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Time Gentlemen Please Sky One, starts him it Sep, 10.30;)m.
What becomes of old Perrier Award winners when the fizz has gone from their victory? None of them ever appear overly keen to continue the money-losing venture of plying their punchlines on the touring circuit. And why should they when they have telly executives with more cash-filled pockets than sense banging at their green doors?
Look back at some past winners of the Edinburgh Fringe’s premier comedy prize and you can match them to lucrative TV deals. Sean Hughes, Jenny Eclair, Tommy Tiernan, The League Of Gentlemen and Dylan Moran have all found fame and a modicum of fortune in high-profile telly shows. Well OK, Jenny Eclair has been on Channel 5 a couple of times, but you know what I mean.
And one year on from his scooping of the bubbly, albeit at the fourth time of asking, AI Murray is following in their inevitable footsteps with Time Gentlemen Please. All the elements
are there for a successful venture, not least as Murray's Pub Landlord is one of the most grotesquely accurate yet oddly affectionate character creations of recent times: picture a mix of Fawlty, Garnett and Hill (Harry
and Jimmy).
He is joined in The Guv'nor boozer by Australian barmaid Janet (Julia Sawalha), the unwilling object of her lustful intentions Steve (Jason Freeman), flatulent regular Terry (Phil Daniels) and the post-grad brewery rep and theme-night obsessed Ms Jackson (Rebecca Front). All of them act as tiny molecules of the Pub Landlord's loathing, the only thing saving them are
their collective lack of Frenchness.
The series is written by Murray and Richard Herring and judging by the early episodes looks set to be a welcome addition to the over-populated sit-community, even if it is unlikely to reach the heights of How Do You Want Me? or The League Of Gentlemen. Not that the
Coming out of Buffy's shadow
96 THE LIST I /' 8-4, ,
Beer nutter Al Murray spills his pint on Sky
majority of the viewing public will be able to decide for themselves, what with it being snapped up by Sky One, a trend which is set to continue. Other autumn highlights which have abandoned their natural BBC
homes are the new series from Harry Enfield and
Blackadder.
While no one can argue with a station trying to nab whoever they want (after all, the BBC themselves are attempting to wrest Ali G from Channel 4) but there is something jarring about the last great socialist Enfield supping with Murdoch, and the one-off Blackadder Back And Forth moving from its spot in the Millennium
Dome to get an even smaller audience on cable.
FANTASY DRAMA Angel Channel 4, starts Fri 15 Sep, 6pm.
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Next up, expect Rupe to throw a wad at Chris Tarrant to present Who Wants To Be A Zillionaire? and it can only be a matter of time before Carol Vorderman is replacing Jim White as Sky Sports anchor. A good thing, actually. (Brian Donaldson)
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