Tim has written and stars in a brand new comedy for BBC Radio 2. The forthcoming sitcom pilot is called ‘Strings’ and will be broadcast on 8th May 10 – 10.30pm.
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The BBC blurb describes it thusly:
Tim Minchin plays Jonny, lead singer of rock band Perspex, who’s left everything behind him in Australia in pursuit of fame.
Blasting onto the music scene with their hit single ‘Shag With The Stereo On’, Perspex are on the cusp of becoming famous. A garrulous Glaswegian A&R man will make sure of that. But Jonny is haunted by a terrible suspicion that he’s not emotionally unstable enough to be a proper star.
A chance encounter with Verity, the beautiful lead singer of Christian pop band, In-X-Chelseas, ignites Jonny’s interest. Worlds apart but undeniably drawn to each other, will their connection lead Jonny to redemption, or supply him with the suffering he craves to create great rock?
‘Strings’ contains original songs written by Tim Minchin and performed by Perspex. It also stars Peter Serafinowicz, Will Adamsdale, Rosalie Craig, Emily Watson Howes, Dan Antopolski, Lizzie Roper and Lewis McLeod.
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As it’s being broadcast on the BBC, it will be available on BBC iPlayer either live or for seven days after it’s aired. If you want to check what time it’s airing, local to you, you could look here.
Tip: Try looking forward to this in a state of excited anticipation…
Tickets go on sale today for the eagerly anticipated Matilda, A Musical and can be booked online at The RSC’s Matilda Musical Site or by calling the RSC Ticket Hotline on 0844 800 1110. £5 tickets are available for 16 – 25 year olds and there’s a Children go Half Price offer for families for Mon – Fri evening performances and all matinees.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the RSC have a series of interviews featuring Tim and the writer Dennis Kelly! You can watch them via the link above or below:
Tim will be standing up for human rights at The Lyceum Theatre, London, on Monday 7 June 2010 at 7.30 pm. It will be an evening of comedy and music in support of legal action charity Reprieve
Tim joins many other top comedians to celebrate ten years of Reprieve’s vital work on death row and Guantánamo Bay in a unique stand-up show: Rory Bremner, Stewart Lee, Robin Ince, Kevin Eldon, Shappi Khorsandi, Isy Suttie, Andy Zaltzman, plus special guests. Hosted by Alistair Barrie and Clive Stafford Smith.
Reprieve Director Clive Stafford Smith: “Our work tends to be serious and saddening at times. Learning to laugh in the face of adversity is an important skill to possess when faced with the most daunting circumstances – these comedians help us see the silly side of the grimmest of situations. This is a rare chance to see some of the smartest comics on the circuit today, performing for a really great cause!”
Tickets are available now from: Ticketmaster
Just a nice short note to say that Tim will be appearing at this year’s Guardian Hay Festival, which takes place in Hay-On-Wye, Wales.
Tim will be performing on the 31st May, with tickets for his show going on sale to Friends of Hay at midnight tonight and to the general public at midnight on Tuesday. The festival box office number is 01497 822629 and online ticket sales can be found here.
Other confirmed acts and authors include Phillip Pullman, Bill Bryson, Rob Brydon, Laura Marling and Brian May, so why not stay and enjoy more of the festival?
If you’re a fan of Tim’s on Facebook (and if you’re not, the only excuse is that you’re not on Facebook, and who’s not on Facebook these days?) then you’ll probably already know that we have an exclusive Easter Monday treat for you, and boy what a treat it is!
The producer of ITV’s Comedy Cuts, Rohan Acharya, has kindly allowed us to upload to YouTube, for your viewing pleasure, the video for ‘If You Really Loved Me’, which is taken from the forthcoming series of the said ITV programme.
Do you like abandoned warehouses, dancing and men in tailcoats? If so, this video might just make your day!
You’ve not heard much about Matilda, the musical for which Tim is writing the music and lyrics, have you? Well allow me to furnish you with some details.
The musical will run from 9th November 2010 to 30th January 2011 at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, with previews between the 9th and 13th November. Audio-described performances, for the vision impaired, are on the 11th and 29th January and captioned performances for the hard of hearing are on the 15th and 21st January. A comprehensive list of performance dates and times can be found here.
Tickets will be available to buy from 21st April (put it in your diaries so that you don’t forget), priced between £8 and £56 depending on what day you see it, and which seats you book. More details, including individual band prices, can be found here.
You know you’re really looking forward to it and, well, if you don’t, why not? It’s going to be ace!
The announcements for festival season begin: Camp Bestival is 30th July – 1st August 2010 at Lulworth Castle in Dorset.
Tim will be performing as part of the Jestival Sessions on Friday 30th.
The great comedy line up for Jestival also includes: Rufus Hound, Jim Jefferies, Marcus Brigstocke, Andrew Maxwell, Andre Vincent, Tiernan Douieb, Carl Donnelly, Craig Campbell, Mitch Benn, Rob Rouse, Matt Kirshen and Tim Fitzhigham!
Weekend tickets are £155 and can be purchased from the Camp Bestival website.
So dig out that crumpled tent and shake the spiders out of your wellies and have fun!
You know how on Tuesday we mentioned that Sam Leach’s portrait of Tim was one of the finalists for the Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious art awards? Well, it’s only gone and won!
Leach said he approached Tim to do a portrait, “primarily because I really like his style of comedy,” as well as seeing parallels between the pair’s lives.
“The topics he deals with – social commentary, the appeal to reason over religion and that kind of thing – tie in with my work.
“But in a funny way I also see my career reflected in his. His career is much bigger than mine but we became successful in our fields almost simultaneously and our first and second children were also born about the same time.”
He continued, “It was very important for me to get the toes in because he performs with bare feet and I was very happy with them.”
Tim gave this statement about his portrait: “What I like about my portrait is that it’s clear young Samuel has really put some effort into it. I particularly like how he made my lounge room floor look so clean – this will please my mother – and I’m seriously considering buying a print.”
Click the thumbnail to see the full prize-winning portrait.
So, it turns out that Tim’s going to be on Australian television this weekend as well as UK TV.
On Sunday, at 8pm, Tim will be appearing on the panel show ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on Ten, alongside Chrissie Amphlett and Brooke Satchwell.
After his recent appearance on Good News Week, you’ll know that you won’t want to be missing this!
As the post titles suggests, these are a few snippets of news that don’t really justify a whole news post to themselves.
1. Tim has won two Green Room awards in cabaret for the best artiste and best original songs. Unfortunately he wasn’t even nominated for best male dancer. The full list of nominations and recipients can be found here.
2. Tim has also won a Chortle award for best music or variety act. Looks like he’s going to need a bigger mantelpiece for all these trophies. The rest of the winners can be seen here.
3. Speaking of awards, a portrait of Tim, done by the artist, Sam Leach, is a finalist for the Archibald Prize, which is regarded as one of the most prestigious Australian art awards. The painting, along with the other finalists can be seen here.
4. ‘So F**king Rock Live’ is being repeated on e4, in the UK, yet again, on Saturday at 11pm. Not that we’re saying you should watch it because it’s already been on three times, and you’ve probably got the DVD too, but just so you know.
On March 14th, Tim will be taking to the stage alongside an eclectic line-up of comedians, scientists and politicians, including Dara O’Briain, Dr Ben Goldacre, Robin Ince and Simon Singh, at a benefit gig for the Coalition for Libel Reform, who are trying to get unfair UK libel laws reformed.
This is what Tim had to say about the matter: “Here is what current English libel laws say: ‘Dear inquisitive, hard-working person with the public interest at heart: If a rich b*****d tells you to shut-up, you’d better shut-the f**k-up or be prepared to go broke’. It needs a tweak, we reckon.”
The show is taking place at the Palace Theatre in London and tickets are priced between £20 and £40.
[Go here] for more information and ticket purchasing links.
Tim has been nominated for the Music or Variety act in the 2010 Chortle Awards, along with Wilson Dixon, Frisky & Mannish and Hans Teeuwen.
It’s the ninth year of the Chortle Awards and Music or Variety is one of the two new categories, the other being Sketch or Character act.
Polls close at 11.59pm on February 21 and you can vote *ahem* numerously here.
Waiting for something?
…on your mouse, get set…Go!
Wow, there hasn’t been any news in a while but that changes right now!
For all you Aussie folk reading this, be sure to tune in to Ten on Monday at 8:30pm.
I’m sure some of you are thinking, “but that’s when ‘Good News Week’ is on,” and you’d be right because, along with Jimeoin, Kitty Flanagan and Colin Lane, Tim’s appearing on it so if you’ve ever wanted to see him take part in a comedy panel quiz show that isn’t ‘Spicks and Specks’ then now’s your chance!
So who amongst you has heard the rumour about the ‘Storm’ animation? The good news is that it’s all true and it’s due out sometime next year (or sometime this year if you’re reading this in 2010; look at you being in the future).
The movie’s production blog has now gone live in the lead up to the release; it’ll feature character designs, concept sketches, inspiration for the film, time-lapsed videos of artwork being created and more, posted by the team responsible for this ace project! It’ll be updated frequently, exclusively, and maybe even by Tim.
For all the latest goings on I suggest you keep your beady eyes on [this], follow the [Twitter feed], become a fan on [Facebook] or maybe do all three!
To get a taster for it, the trailer is now live!
And so the mission to get my sentimental, atheistic, southern-hemispherical Christmas song, White Wine in the Sun, into the UK charts was a massive success!
Well, it was to me, anyway.
Sure, it didn’t exactly end up ruffling the feathers of Joe’s X-factorial Miley Cyrus cover, nor the teen-angst anarchanthem that, were it a person, would be old enough to drive its grandma’s Volvo, but the odds on it making a real impact on the Christmas charts were always very, very slim, like a post-apocalyptic shopping-mall Santa with gastro, or an Olsen twin.
After all, I only thought to give it a push about a week before they stopped counting, and we were competing against dozens of songs that are played dozens of times a day on dozens of radio stations. Oh, and it’s 6.5 minutes long and doesn’t specifically promote the idea that Jesus is magic.
But I am so very, VERY chuffed by the responses to the song and the amazing support from my frickin’ ace Twitter followers and Facebook folk and fancy celeb-types like Wossy and Gaiman and Mills and Bacon and Wallace and Herring and Brooker and Serafinowicz and, well loads of nice, good people who felt that my song was a reasonably pleasant musical contribution to the festive season.
To everyone who did so, thanks so much for downloading and enjoying.
As you may know, 50% of proceeds from the sale of the song during December will go to the National Autistic Society to support their efforts to further understand and treat Autism. And although our fucking cracking attempt to climb the charts is now over, there’s still 10 days left in the month! So please continue to let people know that the song is available.
(The other 50% goes to me, because I live in a small flat with a devastating paucity of closet space.)
Merry Christmas and peace be with you.
xx tim.
The single can be bought from:
iTunes
Amazon
HMV
We7
Play.com
TuneTribe
Tesco
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