On Sky Arts tonight at 9pm, the next installment of Playhouse Presents features former Gavin & Stacey star Matthew Horne in Hey Diddly Dee – which was written by Marc Warren – in which he stars alongside Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue…

And though Kylie isn’t perhaps the obvious choice for a quirky UK-based dark comedy, while speaking to The Sun’s TV Biz, Matthew explained that as she’s a personal friend of his, she stepped in when one of the actresses previously cast for the show had to pull out of filming.

Matt explained, “An actress pulled out quite close to filming. Mark texted me saying, ‘Have you got any ideas?’ Read more & comment »

There’s no denying that The Royle Family is one of the best sitcoms of the past twenty years. Part of its success was definitely the well-observed writing of Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne. While Cash went on to write and direct a number of successful shows, Aherne remained relatively quiet. Outside of The Royle Family Christmas Specials, Aherne’s last project as a writer was the 2009 festive special The Fattest Man in Britain. This week Aherne reteams with Jeff Pope, who co-wrote The Fattest Man in Britain, for one-off comedy The Security Men. The show focuses on four security guards and, like The Royle Family, is totally based in one enclosed set.

Read more & comment »

It’s been revealed by ITV today that the Solana Resort is set to re-open for business in a sixth series of the hit comedy, and former Hollyoaks star Phillip Olivier will join the cast, as will former Coronation Street star, Ken Morley.

Returning to enjoy the four star hotel treatment are Mick Garvey (Steve Pemberton), Janice Garvey (Siobhan Finneran) and Madge Harvey (Sheila Reid). Viewers will be surprised to see how grown up Michael Garvey (Oliver Stokes) has become – he’s now an adventurous teenager who’s set to cause his parents many troubled afternoons by the pool… Read more & comment »

It’s been revealed today that despite ITV trying desperately to poach top comedian and chat show host Alan Carr from Channel 4, he’s remained loyal to the broadcaster and signed a new two-year deal worth £4million.

It’s understood that ITV were keen to sign Alan up to the network after viewing figures showed he consistently draws bigger audiences for C4 than Jonathan Ross does with his ITV chat show.

The Daily Mirror reports, “ITV launched a late bid to sign him as Jonathan Ross’s ratings slide and he struggles for top guests. Last week he slipped to 2.25 million viewers, his second lowest ever… Read more & comment »

Downton Abbey has missed out on a Bafta nomination for the first time since it began back in 2010, adding fuel to the rumours that its current spate of main stars departures has left the fans unsure of its future!

Downton Abbey instantly struck a chord with fans all over the UK when it burst on to our screens three years ago, and before long it had become a worldwide phenomenon, with even the First Lady of America, Michelle Obama pleading with the BBC to send her series 3 ahead of its US premier.
Read more & comment »

On tonight’s fourth episode of ITV2 comedy Plebs, Marcus tries his best to endear himself to Cynthia (Sophie Colquhoun) and makes a friend of a scraggy pussycat that she saved from life as a stray in the courtyard.

Meanwhile, Stylax (Joel Fry) is complaining of a very worrying itch and makes a trip to a sexual health clinic where he meets and falls under the spell of a very pretty nurse.

Tonight, 10.30pm, ITV2

Fans of Take That will no doubt be pleased to hear that singer Jason Orange is to appear in next week’s Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless as DJ Scouse Mouse.

Following in the footsteps of his Take That band mate Gary Barlow, who starred in a festive edition of Miranda Hart’s comedy, Jason will feature as a DJ at a festival on the Chatsworth Estate.

A show source told The Sun, “Jason has been a huge fan of Shameless for years and jumped at the chance to get involved.

“But he admitted he was really nervous and didn’t sleep at all the night before it was filmed.” Read more & comment »

Rik Mayal, star of classic 80′s comedy, has revealed that he is “desperate” to bring back Bottom, but his partner Ade Edmondson doesn’t want to.

Bottom was iconic in the 90′s, with Edmondson and Mayal taking it on tour and even making films off the back of its success  so it was no surprise when their 1997 spin-off, Hooligan’s Island, which featured the pairs characters Eddie and Richie stranded on a desert island,was commissioned for a new series.
Read more & comment »

There’s sad news this morning as BBC News have announced that actor Richard Griffiths, who starred in the Harry Potter movies as well as TV drama Withnail and I, has died aged 65.

It’s believed he passed away following complications after having had heart surgery.

BBC News adds, “Griffiths enjoyed a long career of success on film and on TV, but also on the stage where he was a Tony-winning character actor.

“He was best known for playing Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films and Uncle Monty in Withnail and I.” Read more & comment »

It is a sad day indeed in British comedy today as it is announced that Are You Being Served? actor, Frank Thornton, has passed away.

Reports in today’s Sun newspaper say that Thornton, who played Captain Peacock in the hugely popular, long-running department store sitcom which also starred late EastEnders star Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) and late Coronation Street star, Mollie Sugden, passed away, peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92.
Read more & comment »

Fans of the once hugely popular game show Bullseye of course lamented its passing in 1995, and host Jim Bowen was of course also missed when the show ended its long run…

However, the good news is that Jim may well be about to make a comeback to showbiz as a Pope lookeylikey, because the resemblance between Jim and the new Pope is indeed remarkable.

The Daily Star today reports, “Thousands of Facebookers and Twitter users reckon the comic is the spitting image of newly-elected Francis I.” Read more & comment »

We are quite jealous of Dawn French already but by the time we see her on Comic Relief tomorrow night, we’re pretty sure that we’ll never want to see the comedienne on our screens ever again.

Much as we loved the buxom funny woman, it hardly seems fair that she’s already got to snog Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant and George Clooney is ready to add yet another Hollywood star to her list, while we can’t even get within touching distance.

Read more & comment »

The Mimic kicks off a new series on Channel 4 this evening, to high levels of anticipation if you’ve been keeping an eye on Twitter today.

The five-part sitcom centres on the life of Martin Hurdle (Terry Mynott), a supposedly ordinary maintenance man who turns out to be an incredible impersonator with a knack of mimicking voices.

Read more & comment »

It’s been reported today that former EastEnders star Samantha Womack has joined the cast of Sky Living comedy, Mount Pleasant, and will feature in the show’s third series.

Samantha, who of course played the role of Ronnie Branning on EastEnders, told Click Liverpool that she’s about to start filming for the show, which stars former Coronation Street actress Sally Lindsay as well as Daniel Ryan, Bobby Ball and Angela Griffin.

She said, “I begin filming Mount Pleasant for TV alongside Pauline Collins [Sue] in Manchester soon.” Read more & comment »

June Brown is of course a legend in her EastEnders role as Dot Cotton, however, in an interview with TV Biz this week, she’s revealed that in her younger days, she’d wanted to become a doctor!

86 year old June, who joined the cast of EastEnders in its first series back in 1985, said, “In my early days I might have liked to have done something with medicine.

“I think I would have quite liked to have been a doctor. But I decided not to stick with it because of the long training.”

She added, “I wouldn’t have had the confidence to trust myself as a doctor… Read more & comment »