Events

Tickets for Miranda Hart’s sitcom

Could be good, if only because Sally Phillips is in it. You may remember Miranda Hart from Hyperdrive and Not Going Out:

Miranda is desperate to fit in, but can’t.


Miranda Hart

Her public school background and posh accent make her a misfit down the pub. She has never fitted in with ‘the girls’ (not least because she’s a foot taller than them) and due to years of agoraphobic tendencies she doesn’t know how to behave socially or how to avoid embarrassment, especially around men.

She’s a constant disappointment to her mother Penny, who’s desperate for her to get a proper job, or even better, a husband, but Miranda’s happiest playing with and making up silly games in her joke shop.

Lacking any real capacity for business, Miranda employs her childhood friend Stevie to manage the shop. Stevie tries to run the business like she’s competing to be Alan Sugar’s apprentice, but her principal task is keeping Miranda’s childish absurdities under control.

It doesn’t matter what Miranda attempts in life – be it dating, joining the gym, or dealing with her overbearing mother, she always seems to fall flat – literally. She can never seem to leave a room without knocking something over.

Partly based on the character of comedian Miranda Hart, ‘Miranda Hart’s sitcom’ is a farcical, affectionate sitcom about being the odd one out.

Starring Miranda Hart, Sarah Hadland as Stevie, Patricia Hodge as Miranda’s Mother, Penny, Tom Ellis as Gary, and Sally Phillips as Miranda’s boarding school friend Tilly.

Recording on Sundays 5, 12, 19 and 26 July and 2 and 9 August at the BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, London. Doors open at 7pm.

To apply for tickets, visit the BBC Tickets Website or call the BBC Ticket Line on 0370 901 1227

 

Classic TV

Weird old titles: Picture Box

Normally – by which I mean "in the three previous and indeed only entries in this series of weird old title sequences" – there’s been something weird and off-putting about the titles themselves. This week, we’re going to be a little different and have a weird and off-putting theme tune instead. 

Picture Box was a schools’ programme that went out mid-morning during the week and showed a ragbag of international, often entirely silent and quite mesmerising short films introduced by Alan Rothwell IIRC (TV Ark says Dorothy Smith presented in the 60s when it was in black and white). Although you’d be hard-pressed to remember a single one of those films, the really quite eery music played on what sounds like a fairground steam organ will have stuck with everyone who ever watched the show.

Press play and you’ll see what I mean if you went to school in the 70s and 80s. Whether you did or you didn’t, by the end of it, you should be expecting the grey ghost of an old carnie to beckon at you whenever you look in a mirror.

No Alan with this clip, although you can see him very briefly in this unembeddable version over here.

Tuesday’s “dead as a dinosaur” news

Doctor Who

Film

Comics

Music

British TV

US TV

Life of Tim competition

At 10pm on Tuesdays, Virgin 1 are showing HBO’s new animated comedy Life of Tim, created by Steve Dildarian, a former host of Saturday Night Live and the man behind the Budweiser lizards. According to the press release:

"Tim’s an everyday, nice, working guy who can’t help but get himself into the worst situations. No matter the situation, life’s little challenges always manage to demand the most offensive solutions, which wouldn’t be such a problem if he weren’t continually caught red-handed".

To get people watchingcelebrate the launch of the show, they’ve launched a sketching tool that enables you to create animated sketches featuring Tim and the other characters of the show.

The reason I mention any of this is: sketch creators will also get the chance to win a Sony Bravia 32" TV, signed animation cells from the show and the chance to have their sketched shown on the Virgin1 website. So it’s worth a punt, basically.

Here’s a clip from the show, so you can see what it’s like.

Sitting Tennant

Monday’s Sitting Tennants (from Sister Chastity and Rullsenberg)

Sister Chastity's Sitting Tennant

Monday’s here so guess Who’s sitting down. Yes, it’s David Tennant.

Only two pictures today, I’m afraid, but they are very good and come from Ms Rullsenberg, who’s found this one of DT in The Bill, and Sister Chastity, who seems to have found one of DT using his tickling stick in an interview. Well done, Sister Chastity.

That gives us the following picture leaderboard:

  1. Rullsenberg: 31.5
  2. Sister Chastity: 23.5
  3. Jaradel: 20.5
  4. Rosby: 2.5
  5. Persephone: 1

The rest of you can stick back, relax and enjoy – or send in your own pictures, or caption Friday’s piccy if you prefer.

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.

Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it’s from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points.