Bovey Traces

Review  –  Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC One, 6.10 PM, 25 December 2024) As with The Morecambe and Wise Show in the 1970s and  Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s–1990s, you could argue that Christmas Day isn’t complete without a Wallace and Gromit adventure. Yet it’s been 16 years since the stop-motion duo’s last film ( A Matter of Loaf and Death ), although it feels like they’ve never been away. Vengeance Most Fowl sees cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit facing a familiar foe – the rooster-impersonating penguin Feathers McGraw (last seen in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and surely one of TV’s most iconic villains). After being imprisoned in a zoo for stealing a precious diamond, McGraw seeks revenge on our heroes by reprogramming Wallace’s “smart gnome”, Norbot, his latest invention and business venture. With a clueless chief inspector (voiced by Peter Kay) pointing the finger at Wallace, it’s up to Gromit to save the day again. ...

If there’s one thing guaranteed to enliven a dull sitcom (or even a great one), it’s a scene that locks two or more characters in combat across a table, playing a board or card game. Whether it’s ludo or Cluedo, poker or pontoon, the games people play in sitcoms allow writers to explore the competitiveness and pettiness of their characters in often hilarious detail. “Should there not be some cards in here?” One sitcom holds the record for the time its characters spend playing board games  –  Father Ted . With fathers Ted and Dougal having so much free time as priests, they spend much of it playing the likes of ludo, Cluedo, and snakes and ladders. (In the original Father Ted DVD commentary,   writer Graham Linehan explained that he and co-writer Arthur Matthews ensured that Ted and Dougal played the most unskilled games.) When Ted thinks he’s finally about to play a game that challenges the old grey matter, chess, he has to concede to Dougal’s choice, Buckaroo. “ I th...

This was a commissioned article for the theatre programme of the Comedy Theatre Company's production of dinnerladies (2011). Victoria Wood has been the nation's favourite name for over a quarter of a century. Ever since she made her television debut in 1974 on ITV talent show  New Faces , she has been delighting audiences with her wry eye for the foibles of everyday life, filtered through well-drawn characters and rich dialogue, which led one  Guardian  critic to describe her as "the lovechild of Alan Bennett and Pam Eyres". Wood first made a name for herself performing comic songs on the BBC consumer affairs series  That's Life  in 1976. Although the songs would remain part of her repertoire (most famously, 'The Ballad of Barry and Freda'), Wood's background as a drama undergraduate led her to write her first play,  Talent , which was adapted by Granada TV in 1979. Two more plays,  Nearly a Happy Ending  and  Happy Since I Met You , s...