A QUICK clip here for the fans of the much underrated IT Crowd. Yes, it isn't Father Ted, but their creator Graham Linehan is a genius not given to repeating himself. This little vid has him explaining how a fight scene between a post-op transvestite
and her unknowing lover was based on The Bourne Identity. No, really.
DUEL PURPOSEDIVINE Comedy's Neil Hannon V Duke Special. What could be better than a brace of musical geniuses playing their own songs in a half hour special? Well, in between sets, let's have them play out a life-long feud on screen: fencing, chasing each other with heavy objects, and then casting aspersions on each other's musical merits.
EXPLODING EGOSNOT generally known for their sense of humour, film directors. Even those who do comedies. So to come across one whose particular oeuvre is about very earnest people and robots blowing things up in a very serious and meaningful way, showing that they have a keen sense of their own ridiculousness is particularly enjoyable. Witness Michael "Transformers" Bay pushing broadband internet in his inimitable manner.
REFRESHING PONGTO FINISH this week, it's back to the Seventies. For those who can remember (not me, I am a child of the 1980s), before Mario, Manic Miner and even Atari, there was Pong. It was like tennis without the excitement – batting a square from one side of the screen to the other, usually as a proxy battle for sibling rivalry – but they were simpler, gentler times.
Well, as with almost everything since 1968, it has been revisited, purloined and amped up. How, I hear you ask? Try adding a thumping techno version of Popcorn, make everything slide around the screen as if it's covered in grease and throw in 20 balls all at once. Yes, folks, it's that fun. And that stupid.
The full article contains 320 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
