If you’re planning on a night in the 2011 British Comedy Awards are broadcast live on Channel 4 this evening, with host Jonathan Ross presenting awards to a string of already successful comics and comedy actors looking for peer and public validation.
The shortlist has been published for a while now, but who should win?
Best Comedy Entertainment Programme
Shortlist: Alan Carr: Chatty Man (Channel 4); An Idiot Abroad (Sky1); Harry Hill’s TV Burp (ITV1); Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two).
All of the categories are tough, and traditionally this would be a split between Harry Hill’s TV Burp and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. However, the former has become less accomplished of late while the latter show is overdue an award, so Stewart Lee it is!
Best Sitcom
Shortlist: Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4); Miranda (BBC Two); Peep Show (C4); Twenty Twelve (BBC Four).
Frankly all of the above have been less than hilarious, even Peep Show‘s seventh series. It might have been better if Not Going Out was given its due finally, but failing that we’ll go with Peep Show.
Best Comedy Panel Show
Shortlist: Celebrity Juice (ITV2); Have I Got News for You (BBC One); Shooting Stars (BBC Two); Would I Lie to You? (BBC One).
As Celebrity Juice features little in the way of laughs, it’s a surprise that A Question of Sport isn’t also shortlisted. While Have I Got News for You is a personal favourite and Would I Lie to You? gets better each week, as a northern lad it simply has to be Shooting Stars, simply to stick it to the increasingly out of touch BBC commissioning executives.
Best TV Comedy Actor
Shortlist: Darren Boyd (Spy, Sky1); Hugh Bonneville (Twenty Twelve, BBC Four); Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered, BBC One); Jack Whitehall (Fresh Meat, Channel 4).
Jack Whitehall has been surprisingly good playing himself in Fresh Meat, but Darren Boyd probably deserves this paperweight gong.
Best TV Comedy Actress
Shortlist: Dawn French (Psychoville, BBC Two); Tamsin Greig (Friday Night Dinner, Channel 4); Miranda Hart (Miranda, BBC Two); Claire Skinner (Outnumbered, BBC One).
Good god, Miranda Hart aside this is a great selection of actresses (as opposed to “Mirandas”) and as much as I adore Tamsin Greig it would have to be Dawn French’s marvellous Psychoville turns.
King or Queen of Comedy
Shortlist: Jo Brand, Miranda Hart, Sarah Millican, David Mitchell, Graham Norton, Jack Whitehall.
Do you know who really deserves this? Not Jo effing Brand, that’s for sure. This category is open to public voting and as much as Miranda Hart, Graham Norton and David Mitchell are popular (I’ve yet to meet anyone who likes Jo Brand – she clearly has a great publicist/agent) I would really love to see Sarah Millican win.
Catch the British Comedy Awards 2011 on Channel 4 tonight, Friday 16 November, at 9.00pm. We’ll be discussing the results next week!