catch 'Tonightly'? Anyone enjoy it?

Robin Kelly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mg said...

Dude - the 11 O'Clock Show kicked ass. Seriously. Despite Daisy Donovan gurning like a retarded pixie it was the high water mark of British comedy at the time.

And the best thing about it was there was no need to lower your expectations.

Plus; it didn't constantly get re-commissioned whilst being patently appalling. Unlike 'Two PInts Of Wank And A Packet Of Toss'.

In other news: I have no idea what 'Tonightly' may or may not be, but it sounds dreadful.

mg said...

PS: I'm not sure what an "embittered comedy blogger" is, but I'm fairly convinced they look very much like Fenella from Chorlton and the Wheelies.

James Henry said...

God she was terrifying.

Fat Roland said...

I loved Fenella.

Didn't Kevin Eldon appear on the 11 o'clock show? I have a vague memory of him walking up and down the studio stairs doing some kind of deranged monologue.

James Henry said...

Probably, he's in bloody everything, and yet not on our screens enough.

He was in a bit I wrote in Green Wing actually, playing a hair assassin. He was very good.

rockmother said...

Wasn't Iain Lee on the 11 o Clock Show? He was soooo un-funny it's not funny. And any programme with the title Tonightly should be banned on the title alone.