Culture, DVD, Television

Pedeconferencing, True Blood style

Pedeconferencing, True Blood style

Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing is often credited with introducing us to the “pedeconference”, in which characters talk through key plot points while walking through corridors, across lawns, etc. Alan Ball’s True Blood has gone one better in the clip above, with vampires Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) engaging in hyper-speed combat while having a chat about their love lives. For more about — and of — the lovely Deborah Ann, see our interview with her in the June issue of Esquire. True Blood: Season 3 is out on DVD on 23 May

Comedy, Television

Princess Leia mouths off

Click to playPrincess Leia mouths off

“Don’t you hate it when celebrities just – blah blah blah – talk about themselves? Who asked, right?” So says Carrie Fisher at one point in her one-woman show, throughout which she, er, talks about herself loads. [Read more...]

Television

First Look – The Walking Dead

Click to playFirst Look – The Walking Dead

Adapted from a monthly black and white American comic series, “The Walking Dead” is the latest offering from acclaimed director Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile) and it’s set to air in the UK this Friday, November 5. [Read more...]

Television

Nice shirt, Sherlock — Q&A with Benedict Cumberbatch

Nice shirt, Sherlock — Q&A with Benedict Cumberbatch

Not content with wowing the critics in the current revival of Terrence Rattigan’s play After The Dance, actor Benedict Cumberbatch will soon be treating television audiences to a maverick interpretation of the world’s most famous fictional detective (with a little help from co-creators Stephen Moffat and Mark Gattis). Sherlock starts this Sunday and, Cumberbatch assures us, there won’t be a deerstalker in sight. [Read more...]

Culture, Television

Q&A with The Inbetweeners

Q&A with The Inbetweeners

Fresh from a win at the recent Television Baftas, The Inbetweeners continues to prove what a fair few of us already knew — there’s a lot of comedy mileage in hormonally-challenged schoolboys. A few weeks ago we shot the series’ stars Joe Thomas (far left, who plays romantic dreamer Simon), Simon Bird (left, posho nerd Will), Blake Harrison (right, gormless wonder Neil) and James Buckley (far right, “clunge”-obsessed Jay) for our Brilliant Brits feature in the current issue. After they’d stopped dry-humping, here’s what they had to say. [Read more...]

Sport, Television, Video clips

You know the world’s gone mad…

Click to playYou know the world’s gone mad…

…when you turn on Sky Sports to watch the darts and discover that Stephen ‘brain the size of Wales’ Fry has joined the Sid ‘the tungsten Tennyson’ Waddell in the commentary box. [Read more...]

Television

The Junior Apprentice — meet the candidates

The Junior Apprentice — meet the candidates

The Junior Apprentice starts tomorrow and, unlike the senior version, throws up all sorts of moral quandaries. Laughing at someone who wears bad suits, spews business malapropisms and takes themselves far too seriously is fine if the person in question is a fully fledged adult — but a little problematic if they’re only a kid. Still, with the juvenile runners and riders just announced, we can’t help but identify a favourite. [Read more...]

Culture, Television

Channel 4 offers a mixed bag of nuts

Click to playChannel 4 offers a mixed bag of nuts

For those who are still able to handle the idea of risk, Channel 4′s Comedy Lab is now underway. It’s the regular slot in which they test out new comedy writers in late-night 30-minute shows and the results are usually — and given the law of averages, understandably — mixed. [Read more...]