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Supacell is a British superhero series heading to Netflix in June from Rapman, and here’s the trailer.

While America generally has the monopoly on superhero films, Britain has had its fair share of caped crusaders over the years.

The most recent example is Emma Moran’s Extraordinary, which is now available to watch on Itvx. From 2009 to 2013, Howard Overman achieved huge success with five series of irreverent comedy drama Misfits. Drew Pearce, who went on to co-write Iron Man 3 with Shane Black, began his career writing the little seen superhero sitcom No Heroics in 2008.

Perhaps the biggest shame, though, is that the film adaptation of clasic 1970s cartoon Bananaman, which was voiced by Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, also known as The Goodies, never materialised, though a stage musical premiered at the Southwark Playhouse in 2017.

Netflix drama Supacell is the next to have a go, and...

Prepare for a trip down memory lane as Channel 5 presents “When 70s TV Goes Horribly Wrong,” airing this Thursday at 10:00 Pm. Narrated by the esteemed Dame Penelope Keith, the program offers a humorous and nostalgic look back at the not-so-perfect moments from 70s television that even the stars would rather forget.

Featuring iconic shows like ‘Fawlty Towers,’ ‘Jukebox Jury,’ ‘The Goodies,’ and ‘Question Time,’ viewers can anticipate a collection of hilarious and cringe-worthy moments that made 70s TV truly memorable. Dame Penelope Keith guides the audience through a delightful journey, shedding light on the mishaps, bloopers, and unexpected surprises that occurred behind the scenes.

For those who fondly remember the golden era of television or those curious about the entertaining mishaps of the past, “When 70s TV Goes Horribly Wrong” promises an evening of laughter and a unique perspective on the challenges faced by some of the most beloved shows of the time.

British actor Geoffrey Palmer, known for appearing in a large variety of stage, movie, and television roles over the past several decades, has sadly passed away. Having appeared in several episodes of Doctor Who, the official Twitter account posted that they were "sad to report the death" of the veteran performer, listing the episodes he had starred in. It was also confirmed by his agent that Palmer died peacefully at his home following a short illness. He was 93 years old.

Palmer was born on the 4th of June in 1927 in London, England. After serving as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines, Palmer had turned his attention to performing. In the 1950s, he was appearing in stage productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company, including productions of Weest of Suez and Sabrina Fair.

He'd also begin appearing on television around...

Tim Brooke-Taylor, star of the hit 70s BBC comedy show “The Goodies,” died on Sunday after contracting coronavirus, according to his agent. He was 79.

Brooke-Taylor got his start at the famous Cambridge University theatre club Footlights, where he performed alongside future “Goodies” co-stars Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden and “Monty Python” legends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. He then transitioned into radio, appearing on multiple BBC shows including the comedy program “I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again,” where he worked again with his fellow Footlights performers.

But it was in 1970 when Brooke-Taylor, along with Oddie and Garden, got his big break with “The Goodies,” a hit sketch/sitcom show that ran for 12 years on BBC. Many of the episodes featured the trio as a group of oddjob workers that declared in a slogan that “We Do Anything, Anytime.” The show was one of the first to use stop-motion...

British comedian and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 after contracting coronavirus.

In a statement, his agent confirmed the news: “It is with great sadness that we announce Tim’s death early today from Covid-19. Joining [Cambridge University] Footlights in 1960 took him to providing a huge variety of splendid entertainment — television, radio, theatre, film, books, DVDs, CDs, quizzes, etc — all of which he undertook with energy and a great sense of fun.”

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Brooke-Taylor is perhaps best known as a member of UK comedy trio The Goodies with Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. They had a BBC television show which ran for more than a decade...

British actor and comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor, star of popular BBC series “The Goodies,” has died of coronavirus at 79.

The actor’s agent confirmed to Variety that Brooke-Taylor died early Sunday from the virus.

Brooke-Taylor’s career in comedy began at Cambridge University, where he was part of the renowned Footlights Club — a launchpad for such comedy talents as John Cleese, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson — before moving into radio at public broadcaster BBC, where his shows included comedy program “I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again.” He first appealed on panel show “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue” in 1972 and continued to make regular appearances on the program.

His transition into television included such highlights as “At Last The 1948 Show,” where he was a writer-performer alongside Cleese, as well as comedy series “Marty” and “Broaden Your Mind.”

His break-out success, however, came with BBC Two series “The Goodies,...

Tim Brooke-Taylor, one of the trio of stars from the classic U.K. sketch show The Goodies, has died. He was 79.

A rep for Brooke-Taylor could not be reached for more information, but his agent told the The Guardian that the actor died Sunday from complications due to the novel coronavirus.

“It is with great sadness that we announce Tim’s death early today from Covid-19," the agent told the publication.

Monty Python troupe member Eric Idle was among those paying their condolences to a comic much loved in Britiain, tweeting that Brooke-Taylor had actually auditioned ...

“Better Call Saul” star Bob Odenkirk’s favorite TV series have mostly come from the other side of the pond, including “Monty Python,” “The Goodies,” “The Royle Family,” and the UK version of “The Office.”

“I think about it as my humor, I don’t think about it as ‘British humor,'” Odenkirk told Variety‘s “My Favorite Episode” podcast. “You can’t beat the level of intelligence and care [from British comedies]. We churn so much TV out in America, so for many years in England it was 12 episodes and you’re done I think the time they took making all those shows probably lent itself to a higher quality.”

But that’s changing, as U.S. programmers adapt a similar style of auteur-driven, short-order series. “The marketplace has gone to a place that’s encouraging quality now,” he said.

Among recent shows that Odenkirk has loved: Hulu’s “Pen15.”

“That show,...

Bill Oddie has claimed that his axe from BBC Two series Springwatch left him in hospital for a year.

The broadcaster left the wildlife series back in 2008, and was later treated for depression and bipolar disorder in hospital until the end of 2009.

Oddie described his time in hospital as "probably the worst 12 months of [his] life".

Speaking to Radio Times, Oddie said he was given a "waffly statement" about his firing.

He said: "The BBC just said, 'We won't be asking you to do it again'. That put me in hospital for a year, basically."

He added: "When I look back, I think during that autumn period I was on a high because I was very edgy and tetchy.

"There was an autumn of mania going on and I was probably giving signals out which I didn't realise. I imagine they were reported back."

Bill Oddie will make a return...

Bill Oddie has revealed that he is considering appearing in Celebrity Big Brother.

The Goodies star and famous ornithologist tweeted his fans to ask their opinion on appearing on the reality series.

He wrote: "My agent just called -"Is Bill available to do Celebrity Big Brother?" Well, folks what do you think? (It's a lot of money!)"

The show was last year won by former X Factor contestant Rylan Clark, who has now gone on to host Big Brother's Bit on the Side.

No stars for the next series of Celebrity Big Brother have been confirmed at present.

The new series of Big Brother is set to return to screens on Thursday, June 13. It has been given a 'Secrets and Lies' theme.

Watch the trailer for Big Brother 2013 below:

Picture gallery - Big Brother housemates getting amorous:...

Brit Frank Thornton, who played Captain Peacock in the long-running TV sitcom Are You Being Served? has died at his home in London. He was 92. Thornton played mainly comedic roles during his decades-long career, including Truly in Last Of The Summer Wine, but it was the role of Captain Stephen Peacock, a pompous department store floor manager, in Are You Being Served? that he is best remembered. The innuendo-laden sitcom ran for 13 years from 1972 and was based in the fictional London department store Grace Brothers. It became popular in the U.S. on PBS and BBC America. He also appeared in comedies Hancock’s Half Hour, The Goodies, Steptoe And Son, and The Benny Hill Show. His feature film credits include Carry On Screaming, No Sex Please, We’re British, Gosford Park and most recently Run For Your Wife.

Frank Thornton has died aged 92. The veteran actor, best known for his role as Captain Peacock in BBC comedy 'Are You Being Served?', died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday (16.03.13) at his home in Barnes, London, his agent David Daly has confirmed. David said: ''I have been Frank's agent since 1986 and he has been the most wonderful client as well as being a great friend. He will be sorely missed.'' Frank was also known for his character Truly in 'Last of the Summer Wine', as well as many other comedy roles in shows such as 'The Goodies' and 'Hancock's Half...

Frank Thornton has died aged 92. The veteran actor, best known for his role as Captain Peacock in BBC comedy 'Are You Being Served?', died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday (16.03.13) at his home in Barnes, London - his agent David Daly has confirmed. David said: ''I have been Frank's agent since 1986 and he has been the most wonderful client as well as being a great friend. He will be sorely missed.'' Frank was also known for his character Truly in 'Last of the Summer Wine', as well as many other comedy roles in shows such as 'The Goodies' and 'Hancock's...

If you've ever seen the classic 1973 Christmas Special of The Goodies (called The Goodies And The Beanstalk), then you'll probably remember that bit at the end when the down and out trio come across an abandoned lamp in the street. As soon as they rub the lamp – bingo! A puff of smoke and then John Cleese in a turban. Cleese then bellows “Kids' Show!” after the Goodies tell him to clear off.

I suppose that some people regarded The Goodies as the crazy younger brother of the more adult Monty Python's Flying Circus – on the surface, with its speeded-up action sequences, giant kittens, Dougals and Zebedees, I suppose you could say it's a show that's targeted towards younger ones. But then how do you explain the satirical swipes at the Royals, advertising commercialism, talent shows or apartheid?

Which neatly brings me on to Doctor Who. I was wondering this the...

Threatened by funding cuts, Bristol's Slapstick Festival is 'the most important celebration of this kind of comedy in the world'

Comedians including satirist Marcus Brigstocke and impressionist Rory Bremner are staging a benefit concert to save a festival dedicated to a brand of humour that is a century old – silent movie slapstick.

The one-night show aims to shore up the finances of Bristol's Slapstick Festival, after a cut in funding threatened to end the annual four-day extravaganza of silent comedy films. Also on the Stand Up For Slapstick bill on 24 June are Arthur Smith, Lucy Porter and veteran writer and performer Barry Cryer.

"The Slapstick Festival has grown during eight years to become perhaps the most important celebration of this kind of comedy anywhere in the world," said former Goodie and organiser Graeme Garden, a patron and director since 2007. "Silent comedy marks the start of modern humour. But, more importantly,...

Time's a healer, so they say. Well whoever “they” are, “they” must have got their facts wrong, since time is anything but a benign presence. Time brings two spectres of evil: Old age, with its saggy, wrinkly skin, creaking bones and chilblains. And of course, death. It's inevitable of course, but that still doesn't make a loss of life any easier for that person's friends and family.

Between them, Halliday, Chinnery and Madoc have graced many iconic TV programmes for the past 50 years, whether it's A For Andromeda, The Champions, The Avengers, The Goodies or Casualty. They were the sort of actors who turn up in these programmes and you'd go “Oh yeah, it's that guy again...” So of course, it's no real surprise that their CVs contained Doctor Who. I actually read an obituary for Madoc the other day which snootily said something along the lines of 'Madoc appeared...

The Chaser team and Channel Seven will go into production on their new show this week.

The Unbelievable Truth is produced by The Chaser team’s Giant Dwarf productions and adapted from the BBC Radio4 show of the same name, co-created by The Goodies’ Graeme Garden – who gets a ‘co-creator’ title on this new version.

A panel style show, the program will feature comedians trying to trick each other into believing lies “while smuggling unbelievable but true facts past each other”.

Hosted by The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel, Julian Morrow and Andrew Hansen will be team captains.

In a statement, Morrow Giant Dwarf’s executive producer said: “The most bizarre fact in the entire series is that Channel Seven have agreed to make a show with us involved. But I suppose it is called The Unbelievable Truth.”

Brad Lyons, Seven’s head of production said: “I liked it better when...

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Like most people born in the 1970s, I was a huge fan of the Goodies as a kid. My personal favorite was Graeme Garden who I regarded as “the sensible Goodie.” As I grew up, I began to realize that The Goodies was just one highlight in a distinguished career during which the Scotsman established himself as one of Britain’s top comedy performers. While he is a well known entertainer, many people do not realize that Graeme Garden is also a qualified physician. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Graeme and I began by asking him how he made the transition from medical school graduate to TV funny man.

“I appeared in a couple of plays at school,...

A child star as Oliver Twist, he became a key figure in epoch-making TV comedy

'Please, sir – I want some more." Rationing was still in force when, under the eye of David Lean's camera, a thin, pale eight-year-old boy named John Howard Davies raised his gruel bowl and dared to request a second serving. That image of Davies in Oliver Twist (1948) spoke to the mood of the moment – suggesting the sort of deprivation that postwar Britain was attempting to legislate out of existence. One scene called for Davies, who has died of cancer aged 72, and his fellow child actors to look on enviously as the bigwigs of the workhouse devoured a great pile of pastries, hams and chicken. The astonished expressions are genuine. None of these boys had ever seen food like it.

The film's production company, Cineguild, had launched a national campaign to secure a talented unknown for the title role.

Director/producer John Howard Davies has died at the age of 72.

He passed away at his home in Blewbury, England on Monday after a long battle with cancer.

Davies first appeared onscreen as orphan Oliver Twist in David Lean's 1948 adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel and he also starred in the Rocking Horse Winner, Tom Brown's Schooldays and The Magic Box.

He stepped behind the camera professionally in the late 1960s and became a director/producer of classic British TV shows like The Good Life, The Goodies, Only Fools and Horses, Monty Python's Flying Circus and Mr. Bean.

Davies was the Head of BBC Comedy from 1977 to 1982.

British actor Geoffrey Palmer helped re-open a charity shop in Princes Risborough – a small town in England’s Buckinghamshire – this week.

The shop raises money for the local branch of Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, a charity that offers anyone who has a life-limiting illness the choice to receive the care and support that they need in the comfort and security of their own home. Palmer – who has appeared in classic British TV shows such as The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, The Goodies and As Time Goes By – is a patron for the charity.

Read more...

Humour. Where would we be without it? Blackadder, The Goodies and Miranda have this in abundance. Mork from Ork swears by it. Frankie Boyle hasn't found its meaning yet.

And humour is one of the cornerstones of all good Doctor Who. Think of some of the most popular Doctors - Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton, David Tennant - their Doctors are known for quirky humour. A good chunk of the show's stories contain several killer funny lines that could slot comfortably in any comedy show.

Mind you, when we think of humour in Doctor Who, the 5th Doctor and Christopher Hamilton Bidmead are not the first names to leap off the tongue. Peter Davison himself is the king of the DVD commentary, always chipping in with a sly wisecrack about any aspect of the story, but sadly he was never really allowed to display his wry humour in his tales. As for Bidmead,...

Good news. At the time of writing this, Who Head Honcho Steven Moffat has decided to begin the campaign to move the series to an autumn slot. Hopefully, in 2012, all the stories will go out in September or October time, so long as the BBC bosses don’t start wetting their pants over doing battle with Simon The Bland Robot and his entourage of vacant karaoke wannabes.

This is great news, since A) It makes the autumn season more bearable, especially since my favourite season, summer, is dead and gone; B) It’s a refreshing antidote to rubbish like The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing; and C) It makes more sense to have scares on dark autumn nights rather than in the bright sunshine. Really, the Silence In The Library and Satan Pit two-parters aren’t suited to being viewed on a hot summer’s night.

There are one...

Enter Sarah Jane Smith, and the kind of Sontaran that made the race firm favourites in Doctor Who...

The first thing that hits you in The Time Warrior is the brand spanking new titles. The familiar time tunnel effect and the diamond logo make their debuts here, and it’s a joy to behold. The great thing is that hardly any other contemporary TV programmes could boast such an innovative set of titles. In 1973, most shows started with just a title card superimposed over the action (Steptoe And Son or Are You Being Served, for example) or a collection of montage clips (Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game or The Goodies). About the closest you could get to the greatness of the Doctor Who titles is Monty Python’s Flying Circus or The Tomorrow People (although in this case the titles were the only good thing, apart from Dudley Simpson’s...

I've seen every single one of these episodes too many times to count. Doesn't matter a bit. This is timeless inventive, stuff. The kind of thing that you feel obligated to introduce to the unitiated and invite friends overt o watch and rewatch. The fact that the character of Basil Fawlty is based on a real person makes the show all the more rich. Like Seinfeld and other programs that expertly replicate human pettiness and folly Fawlty Towers is so cathartic that watching it leaves a viewer both lighter and enlightened. 

There's a ton of new material on here and the series has never looked better. You get a new set of exclusive commentaries by John Cleese, brand new 2009 extended interviews, including exclusive interview with Connie Booth, John Cleese, Prunella Scales, and Andrew Sachs and Series One and Two directors commentaries with John Howard Davies and Bob Spiers as well...

Legendary British actor Jack Douglas left just $21,000 (£14,000) to his relatives following his death last year.

The 81-year-old, best known for his recurring role in the classic Carry On comedy film franchise, passed away in December after a battle with pneumonia.

And despite his high profile work in eight Carry On movies, as well as appearances in British TV comedies such as The Goodies and The Benny Hill Show, the star was left with very little money to pass on to his family by the time his will was executed this year.

Throughout his life Douglas often complained of the low pay he received during his time as a Carry On actor, claiming he was never handed any royalties from repeat TV screenings.

Bill Oddie is being treated for depression at a London clinic, according to tabloid reports. The Goodies star, 67, has checked into the Capio Nightingale hospital, claims The Mirror. Oddie has frequently spoken about his depression, mentioning his battles with "anxiety" and coping with fame in his autobiography One Flew Into The Cuckoo's Egg. His agent David Foster commented: "Bill gets these (more)...

Legendary British actor Jack Douglas has died of pneumonia at the age of 81.

Douglas was best known for his role in eight movies in the bawdy Carry On comedy film franchise, including the classics Carry On Abroad and Carry On Matron.

He was also a revered theatre actor and pantomime star, and appeared in several British TV comedies including The Goodies and The Benny Hill Show.

Douglas had suffered ill health for a number of years, and died at his home on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, on Thursday.

His agent Phil Dale says, "Jack was one of those lovely people who came from the world of comedy and understood comedy timing in the sense of the old British tradition of farce".

Douglas leaves a partner, Vivien Howell.