Now in its 19th year, Britain’s best-loved comedy awards ceremony returns live to ITV1 on Saturday, 6 December 2008. For one dazzling night the brightest stars in the comedy firmament assemble to celebrate the most original, successful and downright funny moments from a spectacular array of comedic achievement in the last year.
This year’s nomination
Best New British TV Comedy of 2008
No Heroics (Tiger Aspect for ITV2)
In episode three Electroclash has her fourth disciplinary hearing, where she is sentenced to community service with a badly behaved teenage sidekick. Timebomb and The Hotness go out on the streets looking for trouble and end up in a strip club. And She-Force gets lucky with another cape, called Tidal Wave, whose special powers include secreting fish oils.
Episode four stars Mark Heap as superhero “Light Killer,” She-Force’s imprisoned ex-flame. Timebomb unsuccessfully bodyguards a prince and Electroclash and The Hotness fail miserably at spending some quality time together.
Episode five sees a visit by some famous superhero parents when Sarah’s mum and dad arrive at The Fortress. She’s less than pleased to see them, and enlists Alex’s help to annoy them as much as possible. However, Exclesor and Sarah’s dad have their own rather messy joke to play on Alex.
Tired of the super hero life, Jenny gets herself a normal office job. But when she finds out that her colleague is a “capist”, will she be able to keep her super-strengths powers in check?
To try and come to terms with his own issues, Don has joined a therapy group, where out of sorts super heroes can meet to talk through their various problems. A lifetime of killing has left him pretty troubled, but a session with some of his fellow heroes starts to make him feel better.
The final episode has a tinge of sadness, following the death of Thunder Monkey – fellow superhero and bouncer at The Fortress. After the funeral, everyone naturally heads to the pub, where the landlord, Norse Dave, is eager to take revenge for Thunder Monkey’s demise. He enlists Don to help extract information from supervillain Doomball, who is being held in the cellar.
Meanwhile upstairs, Jenny is keen to uphold Thunder Monkey’s pub rules, and when some of the drinkers are break the “no smoking” rule, she has to decide whether breaking the “no powers” rule is justified.
Alex meets an American agent, who is keen to sign him up to her American superhero group. The money is good, and there’s even an action figure in it for him, but will he really leave his friends in The Fortress?
Thursday 18 September
ITV2 has commissioned Tiger Aspect to make No Heroics, an exclusive comedy sitcom featuring a stellar Britcom cast including Patrick Baladi (The Office, Mistresses, Party Animals, Bodies), Nicholas Burns (Benidorm, Nathan Barley, Man Stroke Woman, Roman’s Empire), James Lance (Moving Wallpaper, Teachers, Smack The Pony, Spaced), Claire Keelan (Sorted, Nathan Barley) and Rebekah Staton (Pulling, Mysterious Creatures, State of Play).
The six-part series is brand new for 2008 and sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day to day life, which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal – as they just can’t be arsed. Instead this group of b-listers would rather get drunk in their local superheroes-only pub, The Fortress, and commiserate at their lack of superiority.
Nicholas Burns was born in Derbyshire, England and trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
He is well known for his role as wannabe urban cool man Nathan Barley in the Channel 4 sitcom of the same name, and also for his portrayal of put-upon Martin Weedon in the BAFTA nominated sitcom Benidorm. Nick was one of six leads in two series of the BBC sketch show Man Stroke Woman.
He has also appeared in TV comedies Roman’s Empire, The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh, Fear of Fanny, Never Better and the upcoming Monday Monday and Mister Eleven.
Other TV credits include dramas Miss Marple, Cambridge Spies and A Touch of Frost. Read the rest of this entry »
James Lance is a British actor, trained at The Sylvia Young Theatre School.
James has recently completed two independent British films due for general release later this year; Bronson directed by the acclaimed Danish director, Nicholas Winding Refyns and starring Tom Hardy, as well as City Rats starring Danny Dyer and Tamar Hussan. James has also had starring roles in The Search for John Gissing, Late Night Shopping and Sofia Coppola’s Oscar winning film, Marie Antoinette starring Kirstin Dunst.
He has acted alongside Robert Carlyle for the BBC’s Last Enemy and played Joanna Lumley’s son in Sensitive Skin. James also appeared in Channel 4’s The Book Group.
Currently he is reprising his role as Jesus in ITV2’s Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show, filming Boy Meets Girl with Martin Freeman and starring in a second series of ITV1’s Moving Wallpaper. Read the rest of this entry »
Patrick Baladi is from Birmingham and trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Patrick was David Brent’s adversary Neil Godwin, in the award winning BBC sitcom The Office. He has a number of TV credits to his name, most recently the provocative BBC series Mistresses, BAFTA nominated medical drama Bodies and the part of Dodi Al-Fayed in the 2007 docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess. Patrick has also appeared in Party Animals.
Patrick has also appeared in various films including the romantic comedy Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and action comedy drama High Heels and Low Lifes.
He is no stranger to the stage and has a long list of theatre performances to his name. Patrick has appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company productions such as Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, and most recently Purgatorio at the Arcola Theatre, London. Read the rest of this entry »
