They come but once a year
Flicking through Friday's Metro I was stopped by the image you see on the right of Little Britain's David Walliams and Matt Lucas or rather Emily "I'm a Lady" Howard and Daffyd - The Only Gay in the Village as Madonna and Child. Reading the article I learnt that this was part of the latest set of pictures that had been commissioned for the 15th British Comedy Awards which are broadcast live on ITV1 on December 22nd from 9pm.
The Comedy Awards are always pretty good value for money and I was amazed that there had actually been as many as fifteen on them. It only seems like a few years ago that Spike Milligan called Prince Charles a "grovelling little bastard", when claimed to be a lifelong fan of the ex-Goon. Surely it was only a couple of years ago that Julian Clary said he'd been backstage "fisting" Norman Lamont.
Since those two live outbursts we've not had anything else that will really go down in the annuls of Comedy Awards history. My most recent favourite was when David Walliams picked up an award for Best Newcomer last year. He accepted the award from Lawrence Lewellyn Bowen without saying a word, but with much campness ran round the audience jumped on stage then snogged both Lawrence Lewellyn and Jonathon Ross. It's not quite the same as calling the future King - a grovelling little bastard - but it was memorable all the same.
Not sure what to expect from this year's awards. It must be tough being in a room where every other bugger thinks (or at least hopes) they are funnier than you. Do you just wear something super glam or revealing and go for the cover of Heat? Or do you want to get the most phone complaints? Or do you want to beat Kathy Burke's record of using the most F words in 1995?
The nominees are too numerous to mention - but you can see them all here.
I love all three up for Best Comedy - Little Britain, Nighty Night and The Office Xmas Special - but I think my money is on Little Britain. Very good to see the hardly watched Curb your Enthusiasm up for best International Comedy Show (by "International", they mean American, what other comedy shows are imported into the UK? I lie, it would have been nice to see Australian Kath and Kim in there). Most puzzling to me was seeing Doc Martin on the list not just once but twice. Doc Martin???? They're having a laugh, as clearly we're not.
The 15th British Comedy Awards ITV1 on December 22nd from 9pm to an unspecified closing time - depending how long Ricky Gervais's acceptance speech is this year.
