A tight 5: August 19

Lee Nelson and Joe Lycett have been named as the comics who will be performing on Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow to Edinburgh flights. Each will perform ten-minute sets to passengers en route to the Scottish capital on Thursday and Friday this week. It’s not the first time Nelson has taken over public transport to Edinburgh this festival, as he previously made announcements on the First TransPennine Express train from Manchester.

BIG SCHOOL got off to a decent start in the ratings on Friday, attracting an audience of 4.2 million. The figure is slightly under BBC One’s average for its 9pm slot, but David Walliams’ sitcom was the highest-rated comedy debut of the year, far outshining the 2.2million who saw the first episode of Ben Elton’s ill-fated The Wright Way.

THE Edinburgh Fringe version of The Shawshank Redemption is to transfer to Ireland. The play, which features comics Omid Djalili, Terry Alderton and Joe Rooney as well as Dad’s Army legend Ian Lavender is to run at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre for just five performances over the weekend of September 6. The show was adapted from Stephen King’s story by comics Owen O'Neill and Dave Johns.

KEVIN BRIDGES is to make his Norway debut, with a tour date in Oslo on October 25. He says he hopes to add more European dates soon.

MEANWHILE, one of Norway’s most popular comedians, Rolv Wesenlund, has died at the age of 76. Cultural Minister Hadia Tajik, paid tribute to the comic, who was active from the Sixties to the Nineties on TV, film and in cabaret, saying: ‘He made us laugh, and recognise characters in our own lives.’

Published: 19 Aug 2013