Well, 2019 is already whizzing by. The Bristol Slapstick Festival – my favourite of the year – has been and gone, and what a joy: Richard Herring, The Goodies, Little & Large, Tony Slattery. Heroes all.

The year looks set to include at least two working cruises round the mediterranean, a whole loads of live shows (see Tour Dates for full details), exciting film and telly developments and, finally, the long-awaited handing-over of the Forgotten Heroes of Comedy book manuscript. Prepare the printing presses!

And watch this space. You’ll hear it all here first.

TTFN

Well, hopefully the twitter feed that racks up alongside this website diary has filled in all the gaps over the last six months.

What larks!

And here we all, about to perform Tony Slattery’s Crimes Against Improv. at the Museum of Comedy, Bloomsbury. It’s the last show before we head off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Tuesday. From Wednesday, 15th to Sunday, 26th, Tony and I will be in informal conversation for Slattery Will Get You Nowhere, a candid meander through his life and work, at the Stand’s New Town Theatre, Lower Hall. And there’ll be a little improv. too. All the details can be found in the Tour Dates section.

See you up there!

For the fourth year on the trot, I’m again guest host at the Renown Festival of Film, at the Watersmeet, Rickmansworth, on this Sunday, 11th February, from 9am. I’m delighted to be chatting on stage with old friends and heroes: Shirley Anne Field, Brian Murphy, Linda Regan, Derren Nesbitt, June Cunningham, and special guest star Rita Tushingham. The event is completely sold out, but try ringing 01923 290555, or logging onto www.renownfilms.co.uk for returns. Good luck, and see you at the pictures!

The happiest of festivals, the Bristol Slapstick, kicks off with Lucy Porter celebrating the Talmadge Sisters from 11am this Thursday, 25th. Festival director Chris Daniels has pulled together an incredible programme of events: Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie are reunited to salute the greatest of them all, Buster Keaton; while Jo Brand presents her top comedy clips, Rowland Rivron remembers his cult days with Raw Sex, and Ade Edmondson and Nigel Planer introduce a screening of Comic Strip Presents classic Bad News. And this year the very laudable Young Slapstick strand is initiated, including a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Adventurer, and in foyer Punch & Judy from Professor Patel. Wondrous.

I’m in attendance from the Friday night gala, and will be in conversation about the Two Ronnies with Barry Cryer at the Bristol Old Vic, from 11:15am on Saturday, 27th. Later that evening I’m hosting Jason Donovan and The Rocky Horror Picture Show from 9:15pm, at the Colston Hall. Then on Sunday morning, it’s bright and early for me and Bill Oddie when we discuss the diverse and beguiling musical legacy of The Goodies. That informal chat is from 9:30am at the Watershed. See you there! www.slapstick.org.uk

Please forgive the long radio silence. Happy, frantically busy times. Anyway, a very happy two thousand and eighteen! There are so many exciting projects coming up, from various sixty years of Carry On celebrations to work finally coming to a conclusion on my labour of love book The Forgotten Heroes of Comedy. Keep checking in for updates.

In the meantime, a few dates for your diaries for the next few weeks:

I’ll be appearing at the Bristol Slapstick Festival, from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th January. www.slapstick.org.uk

On Sunday 11th February, I’ll be hosting great swathes of the Renown Films day in association with Talking Pictures TV. www.renownfilms.co.uk

Then on Saturday, 17th February I’ll be discussing the Carry On films at the Leicester Comedy Festival www.comedy-festival.co.uk; and on Friday, 23rd February I’m marking the centenary of the unique and brilliant Spike Milligan, at the Concert Artistes’ Association, 20 Bedford Street www.thecaa.org

See you there!

It’s the last weekend of the 70th. Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I can’t remember enjoying one more – and I’ve seen a few! Comedy delights included Jamie Wood’s beautifully calm and poignantly surreal reflection I Am A Tree, Tom Binns back with Hospital Radio D.J. Ivan Brackenbury and a gallery of characters for the 11th. year, and, of course, the reunion show of Whose Line Is It Anyway? chaired, as always, by the unflappable Clive Anderson. Kirsty Newton kept everything ticking over at the keyboard, while veteran players Steve Frost, Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane and, be still my beating heart, the elusively brilliant Tony Slattery, were memorably back in harness. Slattery has been a comedy hero of mine for thirty years, so when he ambled out on to that stage it was quite the thrill. Believe me! Still, the absolute highlights away from comedy were the celebration of the female voice and female image that were encapsulated in Patti Plinko’s incredibly diverse and evocative set of songs, and Rebecca Vaughan’s presentation of The Time Machine by the always theatrically exhilarating Dyad Productions. Prescient and powerful. Here’s to the next time…

The deaths of three titans of comedy in quick succession. It often happens but these three were true pioneers of light entertainment, slapstick, and civil rights commentary. Many thousands of words have and will be written and said about Bruce Forsyth, Jerry Lewis and Dick Gregory – many by me – but suffice to say that each one of them had an amazingly diverse, important, and enriching career. The laughs and enlightenment will linger forever.

I’m more than a little delighted to say that at long, long last my Unbound book, The Forgotten Heroes of Comedy, is fully-funded. If you have already pledged, the good people of Unbound will have been in touch with you. If you haven’t pledged yet, don’t worry, you can still join in the fun!

This has been a passion project of mine for nearly twenty years and, thanks to the dogged support of Terry Jones, this book will now be able to happily sit upon my shelf. From music hall turns to post-punk poetry, dapper wits to familiar film faces, the book will be a whistle-stop celebration of some of my personal favourites, ranging from the deadpan silent comedy star Larry Semon to the frantic eccentric dancing of Billy Dainty. As the website currently relates, writing is in progress. Thrilling times!

I’ve chalked up another couple of appearances in Channel 5’s on-going documentary series of epic “…Story” profiles, with a fleeting few words on Paul O’Grady, and a little bit more of what you fancy in the edition dictated to Barbara Windsor.

Meanwhile, Talking Pictures TV continue to re-run my informal chat sound-bites with Liz Fraser, while today saw the majestic Vic Reeves, aka Jim Moir, take over the channel for the day. Aided and abetted by me, Jim selected such film classics as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Woman in a Dressing Gown, Hammer’s One Million Years B.C., and Laurel and Hardy in The Flying Deuces. Stayed tuned for more celebrity take-over bids coming soon to Talking Pictures TV.