Was Lenny right? Julian Hall on the future of black comedy The recent speech by Lenny Henryabout the lack of diversity in TV raised some uncomfortable and contentious questions about the lack of black comedy talent. Claiming that talent scouts weren’t digging deep enough for new stars, Henry said: ‘Do they go to the Hackney […]
Read MoreInterview with Chris O’Dowd for SW magazine, before he went ‘global’.
Read MoreIn the mid-Eighties, when that small club, the Comedy Store, was solidly part of the comedy establishment, an 18-year-old Rock was spotted at New York’s the Comic Strip Live by Eddie Murphy. Rock has eventually taken Murphy’s mantle of the US’s highest-profile comedian, first paying his dues on Saturday Night Live and surviving a career […]
Read MoreMatchbox Contributors, Matchbox Events, Matchbox Tribes and Rant; all examples of contributions to Matchbox, a lifestyle magazine for West London, over the course of 2006/2007 The new Marc Jacobs store on Mount Street, Mayfair, is the designer’s second European store, after this year’s Paris opening. To mark the occasion Marc Jacobs will show his diffusion range Marc by […]
Read MoreShe describes herself as something “between an entertainer and part of the populace”; a fellow commentator has called her “the insider’s outsider”. Sandra Bernhard’s dichotomy is plain for me to see as soon as I arrive at our meeting point, a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue, in her New York neighbourhood. The grand dame of spoken-word […]
Read MoreHow we met: Danny Brocklehurst & Max Beesley ‘I have a difficult relationship with actors. It doesn’t always do to be friends with them’ Interview by Julian Hall Sunday, 10 June 2007 Danny Brocklehurst, 35 won a Bafta for his screenwriting contributions to ‘Shameless’. Among other credits are ‘Sorted’, ‘Clocking Off’ and a new series, […]
Read MoreRaquel Cassidy interview, Summer 2007 From Teachers to Party Animals via Lead Balloon, Raquel Cassidy is rarely off our screens these days. Julian Hall talks to the actress sleeping late, empathising with murderers and ‘getting mucky’… I’ve arranged to meet Raquel Cassidy at a cafe next door to the Royal Court Theatre in London’s Sloane […]
Read MoreFirst Night: Ricky Gervais, Madison Square Garden, New York Near-the-knuckle Gervais pushes US boundaries By Julian Hall Outside New York’s Madison Square Garden Theatre, ticket touts were having difficulties pronouncing Ricky Gervais’s name. “Want tickets for Ricky Gerva?” they inquired, hesitantly. Inside, however, most people knew exactly who they had come to see and they […]
Read MoreRoss Noble interview, Spring 2007 Star of the Edinburgh Festival and voted 10th best stand up of all time, Ross Noble is a comic phenomenon. Julian Hall catches up with him ahead of his latest world tour. There are no two ways about it, Ross Noble is a comic phenomenon. You may not have seen him on television much, except perhaps the odd appearance on […]
Read MoreAn Uncommon Correspondent Julian Hall talks to award-winning journalist John Pilger Celebrated and controversial campaigning journalist and film-maker John Pilger, whose forty-year career includes extensive work for national newspapers (both here and in his native Australia), a stint as a reporter for TV’s current affairs flagship show World In Action, and seminal documentaries on East […]
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