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Democracy (Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle)
''Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle'' is a British comedy series created by and starring Stewart Lee and broadcast on BBC Two. It features stand-up comedy and sketches united by a theme for each episode. It was script-edited by Chris Morris and was initially executive-produced by Armando Iannucci, marking a rare reformation of a creative team formed for ''On the Hour'' in 1991. Lee had said that this is exactly the sort of show he wanted to do, saying "I don't want to do any television that I don't have complete control of." The first series aired in 2009, with subsequent series in 2011, 2014 and 2016. Stewart Lee announced in May 2016 that the BBC had declined to make any further series. This was due primarily to cuts to BBC 2's comedy budget which would now focus instead solely on scripted comedy. Format The bulk of the show is a Stewart Lee stand-up comedy performance, recorded live at the Mildmay Club in Stoke Newington with a club audience. Usually two episodes of the show wer ...
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Television Comedy
Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first Television in the United States, United States television programs was the comedy-variety show ''Texaco Star Theater'', which was most prominent in the years that it featured Milton Berle (from 1948 to 1956). The range of television comedy has become broader, with the addition of sitcoms, improvisational comedy, and stand-up comedy, while also adding comedic aspects into other television genres, including Drama (film and television), drama and News broadcasting, news. Television comedy provides opportunities for viewers to relate the content in these shows to society. Some audience members may have similar views about certain comedic aspects of shows, while others will take different perspectives. This also relates to developing new social norms, sometimes acting a ...
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Will Smith (comedian)
William James Smith (born 8 June 1971) is an English stand-up comedian, screenwriter, novelist, actor and producer. He is the Emmy-winning creator and showrunner of the Apple TV+ drama thriller '' Slow Horses'' (2022–). He is also known for being part of the writing team of the BBC sitcom ''The Thick of It'' (2009; 2012) and its American HBO counterpart ''Veep'' (2012–16). Additionally, he starred as Phil Smith in the former. As co-writer and co-producer of the HBO sitcom ''Veep'', he was among the recipients of two Emmys and two Writers Guild of America Awards, and has received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Comedy. Early life and education Though born in Winchester, Hampshire, Smith grew up in Jersey and was educated there at Victoria College. His brother is the TV presenter and wine critic Olly Smith. Stand-up comedy Smith started his career in stan ...
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Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is an area in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney, England. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington (parish), Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. Stoke Newington was part of the Historic counties of England, former county of Middlesex. The historical core on Stoke Newington Church Street retains the distinct London village character that led Nikolaus Pevsner to write in 1953 that he found it hard to see the district as being in London at all. Boundaries The modern London Borough of Hackney was formed in 1965 by the merger of three former Metropolitan Boroughs, Metropolitan Borough of Hackney, Hackney and the smaller authorities of Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington, Stoke Newington and Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, Shoreditch. These Metropolitan Boroughs had existed since 1899 but their names and boundaries were very closely based on Civil parish#Ancient parishes, paris ...
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British Comedy Guide
British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a Great Britain, British website covering British comedy, British comedies. BCG publishes guides to TV and radio situation comedy, sketch shows, comedy dramas, satire, variety show, variety and panel games. The website also runs ''The Comedy.co.uk Awards'' and hosts multiple podcast series. Reportedly, British Comedy Guide attracts over 500,000 unique visitors a month, making it Britain's most-visited comedy-related reference website. Background The website was founded in August 2003 initially as the British Sitcom Guide (BSG), a website focused on British sitcom TV programmes. The website was created by Mark Boosey, a freelance web developer, originally as a hobby. However, in 2008, the remit of the website was relaunched as British Comedy Guide. Other features added since the site's re-launch in 2008 include a series of podcasts, a section featuring interviews with people working in the British comed ...
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The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. ''The Independent'' won the Brand of the Year Award in The Drum Awards for Online Media 2023. History 1980s Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330. It was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at ''The Daily Telegraph'' who had left the paper towards the end of Lord Hartwell' ...
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On The Hour
''On the Hour'' was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, ''On the Hour'' starred Morris as the overzealous and self-important principal anchor (for which he used his own full name). He was accompanied by a regular cast assembled by Iannucci, comprising Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, Doon Mackichan, Patrick Marber and David Schneider, who portrayed assorted news reporters, presenters and interviewees. ''On the Hour'' featured the first appearance of Coogan's character Alan Partridge as the "Sports Desk" reporter. Overview As in much of Morris's work, surrealism was an important part of the programme, the nonsense in the content ("De-frocked cleric eats car park", "Borrowed dog finds Scotland", etc.) delivered in the same straight-faced manner with which contemporary news st ...
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Scotland On Sunday
''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by National World and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate ''The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in 2013 was relaunched as a tabloid. Since this latest relaunch it comprises three parts, the newspaper itself which includes the original "Insight" section, a sports section and ''Spectrum'' magazine which incorporates ''At Home'', originally a separate magazine. It backed a 'No' vote in the referendum on Scottish independence. History ''Scotland on Sunday'' was launched on 7 August 1988 and was priced at 40p. Ultimate ownership of ''Scotland on Sunday'' has changed several times since launch. The Scotsman Publications Limited, which also produces ''The Scotsman'', ''Edinburgh Evening News'' and the ''Herald & Post'' series of free newspapers in Edinburgh, Fife, West Lothian and Perth, was bought by the Canadian millionaire Roy Thomso ...
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Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These performances are typically composed of Rehearsal, rehearsed screenplay, scripts but often include varying degrees of interactive theatre, live crowd interaction (crowdwork). Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke, one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ Theatrical property, props, comedy music, music, impressions, Magic (illusion), magic tricks, or ventriloquism. Performances can take place in various venues, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges, or theaters. History Stand-up comedy originated in various traditions of popular entertainment in the late 19th century. These include vaudeville, the Stump speech (minstrelsy), stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows, dime museums, co ...
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Comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in Ancient Greek theatre, theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing ''agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which e ...
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Elias And His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes was a kwela band, formed in the mid-1950s by brothers Elias and Jack Lerole, along with David Ramosa and Zeph Nkabinde. The four young men played on the streets of Alexandra, a township in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the early days they called themselves the Alex Shamba Boys. Jack Lerole was only in his early teens when he and Elias started playing penny whistle. Ramosa and Nkabinde joined them, and they developed a unique sound: Unlike earlier kwela groups, they incorporated guitar and vocal harmony. The "jive flute" in the name Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes is the penny whistle. In 1956, the four were signed to EMI South Africa by the label's "black music" record producer, Rupert Bopape. One of the tunes they recorded was " Tom Hark". Columbia Records issued the song as a 7-inch single, and it was particularly well-received in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the single sold an estimated three million copies. The band did not profit fr ...
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Tom Hark
"Tom Hark" is an instrumental South African kwela song from the 1950s, believed to have been composed by Jack Lerole. The song was arranged for penny whistle and first recorded by Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes – a South African band formed by pennywhistlers Jack and his brother Elias Lerole – and released in 1956. It was later released in the United Kingdom after it was used as a theme on a television series, and it reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1958. Recording artists of various genres have covered the song, and some added original lyrics. A version by the Piranhas became a hit in 1980 in the UK, and it has been adapted into football chants. Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes recording The song was composed by Jack Lerole around 1954, although other people also claimed to have written the song. The title, "Tom Hark", is thought to be either a misspelling or deliberate wordplay on "Tomahawk", the original title of the song. Tomahawks were carried by s ...
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BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and documentaries. BBC Two has a remit "to broadcast highbrow, programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore free of commercial advertising. It is a comparatively well-funded Public broadcasting, public-service channel, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public-service channels worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 21 April 1964), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour. It was envisaged as a home for ...
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