Garth Marenghi and Coronation Street are a couple of the TV shows bizarrely populating our comedy picks this week as well as a welcome two hander from some of the best of the Welsh stand-up scene in Katie Gill-Williams and Bella Humphries.
Of the two flagship soaps of the British Isles, Coronation Street has always looked at the funnier side of the life than the bleak realism of Eastenders. So it stands to reason that they’d host a comedy night on the cobbles of Weatherfield’s most famous thoroughfare. To bring further Northern humour there’s a quartet of the absolute finest the region has to offer with Nina Gilligan, Mick Ferry, Mike Newall and Hayley Ellis providing the laughs and hopefully auditioning to be new regulars at The Rovers.
From one TV institution to another, and although Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place didn’t quite last the half decade or so that Corrie’s been on, it did produce six of the best comedy episodes Channel 4 has ever put out and created a fervent fanbase to rival those of the ITV soap. Ostensibly a book tour for the master of the macabre Marenghi’s latest work of horror fiction ‘Terrortome’, the comic creation of Matthew Holness still knows how to perform as the world’s greatest ‘Frighternerman, Darkscribe, Doomsage (plus Man-Shee)’.
- Words:
- John Stansfield
- Published on:
- Mon 6 Mar 2023
A double bill of work-in-progress shows at this week’s Comedy Balloon courtesy of two of Wales’ finest up and coming stand-ups. Katie Gill-Williams is back to performing after a pretty intense time raising her young family. As harrowing as that can be, thankfully it’s chock full of material and she has mined it for all its worth for this debut show. Alternatively Bella Humphries is going on a journey of self-discovery and with her self deprecating and unflinchingly honest delivery there’s no part of what she finds that won’t be laid bare for all.