Going Forward

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Brass Eye, the series Michael directed between 1995 & 1997. To mark the occasion he has made a 60min film, made up from unseen and never broadcast material from his personal archive. ‘Oxide Ghosts: The Brass Eye Tapes’ has the blessing of both Chris Morris & Ted Maul and premiered at the Pilot Light TV festival in May 2017. The film will only be shown at live events.

Recorded live at Hammersmith Apollo the hilarious new show, Life Is Pain, covers every aspect of the modern condition. While famous as an actor – the eponymous hero in the BBC hit Jonathan Creek – and a household star for his role as Stephen Fry’s foil on QI, Alan was sorely missed from live stand-up. His first show back is a glorious insight into Alan’s unique worldview – growing up in the ‘70s, losing his mother as a little boy, the vagaries of Facebook, sex toys and being a father are just some of the subjects he tackles.

In 2007, Stewart Lee was voted the 41st best stand-up of all time in an official Channel 4 poll, apparently better than Lenny Bruce but not as good as Jim Davidson. But what real difference does this accolade make? His TV pilot has been cancelled and his mother still thinks the 1970s game show host Tom O'Connor is funnier than him.

How does a working class autodidact, with no visible means of support, maintain his role as the leader of a cult British underground band into its fifth decade? Comedian and writer Stewart Lee, director Michael Cumming and James Nicholls investigate the mysterious existence of Robert Lloyd, Britain’s ultimate post-punk survivor. Robert Lloyd’s Prefects played with The Clash on the White Riot tour in 1977, and their ongoing incarnation, as Birmingham’s Captain Beefheart suffused post-punk poets The Nightingales, recorded more John Peel sessions than any other band. Ever. But what were the social, cultural and economic circumstances that enabled and sustained such outsider artists in the punk and post-punk eras, and how has the world changed to the point where such figures are unlikely to flourish in the same way today? Lloyd’s own odyssey echoes how abstract notions of social mobility, of the value of culture and music, have changed in the last five decades.

Toast of London is a British comedy series following Steven Toast, an eccentric middle-aged actor with a chequered past who spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it.

On a sweltering afternoon in the summer of 2003, to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, Martin Newell performed a career-spanning set of songs at Colchester Arts Centre. Aided and abetted by a band of musicians that includes his old partner Nelson, from the Brotherhood of Lizards, Martin performed a wonderful 100 minute show that took in both his earliest songs and brand new compositions given their first live outing. The footage lay forgotten for almost twenty years but has now been lovingly assembled & restored for your viewing pleasure by director Michael Cumming.