It is impossible to produce an irreverent historical comedy without inviting comparisons with Blackadder and this romp certainly knows it. Writer Stewart Lee even makes a pre-emptive strike by namechecking Baldrick and co’s authors Ben Elton and Richard Curtis. Maybe he should give them some royalties, too. The tissue-thin plot involves Raleigh (Miles Jupp) wooing…
PLAYING a drama queen is proving a right royal pain in the backside for Simon Munnery. He puts on wigs, ruffs, makeup and elaborate costumes to transform himself into famous monarch Elizabeth I for comedy special Elizabeth & Raleigh – Late But Live. The offering by Stewart Lee teams Simon with Miles Jupp, as Walter…
Where the Blackadder feared to tread – that is the territory occupied with resolution and wit by Simon Munnery and Miles Jupp in Stewart Lee’s take on the first Elizabethan age. The plot of Elizabeth And Raleigh – passingly relevant as an excuse to move things along – has Raleigh wooing the Virgin Queen only…
HAVING seen Richard Curtis’ jokey take on history in Blackadder and Frankie Howerd relating his doubles to the people of ancient Rome in Up Pompeii, we’re all familiar with lampooned versions of the history books. But not many stray as far as this gloriously silly interpretation of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her…
Hmm… a woman played by a bloke? Sounds a mite Elizabethan and – hey, look! It is. Our eponymous heroes in Late but Live: Elizabeth and Raleigh are ably portrayed by funny men Simon Munnery (Queen Elizabeth I) and Miles Jupp (Sir Walter Raleigh) in this gag-fuelled romp at the Tobacco Factory Theatre. And, yes,…
Following the success of last year’s Johnson & Boswell, smarty-pants comedians Simon Munnery, Miles Jupp and writer Stewart Lee regrouped for this year’s Elizabeth & Raleigh, bringing Munnery’s alarming-looking Elizabeth I into conflict with Jupp’s besotted Walter Raleigh. Was a follow-up to Johnson & Boswell something you wanted to do from the start? We all…