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Viral Video Chart: Finding Dory, April fools' jokes, sea lion disco dances

5 April 2013 3:35 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Ellen de Generes announces movie sequel, and there are more fishy tales in our roundup of spoof stories

Ellen de Generes has had a running gag in her CBS show in which she berates Disney's Pixar for not producing a sequel to hit animation Finding Nemo. On Tuesday's show, she herself highlighted the extent of her obsession, pointing out that there have been sequels to Toy Story, Cars and Shrek, but none so far to the aquatic adventure. Then she revealed that there will be a sequel – in which she will reprise the role of Dory – to be released in 2015. She ended by telling children: "Kids, let that be a lesson to you. Anything is possible if you're patient and you beg hard enough on national television." (Of course, it helps if you're friends with Hollywood producers who will tell you first.)

Ellen sets up the news about Finding Dory »

- Dugald Baird

Catch-up TV guide: from 30 Rock to Noise - A Human History

29 March 2013 11:00 PM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

TV: 30 Rock

Tina Fey's brilliant sitcom has departed from Us screens, never to return. Boo. Fortunately, due to delayed UK transmission times, we've still got a season and a bit to watch. Comedy Central viewers can catch new episodes at Wednesdays, 11pm, with episodes appearing on iTunes shortly after.

iTunes

TV: Gogglebox

In a bold TV-On-tv concept, Channel 4 have entered the living rooms of some of the nation's most opinionated television viewers. Taking a Royle Family-style set-up, aptly narrated by Caroline Aherne, the series exposes what Britain really thinks about what is on the box. Arguments and brilliant facial expressions abound as families and flatmates critique current TV from the comfort of their own sofas, which is loads more fun than it sounds. Catch the first three episodes on 4oD now. »

- Gwilym Mumford

See full article at The Guardian - Film News »

Rewind TV: The Lady Vanishes; It's Kevin; Our Queen – review

23 March 2013 5:07 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The BBC's remake of The Lady Vanishes distanced itself rather too well from Hitchcock's classic film

The Lady Vanishes (BBC1) | iPlayer

It's Kevin (BBC2) | iPlayer

Our Queen (ITV1) | ITV Player

Who can say why the BBC suddenly decided to remake The Lady Vanishes, though it must have seemed a fair bet that only film buffs – and perhaps not the ones in the habit of dropping by for Call the Midwife at this time on a Sunday night – would remember more than the opening credits of the original 1938 Hitchcock adaptation (scrolling jerkily over a railway hobbyist's layout of a station and hotel nestling in the snow-capped Balkans, which must have looked almost real at the time). In the event they avoided plot familiarity by cunningly going back to the forgotten 1936 novel (The Wheel Spins) by Ethel White, thus dispensing with Hitchcock's gunfight at the end, his comic characters and egregiously providential turns of fortune. »

- Phil Hogan

Rewind TV: The Lady Vanishes; It's Kevin; Our Queen – review

23 March 2013 5:07 PM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

The BBC's remake of The Lady Vanishes distanced itself rather too well from Hitchcock's classic film

The Lady Vanishes (BBC1) | iPlayer

It's Kevin (BBC2) | iPlayer

Our Queen (ITV1) | ITV Player

- Phil Hogan

'Paul Hollywood's Bread', 'Girls', 'Youngers': This week's TV review

23 March 2013 12:00 AM, PDT | Digital Spy | See recent Digital Spy - TV news news »

As a chap who is quite content with a six-inch sub or a quickly knocked-up cheese and slightly gone-off pickle sarnie, I've never considered bread particularly sexual. But then again, I'm no Paul Hollywood.

Mr H has come a long way from testing out Victoria sponges with Mary and checking out soggy bottoms in the Great British Bake Off village of bunting. He's now got his own series where there's no Berry or aspiring bakers, there's just Paul, some hunks of bread and a whacking great dollop of food porn.

Paul Hollywood's Bread isn't quite on the Nigella Lawson scale of foodie sauciness yet, so sadly, ladies, he hasn't resorted to parading around his kitchen in a silk nightie, suggestively fingering bowls of melted chocolate or winking at the camera as he shows us his pantry (ooh-er), but maybe that will come next week.

What we do get is hearty loaves, »

From Hunderby to It's Kevin: how TV comedy learned to be silly again

19 March 2013 10:30 AM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

Bland workplace and domestic sitcoms are out, and 'weird' stuff is in again. Could this be the beginning of a new golden age?

Something has happened to TV comedy lately. A small spurt of silliness, that began last year with shows such as Hunderby and Cardinal Burns, is threatening to become a full-blown gush of surreal exuberance. Limmy's Show aside – and that had a Scotland-only transmission – TV has been a wasteland so far as "out there" comedy is concerned. Channel commissioners just seemed to go off the "weird" stuff after Reeves and Mortimer.

As Shooting Stars fizzled out on BBC2 so apparently did all peculiar, offbeat comic output, in favour of a parade of variations on the workplace sitcom, the domestic sitcom and, very occasionally, the sketch show. Not to mention a glut of those post-Gavin and Stacey comedy dramas designed to warm the cockles but devoid of any actual jokes. »

- Julia Raeside

'Got To Dance' ends with over 1 million viewers on Sky1

18 March 2013 4:58 AM, PDT | Digital Spy | See recent Digital Spy - TV news news »

Sky1's Got To Dance ended with impressive figures of over 1 million on Sunday night (March 17), overnight data reveals.

The final had an average of 803k (3.6%) from 6pm and the numbers climbed to 1.01 million (4.0%) for the final results at 7.50pm.

BBC Three's new zombie series In The Flesh launched with 668k (3.7%) at 10pm, edging ahead of ITV2's latest Towie episode, which had 664k (3.6%).

On BBC One, Countryfile had 7.51 million (33.2%) at 6.30pm, while The Antiques Roadshow followed at 7.30pm with 6.51 million (26.2%).

The BBC's update of The Lady Vanishes drew 6.71 million (26.3%) at 8.30pm.

Kevin Eldon's sketch show It's Kevin debuted with 429k at 10.30pm on BBC Two.

On ITV, the documentary Our Queen entertained 5.36 million (20.8%) from 8pm. Earlier, a celeb edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? had 2.89 million (12.1%) at 7pm, while Perspectives had 2.89 million (9.6%) at 10pm.

Channel 4's evening of movies brought in 1.82 million (8.5%) at 9pm for »

Our Queen; It's Kevin; In The Flesh; The Lady Vanishes; The Incredible Story of the Monarch Butterfly – TV review

18 March 2013 4:48 AM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

It's odd, being the Queen: you're woken by an infernal bagpiper, and meet lots of nervous people

• It's Kevin on iPlayer

• In the Flesh on iPlayer

• The Lady Vanishes on iPlayer

• The Incredible Story … on iPlayer

Remember the last one of these, the BBC's A Year With The Queen a few years ago? A misleading trailer appeared to show Her Maj storming out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz in a huff, but the storm was created in an edit suite. An almighty fuss ensued; orf with their heads, cried the Daily Mail. And orf they came – both BBC1 and the media company behind the film lost theirs. Crowngate it became known as.

So no one's taking any chances with Our Queen (ITV, Sunday), which trails respectfully around behind her during her big jubilee last year. Respectfully, correctly, chronologically, and not as interestingly as the BBC film (which actually had »

- Sam Wollaston

Kevin Eldon: the bridesmaid becomes a bride

14 March 2013 5:18 AM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

He has worked on virtually every landmark British TV comedy series – and now, at 53, Kevin Eldon is finally getting his own. Bruce Dessau meets the star of It's Kevin

'Sorry I'm late," Kevin Eldon apologises as he sits down in his agent's office in London. He isn't, really, only a minute – though in another sense you could say Eldon is running about 20 years late. For the past two decades, he has featured in virtually every landmark British comedy series – Nighty Night (Julia Davis's husband), Big Train, I'm Alan Partridge (a racist salesman), Blue Jam – without having a starring role of his own. This weekend, he gets his own television series – a sketch-variety show called It's Kevin, complete with staircase and jaunty theme tune.

Eldon says the idea of having his own show hadn't entered his mind until two years ago, when he performed for the first time on the Edinburgh fringe. »

- Bruce Dessau

Kevin Eldon's first solo comedy show arrives: Watch 'It's Kevin' clips

13 March 2013 11:16 AM, PDT | Digital Spy | See recent Digital Spy - TV news news »

Kevin Eldon is a cult comedy legend. His CV is essentially a lengthy must-watch list of the funniest British TV from the last 20 years, which includes (to name just a few) Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, Black Books, Big Train, Fist of Fun and Spaced.

Eldon has finally been granted his own solo sketch show by the BBC to allow his surreal comedy juices to run wild and the first clips showcase his unique, eye-catching style.

Watch two clips from It's Kevin:

The intro song to It's Kevin:

An gripping instalment of 'Shoe Shop' from It's Kevin:

It's Kevin, which features six episodes, starts on Sunday, March 17 at 10.30pm. »

Are Anna & Katy the new Vic & Bob?

1 March 2013 4:05 PM, PST | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

The UK's funniest new sketch duo are in the surreal lineage of Reeves and Mortimer. But it's been a long road from Edinburgh to Channel 4

Anna Crilly wants to stop talking about French & Saunders. In an edit suite off Oxford Street in central London, her nose wrinkles when I mention the inevitable comparisons that she and comedy partner Katy Wix will draw as female sketch comedians, one brunette (Wix), one blonde (Crilly) with their own show, Anna & Katy. "Let's pretend we've never heard of them," blinks Wix with cod innocence. "Who?"

The pair were practically passed a torch when invited on to French & Saunders's bank holiday Radio 2 show last year. They had nothing to promote at the time, then heard that they'd got the series a few weeks later. The veterans played Bring Me Sunshine by Morecambe & Wise for them in open homage, but these new kids on the »

- Julia Raeside

Stewart Lee, Ed Byrne, Kevin Eldon confirmed for Union Chapel shows

22 January 2013 3:10 AM, PST | Digital Spy | See recent Digital Spy - Movie News news »

Stewart Lee will play London's Union Chapel on July 6. The comedian headlines the venue with support from Phil Nichol, Josie Long, Pete Firman and Elis James Mc.

[L: Stewart Lee, R: Josie Long] > Stewart Lee interview The show is part of the 2013 spring season of Live at the Chapel, produced and promoted by The Invisible Dot. Other headliners for the season include Adam Buxton, the Pajama Men, Mark Thomas and Kevin Eldon. Tickets are available now and are priced at £18 or £16 for concessions. The full spring season 2013 dates for Live at the Chapel are (more) »

- By Mayer Nissim