The "Weekly" Show with Jon Stewart #More4 #Fail

As a political geek one of my secret passions, though I guess not now, is to sit down at 8:30 to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on More4. It's on late enough that if I am in on the evening I will have caught my daily news fix, or if I've done a little campaigning I can often fit in in just after I've finished, then do the news junkie bit.

Rumours that all Americans don't get sarcasm and satire are quickly dispensed by watching this show. The fact it is on Daily means that it covers a lot of ground to fill its slot. Of course some of it is better satirically than other parts of it, but all of it makes you sit up and think.

Therefore this morning when someone pointed out this Guardian story that instead of the four nights of the The Daily Show Tues to Friday with the round up The Daily Show: Global Edition on Monday, we were being restricted to a diet of just the latter I was upset. The reason being that they wanted to schedule more high end American programming. So I wrote the following to Channel 4.

I understand from this morning's Guardian that the Channel is to cut our daily doses of the high-end American satirical take on politics down to the once weekly highlight package the Global Edition.

I'm rather disappointed at this decision as this is the one show I tend to come home to sit down and watch either before or between catching up on the rolling news channels. The Global Edition while invariably picking up what the US editors believe to be the highlights often miss out some of the things that I personally enjoy from the shows through the week. Some of the stuff that has been missed out often leads me to looking more in depth at some of the actual news coverage of that item, because it is often lacking from the UK centric news that is available most readily.

I would ask you please to reconsider this decision.

I got a curtesy email saying someone would get back to me within 7 days. I thought that isn't isn't going to happen, but then I returned from lunch to find this:

Dear Mr Glenn,

Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries regarding THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART.

Thank you for your e-mail.  We are sorry to read that you are disappointed about More4's decision to discontinue showing The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, however, you will still be able to view The Daily Show Global edition every Monday night from the new year.

Please be assured your complaint has been logged and noted for the information of those responsible for our programming.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate all feedback from our viewers; complimentary or otherwise.

Regards,

Grace Dawson
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries

Please note that while my initial email did acknowledge the Global Edition I said that in my opinion it was not enough. The Global Edition does tend to emphasis the world news featured more in the week and miss out a lot of the localised American stuff, but often this content is what makes me dig deeper, I'm that sort of creature. Curiosity doesn't kill this cat, it's what I thrive on.

Clearly I have merely got a standard response from somebody trying to clear their inbox before they leave for Christmas. Sadly it failed to address the point I was making. People who take the line that they 'appreciate all feedback from our viewers; complimentary or otherwise', should really learn to listen to that rather than regurgitate standard responses because the name of a programme or product crops up in the right box.

The Fosters* Edinburgh Comedy Awards Shortlistees

The five names of the shortlisted comedians for the 2010 Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards have been announces. They are (clockwise from top left):

• Sarah Millican - who was the 2008 Best Newcomer
  
• Bo Burnham - who started doing his comedic songs on YouTube (he's only turned 20 in the last week)
  
• Greg Davies - Who plays Mr Gilbert, head of sixth form, in the Inbetweeners
  
• Josie Long - won the BBC Young Comedy Award at the tender age of 17
  
• Russel Kane - who recently pointed out there were too many Russel's in comedy

Here's a little glimpse of each of them in action.













* Others lagers (and for that matter real ales) are also available.

Lib Dems in the Thick of It

One of the consequences of the coalition Government has been some hasty casting for the next series of The Thick of It.

We'd already been introduced to the Shadow Minister Peter Mannion in the 2007 Specials and his team, and saw more of them in Series three earlier this year, with the opposition sensing they were on the edge of victory and poor Malcolm Tucker the Government spin doctor on the verge of a nervous breakdown. However, as creator Armando Iannucci has admitted there was no reference to the third party and therefore some hasty casting has been done.

I expect from intra-Department tension will spring from the Secretary and Minister of State being from separate parties with different ethos and ideas. After all there is nothing like a bit of tension to spark off comedy. Good for comedy no doubt would be to have someone the anti-thesis of Mannion who may even have the senior role in Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship especially if they are tasked with a referendum on voting reform possibly within the remit.

Comedian Jason Wood Dies Aged 38

A few years back I caught Jason Wood at the Pleasance during the Edinburgh festival. It was a very enjoyable night but sadly one that none of us will ever live through again as the 38 Comedian, who was also the first person to ever be voted off Strictly Come Dancing, died in his sleep on Saturday.

For those who did see him or those who didn't here he is at what he did best; making us laugh.



And this his 2007 showreel.



Jason Wood 1972-2010

In Response to Helen Duffett - The News Rave

Helen Duffett has just posted some classic news themes. But ended with saying that her nine-year-old was raving away to the current BBC News theme instead.

Of course she is not the first person to have considered that. This is not a Troll just a part of one.



Of course there is also the 1992 Election theme, but hang on there is also someone making a bit of an impression. Plus Dimbleby showing the danger of exit polls. This was one election night that it wasn't as called at 10 pm, indeed a good example of the tension and drama of counting on the night.

And Now....

.....for Something Completely Different.

Yes a whole 2 weeks and 2 days after the world first saw me it saw a young upstart called Monty Python. Here are some of my memorable Python Moments a little off the from the usual ones.

First a match of International Philosphy Germany v Greece.



This one is incredibly cheesey.



And in conclusion the World's funniest joke which first aired 40 years ago today.

Fringe Review: Marc Hogan -Actions Speak Louder than Birds #edfringe

Cabaret Bar, Zoo Southside 19:15

So what makes a corporate speaker become a stand up at the Fringe?

The influence of Dave Gorman? No.

Copious amounts of alcohol and an open mike? Well possibly but not in this case.

A bet for £1? Could be!

Yeah Marc Hogan himself persuaded me in the Fringe Box Office queue to go and see his show. He wasn't speaking directly to me but to he people stood behind me. But it was enough for me, even if a PowerPoint presentation based comedy show is a bit of a busman's holiday. But hey I like Dave Gorman and the guy in the queue was funny.

Funny he remained. He basically did a presentation on how to give a presentation, but was self-deprecating on the number of jokes included. They were not merely confined as his 'agenda' stated to the slot between 19:50- 19:55. Along the way we learnt about safer sex, and how cuddling Koala's may not be be best idea to remain STD free, as well as an interesting way to determine Good and Evil from the side of their entrance. The latter brought up some interesting observations. Who'd have thought it of Mary Poppins?

But as Marc said when taking the best last year a pound was a lot of money. However, with the credit crunch maybe hitting on corporate luxuries maybe corporate presentations may dry up, to a sigh of relieve from many desk jockeys. However, even with the box office's share of the takings taken out I'm sure that the original £1 bet is the least of Marc's financial rewards for this show, though there were still a few empty seats last night so I suspect tickets are still available, so get along and have a right old laugh.

UPDATE: I found through backlinks that Marc has a blog about his endeavour, and has linked to this blog. If I tell him that I was the person he looked at to his extreme right on Saturday he will know just why he got such a 'good' review off me.