Presumably it was a room of mediocrity not knowing what to do with an actor and writer who could fucking wipe the floor with almost every single one of them.

Funny how no-one heckled Coogan. Who is, it seems, terminally rubbish now. How nice to see that he has so much respect for his characters that he made sure Partridge reprised the Cyrano de Bergerac/John Nettles brilliance in the new improved context of "Yellow Brick Road/Follow The Yellow Brick Road". I was practically hiding behind the sofa. Anyone else?

Put it this way - I'm no great admirer of Alan Benett, but I consider his work to be posessed of eight million times more worth than any of the tawdry rubbish that has ever issued forth from Caroline Ahearne's untalented mouth/pen.

Oh, and Mr Coogan, please spare us any further Partridge unless it's actually any good.

>Oh, and Mr Coogan, please spare us any further Partridge unless it's actually any good.

Alan Partridge never seems to work that well in a direct situation, only in a carefully created artificial situation like a spoof chat show or a spoof documentary. When he makes a 'live' appearance he always just comes over as an embarassing version of Steve Coogan, which in a way he is.

Two words: Tony fucking Ferrino.

Oh all right, three.

Give Caroline Aherne her due. All she was saying was northern observational humour is total shite, and she was quite right to point this er, oh, hang on!

Was it Caroline Aherne though?

IIRC The Royle Family table was to the right of the stage.

The heckle came from the other side

..I think

All the media have reported it as being her. It sounds like the kind of thing her and Cash would do to amuse themselves.

Anyway, she was better on the radio. On the Martin Kelner show. That only I heard. Aaaaah.

I am so glad that I didn't like Caroline Aherne much anyway, her heckle of Alan Bennett was disgustingly rude and lacking in respect. Had I liked her work I probably would have had to stop. As others said above, Bennett and Sir Nigel can wipe the floor with her and the rest of them.

Re Alan Patridge, yes the Yellow Brick Road thing was incredibly laboured. I'm suprised they didn't wedge in a Judy Garland/Yellow Brick Road/friend of Dorothy's reference though, along with all the other laboured gay stuff.

Also re Patridge. The Al Gore t-shirt. Surely Patridge is a George W Bush supporter, given his politics and stupidity. If "I'm Alan Patridge" came back you could imagine various references to George Dubya and Patridge saying "I'm glad he won" and generally agreeing with Dubya's capital punishment ethos etc. The fact that Patridge was wearing an Al Gore t-shirt seemed, well, stupid, even if Gore did lose. A Dubya one would have been "funnier" and more in keeping with the character.

No one's commented on the guy from the sponsors, smile.co.uk. I loved his little speech. "I know this is the comedy awards and I'm just a stiff banker..." at which point Kate Holden (who the fuck is she anyway, besides a loud female in a booby dress) said "oh how lucky for you", opting for the erection pun, rather than the stiff banker/wanker pun, coz she's a loud, racy, female ya know.

The banker guy is obviously not a comedian, he's a banker. But you can just imagine the office clown telling him that he should wear a pink bow tie, coz it's a comedy awards and then writing all his jokes for him, coz it's a comedy awards. Either the office clown has no sense of humour (very likely), which would explain the badness of the jokes and why Kate Holden (whoever she is) was able to give him shit or the office clown is in fact a very cunning person who was able to make the boss look really sad by leaving him open to get shit from Kate Holden (whoever she is) with either the erection pun or the stiff banker/wanker pun.

Oh and Judith Kepple. A) Why was she there? How does she (and Jamie Theakston and Anne Robinson and many others) really relate to comedy? B) Why were they fawning over her and letting her off so easily? Why the nice little questions about how she's related to Camilla P-B and little or nothing about the scandel re the death Victor Meldrew and ratings?

In the good old days she and Robinson and Theakston et al would have been turned into the laughing stocks they are and invited to the awards for that very purpose. The fact that Kepple was nervous and seems to have no personality or ability to even read the winner from a card was a head start. But oh no, this is the age where all comedians are as luvvie as the rest of showbiz, accept to people more talented than them of course.

Having said all that I enjoyed the show as a night of relaxing, plebby, little thought required entertainment, whilst disagreeing with most of the winners and all of the politics. Compared to other awards ceremonies it was interesting, relatively amusing and SHORT.

>The fact that Patridge was wearing an Al Gore t-shirt seemed, well, stupid, even if Gore did lose. A Dubya one would have been "funnier" and more in keeping with the character.

He should have worn a 'Chris Morris' one.

>Alan Partridge never seems to work that well in a direct situation, only in a carefully created artificial situation like a spoof chat show or a spoof documentary. When he makes a 'live' appearance he always just comes over as an embarassing version of Steve Coogan, which in a way he is.

The evidence of that being his appearance to present an award to someone or other who then thanked him in their speech!

And who was that git who thanked Jane Root? Career serving suck! Shame we never saw Jane Root on the telecast, she was probably there. I like booing at the TV every so often. And the only reason I watch The Weakest Link is in the hope that one of the losers will deck her as they walk out past her.

>No one's commented on the guy from the sponsors, smile.co.uk. I loved his little speech. "I know this is the comedy awards and I'm just a stiff banker..." at which point Kate Holden (who the fuck is she anyway, besides a loud female in a booby dress)

*Amanda* Holden, co-star of 'Kiss Me Kate'. She's pretty good too.

It was Rob Drydon, of 'Marion and Geoff', who thanked Jane Root before kissing his boss.

Bean done:

>Also re Patridge. The Al Gore t-shirt. Surely Patridge is a George W Bush supporter, given his politics and stupidity.

The - ahem - point of these t-shirts (if there is such a thing) is to wear one with the name of someone you *don't* like. Hence why John Thomson's ex- turned up wearing a t-shirt with his name on it.

Cheerio

Steve

>Bean done:
>
>>Also re Patridge. The Al Gore t-shirt. Surely Patridge is a George W Bush supporter, given his politics and stupidity.
>
>The - ahem - point of these t-shirts (if there is such a thing) is to wear one with the name of someone you *don't* like. Hence why John Thomson's ex- turned up wearing a t-shirt with his name on it.
>
>Cheerio
>
>Steve

Sorry Steve, I'm so unfashionable I wear t-shirts with stuff I do like on them.

Anyone else want to order a Jane Root t-shirt? If we order enough we'll get a bulk discount.

Bean done:

>Sorry Steve, I'm so unfashionable I wear t-shirts with stuff I do like on them.

Madonna wore the first couple - Britney Spears and Kylie at various times. The typeface, apparently, is the important thing. Of course, Partridge's was a Pringle sweater, wasn't it?

A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Cheerio

Steve

but didn't Madonna say she like them? Maybe in an 'ironic' way but still...

The reasons for which they're worn has changed slightly. The press decided that Madonna was "having a go" at the young pretenders to her throne. Ironically, or otherwise.

One tabloid therefore printed pictures of famous people "wearing" t-shirts with their nemeses' names written on the front. You know, Tony Blair wearing a 'William Hague' t-shirt; clever stuff like that.

Presumably, Partridge is wearing an 'Al Gore' one 'cos he's totally missed the point of the shirts (i.e. he has nothing whatsoever to do with US politics and thought that the shirts were just a way of supporting someone you like). I dunno, I didn't see it.

Cheerio

Steve

I didn't realise that was Caroline Aherne. I like what she does and am not too keen on Bennett's work (apart from Beyond the Fringe), and don't actually think he deserves that award, and i don't like Nigel Hawthorne much either, but there was no need at all to behave like a complete cunt the way she did, and I hope she feels very guilty and ought to apologise, so there.
Who shouted "take your time" at Hawthorne, and got a round of applause.

The whole event summed up what has been a fucking terrible year. The heckling of Sir Hawthorne was uncalled for, they got at least one caption wrong(any more spotted?):- The Simpsons is Gracie Films in Association with 20th Century Fox, NOT A Twentieth Century Fox production for BBC-2 <mutters expletives>.

(re: the "ironic" t-shirt discussion)

Nick Cave used to carry round his bats and preachin' bibles in a Kylie Minogue handbag.
Everyone thought it was a joke, but look what happened...

>Was it Caroline Aherne though?
>
>IIRC The Royle Family table was to the right of the stage.
>
>The heckle came from the other side
>
>..I think

Perhaps Aherne is just a patsy.

The newspaper reports that it was her heckling came out awfully fast - I was flying back from Antartica via New Zealand and the papers there carried a report half an hour BEFORE the awards were given out. Furthermore, many witnesses claim the heckle came from the other side of the auditorium, by the used glass depository, the so-called 'glassy knoll' area. I think there was a second heckler, possibly even three teams, catching Hawthorne in a triangular crossfire...

It's strange but when I heard the heckle, I didn't think it was funny - bit embarassing, if anything. However, the reaction since - an almost universal tut-tutting and massive sharp intake of breath - has been hilarious.

All I have to do now is think of Nigel Hawthorne looking disapprovingly over the top of his glasses to burst into uncontrollable giggling.

Strange I wonder if that was Aherne's intention?

More proof that the world is falling apart and Aherne could die any second of alcohol poisoning - is this the sort of place you want your kiddies to grow up in...?