The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead...

Today

TV: The 25th season of The Simpsons starts its British premier on Sky 1 with a double-bill – first a Homeland parody with Lisa in the Dana role, suspicious when Homer returns a changed man from a nuclear convention giving up pork and beer; then the annual Treehouse Of Horror Halloween special, with Guillermo del Toro providing the couch gag:

Monday April 21

LIVE IN LONDON: A five-night run of Adam Buxton’s multimedia show Kernal Panic opens a two-week season of shows at the Duchess Theatre, produced by off-kilter comedy specialists Invisible Dot. Tim Key, Claudia O’Doherty and Joe Wilkinson also feature later in the run.

TV: Thirty years after his death, ITV’s Tommy Cooper biopic Not Like That, Like This will air tonight, showing some of the darker side of the comic’s life, including his heavy drinking and his 17-year affair with assistant Mary Kay. It has been written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye and stars David Threlfall. ITV, 9pm

Wednesday April 23

TV: You can hardly fail to have missed all the press Ricky Gervais has been doing to plug the return of Derek to Channel 4 tonight...

Thursday April 24

LIVE IN LONDON: Andrew Maxwell introduces a strong line-up of promising newcomers at the Udderbelly on the South Bank tonight, chosen by Time Out. The bill, which includes three former Chortle Student Comedy Award finalists, comprises Pierre Novellie, Jonny Pelham, Alasdair Beckett-King, Masud Milas, Sarah Callaghan, Tim Renkow.

TV: Chris Addison and The Thick Of It writer Simon Blackwell joined forces to create Trying Again, a ‘bittersweet comedy of errors’. Addison and Eastenders actress Jo Joyner playing a just-about-functioning couple giving love a second chance following an affair in the small Lake District town where they live. Sky Living, 9pm.

Friday April 25

LIVE IN LONDON: American comics Dave Hill and Carl Arnheiter lead a comedy tour of the British Museum, with John Kearns, Tom Meeten, Maeve Higgins and Harry Deansway. And a slightly different line-up will do the same at Tate Modern on Saturday, under the Fancy Meeting You Here banner. Visit the website for register for the tours.

LIVE IN LONDON: It’s the final of the Wegottickets Musical Comedy Awards tonight – which is a much as celebration of the genre as a talent hunt, give that it features performances from three established acts – Loretta Maine, Jay Foreman and Mae Martin – as well as finalists Rogue 5, Laurence Owen, Bob & Jim, David Elms and Cribb & Morgan. Bloomsbury Theatre, 8pm

Published: 20 Apr 2014