I'd not heard of this, but it's filming this month. How odd:

PLAYING SHOP

Playing Shop is a new sitcom written by and starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb (Peep Show).

They play Eric and Jamie, two of the most dynamic, practical and driven men ever to try and run a business out of a garden shed. Convinced that everyone else involved in commerce are idiots, they think that this insight alone will make them millionaires.

To such men, redundancy is just an opportunity - an opportunity to blow all their money on two massive trips to Rymans. Armed with new computers, state-of-the-art stationery and a blogger's contempt for the rest of mankind, all they have to do is sit back and wait for greatness to be thrust upon them. Oh and somehow earn enough money to keep themselves in lager and snacks.

They're up a creek basically, although they have got a paddle - they're just not sure whether they can be bothered to use it. Welcome to the epic struggle of two men attempting to make a fast buck without getting up before eleven or ever missing "Bargain Hunt".

If you would like to join us for this brand new comedy on Saturday 20th December at Teddington Studios, then apply now!

Anyone else think Robert Webb was really good on Buzzcocks last night, by the way?

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Just a little note that Joost, those exciting Internet TV people, now have the first two series of Peep Show, as well as a few other Channel 4 shows like Shameless.

The good things about this is:

1. It's completely free, unlike iTunes or DVDs
2. You don't need to install any software any more, since it runs in any browser than can play Flash video

Basically, all you need is a broadband connection and a web browser. Yey.

PS When did they change the theme tune on Peep Show or is is a licensing problem that stops them from using the proper tune?

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Film

• Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro to work on mafia movie I Heard You Paint Houses
• Hayden Christensen signs three-picture deal with Screen Gems

Theatre

• Lenny Henry to play Othello

Music

• Dirty Pretty Things to split

British TV

• Janice Hadlow to be the new controller of BBC2
• Female Peep Show spin-off planned
• Five picks up rights to The Mentalist

US TV

• Dexter premiere gets 1.2m viewers
• Fox picks up Fringe for a full season
• Partridge Family to be remade by NBC
• Chuck and Life ratings awful

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Read other posts about: Dexter, Peep Show

Doctor Who

• Sarah Jane ratings

Film

• Jack Black to star in Bourne Identity spoof
• Angel Heart remake planned
• Brett Ratner making God of War
• Clips from the Iron Man DVD
• Michael Sheen joins Samuel L Jackson in Unthinkable

British TV

• Welsh indie to make comedy for ITV
• ITV to axe 20% of its workforce

US TV

• The CW plans Batman and Robin prequel, The Graysons
• HBO to make 1970s pro wrestling drama
• Clips from Kath & Kim
• Fox close to killing Sarah Connor
• Peep Show gets a pilot

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Read other posts about: Jason Bourne, Peep Show, The Sarah Jane Adventures

Okay, I've already reviewed this. I know. But my wife wanted to see it, and she was gutted when we couldn't use the free tickets Fat Pig's PR guy offered us – two hours before the performance was due to start, mind – so I thought I'd treat her to dinner and the theatre yesterday. Cos I'm nice.

The thing about both movies and TV shows, though, is that they're always the same. Once recorded, they're immutable. But theatre changes every night. The actors can improve or vary their performance, be tired one night and turn in a dodgy performance, get bored, or ad lib, for example. Mistakes can be fixed – or new ones can turn up.

So two weeks on, is Fat Pig better or worse?

Continue reading "Review: Fat Pig (again)"

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show

Today's biggish news is that famed director and writer Jonathan Miller has decided to have a go at West End casting practices - and in particular the casting of David Tennant (and Jude Law) in Hamlet.

Apparently, he's been trying to get his no-star version of Hamlet into the West End but can't, even though he reckons the performances are bound to be better than either Tennant's or Law's.

So the question for you, my friends, is does he have a point? Or do West End producers have a point?

For my own part, I'm very easily swayed by some big film or TV names into turning up at a theatre when I otherwise wouldn't: my most recent theatre attendances (off the top of my head) have included Fat Pig (Joanna Page, Robert Webb, Kris Marshall, Ella Smith), Art (bloke off Dalziel and Pascoe, Sean Hughes and Alistair McGowen if I recall correctly), A Few Good Men (with Rob Lowe and John Barrowman), The Master Builder (Patrick Stewart and Kelly Reilly), Patrick Stewart's one-man version of A Christmas Carol, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria, Kelly Reilly).

That's money in the pockets of theatres that they otherwise wouldn't have had with less well-known casts. And the West End isn't exactly cheap.

More to the point, are celebs possibly the best choices? Maybe they're famous because they have talent. David Tennant isn't exactly unknown in theatre.

In fact, is Miller just grumpy because he couldn't get his own production off the ground? Why have a go at a version of Hamlet that hasn't even started performing? 

Fat Pig is the most obvious piece of TV celeb casting at the moment, so why not pick on it? Is it because, way back in 2002, he cast the RADA-trained Joanna Page in his production of Camera Obscura at the Almeida (to generally excellent reviews), and so wouldn't have had much of a leg to stand on?

What do you think? Are good actors being overlooked? Are they being overlooked in favour of better, more famous actors? Or is celeb casting a necessary evil in a competitive market?

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Studio 60, The West Wing, Torchwood

Where: Trafalgar Studios, Studio 1
When: 7.30pm Mondays–Saturdays, 2.30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
How long: Two hours with a 15 minute interval
How much: £25-£45 (+ £1 restoration levy)
Tickets from: 0870 060 6632 or www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios

My free tickets never arrived. Gosh. How can that be after all my publicity work? Maybe they got lost in the post.

Turns out the Fates wanted me to see it anyway.

You see, I was supposed to be going out to see a movie last night with my sister. But last week, she emails me. There's been a terrible mix-up with a theatre booking and she's ended up with matinee tickets which she can't use. But the box office has been able to sort it out and instead get her tickets for the night we were supposed to be going to the movie – do I mind seeing Fat Pig?

Oh.

Fat Pig starring Robert Webb (Peep Show), Kris Marshall (My Family), Ella Smith (Cape Wrath/Meadowlands) and Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey)?

Well, it would be a shame for them to go to waste…

Continue reading "Review: Fat Pig"

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show

Film

• Tom Cruise to play US president in Phillip Noyce's 28th Amendment?
• Michael Fassbender to play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
• George Clooney to stare at goats

Commercials

• Rob Lowe latest star of Orange cinema ads

British TV

• ITV buys Scandi indie Silverback for £14m
• Julie Walters playing Mary Whitehouse for BBC2
• Peep Show gets sixth series
• Kangaroo/SeeSaw planning Autumn roll-out

US TV

• Fox shows to benefit from fewer ads
• Kelly Preston joins Suburban Shootout, Adam Goldberg joins The Unusuals
• Robert Carlyle to play Jack Bauer's mentor in Africa in 24 prequel
• Six Feet Under stalker to play House private eye?
• Mutant X alum to replace Jorja Fox on CSI
• New interns for Scrubs
• Green Arrow back on Smallville?

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Read other posts about: 24, CSI, House, Peep Show, Scrubs, Smallville

Anna's mentioned it, I've mentioned it in passing, but Fat Pig's PR company has just asked me very nicely to point out that performances of Fat Pig are starting on May 16th. And since it stars Robert Webb (of Mitchell and Webb, Peep Show and those Apple ads), Kris Marshall (My Family, My Life in Film and those BT adverts), Ella Smith (Meadowlands/Cape Wrath) and blog-favourite Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey), why not?

Apparently, they would be really appreciative, as would everyone else involved with the show (probably). Do you reckon that means free tickets? And could my editorial independence be even more compromised if it does?

KRIS MARSHALL & JOANNA PAGE, ELLA SMITH & ROBERT WEBB TO STAR IN THE UK PREMIERE OF THE COMEDY “FAT PIG”
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY NEIL LaBUTE
OPENING AT THE TRAFALGAR STUDIOS IN LONDON ON TUESDAY 27 MAY WITH PERFORMANCES STARTING ON 16 MAY

Kris Marshall will star as ‘Carter’, Joanna Page as ‘Jeannie’, Ella Smith as ‘Helen’ and Robert Webb as ‘Tom’ in the UK premiere of Neil LaBute’s comedy “FAT PIG”, which will open at the Trafalgar Studios in London on Tuesday 27 May, following previews from 16 May. The limited season will finish on 6 September.

Robert Webb is one half of the duo ‘Mitchell & Webb’, who are one of the most popular comic acts in the country and who are behind hit television shows, such as “Peep Show” and “That Mitchell & Webb Look”. Kris Marshall was recently on the West End stage with Billie Piper in ‘Treats’ and his television credits include starring as ‘Nick’ in “My Family”; his film credits include “Death at a Funeral”, “The Merchant of Venice” and playing ‘Colin’ in “Love Actually”. Joanna Page stars as ‘Stacey’ in the BBC comedy series “Gavin and Stacey” and can also currently be seen in “Love Soup”; her film credits include “Gideon’s Daughter” and starring in “Love Actually” and she was recently seen with Ian McKellen in the Old Vic stage production of “Alladin”. Ella Smith was a regular character in the television drama series “Cape Wrath” and has recently starred opposite Kris Marshall in the BBC drama “Sold”.

“FAT PIG” will be directed by its author Neil LaBute.

When Tom first meets Helen there is an instant connection, but it's not exactly love at first sight... Helen is a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be plus-sized - and then some - and it’s only so long before the insults start to fly from Tom's shallow yet shockingly funny office buddies. Television's hottest young comedians star in this searing, funny and ultimately touching love story.

“FAT PIG” in London will be produced by Howard Panter for Ambassador Theatre Group and Broadway producer Barry Weissler, responsible for the New York and London hit musical “Chicago”.

Performances at the Trafalgar Studios will be at 7.30pm on Mondays – Saturdays, with 2.30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays. Tickets priced from £25-£45, with previews priced at £30 and day seats at £25, are available from the Trafalgar Studios Box Office on 0870 060 6632 or online at www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios.

There's a web site, too.

Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show

Doctor Who

• More on the Torchwood radio episode

Film

• Jordan to be the new Elvira?
• Lost's Emilie De Ravin to appear in Michael Mann's Public Enemies
• Trilogy for Iron Man?
• Mike Judge to direct Jason Bateman in Extract

Events

• Highlights of the Welsh BAFTAs

British TV

• ITV Prisoner remake still happening. Any minute now...
• Peep Show to run forever?
• Richard Hammond's C4 pilot not picked up
• Axe taken to cast of Coronation Street

US TV

• Rachael Leigh Cook to appear in Psych
• Hilary Duff to star in 90210 spin-off?
• NBC staying quiet about Scrubs' move to ABC
• Angela Bassett to be ER regular next season
• Jay Mohr and Jaime King to star in CBS comedy pilot

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Read other posts about: Lost, Peep Show, Scrubs, The Prisoner, Torchwood