Comedy

Monday

Fresh Meat

Channel 4

10pm

Back for its final series, the university sitcom back with as many laugh-out-loud hilarious and toe-curlingly awkward moments as you could have dreamed.

Impressions of Fame will take a comic look at the lives of celebrities on and off the screen, as Robinson couples new impressions of Joanna Lumley, Gregg Walace and Miranda Hart, along with the acts she has become known for such as Eastenders actors Danny Dyer and Natalie Cassidy.

Robinson, who previously demonstrated her skills in Channel 4's The Morgana Show, will be joined by ‘big name’ actors, comedians and guest stars who will play the friends and colleagues of celebrities.

Students were given the opportunity to listen industry experts about their craft.

From cameraman Steve Robinson describing how to portray personal moments on camera to editor of BBC One's The Missing explaining how a show comes together in the cutting room, the two-day masterclasses provided advice and insight into the television industry. 

Over almost two decades at the BBC and Sky, Lucy Lumsden has commissioned some of the country’s best-loved comedies, including Outnumbered, Miranda and Moone Boy.

But the commissioner has recently swapped sides – having made her first short film last year, Lumsden is now in the business of creating comedy.

The seeds of her future career were sown at Edinburgh University, explained Lumsden, who was giving the RTS comedy masterclass.

The classic sitcom no longer rules the TV schedules in the way that shows such as Fawlty Towers, Open All Hours and Porridge did in the 1970s. Or does it?

A panel of TV practitioners attempted to tease out the answer last month at an RTS early-­evening event, “No laughing matter: how does comedy fight back?” This stimulating debate made one think that we could be living through another golden age of TV comedy without necessarily knowing it.

Yorkshire RTS invited Barry Cryer back to his Leeds birthplace for an evening of showbiz anecdotes. The comedian and writer, who turned 80 earlier this year, showed a sell-out crowd that he has lost none of his wit and sparkle.

The event took place in mid-October at the atmospheric Trinity Church in Leeds, just yards away from where Cryer started his extraordinary career, the City Varieties Music Hall.