Last Week Tonight Best Bits

In order to increase the general levels of people understanding my references, I've decided to occasionally list some things that I like - especially things I've noticed most people I speak to haven't seen - to increase the quality of your conversation with me. But mainly to celebrate people and things I like. So this time, I'm doing John Oliver. A British comedian, who never really got anywhere much over here, until Ricky Gervais recommended him to The Daily Show host Jon Stewart. After years of writing for The Daily Show and appearing as a correspondent, he guest hosted the Daily Show in Jon Stewart's absence one summer and off the back of that got his own show: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It's an extremely political show that does serious politics and comedy very well, and because it's HBO - unlike The Daily Show - there's no advert breaks allowing him enough time to delve really deeply into the issues. So here are the 15 best Last Week Tonight episodes, based on how funny they are, how important the story is, and how memorable an episode it was.

15. FIFA

The various scandals of FIFA became a recurring feature of the first two seasons of Last Week Tonight. It's the first episode that I recall getting media coverage and reaction, and also the first I remember trending, possibly because it's a story that has particular impact in the UK, because it's about football. This first clip was shown just before the 2014 FIFA world cup, and I think for many people, me certainly, it is the first time they'd realised just how completely fucking evil FIFA is. I think certainly it's the first time that I had seen so many FIFA scandals detailed in one place. It's eye opening and it's funny, but it's also done by a real football fan and that personal angle helps John Oliver to keep a perspective throughout the piece that means it's angry in all the right places ("The most deadly middle eastern construction project..." is a particularly powerful gag, that deserves a bigger laugh as a joke but brilliantly shocks the audience into silence) but still fun and not having a go.

14. And Now... Roger Ailes

The "And now this" section is a montage of clips, usually a bit fun, taken from national and local news broadcasts - local news anchors doing crap Irish banter for St. Patrick's Day, that sort of thing - and it's usually a bit of a palate cleanser, used to bridge the gap from one subject to another. But this one, which aired in 2016 after the resignation of Roger Ailes as CEO of Fox News following sexual assault allegations, uses just a few very short clips to really paint a picture of just what an awful organisation Fox News is in under two minutes.

BONUS CONTENT: The LMFAO Eulogy (from The Bugle)

When John Oliver found out that LMFAO and Right Said Fred were amongst dictator Bashar Al-Assad's favourite bands it was really funny. So you can imagine his disappointment at LMFAO splitting up.

13. Russell Crowe, the last Blockbuster in Alaska and Koalas

Last Week Tonight and John Oliver have something of a reputation when it comes to spending silly money at auctions on ridiculous stunts so when news around the world was made by the fact that someone spent $7000 on the jockstrap worn by Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man, as part of his infamous The Art of Divorce auction, a lot of people and media companies were asking "Is this John Oliver?" and of course it was. In a lovely move HBO bought a whole load of Russell Crowe's props and costumes and sent them to one of the very few remaining Blockbusters in Alaska, to make it more of a tourist attraction and keep it open.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!! Which is all a great deal of fun, but it was Russell Crowe's perfect reaction to this in a follow up piece a couple of weeks later that is really the best thing about this story when Russell used the money to open the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Clinic.

12. Coal

This next one on the list is a great example of how John Oliver can often take a very dry subject matter and spin it into 20 minutes of accessible comedy for his audience. This piece on the problems facing workers in the coal industry - who Trump spoke a lot about in his election campaign - has a lot of numbers and economics to get your head around but John does it in a pretty entertaining way. It's also the only time he has so far been - unsuccessfully - sued by the subject of one of his shows and the first time he's received a cease and desist letter and been threatened with legal action. And I think it gives you an idea of how seriously he takes the job that such a threat only spurs him on to lay into the man who threatened him further and the fact that HBO won the case gives you some idea of how well researched all the information they quote in the show is and how precisely they work for script accuracy. You can feel John watching his words when discussing Bob Murray, but still never holding back.

11. SLAPP Suits

And having been sued by Bob Murray, John followed up two years later, after finally winning the case, with a discussion about SLAPP Suits. After Bob Murray sued them claiming being described as a 'geriatric Doctor Evil' caused him more stress than anything else in his life 'an odd thing to say, given that, he oversaw a company whose mine collapse in Utah resulted in the deaths of nine people.' The response understandably has a lot of fun at Bob Murray's expense, while discussing a wider issue of using SLAPP Suits to silence opponents and how that works in a world of comedy, satire and free speech. Of course it all ends in a brilliant celebration in the form of the Eat Shit Bob musical.

Here's the full bit on SLAPP suits

And for those who don't have much time, here's the musical on it's own:

10. Campaign Songs

People who have seen Game of Thrones will know that HBO has a vast amount of money and it's likely that series 8 of the HBO show wont appear on this list, and in the last episode some annoying child you've not cared about for 8 years will take over from John Oliver at the end whether you want it or not or even if it makes no sense.

But to focus on the bit where HBO have money here, it means that they can get some brilliant and big name guests to help make points fun on the show. This episode on the Republican National Convention from the 2016 election campaign, is the first time the show really talked about Donald Trump in any depth. They'd previously ignored him thinking he wasn't to be taken seriously, and while he still isn't to be taken seriously, unfortunately we now have to take him seriously. But rather than give you another long speech on the subject of how awful Trump is, I thought I would just share the final segment of the episode in which John and a range of guests who've had their music used by election campaigns, on both sides, without their permission deliver a catchy message back.

9a. Boris Johnson & The Mating Foxes of Kent

Sometimes it's interesting to see what foreign news programs make of events in the UK, particularly when those events are as completely mental as electing Boris Johnson Prime Minister of the UK. I kind of swerved the clips talking about Donald Trump on this list, as there's little we don't already know about Trump. It's been fairly well documented. The same is true of Boris Johnson but it's interesting to watch this clip anyway. Because it's aimed at an audience who might not be fully aware of Boris Johnson and is on a show that doesn't talk about British politics every week, it's in some ways a complete guide to Boris. It follows his journey to the top of British politics, discusses his carefully constructed public image, his manipulation and his role in some of the reporting and bullshit that led us to Brexit. There's also a couple of good Last Week Tonight pieces dedicated to Brexit itself but we're bored of hearing about that for now.

9b. Brexit Anthem

Ok. Just one brief clip on Brexit because it's a catchy song from an episode before the Brexit referendum.

BONUS CONTENT: Osama Bin Laden Fuckeulogy (from the Bugle)

This clip is not from Last Week Tonight but it is John Oliver from the podcast he made with Andy Zaltzman, sadly John had to give up the podcast to focus on making the TV show. Though the podcast is still going and Andy Zaltzman is an absolutely brilliant host. This clip however is their response to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden for which John Oliver coined the term a 'fuckeulogy' which they would return to when other horrible people died.

8. Televangelists

John Oliver's televangelists episode took a subject I knew and cared very little about and blew my mind. This is not an attack on Christianity or preachers in general, but is a brilliant expose of the way in which televangelists operate and how their greed targets incredibly vulnerable people. It starts mad by showing some of the crazy televangelists on TV, then gets weirder as John Oliver explains how easy it is to set up your own church by legally turning Last Week Tonight into a church. But the absolutely insanest part of this all is the letters he received when he wrote to one of the televangelists asking to join his church.

7. Wax Presidents

A lot of this list is fairly hard hitting political stuff - and I left out the episode about family separation which they did the week of the midterm elections - so it's time for something just plain silly.

The Hall of Presidents Wax Museum shut down and auctioned off their models, and the former Daily Show cast entered into a bidding war against each other to win some. I mentioned before that Last Week Tonight has a habit of spending large amounts of money on stupid stunts, and having found out about Warren Harding's love letters in a previous series, this was irresistible and the Harding movie they made with the wax model is brilliant. Enjoy. It's no politics for once. It's just silly.

BONUS CONTENT: Gun Control Whoop-De-Do (from The Daily Show)

Before landing his own show John was a correspondent on the Daily Show where he often went to meet and interview people about the important issues of the day. It's one of the things I miss him doing on Last Week Tonight. This is a real highlight. The first of a three part series where he tackled Gun Control by meeting a member of the Virginia Citizens Defence League who are pro-guns, and it's just fun to see exactly how quickly John Oliver manages to tear apart his argument.

6. The Dalai Lama

Well I know I just posted a clip of John Oliver meeting Phillip Von Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defence League so this might seem like it's not a big deal after that, but John Oliver does still occasionally get out of the studio to meet people, and in this clip he interviews the Dalai Lama. There's nothing more I need to say.

5. Gilbert Gottfried reads Theresa May's Brexit Proposal

This is another one where John Oliver talks about British issues. Or rather he doesn't. This is really about a very important issue to the UK, the fact that you cannot use footage from the houses of parliament in a comedy show. That's right. The likes of Have I Got News For You cannot make fun of politicians using actual clips of them in parliament, which you'd think in a democracy would be fairly fucking important. Anyway, when John Oliver discovered that the British broadcast of his show on Sky Atlantic had had sections cut out of it because they showed parliamentary footage, he ran a piece on his show about it being fucking stupid. Of course we in the UK had to enjoy this instead and I think it makes it's point pretty well.

Interesting update to this story: the law has since been changed and it is now legal for comedy shows to use footage of events in the houses of parliament.

BONUS CONTENT: Maggie Thatcher Death Catcher (from The Bugle)

Ok, this is an interesting one, particularly as a fan of a left-wing comedy and for John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman as makers of left-wing comedy. A few high-profile Fuckeulogies after the Osama Bin Laden one Margaret Thatcher died. In this clip, rather than present a fuckeulogy, John and Andy wrestle with the complicated question of whether or not Thatcher deserves one. It's a much more balanced discussion than a lot of the news or the comedy at the time showed.

4. Brett Kavanaugh

Now strangely for a show that's quite happy to put most of it's content on youtube (even against a cease and desist order as mentioned earlier) this episode isn't on there, most likely because rather than break the show down into segments like they normally do, John Oliver dedicated the whole of the episode to talking about one issue: Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court and the hearing he went through to get there once the sexual assault allegations about him emerged. It's a brilliant argument from John Oliver. The way the media and the panel tried to discredit the victim was laid bare. In one moment they even ask the victim who paid for a polygraph test on her, when she flounders the judges prepare to jump on her, only to have to have it explained to them that it's standard procedure as they well know. The whole process is exposed for being as unfair as it is. But the main moments from this story come from Kavanaugh himself. His defence is frankly mad. He cries over his dad's collection of calendars (weird in itself but also as John points out the dates don't really match), he seems to play some kind of improv game where he has to make up innocent explanations for the clearly drunk or sexual stuff he wrote about doing at college, he gets really angry at the process a few times and even turn his questions back on those questioning him as if accusing them of something. The whole thing is very weird to watch, but I think I learnt something about how to argue a case from watching John Oliver handle this story. He doesn't try to convince you that Brett Kavanaugh is guilty or innocent. That would be pointless anyway. We're all so entrenched in party lines these days that if Donald Trump set fire to a kitten the MAGA fans would say 'he's our kitten burner' or if Jeremy Corbyn was photographed writing the scripts for the last episodes of Game of Thrones, the Momentum crowd would be like "actually we wanted to be underwhelmed by the whole thing. It's better that way." Instead John Oliver makes the point that even if you think he's innocent of all the crimes he stands accused of, even if you think that, clearly his performance during the hearing makes him unsuitable for a role of this importance. It's a logical and reasoned argument. Sorry logic and reasoning are old fashioned things we apparently used to have.

3. Chiitan

Well after Margaret Thatcher and Brett Kavannagh, I think we need a palate cleanser. One of the great things Last Week Tonight occasionally does it take a local story from somewhere in the world and shine some light on it. This is the second time they've mentioned Japanese city mascots on the show, but it's also just completely joyous.

BONUS CONTENT: The first ever episode of Mock The Week

I mean, you just don't get line ups this good on Mock The Week anymore: Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis, Linda Smith RIP, John Oliver, Rory Bremner and Jeremy Hardy RIP. What a great line up. It's a little rough around the edges because it's only a first episode and also because it's Mock The Week, but it's a rare chance to see John Oliver on British TV so worthy of inclusion in this list. I particularly like the moment he calls out Dara O'Briain (well the writers) for making a very obvious and racist joke. The writers clearly listened to his words, took on board what he had to say about that kind of lazy comedy, and promptly never hired him again and forced him to find work in another country. Boy did we fuck up. Thanks Mock The Week.

2. The Confederacy

Time for a white English man to explain how bad the Confederacy was. This is a proper in depth look at it. At a time when there was a huge debate going on about tearing down statues of figures from the Confederacy, John Oliver pulled no punches in explaining just how bad a part of American history it was for many people. What do I mean by "pulled no punches"? Well he calls it America's Jimmy Saville and that's just the start. For those of us living outside America who are perhaps not so well aware of the history, as I wasn't fully to be honest, this is illuminating. To those who maybe thought "what's so bad? It's just a statue," this is a compelling counter argument. It's particularly interesting when John discusses one of the key problems at the heart of this kind of debate: when people today are confronted with what their ancestors may have stood for.

1. Alex Jones

The horrifically racist, pro-guns, conspiracy theorist, 9/11 was an inside job, Sandy Hook denying American right wing political commentator. Not Alex Jones from the One Show who is not American (everything else there still applies but the BBC keep her in the wrong forum to air it). In the opening episode of the season John Oliver showed a funny clip of Alex Jones ranting about "they're putting chemicals in the water that turn the freakin' frogs gay." Rather than simply ignore it Alex Jones decided to attack John Oliver back on his own show and accused John of making him look like a loon by taking his words out of context. This turned out to be a big and predictable mistake. As John and his team spent the next few months listening to all of Alex Jones' shows and getting to know the full context. In this piece John Oliver presents the full context of the Alex Jones show. Alex Jones goes from seeming like a mad and misguided idiot to seeming actually pure evil. It's obviously personal for John, but it's a lot of fun too this one.

And finally...Here's the sequel to the story of ChiiJohn which was the season finale to the 2019 season.

Ok, and a couple more songs too.

Right Said Fred on Bashar Al-Assad

Weird Al on North Korea

Vineys 2015

It's awards season!

You can tell because all the film trailers you see on TV are about people talking with few explosions.

Because apparently the people given the job of choosing the Oscars don't really go to the movies the rest of the year round and are likely to forget anything that came out pre-December.

With that in mind it's time for the highly anticipated* Dan Vine Awards Blog.

*The one person I told about this said "oh, are you still doing that?"

I want to just mention a notable exemption from my awards. I will not be mentioning the film Boyhood despite it being up for many awards. Famously Richard Linklater filmed the movie over the course of 12 years. As someone who also puts things off till the last minute at work, I don't think that should be rewarded.

Film of the Year

Nominees - The Imitation Game Benedict Cumberbatch plays war hero Alan Turing who built a machine that saved hundreds of lives, despite everyone saying "it can't be done Benedict. You're being weird Benedict." But then politics, secrets and his homosexuality make things a bit morally, ethically and emotionally complicated. It's a war film with no shooting or Americans turning up to claim the credit and worth seeing

Lucy Scarlett Johnason (here after referred to as Scarlett Johnson because of autocorrect) stars as a woman who doesn't think too much, she only uses about 10% of her brain. Then a bag of Ritalin or something similar explodes in her guts and the newly focussed Scarlet Johanson begins to use 100% of her brain. At first this is small things like learning how to use Skype, but before long she can control the laws of physics. In a final showdown that shows off the amazing direction and stunning visuals of the film, Lucy sees all of the past and future and evolves into the next stage of human evolution by becoming a USB memory stick. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel Typical Wes Anderson, quirky design and direction. Ralph Finnes (Harry Potter's old enemy and James Bond's new boss, so don't let them tell you criminals can't turn their life around with a second chance) stars as Monsieur Gustav H. a hotel concierge accused of a murder he did not commit. It's his first major comedy role since the brilliant In Bruges where he played a gangster who turns up in the last half an hour of the film and steals the thing from the main leads. This film is often almost as dark as that but has lightness and subtlety aplenty too. It was only narrowly beaten to the top spot, but it's probably happy enough with it's 11 BAFTA nominations so it doesn't care.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies I'll be honest, I did not like The Lord of the Rings. I know that anybody still reading is just doing so in the hope I apologise for that statement. But the cast for the Hobbit was too good to miss, and An Unexpected Journey got me hooked, The Desolation of Smaug sealed the deal. Both had brilliant CGI and loads of brilliant make up and practical effects, and some great character work. One of Peter Jackson's skills is giving every character a back story and rounded personality. This film is a great conclusion to the trilogy and the whole middle earth series (does anyone believe there wont be more though?), but kept off the top spot by not being as good as films 1 and 2. It fell into a few problems I had with Lord of the Rings (still not sorry). Chiefly what I didn't like was that it was a battle of 5 armies. In hindsight I should have seen that coming, but I have to say, I kinda switch off half an hour into any film with big CGI armies having a fight. Its 300 dwarves vs 300 elves vs 300 eagles vs 300 orcs vs 300 men. It's a visually brilliant fight, but I really struggle to feel anything for elf #241 when he's killed by orc #124. I just fail to give a shit at that level. And the one Hobbit caught in the middle of it, presumably the most interesting character, is tragically underused. Plus Evangaline Lily says at one point "If this is love, I do not wish it," which wins the award for worst movie line of the year, previous winners include the slightly better "Show me more of this Earth thing you call kissing." All that said, the film is saved by a stella cast and a small dog that stares into the camera.

And the Winner is...Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel do science fiction comedy. It's winning status was pretty much assured before we even went to see it, but everyone thought it might be a flop. The comics are not as well known as The Avenger's heroes, and also are not frankly heroes. It's a great new take on some interesting characters. The take on Peter Quill/Starlord is brilliant. In the comics he is an actual hero and the fact his name is Starlord is not a joke, which is just stupid. He honestly calls himself Starlord any nobody ever laughs at that. Starlord! In fact he's more sanctimonious than Captain America. I imagine that is where the Guardians trilogy is heading and some things from this film set it up to go that way, but in the very first comic book he goes out and becomes a hero after learning that revenge is bad in a story more heavy handed in it's moral than all 79 original series Star Trek episodes. This film by contrast is fun and genuinely laugh out loud throughout. Kudos to the writer who decided to change the tone and the casting director who cast Andy from Parks and Rec.  It captures all the fun and imagination of Star Wars with none of the consequences, and a little bit of Red Dwarf thrown in there too.

Best Edinburgh Show

Nominees - Post Show 2014 was a good year for improvised shows at Edinburgh. This one has a brilliant concept. While you're queuing for the show, a member of theatre staff comes out and tells you that you're late, and they'll usher you into the auditorium but you have to be quiet as the play is in progress. You walk in during the last scene of a four hour play, and as soon as the audience sit down the play ends and they open it up to the audience for questions. Make sure you are up for joining in if you ever go to see this play. They story of the play is made up based on the questions you ask.

What Does The Title Matter Anyway? Due to legal issues this show is nothing like Whose Line Is It Anyway? It's hosted by Clive Anderson (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) and features Greg Proops (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) and other regulars from the hit show Whose Line Is It Anyway? alongside new performers from this year's fringe. They play games from Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Alex Edelman: Millennial Alex won Best Newcomer at some awards that actually matter and he deserves it. A very young and talented stand-up, he does what could be considered the usual story telling and observations, but he's a young Millennial American (or possibly Canadian, or possibly just trendy, I'm going on the accent) which gives him a unique and new voice and a very clever and interesting voice too. Worth looking out for this guy. He's partly nominated so that I can prove I was there at the start.

The Horne Section: Milk The Tenderness Oh, to think two years previously, the only reason I bought tickets to 'The Horne Section' was that Simon Amstell was a guest. That night is honestly the most excited I've been in a theatre. That's largely because of an unannounced guest appearance from Suggs, but also because, The Horne Section are just so damn good. I often bang on about loving satire and stand up about big issues in small theatres, but fun, silly songs honestly bring me so much joy. Especially as the song Manly Man (not about the pub crawl of the same name) was dedicated to me, and I found myself on stage with Alex Horne.

Austentatious An Improvised Jane Austen novel. I'm not a fan of all that Jane Austen girly bookish nonsense, but that doesn't matter this is hilarious. Using only a title pulled at random from a bag of audience suggestions, a team of improvisers create a new Jane Austen story. I'm sure there are jokes that will be better if you do know your Austen, but as I already couldn't breathe from laughing too hard, it would be dangerous for my health to read any Jane Austen. I saw this show twice and saw various members of the cast in their own separate shows and at a late night Sketch Transfer Deadline Day thing, in which acts swap members with other acts, where I also saw...

The Beta Males A sketch group with loads of brilliant and surreal sketches. Songs, parody, general silliness, with running gags and one or two running stories throughout their sketches. I mean, it's genuinely hard to tell if it's one or two stories, it's complicated but really funny.

And The Winner Is... Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly Alex Horne tells an amusing story about a time he saw a squirrel in his kitchen and attempted to catch it. As he's telling the story he uses props on stage to build the scene. This leads to deeper thoughts to do with his life and life in general. And slowly what he's building takes shape. He talks about how everything is connected and, as the title suggests, the Butterfly Effect comes up. That suggests one thing leads to another and another and another in a long chain that led to an attempt to catch a squirrel, and that's when you finally realise he's building a huge game of Mousetrap! Quality stand up and amateur craftsmanship, what more could I want? As he says "Even if you weren't enjoying this show, I don't think you'd leave before seeing the end." I was lucky enough to see this twice, the first time as a work-in-progress show in London when the Mousetrap didn't work. That was still hilarious and great to see but never has an audience more wanted to see something succeed spectacularly and, to be fair, in Edinburgh he did.

Best Sitcom

Nominees - Community (NBC) There are two surprising things about Community Series 5, one is that it happened at all, the other is that it was good. After an awful fourth season they bought back the writer they'd fired and, despite losing cast members before and during this series, came back to form. Community starts with stories and builds jokes around them which makes for compelling and funny viewing and it makes it genuinely unpredictable, and not in a How I Met Your Mother kind of way where it forgets it's supposed to be making jokes and just starts killing people to make the trending topics.

The Detectorists (BBC4) Makenzie Crooke (The Office) and Toby Jones (everything British) play a couple of metal detector enthusiasts struggling with life, love and the Antiquisearchers! Will they uncover treasure? Will they find a body? Will they know any answers on University Challenge? Will they even be friends or detectorists by the end of it? A genuinely warm and uplifting comedy (and I usually only use that to describe rubbish shows, but this is great).

The Trip To Italy (BBC2) Staring Steve Coogan as Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon and Roni Ancona as a random secretary. Steve and Rob are travelling abroad to Italy on a road trip. They have an obsession with Byron and Alanis Morriessette and each other. Like the first series this delves into the insecurities of the stars, but perhaps has more loud jokey moments than the first series and less quiet ones. Nonetheless it's brilliant and you can't knock a show for having more funny bits.

And the Winner is...Inside Number 9 (BBC2) From the creators of The League of Gentlemen (well the ones who weren't lucky enough to be Mark Gatiss) and Psychoville comes a new comedy anthology of stories. Each episode has a new set of characters in a new situation, all linked by the fact they take place in house number 9 or room number 9. To be honest that's only so they have a title for the show. So six episodes. One inside a wardrobe during a game of sardines, how has no comedy done that before? It's a great idea. Trap a load of characters together and let some secrets come out. Another episode is a silent comedy, with genuine reasons why the characters can't speak. The gag when the door-to-door salesman turns up and how they maintain the silence is the cleverest but the gag with the dog is silly and therefore my favourite bit. Another episode follows a man who befriends a tramp and helps him get back on his feet while his own life falls apart. A legal battle over a balloon containing the last breath of a popstar. A bloody revenge tragedy that takes place in a dressing room back stage at Macbeth (and does Macbeth's story in 30 minutes) and a babysitter in a freezing haunted house, who should not disturb Andres under any circumstances in a tense horror spoof. Watch this, you're bound to like one of them. Series 2 is coming soon.

Best Live Show (Non-Edinburgh)

Nominees - Madness: The Madhead Tour (O2, 20th Dec) Another solid night of skanking. I'm sure I lose weight at our annual Madness gig. The only downside this year was that they were supported by Scouting For Girls, who write two lines per song and then repeat them for five minutes. Yes, yes, I understand that she's lovely. Fortunately their set was elevated by missing it and having a lovely meal instead, and catching up with my Madness fan friends who I don't see too often.

The Best Of The Comedy Store (The Underbelly on the Southbank, 11th May) This is another gig made brilliant by a lovely meal before hand. I highly recommend Strada on the Southbank. Their outside seating area is outside the restaurant but INSIDE the Southbank centre, it's confusing but absolutely lovely and we almost missed the show because me and Leigh were getting to know each other. That said, I am glad we didn't miss the show. For Edinburgh goers it's a bit surreal, wandering around an Edinburgh venue on London's Southbank. The acts on that night were comedy store favourite John Mahoney, psychotic grumpy man Andrew Lawrence and Asian-Marcus-Brigstocke Romesh Ranganathan.

The Final Revelation of Sherlock Holmes (The Pleasance Islington, 21st Feb) Another theatre trip with great food. I was worried by an empty Indian restaurant on a Friday night with Christmas decorations still up in February, but I was hungry and it was brilliant. The play itself: Sherlock Holmes is dying and it's not Moriarty who is to blame, as his life fades he has one last mystery to solve. Why?

Richard II  (Barbican, 7th January) It's David Tennant vs Barry from Four Lions in a Shakespeare masterpiece. I'm moving on because I don't want to bang on too much, not because I don't understand it. What?! I did!

Rich Hall's Hoedown (Hertford Theatre, 26th May) Insightful stand-up and songs and an autographed CD for me at the end.

Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly Work-In-Progress (The Invisible Dot. 5th May) I've covered this elsewhere when it went right, but it was great to see it go wrong too

Stewart Lee: A Room With A Stew (Soho Theatre, 20th June) A very early stages, work-in-progress show. It was about 85% old material with 15% stuff he was trying out thrown in, but repeated Stewart Lee material is still welcome and it was interesting to see the master at work.

Paul Merton's Impro Chums (Hawthorne Theatre, 13th October) Paul Merton in my local theatre. I believe in supporting the arts locally, which I mostly do by not going to see it but occasionally meaning to, so as the local theatre in Welwyn Garden City were playing host to legend Paul Merton and his never disappointing chums, I had to go.

Jersey Boys (Picardilly Theatre, 7th August) Here's a pub quiz tip, if you're in a pub quiz and you know the name of a song but not who it's by; it's probably by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. It's a juke box musical, telling the interesting back story of a band I didn't realise I was interested in until I saw it. Brilliant performances from all the leads. Few dodgy accents from the supporting cast, but the singing voices...wow.

And the Winner is...Ghost Stories (Arts Theatre, 27th March) Written by Andy Nyman who wrote Derren Brown's material for years and Jeremy Dyson the other other one from League of Gentlemen. This is a horror comedy that asks you not to reveal it's secrets, so this blog is a waste of time. All I can say is the black painted theatre with police tape hang all round it is wonderfully done and creepy, and makes you feel part of it, so much so that you will shit yourself in terror and wet yourself with laughter. Eat and drink after is what I'm saying.

Best Rubbish TV Program: I Wanna Marry Harry (ITV2) This is a guilty pleasure. Dumb American women are flown to Downton Abbey where a comedy butler introduces them to some prick pretending to be Prince Harry. He must date them and choose his favourite who he then spends the rest of his life with assuming she's ok with being lied to and manipulated for the last 10 weeks. It's shocking but addictive. ITV2 also had a show called Release the Hounds where contestants had to run away from man-eating dogs, which meant when Prince Harry sends people home the phrase "Next: Release the Hounds" appears.

Disappointment of the Year: Neville's Island Adrian Edmondson. Robert Webb. Miles Jupp. Neil Morrisey. How could this play possibly go wrong? By being the most contrived, overly explained, predictable play ever written is how. The cast are so brilliant and the show so bad it was crushing.

Best Actor

Nominees Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) For making a film with all the feels of war and none of the blood. And then later for destroying a whole village by breathing fire on it. Well to be fair, Stephen Fry lived there and he gave Benedict second place in an acting competition (He also didn't win the BAFTA so maybe Fry has a personal vendetta?)

Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) For making me more excited about Jurrassic Park than I am about Star Wars

Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) For making Clara less annoying while making it even more about her

Olivia Coleman (Broadchurch) For just about everything, but especially for the scene last week (series 2 episode 6) where she tells her son off. Proper scary


And The Winner Is...Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) Well it had to be! Because it's me. For making the Doctor scary and interesting, and because everytime they try and make him unlikeable I like it more.

Best Comedian

Nominees Paul Merton He's had a busy life and his autobiography could easily be a trilogy but it's a great rush through his life. His improvisation is still as sharp as ever

Lee Simpson Someone acknowledge that this guy is brilliant. One of the impro chums, but can completely upstage Paul Merton sometimes.

Sean Lock 8 Out of 10 Cats wouldn't be the same without his dead-pan wit. I also watched 15 Stories High again for the first time in years, and never appreciated quite how amazing it is first time around.

Cariad Lloyd One of the members of Austentacious, but she popped up in things we saw all over the fringe including What Does The Title Matter Anyway? She's made a BBC iPlayer pilot so she's one to watch out for. Brilliant improviser.

Tom Stade I like him from Live At The Apollo, but my girlfriend loves him so I went to see him live for the first time this year (My guide to romance: "Here's a present, it's tickets to something I really wanna see"), and he is really funny and regrettably handsome. His Boots Number 7 routine made me laugh so much.

Stewart Lee From Comedy Vehicle to Alternative Comedy Experience to Work-In-Progress shows to being a widely circulated anti-UKIP meme to his regular columns in the broadsheets to What Would Judas Do? (which is old but I only listened to this year) he is good isn't he?

Stephen Fry He bought comic relief to scenes of devastation in The Hobbit, had a ruddy good argument with God on Irish telly, hosted QI of course and wrote another genuinely interesting autobiography.

And the winner is...Alex Horne Did I mention Mousetrap? He has officially become my favourite comedian of 2014...ever! He is the best ever.

Best Comedy Panel Show

Nominees~Have I Got News For You (BBC1) Because it's always a classic. 2014 didn't see any stand out guest hosts like previous years. There was no Brian Blessed or Boris Johnson. On the other hand there was no Ann Widdicombe either. The show had a solid year.

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (BBC Radio 4) It had a mixed year. There was bad press over their jokes about the shows made-up scorer "the lovely Samantha" and her various activities that all sound like sexual innuendos "It's always good to feel her electrician's tester calls regularly." Following the Dapper Laughs controversy these innuendos got a lot of media attention as debate raged about whether or not they were offensive to all fictional women. On the positive side, they had a lot of guests on for the first time who were very good, even if you had to worry when only one of the regular cast of veteran comedians in their 70s or 80s turns up for the December shows in the harsh winter.

The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4) Like Have I Got News For You, but on the wireless, and with Sandi Toksvig and Jeremy Hardy. I went to a recording of this show in 2014 and it had another strong year.

QI Isn't this show just consistently good? Yes.

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (Dave) This show is simply Alan Davies and 4 guests sitting around a desk having a chat. The format works well and Alan Davies has a fact about each of his guests to move things along when the conversation dries up. Plus it's Dave so if the conversation gets boring they can just cut to a 10 minute ad break like they do.

And the Winner is...8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown (Channel 4) It seemed like an entertaining one off to celebrate Channel 4, but surprisingly is into it's ninth series now, while the regular 8 Out of 10 Cats is, actually I don't know, or don't care. Cat's do Countdown has the prime time slot on Friday night, while the regular show is on late Monday nights, I think. I think it's a bit like the 'Just A Minute' effect ie. the game is simple but capable of loads of variations because of the guests. It's great that Joe Wilkinson has platform for his comedy which doesn't require the viewer to sit through 'Him and Her' too.

Best Entertainment Show

Nominees Charlie Brookers Weekly Wipe/2014 Wipe (BBC2) Nice to have a bit of satire on the box, his review of the week/year is always enlightened and interesting and Reasons To Be Fearful has been stuck in my head since I first saw it, well done Blockheads.

The Last Leg/The Last Leg Of The Year (Channel 4) Adam Hills only needs to tell someone to stop being a dick to become king of the internet. He's very funny and the concept is a relaxed review of the week.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) American satire! It's so much more glamorous over there. This show is on every day and so I've sort of taken it for granted when listing my favourite shows, but since it's title will need adjusting soon, just time to acknowledge that this is on every day and consistently funny.

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (BBC2) The UKIPS were a popular target this series, but this again has the unique live-club feel we have come to expect from Stewart Lee. His downbeat, angry observations are brilliant.



The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central) The comedians a bit too odd to be on BBC1 stand up. The behind-the-scenes chat is cool too. Only sad part is this show could be so much longer. It feels like we never see a complete set and what we do see it wonderful.

Monty Python: One Down, Five to Go (GOLD) Wasn't terribly impressed by most of this year's sketch comedy, but these old timers proved why they're good enough to sell out the O2. Whether they did it for the money, the love of it, or spite or to be honest, reading all their interviews, whether they even liked it, I don't care, it was funny. And when they corpsed in the sweetshop sketch, they seemed to be enjoying it.

John Finnemore's Souvenir Program (BBC Radio 4) I'm sorry for not mentioning Cabin Pressure in the Best Sitcom category. It's good but I had other priorities. This sketch show though is like Mitchell & Webb's best material and the "since you asked for a tale..." sketches that end each episode are worth the wait.

And the Winner Is...Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO) John Oliver. Why did we let him go? After regular appearances being wasted on Mock The Week, he gained no real fame in the UK, but got offered a job as a writer/correspondent on The Daily Show. In 2013 he spent two months filling in for Jon Stewart as host and now he's got his own show. And it's brilliant. Essentially the same format but on HBO so he can say fuck without being bleeped. It actually surpassed The Daily Show though. It's weekly nature means they can delve deeper into the stories that matter and it takes on big targets. Dictators, FIFA, Fox News and everyone evil, will fear this show.