you are tapped. That was arguably the best thing I have ever seen. Outstanding.

I thought tonights episode was terribly amusing, and indeed 'everything that Jam (and Big Train) should have been'. Even if he did borrow bits from Facts And Fancies, at least he changed most of the wording.

I was going to post this message under the topic 'Some Of The Corpses Are Dancing' ,but didn't.

My review of tonight's show:

Marvellous.

And you can quote me.

jesus give me gauche any time over the what's considered erm, 'droit'. He did pinch from facts and fancies yes but again I much rather AI stealing from himself than other people. I really am rather enjoying this series, and how you can say he';s smug I have no clue. The dancing corpses was artfully done.

The dancing corpses scene was extraordinarily imaginative - one of the most wonderful things I've seen on the telly in a while. And the Bedford Water sketch was sublime, if very post-Jam.

On another note, AI does like his Philip Glass, doesn't he? The afterlife sketch in TDT used some of Koyaanisqatsi, the Mao/Ferry sketch in Big Train used a piece from Mishima and tonight we had a piece from Glass's rarely-heard first opera Akhnaten.

I'll remember to watch this bastard one week.

I reckon he borrowed the bit where the dog stuffs the drugs up the other dogs arse, from one of Ardal O'Hanlan's stand up shows.

Yeh, it was ok...didn't really make me laugh out loud much. The room was graced with the odd half-arsed tuuhh laugh, but there was nothing I feel that deserved outright public merryment.

you mean you didn't laugh out loud at the Hale and Pace scrap, the gangster being cut of just as he said 'fuck' to a kettle, and the bit where the old geezer fell off the coffin?
The hand segment and the heaven sequence were great and very well done. The overall editing was perfect.
Best thing in five years.
If you didn't like it you have no sense of humour.

Isn't everything made now post jam?
Was Python pre Jam?

Is Jam like AD (or AJ)

>The dancing corpses scene was extraordinarily imaginative - one of the most wonderful things I've seen on the telly in a while. And the Bedford Water sketch was sublime, if very post-Jam.
>
>On another note, AI does like his Philip Glass, doesn't he? The afterlife sketch in TDT used some of Koyaanisqatsi, the Mao/Ferry sketch in Big Train used a piece from Mishima and tonight we had a piece from Glass's rarely-heard first opera Akhnaten.

Can you get Ianucci's newspaper columns online?

For the record, I really enjoyed it. The only longeurs came during the sketches without Ianucci, which seemed weaker to me, and a bit too knowingly Blue Jam. I know that goes against Jake's personal dislike of the man that started this thread, but I think it's his drawling Caledonian persona that holds the whole thing together and stops it being a johnny-come-lately Jam re-hash.

In fact, using his wry-observations-on-life as a hook for the skits reminds me of the Marshall & Renwick Alexei Sayle series, or even The Dawson Watch. A refreshingly trad format, that can be delightfully subverted by filling it with nonsense non-observations delivered deadpan.

It's certainly a relief to see what they did with the hours of offline edits that were briefly circulating round this forum. They were very bizarre without the voice overs...

I think I may be on my own here. I thought last week's was really great, this one very disappointing.

Even the parts I liked I thought were overstated, and the loss subtlety reduced their effect: the implication of visiting Disneyland on a casual Friday is obvious, without showing photos of people not dressed in cartoon oufits; likewise, the Bedford water sketch would have worked better if it had ended immediately after the director announced he was the only one who worked there, and the zoomed-out shot showed how empty the office was. A man in a suit swimming about didn't really add anything to this joke.

>Can you get Ianucci's newspaper columns online?
>

They're (mostly) in the Facts and Fancies book - I'll lend you my copy if you like.

I thought it was much funnier this week, but the best bits were the non-Ianucci dancing corpses and dog smuggler. They made me laugh, anyway.

The flights of fancy (dogs and corpses) were brilliant. Loads of attention to detail and proper bits that I laughed at and everything. Possibly better than last week.

Exactly how much money did they spend on this show? Ianucci was standing in Italy for one 10 second link, and some of those sequences with the dog in Tahiland didn't look faked (although there was some chromakey on the beach, I think). Nice to see they're getting value for money out of the aeroplane set, though.

What do you bet that this series never gets repeated? Let's hope it wins an Bafta or something.

I thought the whole Flight Simulator sketch was hysterical, I was almost crying when he said ......This boy would be traumetised for the rest of his life, when he was in the Budgie ride. I really really liked this weeks show, if it carrys on getting better each week, well this could well be a great show.

> Ianucci was standing in Italy for one 10 second link

But it was blatantly camcorder footage. I suspect he may have just been on holiday and decided to make himself useful...

I thought the first show was a little weak, but the second was just extraordinary. The opening dawn chorus of people waking up to the horror of their stations in life, the closing dead-can-dance number, and much of what came inbetween - my wife and I were actually in tears. I can't remember being in mirth-induced physical discomfort to such a degree since - Christ - The Young Ones at age 14, perhaps? Oh, OK, the KitKat advert with the greyhound-track hare.

He likes his Glass, but he loves his Gorecki and Part too. I'm sure "Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten" has cropped us twice now - at deliciously inappropriate (and yet *not*) moments.

No, they really have gone all out on the location shit. A forthcoming episode features Buddhists in Tibet or wherever they come from.
A good sign of how great it was is that it is the first show I've watched over ten times since taping it, in one day. The last time that happened was after I'm Alan Partridge, then Brass Eye before that.

The Hale and Pace bits were dangerously funny.


>> Ianucci was standing in Italy for one 10 second link
>
>But it was blatantly camcorder footage. I suspect he may have just been on holiday and decided to make himself useful...

i liked the Emergenc Battenburg slice taped onto his wall. and the sign underneath did it say "Don't drop bleach"

Calling the dog Alastair. I don't know it just struck a chord

Did anyone dislike it>? The more I watch it, the more I like it. It has this mournful feel to it, it's paced, it's bloody funny, and is thrillingly out of step with almost anything else on telly. God Bless You Mr I.

Are you sure you havent just all lowered your standards becaus TV comedy is usually really really shit? I found myself idly amused by Kiss Me Kate one day and thought, if it were 1995 (or something), I would hate this show. Am I imagining the glory days? Or am I right: TV's gone shit and you'll accept most things that are passable.


By the way, this isn't strictly related to Armando. I thought Jam was below par, and I've only seen 15 minutes of Armando. It was OK, but it wasn't sidesplitting. a bit, LOOK AT THIS IDEA WE HAD! or in some cases, that someone else had, and made a little too much of it

Perhaps you needed to see the whole shows to judge it. That's why it's 24 mins and not 15.

For anyone who's interested, I've just discovered that Armando Ianucci is doing a webchat on the CH4 site after next week's show.

john adams as well. there was some 'shaker loops' last week, and some 'harmonielehre' on this week's trails.

>john adams as well. there was some 'shaker loops' last week, and some 'harmonielehre' on this week's trails.

Perhaps AI needs to get out of the minimalist ghetto... some Scelsi, Penderecki or Messiaen would go down a treat. I never realised how short he was before either. Endearing.