Latest news with #JoBrand
Scotsman
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 Hot Tickets: Here are 31 stars of Live at the Apollo with shows you can see this August
August is fast approaching which means it's time to scour the Edinbugh Festival Fringe programme for the best shows to see. The physical programme was launched earlier this month, with 3,352 show across 265 venues, and some are already selling out. It can be a fairly daunting prospect to narrow those down when organising your Fringe . It's always nice to take a chance on something, hoping to be the first to see a hot new act - but sometimes it's just nice to see somebody familiar from television . Since 2004 the BBC's Live at the Apollo has been one of the most popular small screen showcases for standup comedians - acting as a rite of passage for those on their way to fame and fortune. Those appearing on early episodes included the likes of Jo Brand, Lee Mack, Jimmy Carr, Jason Manford, Russell Howard, Sean Lock and Dara Ó Briain. And, while it's not watched by as many people as in its heyday - when everybody in Britain seemed to know Rhod Gilbert's 'lost luggage' routine - it's still seen to be one of the most prestigious TV bookings for both up-and-coming and established comics. Here are 31 who have made the grade and are appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. You can buy tickets for all the shows here. 1 . Dan Tiernan: All In "Following two sold-out, award-nominated years at the Fringe, Dan's back and he's giving you everything he's got. No bluffing." Money Barrel, July 28-August 24. | Contributed Photo Sales 2 . Andy Parsons: Please #@!$ Off to Mars "Life is hard – come and have a laugh about it." Pleasance Courtyard, July 30-August 10. | Contributed Photo Sales 3 . David O'Doherty: Highway to the David Zone "A new opus from the hairy Enya, the Ryanair Bublé, the nine-volt battery-powered Beethoven. Talking, songs, talking during songs, talking while walking around – it's got the lot." Assembly George Square, July 30-August 2. | Contributed Photo Sales 4 . Jonny Pelham: Is It Me? "Award-winning comedian Jonny Pelham is newly single, he's moved to London and is being encouraged by the government to take speed everyday. Is It Me? is a hilarious new stand-up show looking at what it means to be diagnosed as 'neurodiverse,' what constitutes normality and how to find happiness in a world that's falling apart." Monkey Barrel, July 28-August 25. | Contributed Photo Sales
Scottish Sun
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Leftie comics like Jo Brand on new ITV DNA show are a special horror – pillars of woke masquerading as ‘alternative'
Comment ALLY ROSS Leftie comics like Jo Brand on new ITV DNA show are a special horror – pillars of woke masquerading as 'alternative' Read on for Ally's thoughts on when Love Island reached the point of no return and what made Soccer Aid's match truly amazing
The Irish Sun
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Leftie comics like Jo Brand on new ITV DNA show are a special horror – pillars of woke masquerading as ‘alternative'
TELEVISION is filled with all sorts of human horrors. In my experience, the worst of the lot, though, are comedians, who tend to be nasty, morose, selfish, short- tempered, needy, back-biting, point-scoring egomaniacs. 6 Comics Jo Brand and Julian Clary discover their ancestry on DNA Journey Credit: ITV 6 The pair pictured above on DNA Journey, an ITV rip-off which operates in much the same way as BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are Credit: ITV There are some honourable exceptions, obviously. The real nightmares, however, are the left-wing stand-ups who still see themselves as 'alternative' but are actually pillars of TV's woke, middle-class establishment and confuse their foul-mouthed political tirades and posturing with A) Compassion and B) Comedy. Jo Brand and Julian Clary are hardly the worst of them, but they'll have to do because they've just entered the wow zone on DNA Journey, an ITV rip-off which operates in much the same way as BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? Only significant differences, in fact, are the ITV celebs appear in tandem and finish with an underwhelming reveal where a sweet, old woman from County Down called Gabrielle Rush suddenly had to come to terms with the news she was Jo Brand's second cousin (not nearly enough times removed). Poverty porn Before we arrived at that dead end, though, the pair had to lay out their dreams for the Journey with the phrase 'shooting for the moon' not even coming close to covering this pair's fantasies. Because his great-grandfather was Irish, 'where all the comedy comes from,' Julian hoped he might be related to Oscar Wilde, while Jo wanted to find someone caring as she fancies herself as 'one of those people that wants to make things better for people'. Unless, of course, you're one of those people Jo disagrees with politically, when she wants to spray you with battery acid. In the event? Conveniently, Julian did indeed discover a distant ancestor had once taken a picture of Oscar Wilde, and he also learned he had a great grandfather (x2) who, according to a London historian, 'was a policeman who'd served under Inspector Rimmer and Inspector Lecoq.' Here they also established a link to Gavin & Stacey star Alison Steadman breaks down in tears at life-changing discovery on DNA Journey For the truth is, of course, if they are desperate enough, ancestral shows can link everyone who lived in late 19th-century London to Jack the Ripper, just as lazily as they can link almost everyone with an Irish relative to the potato famine. In Jo's case, though, it was another of their obsessions. Poverty porn. Her great-grandfather, it transpired, had risen from the depths of a cholera-infested London hellhole to become a first-class dining car attendant on the railways, who rose to 'the very top of his profession'. A triumph of the human spirit that reminded Jo of someone else. Any guesses? 'I always thought that a bit about myself and comedy, because the reality was an Oxbridge education was more of a ticket to get on at the BBC. I had to do it all by myself.' You can see why a middle-class, home counties, grammar school girl like Jo wants to play the prole, obviously. In all of human history, though, there can't be many people as lucky and privileged as Jo Brand and Julian Clary, who may well have been inconvenienced by the fact they weren't nearly as funny as Oxbridge boys like Not The Nine O'Clock News and Python, at the start of their careers, but quickly became part of comedy's new right-on establishment and have both screwed a 40-year living out of TV on little more than innuendo and mildly amusing observations about cake. There's no chance of getting rid of them now either. They're fixtures. So I hope TV takes a slightly more ruthless approach with genealogy shows, which have been nothing but a series of let-downs since WDYTYA discovered in 2016 that Danny Dyer was heir to the throne, and rarely leave you with anything more than one fact you'll remember beyond the closing credits, as was demonstrated last night. 'Analysis has shown Jo Brand is 37 per cent Irish.' And still 63 per cent stout. ISLE SAY! LOVE Island, series 12: Where it all went wrong. Day one. First arrival, Meg: 'What do you think I do?' Shakira: 'You're too glamorous to do a nine-to-five job. It's something interesting.' Meg: 'I do payroll.' And from that moment onwards, it was all downhill. GAME'S UP FOR PADDY 6 Something truly amazing happened during Soccer Aid's match on Sunday night Credit: Shutterstock Editorial AFTER a month of spin-off shows and Come the big day, however, something strange happened. England manager Tyson Fury started swearing a lot, for starters. Then, with the World XI trailing 3-0, Carlos Tevez suddenly started playing like the Golden Boot was at stake while the great Before you knew it, the score was 4-4 and the game was heading to the time-lengthening penalty shoot-out sponsors Unicef had probably been craving all night. Right up until the moment that foghorning oaf Big Zuu barrelled in from nowhere to stick an 83rd minute winner inside England goalkeeper Paddy McGuinness's near post. At which point, Zuu set off on the wildest goal celebrations since Marco Tardelli's 'Scream for Italy' at the 1982 World Cup final and I could contain myself no longer and laughed until it nearly hurt. Throughout it all, of course, commentator Sam Matterface and the other ITV worthies insisted the 'most important and amazing' thing here was the £15million raised for charity, but they couldn't have been much more wrong. Via trial and a lot of funny errors, Soccer Aid had actually discovered something Paddy McGuinness does more disastrously than host A Question Of Sport. And that's truly amazing. SPEAKING entirely for herself at the Queen's Club tennis tournament, BBC's UNEXPECTED MORONS IN THE BAGGING AREA THE Finish Line, Paul: 'Ozzy Osbourne.' Tipping Point, Ben Shephard: 'Beginning in 1756, in what year did the Seven Years War end?' Pete: '1649.' And Tipping Point for Soccer Aid, Ben Shephard: 'Billy and Nanny are names commonly given to the adult male and female of which farm animal?' Chris Hughes: 'Pig.' RANDOM TV IRRITATIONS 6 Love Island reached the point of no return when Irish Megan, announced 'I need to shave my minge' THE parents of Love Island's ITN's Robert Peston trying to dress like a Mafia hitman at the G7 summit. EastEnders expecting the sort of herograms for Joel's toxic masculinity storyline it'll only ever get when it has the balls to do a Pakistani grooming gang plot (ie. never). And Love Island reaching the point of no return , on Saturday night's show, when Irish Megan, announced 'I need to shave my minge,' which was the cue for me to floss my wisdom teeth and switch off for ever. TV GOLD 6 Tom Cullen as John Palmer produced a memorable performance on BBC One drama The Gold Credit: BBC THE Contestant episode of BBC4's Storyville detailing the exact moment TV lost its conscience forever. Matthew Goode's starring role as DCI Carl Morck on Netflix's Dept Q. Broadcasting hero Nick Ferrari eating the Government's Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, for breakfast, on LBC. Channel 4's Night Coppers remaining eternally good-humoured in the face of feral Britain. And Neil Forsyth's The Gold, on BBC One, producing memorable performances from Joshua McGuire (Douglas Baxter), Tom Cullen, (John Palmer) and Sam Spruell as Charlie Miller who, contrary to every report I've seen, wasn't a made-up character at all but a nom de plume for a very real and very terrifying South London gangster called John Fleming. THE Chase, Bradley Walsh: ' is a website mainly dedicated to what football . . .' Bzzzz, Gary Neville? 'Team?' Oh. LOOKALIKE OF THE WEEK 6 MI5's Ken McCallum, left, Sue Perkins, right Credit: Supplied THIS week's winner is MI5's Partick Thistle-supporting Director General Ken McCallum and Sue Perkins. Emailed in by Francis Harvey. MEG-A STATEMENT LOVE Island, the lovably self-effacing Megan Moore: 'No one from my office is fit, no one from my gym is fit, no one from my area is fit. Why do you think I'm here?' Because no one from your office, gym or area will talk to you? GREAT SPORTING INSIGHTS PAUL MERSON: 'The top four will be Liverpool, Sue Smith: 'Sometimes you don't remember memories.' And Rio Ferdinand: 'When things get uncomfortable (Compiled by Graham Wray) CLEAN SLATE AFTER a 20-year hiatus, a dishevelled-looking Zoe Slater returned to EastEnders, this week, to try to fill in the missing decades with Stacey. 'I've done something so bad you wouldn't forgive me.' 'What have you done that's so bad?' Not seen The Bionic Woman then?
The Sun
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Leftie comics like Jo Brand on new ITV DNA show are a special horror – pillars of woke masquerading as ‘alternative'
TELEVISION is filled with all sorts of human horrors. In my experience, the worst of the lot, though, are comedians, who tend to be nasty, morose, selfish, short- tempered, needy, back-biting, point-scoring egomaniacs. 6 6 There are some honourable exceptions, obviously. The real nightmares, however, are the left-wing stand-ups who still see themselves as 'alternative' but are actually pillars of TV 's woke, middle-class establishment and confuse their foul-mouthed political tirades and posturing with A) Compassion and B) Comedy. Jo Brand and Julian Clary are hardly the worst of them, but they'll have to do because they've just entered the wow zone on DNA Journey, an ITV rip-off which operates in much the same way as BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? Only significant differences, in fact, are the ITV celebs appear in tandem and finish with an underwhelming reveal where a sweet, old woman from County Down called Gabrielle Rush suddenly had to come to terms with the news she was Jo Brand's second cousin (not nearly enough times removed). Poverty porn Before we arrived at that dead end, though, the pair had to lay out their dreams for the Journey with the phrase 'shooting for the moon' not even coming close to covering this pair's fantasies. Because his great-grandfather was Irish, 'where all the comedy comes from,' Julian hoped he might be related to Oscar Wilde, while Jo wanted to find someone caring as she fancies herself as 'one of those people that wants to make things better for people'. Unless, of course, you're one of those people Jo disagrees with politically, when she wants to spray you with battery acid. In the event? Conveniently, Julian did indeed discover a distant ancestor had once taken a picture of Oscar Wilde, and he also learned he had a great grandfather (x2) who, according to a London historian, 'was a policeman who'd served under Inspector Rimmer and Inspector Lecoq.' Here they also established a link to Jack the Ripper (Julian's GGx2 hadn't nicked him) that was almost as vague as the one they established to the serial killer during Alex Brooker's DNA Journey and Gemma Collins' Who Do You Think You Are? Gavin & Stacey star Alison Steadman breaks down in tears at life-changing discovery on DNA Journey For the truth is, of course, if they are desperate enough, ancestral shows can link everyone who lived in late 19th-century London to Jack the Ripper, just as lazily as they can link almost everyone with an Irish relative to the potato famine. In Jo's case, though, it was another of their obsessions. Poverty porn. Her great-grandfather, it transpired, had risen from the depths of a cholera-infested London hellhole to become a first-class dining car attendant on the railways, who rose to 'the very top of his profession'. A triumph of the human spirit that reminded Jo of someone else. Any guesses? 'I always thought that a bit about myself and comedy, because the reality was an Oxbridge education was more of a ticket to get on at the BBC. I had to do it all by myself.' You can see why a middle-class, home counties, grammar school girl like Jo wants to play the prole, obviously. In all of human history, though, there can't be many people as lucky and privileged as Jo Brand and Julian Clary, who may well have been inconvenienced by the fact they weren't nearly as funny as Oxbridge boys like Not The Nine O'Clock News and Python, at the start of their careers, but quickly became part of comedy's new right-on establishment and have both screwed a 40-year living out of TV on little more than innuendo and mildly amusing observations about cake. There's no chance of getting rid of them now either. They're fixtures. So I hope TV takes a slightly more ruthless approach with genealogy shows, which have been nothing but a series of let-downs since WDYTYA discovered in 2016 that Danny Dyer was heir to the throne, and rarely leave you with anything more than one fact you'll remember beyond the closing credits, as was demonstrated last night. 'Analysis has shown Jo Brand is 37 per cent Irish.' And still 63 per cent stout. GAME'S UP FOR PADDY 6 AFTER a month of spin-off shows and Sam Thompson 's bellowing theatrics, I'd been fully expecting to hate every moment of Soccer Aid 's England versus a World XI charity game, on Sunday night. Come the big day, however, something strange happened. England manager Tyson Fury started swearing a lot, for starters. Then, with the World XI trailing 3-0, Carlos Tevez suddenly started playing like the Golden Boot was at stake while the great Leonardo Bonucci forgot himself entirely and nearly put Lioness Steph Houghton in traction with the most brutally executed sliding tackle you've seen all season. Before you knew it, the score was 4-4 and the game was heading to the time-lengthening penalty shoot-out sponsors Unicef had probably been craving all night. Right up until the moment that foghorning oaf Big Zuu barrelled in from nowhere to stick an 83rd minute winner inside England goalkeeper Paddy McGuinness 's near post. At which point, Zuu set off on the wildest goal celebrations since Marco Tardelli's 'Scream for Italy' at the 1982 World Cup final and I could contain myself no longer and laughed until it nearly hurt. Throughout it all, of course, commentator Sam Matterface and the other ITV worthies insisted the 'most important and amazing' thing here was the £15million raised for charity, but they couldn't have been much more wrong. Via trial and a lot of funny errors, Soccer Aid had actually discovered something Paddy McGuinness does more disastrously than host A Question Of Sport. And that's truly amazing. SPEAKING entirely for herself at the Queen's Club tennis tournament, BBC's Anne Keothavong: 'You know what you're going to get with Tatjana Maria, low balls below the knees and you've got to get under them.' UNEXPECTED MORONS IN THE BAGGING AREA THE Finish Line, Roman Kemp: 'Got To Be Certain was an Eighties hit for which Aussie pop star?' Paul: ' Ozzy Osbourne. ' Tipping Point, Ben Shephard: 'Beginning in 1756, in what year did the Seven Years War end?' Pete: '1649.' And Tipping Point for Soccer Aid, Ben Shephard: 'Billy and Nanny are names commonly given to the adult male and female of which farm animal?' Chris Hughes: 'Pig.' RANDOM TV IRRITATIONS THE parents of Love Island's Blu naming their son after a toilet freshener. ITN's Robert Peston trying to dress like a Mafia hitman at the G7 summit. EastEnders expecting the sort of herograms for Joel's toxic masculinity storyline it'll only ever get when it has the balls to do a Pakistani grooming gang plot (ie. never). And Love Island reaching the point of no return, on Saturday night's show, when Irish Megan, announced 'I need to shave my minge,' which was the cue for me to floss my wisdom teeth and switch off for ever. TV GOLD 6 THE Contestant episode of BBC4's Storyville detailing the exact moment TV lost its conscience forever. Matthew Goode's starring role as DCI Carl Morck on Netflix's Dept Q. Broadcasting hero Nick Ferrari eating the Government's Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, for breakfast, on LBC. Channel 4 's Night Coppers remaining eternally good-humoured in the face of feral Britain. And Neil Forsyth's The Gold, on BBC One, producing memorable performances from Joshua McGuire (Douglas Baxter), Tom Cullen, (John Palmer) and Sam Spruell as Charlie Miller who, contrary to every report I've seen, wasn't a made-up character at all but a nom de plume for a very real and very terrifying South London gangster called John Fleming. THE Chase, Bradley Walsh: ' is a website mainly dedicated to what football. . .' 'Team?' Oh. LOOKALIKE OF THE WEEK 6 THIS week's winner is MI5's Partick Thistle-supporting Director General Ken McCallum and Sue Perkins. Emailed in by Francis Harvey. PAUL MERSON: 'The top four will be Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle and Forest.' Sue Smith: 'Sometimes you don't remember memories.' And Rio Ferdinand: 'When things get uncomfortable Inter Milan are always comfortable.' (Compiled by Graham Wray)
BBC News
03-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Maldon Mud Race to be competed by hundreds of people in Essex
Hundreds of competitors are preparing to put mud, sweat and tears into slogging their way across a boggy Maldon Mud Race will take place across a 440m (1,443ft) stretch of the River Chelmer at low tide on Brian Farrington said one woman previously remarked the gruelling challenge in Essex was "harder than child birth".With the fundraiser marking its 51st year, here is what racers, supporters and mud enthusiasts can expect. What is the Maldon Mud Race? First staged in 1973, the mud race has become synonymous with the maritime and market town of was born out of a dare made to the landlord of the Queen's Head pub, on Hythe had to serve a meal on the saltings, a strip of land in the river that only appears at low tide, dressed in a dinner was the excitement about the antics, the next year a bar was placed on the saltings, which 20 people waded over to for a pint. The event took place at the end of December each year, until weather concerns in 2010 saw it moved to spring weather - and an appearance from TV comic Jo Brand - helped its popularity and the switch was made a permanent one from then race will be less boozy, but certainly not less strenuous for those fighting to not get stuck in the mud near the Promenade from across the UK and abroad brave the bog by crossing the river, running along a stretch of it and then returning back across the record time for clamouring through the sludge? An inspired two minutes and 48 seconds, run by Jason the other end of the spectrum, some determined entrants have taken up to 35 minutes to cross the finish year's winner, Peter Carlsson, was just seven seconds off topping the fastest time while representing nearby school Plume and 356 others were watched by about 20,000 people, who soaked up the atmosphere from the safety of the total, £40,000 was raised for local charities. What is happening this year? The event is due to run from 10:00 to 17:00 BST on Sunday, with the race starting at about 13:00, subject to the entrants have to be aged 16 or are again expecting 20,000 visitors to line the quay and watch race chairman Brian Farrington told the BBC he was excited for the event's warned this year's competitors that the final climb up the river bank was "exhausting".The 78-year-old said: "A lot of people think it's all easy because it's not a long distance."But one woman last year told me it was harder than child birth."BBC Essex is hosting live entertainment from the main stage, with live inserts into its radio programme presenters Akylah Rodriguez and Jodie Halford have also enlisted themselves to take on the mud. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
