#Ardal O’Hanlon

[storybursts]

The Christmas Special Day 22: Hooves of Fire (1999)

The Christmas Special Day 22: Hooves of Fire (1999)

Director: Richard Goleszowski Writers: Andy Riley, Kevin Cecil, Richard Curtis Cast: UK VERSION-Robbie Williams, Ardal O’Hanlon, Paul Whitehouse, Jane Horrocks, Steve Coogan, Caroline Quentin, Jean Alexander, Ricky Tomlinson, Rhys Ifans, Harry Enfield; US Version-Ben Stiller, Britney Spears, James Woods, Brad Garrett, Hugh Grant, Leah Remini, James Belushi, Jerry Stiller, Rob Paulsen Plot: The…

[taskmastercaps]

[ID: Six screencaps from Taskmaster. Greg Davies says, “Things that are nice to put in your mouth.” Ardal O’Hanlon holds up a board on which he’s written, “THUMB, ICE LOLLY, BLANKET, CIGAR, FLUTE.” Chris Ramsey’s board says, “CRISPS, SOUP, TENNIS RACKET, LOLLY POP, THUMB.” Judi Love’s board says, “Body Parts, Food, Air, Fingers, Toes.” Bridget Christie’s board says “Custard, fingers, fish fingers, sweets.” She explains, “I rubbed the last one out, ‘cause I...” Judi asks, “Penis?” and Bridget says, “Yeah, it was that.” End ID.]

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I think this is the first time since season 10 that I’ve watched the first episode of a Taskmaster season without writing a liveblogging Tumblr post as I went along (in seasons 11-16, I stuck to varying levels of keeping up the liveblogs for the rest of the season, but I always at least did the first one). If I’m very honest, the main reason why I didn’t do it for this one is it’s the first lineup for which there was only person I was really really excited about. The other four I have varying levels of vague opinions about, from “broadly like based on the one time I saw her on Russell Howard’s show” (Sophie), to “quite strongly dislike based on seeing her promote stalking and harassment on Alan Davies’ show, but I guess it was probably just a joke that came off badly” (Joanne) to “never got into League of Gentlemen because the surreal vibe creeped me out a bit and BBC Sherlock put me off Mark Gatiss so I know almost nothing about him”. Oh, and I do actively like Nick, because I am one of the few people who’s found Mr. Swallow funny on Catsdown, but I didn’t much enjoy his Houdini special and Ted Lasso season 3 was so bad that it put me off everyone who had anything to do with it even though obviously it’s not Nick Mohammed’s fault, so those conflicting opinions balance out into a vague “I guess I like that guy”.

Anyway, I didn’t want to write a post that was meant to be liveblogging the whole Taskmaster episode, and have that post be 90% about John Robins, and lay out just how much John Robins was the only one I was really interested in, and I also didn’t want to try to make myself have more of an opinion about the rest of them than I actually did. So no liveblog post this time, I just watched the episode. Once it gets a couple of episodes in I will have an opinion on the rest of them, and then might start the liveblogs again because I will have a slightly more balanced view.

Having said that. I have now watched it and do have some new opinions:

- Sophie Willan: I expected the charmingly naïve chaos, based on that time she was on Russell Howard’s show, that’s exactly how she came across on there and it’s great. Funny and sweet just great fun to watch. I did not, however, expect this extreme level of incompetence. I find an extreme level of anything funny on Taskmaster, and this is no exception. Love that we’re going to have a good old fashioned disaster contestant and it’s been marked out so early. Love that she appears to have no idea what show she’s on. Obsessed with her decision to paint that actual fence even though she definitely saw the blinds.

- Steve Pemberton: The “old man who is far too well established in comedy to need this show” contestant actually trying in the tasks, that’s always a fun surprise. I mean, I enjoy it either way. Frankie Boyle, Alan Davies, Julian Cleary, Ardal O’Hanlon – all those guys stumbling through the tasks with bemusement is fun. But it’s a nice surprise when you get a Lee Mack, a Dara O’Briain, a thing that Steve Pemberton looks to be – an old man who doesn’t need this but decides to actually put significant effort into doing each task properly. The egg train was impressive. The stumble at the end was funny. The good-natured attitude in the studio is amusing. And John Robins being the competent competitive force I’m hoping for won’t be as much fun if there’s not another good player to challenge him.

- Nick Mohammed: That’s exactly what I wanted from him. It’s almost weird to hear him talk in a normal voice, which doesn’t make sense because it’s not like he was using the Mr. Swallow voice on Ted Lasso, but I think on some level, my brain operated under the assumption the Mr. Swallow voice was his “real voice” and he was just putting on a character for Ted Lasso. It is interesting to see him play himself, where it turns out, he’s not that far off from Mr. Swallow’s quirks, just with a lower-pitched voice. I liked the exchanged he had with Greg in this manner. I liked the pragmatic approach to getting hula hoops out of a river. I liked the dynamic with Steve. I liked it when he threw some bricks around.

Joanne McNally: I dislike her a bit. Which is a lot less than how much I disliked her yesterday. This episode has brought me from disliking her a lot to disliking her a bit. She was entertaining. I wish I hadn’t seen that episode of Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, because it’s sending me into this season with a bias against her that may be too much for her Taskmaster persona, as entertaining as it is, to overcome. I like other comedians who've said worse things than that, because I can put those things in the context of all their other stuff and consider it just one badly judged story. Maybe Taskmaster will give me enough context for McNally to get past it. She was fun. I wanted to be able to enjoy her. But she does still annoy me.

John Robins: Here's an idea. What if I do the opposite of the post this would have been if I'd been liveblogging as I watched and had been honest about where most of my interest was (though that interest broadened out as the episode went along, it only takes a small amount of time at the beginning of a season for me to get to know the unknowns well enough to be interested in them too), and make this a post about everyone except John Robins? I'll just end this post here.

(He crashed a car with an egg and he brought in 19th Century literature and he thought through that live task so strategically and and his drawings were so much better than everyone else's and this is exactly the level of competence I was hoping for and I don't mind waiting a bit for the competitiveness-induced outbursts that I'm sure are coming later, because actually it was equally funny to watch him spend this episode just glaring and biting his tongue (and having his voice crack the way it sometimes does on the radio, it happened right at the beginning of this episode, and you always know we're getting something good out of John Robins when his voice starts cracking) whenever he got annoyed about something going wrong. And is adorable that his buddy Alex got a reference to his big award into the episode, especially in a way that says "You know, technically you're on the level with Steve Pemberton."

(The other reason I didn't do a liveblog this time is I was genuinely embarrassed reading back the one I wrote during s16e01, where I frequently transcribed my internal and/or external monologue verbatim as I was too into the episode to also put an edit between my thoughts and the typed words, and was really into backing Sam Campbell like a sports team and Taskmaster brings out the sports team side of me in general, which is how you had bits of that post with me writing things like "Yes Sammy C coming through" with what I hope any reader would (incorrectly) interpret as irony. It's for the best that I avoided that this time and didn't need to document the number of times the words "Come on Johnny you got this" came out out loud as I was watching him throw hula hoops at things. I have never referred to him by that name before, it's just the automatic sports-ifying of people's names that happens when you watch them like a sports team. I'm pretty sure words in parentheses don't count towards a post, so this one actually ended when I said it did two paragraphs ago.)

[grandfloridbigtallman]

fuck it

bonus points for ur reasons in the tags

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

To say this last week @galwaycomedy was a rollercoaster is an understatement.From hosting a sold out @basementjokesgalway to performing at another sold out show in @roisindubhpub and meeting some of my inspirations of comedy from Ardal O’Hanlon to John Bishop,this has been an absolute highlight of my career so far and I am very much looking forward to having a few days to hide away and sleep now

Source: Ronan Clancy

[denimbex1986]

'Dublin International Film Festival is hosting a special screening of John Butler’s ‘impossible to resist’ film Handsome Devil (2016) on Thursday 25th July, here Light House Cinema. The one-off event is part of a series of unique cinema experiences presented as part of the Tanqueray 0.0% Film Club and will feature an In Conversation with John Butler and other special guests.

Premiered as the Closing Night Film at DIFF 2017, members of the cast and crew, including Director John Butler (The Outlaws, The Stag, Papi Chulo) will reunite to enjoy and celebrate this coming-of-age comedy. By bringing this contemporary classic back to one of Dublin’s leading independent cinemas, DIFF is doing what it does best: supporting, showcasing, and promoting the best of Irish filmmaking talent.

Produced by Treasure Entertainment (Papi Chulo, The Stag, Flora And Son), and starring Fionn O’Shea (Dating Amber, Normal People) and Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You, Bottoms), alongside Andrew Scott (Ripley, All of Us Strangers, Sherlock), Handsome Devil is a story of friendship and fun told with a tenderness and honesty that makes it as relevant and poignant now as it did to audiences who enjoyed when it first hit the big screen.

The film follows the story of the unlikely friendship of boarding school roommates Ned (Fionn O’Shea) and Conor (Nicholas Galitzine), who despite taking an instant dislike to each other are encouraged by their English teacher Dan Sherry (Andrew Scott) to find their own voices and defy the status quo of their rugby-obsessed school.

Director John Butler said, “It’s a dream to see Handsome Devil continue to find a devoted global audience so long after its ‘first life’. Maybe the message is timeless - people will always need friends, and acceptance, and stories on screen will always have the power to bring souls together to look at the flickering light, in the dark”

There are also plenty of recognisable and well-loved stars in the supporting cast with Moe Dunford, Hugh O’Conor, Ardal O’Hanlon and Amy Huberman making appearances, and Brian O’Driscoll choreographing the top-notch, on-field rugby action.

DIFF Festival Director Grainne Humphreys said “John Butler is one our most talented Directors, and we’re proud to have premiered The Stag, Handsome Devil and Papi Chulo at previous festivals. The timeless impact of this title and its ability to continually connect with international audiences is testament to John's storytelling and the stellar cast and the creative teams he works with.

This one-off special screening is the latest in a series of unmissable events presented as part of the Tanqueray 0.0% Film Club, which launched earlier this year at DIFF 2024 as a way to elevate the cinema experience and bring filmmakers together for magnificent conversations. 

Following the screening, John Butler and members of the cast will revisit their experiences of making the film and explore how their careers and projects have developed since. Irish actress, writer, and Tanqueray Brand Ambassador Amy Huberman will host the conversation and invite members of the public to put their questions to the Handsome Devil team...'

[sp-fanclub]

🥁 gang, all of these votes were SO CLOSE, unbelievable

here we go…

please, welcome to the cast:

🧟‍♂️ BILL HADER is VAURIEN SCAPEGRACE 🔪

🧟 ARDAL O’HANLON is THRASHER 🍻

annnnnddd

💙 ÁINE NÍ NÉILL is CLARABELLE 🧪

see you in the morning to announce our next three characters!

[superbeans89]

Taskmaster S18 predictions:

At some point, there will be reference to Andy Zaltzman owning a chocolate factory

Ardal O’Hanlon’s recording of ‘bubbles’ will be played during a task.

Jack Dee will be made to groan for points

Multiple cricket puns will be made in regards to Andy’s uniform (‘hitting the stumps’ or something)

Babtunde’s justification for something unhinged will be ‘points init’

Emma’s ‘sporting heritage’ will fail her multiple times (once so far).

Jack Dee will get the ‘single’ task, a la Josh Widdicombe counting spaghetti hoops.

Rosie Jones will make at least four innuendos.

Feel free to add on your own!

[the-casbah-way]

finally got to season thirteen of taskmaster and GODDDDD ardal o’hanlon is so cute he's got me kicking my legs and giggling and shit

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Handsome Devil 

Rating: NR

Director: John Butler

Cast: Fionn O’Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott, Ardal O’Hanlon, Amy Huberman, Ruairí O’Connor, Michael McElhatton, Moe Dunford, Mark Doherty, Norma Sheahan, Stephen Hogan, Lauterio Zamparelli

Release year: 2016

Genres: drama

Blurb: A music-mad 16-year-old outcast at a rugby-mad boarding school forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing new roommate.

[macbethheadband]

Why did i have to watch those two elderly lesbians experience a microaggression from ardal o’hanlon dressed as a cat

[wellamarke]

mixed up graham linehan and ardal o’hanlon’s names and just had a really nice realisation halfway through series 13 of taskmaster

[taskmastercaps]

[ID: Ten screencaps from Taskmaster. Ardal O’Hanlon asks, “Are you a French trapeze artist?” An unknown man standing on the studio stage replies, “No.” Greg Davies says, “I mean, what sort of fucking opener was that?” Bridget Christie asks next, “Is your name Andrew?” The man replies, “No.” Greg says wearily, “God Almighty.” Chris Ramsey asks, “Does your name begin with a vowel?” The man replies, “No.” Greg says, “Thanks, Chris.” Chris gives him an obliging little wave. End ID.]

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Does anyone want 345 GB of John Oliver? Because I have just spent the last couple of weeks gathering 345 GB of John Oliver, organizing and labeling everything with the original air date and show and episode titles/guest lists (honestly, that took more effort than just downloading it all), and then uploaded it to a Google Drive. A Google Drive where I get the first three months at a discounted rate, so it’ll definitely stay up as long as that. No promises after that, because the price will go up and I don’t think I can afford to pay monthly to maintain that. But I’ll see how it goes. If anyone does get this link and wants to keep what’s in it, definitely download it to your own hard drive because it won’t stay up indefinitely.

I’m not going to post the link publicly for obvious reasons, but if anyone wants this link, you just have to message me. Don’t be shy if we don’t know each other or talk on here or anything, I’m happy to share with anyone who wants it. All I ask is that you don’t share the link publicly either, that makes it more likely that it’ll stay up for as long as I keep paying the fee, at least.

This Google Drive has most things where John Oliver was a main writer and/or creator, and also appeared in it. And then it has a folder for all the acting roles he had after moving to America – so anything where he plays a character, rather than “as self”. And there’s a folder for just everything I could find from pre-move to America – panel show spots (TV and radio, though TV is just Mock the Week), radio stand-up spots, an article he wrote for The Times in 2003, videos I took off YouTube, that stand-up show he did with Andy Zaltzman that they released on The Bugle, that one time when he sat at a desk across the room from Armando Iannucci and read out fake news stories. Three different sitcoms where he appeared in one episode each, for one scene each. One time in 2001, he turned up on a sitcom that starred Ardal O’Hanlon as an alien superhero, but John’s only role was to come in for about one minute and ruin Hugh Dennis’ day. In one episode of a different 2001 sitcom, which starred Thick of It Minister and noted child pornography collector Chris Langham, John's entire role was to fuck with Robert Webb for one scene and then sit in the background of some others, looking at computers from the 90s. Is this something you would like to see? Then send me a message!

Here is a list of things that are not in my Google Drive:

- Any of his “as self” appearances, post-move to America, that aren’t in John Oliver’s own show (one where he was the host, or a writer like on The Daily Show). Interviews and other guest appearances on talk shows or podcasts – gathering all that up would take the rest of my life, so I haven’t bothered.

- Last Week Tonight season 11, after episode 1. As I write this, episode 1 is the only episode that’s out, so of course nothing past there is uploaded. As more episodes come out, I’ll try to add them, but I don’t want to commit to that, so I don’t know how much will go up.

-  The stuff I haven't been able to find from his pre-America days. That means the lost section of his "as self" IMDB page, as indicated by my MS Paint yellow circle:

I have all the pre-America stuff on his IMDB page that's not in that yellow circle, so please let me know if you know where to find the lost yellow circle files.

This, which I would say has now become my biggest white whale in terms of lost John Oliver media:

A Radio 4 show from May 2005 in which John Oliver and a runner-up for the Perrier Award in 1987 talk about the election for eight episodes. With writing credits to a young Andy Zaltzman, a young Mark Watson, a slightly less young but younger than he is now Robin Ince, and a guy who was in Chris Addison's sitcom and is married to Margaret Cabourn-Smith. And some people I haven't heard of. I don't hold out a lot of hope for finding a copy of this show, but obviously, if you have a lead, do let me know.

He also did a Radio 4 sitcom about an orchestra with Lucy Montgomery and some people I've never heard of in 2004. I bet it's terrible, I'd love to hear it.

Oh, and John Oliver doesn't actually appear in this but I've heard Andy Zaltzman describe some stuff that Zaltzman and Oliver wrote for Bremner, Bird and Fortune that I've never been able to find.

Other than that, I have most things. Please send me a message if you would like access to that, you can send a non-anonymous ask if you prefer that but it just can't be anonymous because then I can't reply privately.

[twistedtummies2]

Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 23

(For whatever reason, this entry didn't post when it was supposed to. Not sure what went wrong. Regardless, here it is now.)

(As I said on a previous post, putting this one up super early because I'll be flying out of state tomorrow, which means getting to bed and getting up early.)

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “Mess and I are very old friends.”

Number 23 is…Humphrey Goodman, from Death in Paradise.

I like to say that Death in Paradise can practically be called “Doctor Whodunnit.” In a way, this show – which has been on the air since 2011, and is still going strong – feels very much like Doctor Who to me, in some superficial ways. The chiefest one is that, with its longevity, it’s changed out lead actors frequently: just as Doctor Who has the Doctor “regenerate” into new forms, played by new performers, to keep the series going, “Death in Paradise” does the same with its chief detectives.

The premise of the show is a classic, old-fashioned murder mystery program, in many ways. It all takes place on the island of Saint Marie in the Caribbean. The crimes that need to be solve tend to follow a similar format: the story begins with some person on the island being murdered (of course). The crime is usually made to look like a suicide or an accident, but there’s usually one small, seemingly incongruous detail that indicates it wasn’t. However, all of the possible suspects were either all together or in sight of each other at the presumed time of death. So, the great question becomes: how could any of them do it without tipping off the rest to their activities?

In the show, the crimes fall under the jurisdiction of the small but intrepid Honore Police Department. The department typically hires out agents from England and France alike, to serve. The main character is, so far, always an English detective inspector, who – through some means or another – ends up assigned to take charge of investigations. Over the 12 years the show has been going on, we’ve so far had four separate detectives, and ALL of them have been awesome. There’s the grumpy and pompous Richard Poole, the very first lead sleuth (played by Ben Miller); later came the jocular and carefree Jack Mooney (played by Ardal O’Hanlon); and, of course, there’s the current lead as of writing this post, the neurotic and hypochondriac Neville Parker (played by Ralf Little). Any one of them could have made a great choice on this list, and I was initially tempted to give ALL of the detectives in the show a collective slot…but after some consideration, I felt it was only fair to include just one. And if I had to pick just one, it would be the series’ second lead – whose era took place between Poole and Mooney – Humphrey Goodman, played by Kris Marshall.

Humphrey was the first truly “eccentric” character in the series, among the four detectives. Richard Poole was more of a fish out of water; a character who was the total opposite of the place he was in. He was formal, stuffy, proper, and the humor largely came from his pomposity being constantly punctured due to the stark contrast between himself and the island. Humphrey was a much more overtly friendly sort, and while he wasn’t exactly someone who got along on the island like it had always been home, he was much less rude and impatient. Instead, the humor with Humphrey came largely from his own personal oddities. Goodman is clumsy, socially awkward, technologically inept, and his moods turn on a dime; going from energetically bouncing around to stone cold serious at the flip of a coin. He was also perpetually hopeless in romance: at the start of his tenure, Humphrey was going through a divorce, and throughout his time on the series, he was constantly falling into and out of relationships with people. Indeed, it was love that eventually led to Humphrey’s departure: towards the end of Season 6 – having been on the show since the start of Season 3 – Goodman left Saint Marie to pursue a relationship with an old friend of his, Martha, in London.

This was not the end for Humphrey Goodman: the character turned out to be extremely popular with viewers, so much so that a spin-off show was created called “Beyond Paradise.” This series focused on the detective inspector’s adventures in England, as he continued to solve crimes with Martha at his side. Interestingly, this was also not the first time Kris Marshall had played a British sleuth: he had previously appeared in another crime series called “Murder City.” I must confess I haven’t watched either of these shows yet, as of typing this, but I REALLY want to. While the other detectives who solved the baffling mysteries of Saint Marie were all excellent fellows so far, Marshall’s D.I. Goodman is by far my favorite island inspector so far.

Tomorrow (in just a couple hours), the countdown continues with Number 22!

CLUE: “I am on a mission to protect the world’s idiots!”

[cake-enthusiast-18]

My Good Omens S2 inspired dream Taskmaster cast: 

Crowley (massive Ed Gamble, James Acaster, KSB energy)

Aziraphale (ginormous Charlotte Ritchie, Mike Wozniak, Mae Martin energy)

Muriel (Ardal O’Hanlon, Charlotte Ritchie Energy)

Gabriel (pre-Amnesia) (no contestant has ever pissed me off)

Hastur (just Rhod energy, really)

Teams: (Crowley, Gabriel, because if they are paired together, I can re-live the James-Rhod glory days), Muriel, Gabriel, Hastur (a combination of Tim, Asim, Liza and Fern, John, Dara).