Ronni Ancona
Two sisters come together to spend Christmas with their families in their recently deceased parents’ falling down country house, with hilariously chaotic consequences, as ancient sibling rivalries flare up again to sabotage the hoped for season of good will.
Grandad Tumble opens his book of memories to tell the tale of Mr Tumble from the day he was born, with his red nose already in place, through his school days, to attending a very serious stage school run by Miss Eerie, played by Ronni Ancona. Featuring lots of songs to join in with, comedy routines and Makaton signs. Find out how Mr Tumble got his starry waistcoat, spotty bag and bow tie in this funny, exciting show recorded in front of a live theatre audience. Less
Years after their successful restaurant review tour of Northern Britain, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are commissioned for a new tour in Italy.
The Comic Strip team return for a special 50s-style 'fugitive' film noir spoof. The 60-minute film, penned by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, follows Prime Minister Tony Blair (Stephen Mangan), wanted for murder and on the run. Escaping from Number 10 and leaving behind his adoring wife Cherie (Catherine Shepherd), Tony vows to clear his name no matter what the consequences.
Hope Springs is a British television comedy-drama series following the lives of four female ex-cons in hiding following a multimillion pound robbery. Produced by Shed Productions, the company behind Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road, the 8-part series began airing on BBC One on 7 June 2009 and finished on 26 July 2009. After a single series, the BBC cancelled Hope Springs, because it "did not find its audience in the way that [they] had hoped."
Spoof documentary about the career of comedian Steve Coogan.
A look behind the scenes of satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News.
Ronni Ancona & Co is a comedy sketch show that aired on BBC One and began on 25 May 2007. The sketches all consisted of impressions of well-known celebrities amongst other comedy sketches of fictional characters created by Ronni Ancona. Phil Cornwell, Jan Ravens and John Sessions all starred in the series with Ancona. Bill Oddie also made a cameo appearance in the first episode. Fellow impressionist Alistair McGowan appeared in the first episode in a spoof of a perfume advertisement.
Forlorn heiress Penelope Wilhern is cursed, and the only way out is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she find her soul mate when she's sequestered inside her family's estate with only her parents to keep her company. This untraditional fairy tale about a girl who bucks convention to create her own happy ending.
The rebirth of Amnesty International's legendary SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALL at the Royal Albert Hall on 14th October - after a 15 year hiatus - was a resounding success. Bigger, Better and Ballsier than ever before, 'The Ball In The Hall' is a non-stop, rapid-fire, relentless smorgasbord of comedy and music. 6,000 people turned up to create a fantastic atmosphere as some of the best contemporary comic and music talent from both sides of the Atlantic delivered one show-stopping performance after another. Featuring never-before-seen collaborations, brand new sketches, explosive stand-up, off-stage performances, surprise ingredients and an anthem for the world, there has been nothing like it in the comedy world for years.
Monkey Trousers was a short-lived comedy series on ITV in 2005, featuring Alistair McGowan, John Thomson, Ronni Ancona, Mackenzie Crook, Griff Rhys Jones, Neil Morrissey, Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Marc Wootton and Steve Coogan. It was directed by David Kerr and produced by Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves' production company, Pett Productions. It succeeded The All Star Comedy Show, which was written by Reeves and Mortimer, and produced by Coogan. Sketches of the show included the moronic, yet fearless 'Croc Botherer', Roy the eerie, lonely toy-shopkeeper, Alistair the hopeless estate agent, who replies to every question with "I don't know", the swearing chef, and the 'Geordie Astronauts'. A DVD of the series was released on 4 July 2005.
Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson star in a story of grief and celebrity, set in the intense spring and summer of New Labour's election victory and Diana's death. Nighy is a PR guru who has to stop and re-evaluate his world when his daughter threatens to leave his life, perhaps as revenge for his serial infidelities. Richardson plays a mother trying to bury her grief in an unconventional way after the loss of her young son.
Steve Coogan, an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life, is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's.
The Goodies finally return to television after nearly 25 years with a compilation of classic clips, interviews and new material.
Michael Caine, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Roger Moore all live on a quiet street in Surbiton and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards run their corner shop - who knew?
The story of three generations told against the backdrop of the 20th century. The drama focuses on the life of Mary Corrigan, from her days as a rebellious mill worker in 1915 and her doomed love affair for a man who must fight for his country, through to her final days in the run up to the British General Election of 1997.
Combat Sheep is a heart warming Christmas story of four army mascots who have been made redundant due to military cutbacks and are jettisoned into the cold to face civvie life and it’s bleak options on offer.
The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV between 2001 and 2004. Despite the first series winning a BAFTA award, the second series was cancelled due to poor viewing figures. Lee Mack states in his autobrography "Mack The Life" that the final two episodes have never been broadcast. A short-lived spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States. Similarly to the UK version, the final two episodes were never broadcast.
The Big Impression, known as Alistair McGowan's Big Impression for the first three series, is a British comedy sketch show. It features Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona impersonating personalities from entertainment and sport. Four series and a number of specials were made by Vera Productions and it was first broadcast on BBC One between 2000 and 2004. The series has won five awards, including the 2003 BAFTA comedy programme prize.
Mean, gritty, dirty and low and that's just the Policeman Gary Keltie (Ken Stott) out for retribution for the horrendous crimes against the helpless people of Edinburgh during the nineteen seventies, by notorious, torturous, and killer, debt collector Nickie Dryden (Billy Connolly).
Stella Street is a British television comedy programme, originally screened in four series on BBC Two between 1997 and 2001. It takes the form of a mockumentary filmed on a camcorder, based on the fantastical premise that a group of British and American celebrities who have all decided to move into Stella Street in Surbiton. The show was conceived and written by John Sessions, Phil Cornwell and Peter Richardson. The main characters are played by Sessions, Cornwell and Ronni Ancona. The characters themselves are impressions of famous celebrities such as Marlon Brando, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson and, idiosyncratically, UK football pundit Jimmy Hill. Stella Street's depiction of celebrities is mainly rooted in the popular stereotypes surrounding them. For example, Stella Street's Jack Nicholson is an inveterate womaniser, drug taker, and has a tacky line in Hawaiian shirts. Michael Caine is seen as an awkward wanna-be cognoscente in horn-rimmed glasses and a shock of ginger hair. Dirk Bogarde is a posh buffoon only interested in his rose garden and Country Life magazine. Al Pacino is deluded that he is a "tall actor, like Danny DeVito and Dustin Hoffman", despite the viewer knowing that he are of short stature. Joe Pesci is portrayed in the light of his most well known roles in violent gangster films, while Jimmy Hill inevitably appears dull when talking about the FA Cup Final to plainly uninterested greater celebrities.
What happens when you take archived BBC footage and put it in the hands of several comedians? They dub over the original sound in a humorous way and create The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos. Surreal comedy series using clips from various films and people with voice-overs added to make a story.
