Böcker av Ian Hislop

It''s 1950s austerity Britain, and out of the gloom comes Goon mania as men,women and children across the country scramble to get their ear to a wirelessfor another instalment of The Goon Show. While Harry Secombe and PeterSellers get down to the serious business of becoming overnight celebrities,fellow Goon and chief writer Spike nds himself pushing the boundaries ofcomedy, and testing the patience of the BBC.Flanked by his fellow Goons and bolstered by the e orts of irrepressiblesound assistant Janet, Spike takes a ourishing nosedive o the cli s ofrespectability, and mashes up his haunted past to create the comedy of thefuture. His war with Hitler may be over, but his war with Auntie Beeb - andultimately himself - has just begun.Will Spike''s dogged obsession with nding the funny elevate The Goons tosoaring new heights, or will the whole thing come crashing down with thestroke of a potato peeler?

Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford – only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard, but a sleepy Suffolk village. And instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers. Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career implodes, he discovers some truths about himself – along with his inner Lear!“terrific comedy packed with killer comic dialogue... plenty of twists and turns” ***** Whatsonstage“Deliciously stuffed with Shakespeare...a laugh-a-minute” **** Mail on Sunday

The true and extraordinary story of the satirical  newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the  Somme, interspersed with comic sketches and spoofs from the vivid imagination of those on the front line. In a bombed out building during the First World War in the French town of Ypres (mispronounced Wipers by British soldiers), two officers discover a printing press and create a newspaper for the troops. Far from being a sombre journal about life in the trenches, they produced a resolutely cheerful, subversive and very funny newspaper designed to lift the spirits of the men on the front line.