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.