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Derek Trucks, Charles Lloyd and the Language of Improvisation...

Beyond poking fun at the nationalistic stereotypes and hang-ups of England, Sweden, and the U.S.A., there's not much of substance to 7 Days in Hell, HBO Sports' lean, often uproarious mockumentary, based on a fictional tennis rivalry that ended in a seven-round face-off at Wimbledon in 2001. And frankly, it's all the better for not trying to feign anything like political meaningfulness, opting rather to focus on the detail of the HBO Sports house-style for documentaries, and a variety of physical and verbal guffaws. The fleet, lean 45-minute parody film, helmed by SNL segment director Jake Szymanski, follows the personal and professional histories of Aaron Williams (Andy Samberg) and Charles Lloyd Poole (Kit Harrington), two immensely different tennis players from opposing sides of the pond, and does so with a consistently inventive sense of imagery, and jokes upon jokes. [caption id="attachment_483341" align="alignright" width="350"] Image via HBO/caption] One of the simpler joys of...

It's Andy Samberg versus Kit Harrington in TV tennis mockumentary 7 Days In Hell. Here's a new trailer...

Anyone who only has a passing interest in the sport of tennis has probably thought 'just how ruddy long can this match go on for?' 

If that's your stance, Andy Samberg's new comedy 7 Days In Hell could be ideal viewing. It's a TV movie destined for HBO, where it will land in the USA on Saturday the 11th of July. The film chronicles an epic week-long tennis game between Samberg's Charles Lloyd Poole and Kit Harrington's Aaron Williams. 

Harrington's geek cred and our love for Brooklyn-99 aren't the only things drawing us to the project, either. Karen Gillan of Doctor Who and Guardians Of The Galaxy is also in the movie, as is Girls' Lena Dunham, and a lot of actual tennis celebrities.

Here's the trailer...

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Andy Samberg is setting aside his badge and picking up a racket. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star is set to play a "superstar tennis bad boy" in a new HBO comedy event focused on a seven-day Wimbledon showdown. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the one-off mockumentary, titled 7 Days in Hell, will find Samberg's character, Aaron Williams, squaring off with rival prodigy/"certified truck driver" Charles Lloyd Poole (Game of Thrones' Kit Harington) at Wimbledon 2004.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Rob Sheffield's Favorite 2013 TV

Rounding out the all-star cast will be Lena Dunham (Girls), Fred Armisen (Portlandia,...

Looks like it’s Brooklyn vs. bastard on the court at Wimbledon. EW has confirmed that Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) will play a pair of tennis rivals in a one-off HBO mockumentary about a seven-day match at Wimbledon. Titled 7 Days in Hell, the comedy will star Samberg as a superstar tennis “bad boy” Aaron Williams and Harington as Charles Lloyd Poole, a young prodigy.

The project is based on an idea by Samberg and Murray Miller, a writer and co-executive producer on Girls. Miller will write the script, with Jake Szymanski (Saturday Night Live) directing.

HBO is headed to Wimbledon. The premium cable network is teaming with Girls writer/co-ep Murray Miller and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg for 7 Days in Hell, a mockumentary send-up of professional tennis, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The one-off HBO Comedy Event is described as a sports mockumentary starring Samberg and Game of Thrones breakout Kit Harington as fierce tennis rivals in an epic, seven-day match at Wimbledon. Samberg will play Aaron Williams, a superstar tennis "bad boy," while Harington is set as Charles Lloyd Poole, an Andy Murray-type prodigy and certified

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Highly individual American drummer, bandleader and jazz visionary who toured with Lena Horne in the 1950s

A hundred years into its evolution, jazz incorporates ethnic and European classical instruments, drum machines and DJs spinning decks. A half-century or so ago, hardware habits were more cut and dried. A jazz big band had trumpets, trombones, saxes and a rhythm section. A small band had a rhythm section, a sax and trumpet, with maybe a guitar or a vibraphone. One that featured a (very quiet) guitarist, a flute or clarinet, a cellist, and a drummer who preferred mallets to sticks seemed like a strange beast in the jazz forest.

But the groups of the American drummer Chico Hamilton, who has died aged 92, did feature such instrumentation and, contrary to the jazz orthodoxies of the 1950s, they were for a time runaway successes. Hamilton led West Coast bands in that decade that came...