mostly david ephgrave

The nature of live-tweeting a TV programme is you can’t please everybody, though sometimes, you can’t please the people who were actually in it. Not amused. These days, everyone’s a critic, which is kind of ironic as tomorrow I head to the Edinburgh Fringe where they’re particularly rife. So it’s fitting that one of my tweets should disappoint someone this evening - namely one of the contestants in tonight’s show - if only to warm me up for next month. I’m prepared to admit the tweet wasn’t exactly an example of sparkling wit, but it was pretty innocuous; at the very least, it was unremarkable enough to avoid comment; it’s weird what people take offense to. Outside of this, there was little of note during tonight’s show, other than Morris’ impressively sizeable Afro. See below for what I said about this evening’s programme too. Pembroke - Oxford Vs. Downing - Cambridge (30.07.18) 8:32PM: Morris shows promise. 8:34PM: Lamb...

Yesterday's preview at the Portland Arms in Cambridge was a real joy, just like the year before it. As with last year’s gig, I shared a bill with Norman Lovett, who’s such an easygoing person to be around; while I’m less likely to overthink it at Mostly Comedy, I’m a lot more choosy about who I book when it’s just the two of us and I’m doing a preview; I don’t want to be with anyone who intimidates me or the whole “I’m not really a comedian” inner-monologue will surface. While the wealth of Norman's experience is never far from my mind when I see him, he’s such easy company I can quickly overcome it, plus he's appeared at Mostly Comedy so frequently and even took part in a rehearsed reading of a script I wrote with Glyn a few years back; all of which helps me feel comfortable when I’m about to launch into a new show. The journey to Cambridge was as sweaty and stressful as you might expect in the current heatwave, involving a missed (and presumed early) bus, a taxi no-s...

To everything, turn, turn, turn, There is a season, turn turn, turn. And a time for a every new series of University Challenge under Heaven. Today saw the second episode of the new run of University Challenge, which   - as I was out hosting the first night in our Mostly Comedy Festival - means I’ve already started the series a week behind, playing catch-up. Tonight’s show was a largely understated affair, save for the inclusion of Glasgow’s Barn, who I’m pretty sure was desperate for us to notice he was back on another game show; he’s like a really lacklustre less-sinister Pennywise.   Emmanuel Cambs Vs Glasogow (30.06.1 8:33PM: If there's no Monkaman equivalent this year, I'm doing a Phil Collins / Sean Connery and threatening to leave the country. 8:34PM: Harris wins the prize for first #UniversityChallenge murderer of the series. 8:35PM: Look at Barn, leaning into Whiteford. Cheeky. 8:36P...

I’ve grown bored of University Challenge of late, yet I still for the most part watch and live-tweet it. Part of the problem stems from feeling the BBC are currently getting Quizzy Monday wrong (in the much same way Alan Partridge expressed anger at Lynn, Michael and Michael’s friend Tex for getting James Bond wrong); Only Connect always felt like the sorbet dessert to University Challenge’s slightly stodgy main course, and now they’ve been switched, UC feels positively miserable in its new position. It doesn’t help that Paxman is so rude and unprofessional; I don’t understand how he gets away with it, yet get away with it he still tends to. It’s like he doesn’t want to be there and feels the need to make this as clear as possible; people have been sacked for less. Despite going off the whole thing, here are today’s tweets:  Newcastle Vs. Fitzwilliam - Cambridge (02.04.18) 8:33PM: Lowery tells the time solely by sundial, ...

The downside to live-tweeting University Challenge week-in week-out is you inevitably start recycling the same jokes. The tweets become variations on a theme that’s been tinkered with, sometimes across a whole series. The only problem is that, ultimately, the results are useless, unless they're read whilst watching the programme, so thank God you’re not exerting much mental effort as you do it; it’s not like you’re writing your masterpiece: you’re just passing the time. See below for today’s version of the same old rubbish; tune in next week for a different edit. Fitzwilliam - Cambridge Vs. Emmanuel - Cambridge (19.03.18) 8:32PM: Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge. It's always Cambridge (or Oxford). 8:33PM: Tindall: my favourite dating app. 8:34PM: Mistlin looks like a Press Pack-winner who got to host Newsround. 8:35PM: Derby travelled to the studio via a hedge. 8:38PM: Mistlin came to...

I felt terribly frustrated for not coming back in time to tweet along to last week’s University Challenge; all the more reason I was ready and prepared today for it today. Taking the mickey out of overly-knowledgeable, poorly dressed students is all I’ve got. See below for today’s tweets:  St. John's Cambridge Vs. Ulster (12.02.18) 8:34PM: A Devine-Stoneman. 8:35PM: Levin's mantra: "mime is money". 8:36PM: Levin wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Fifties’ coffee shop. 8:38PM: McKeown and sibilant answers don't mix. 8:39PM: McDaid is Angelos Epithemiou's McDad. 8:41PM: Going to a # UniversityChallenge recording must be a laugh a minute. 8:42PM: The longer you look, the more pronounced Devine-Stoneman's Adam's apple becomes. 8:44PM: Imagine how stressed Paxman would make you feel while threading a needle: "COME ON”. 8:49PM: "Come on, co...

Tonight’s University Challenge saw a Cambridge college take on a college in Oxford; is it me, or are the teams always from there? I know there are a number of colleges in both cities, and I know both cities are famed for their top-quality education (you may not be aware of this) but still, can’t some other places have a crack of the whip? I want to see scarily well-read students from different privileged backgrounds, and not just the same two boat-race locations going at it; if not, I’m going to write a strongly-worded letter to Points of View (but only if it’s read out on the air by someone with suitable vocal standing; James Earl Jones, perhaps?) See below for my tweets about tonight's show: Fitzwilliam - Cambridge Vs. Merton - Oxford (05.02.18) 8:33PM: Typical two-out-of-four Theo team average. 8:34PM: Tindall killed five people...and that's just today. 8:35PM: Tindall's hair and Fuzzy Felt have the sam...

Tonight’s University Challenge was - as with her last appearance on the show - completely overshadowed by St John’s Cambridge’s McKeown’s outfit. As my first tweet of the evening put it, she looked like a walking affectation; There’s a slim chance that her style choices formed completely naturally over time, but I, for one, doubt it. She’s like a child dressed as an adult, and an irritating adult at that; if she wrote an autobiography it would be filed under fiction (I think I’ve made my point). See below for a record of my live tweets from tonight, for posterity, like: St John's - Cambridge Vs. Corpus Christi - Cambridge (20.11.17) 8:02PM: McKeown is a walking affectation. 8:04PM: Roberts looks like Langly, one of the Lone Gunmen from the X Files. 8:04PM: Roberts should smoke a pipe. I hope he smokes a pipe. 8:07PM: McKeown looks like that English teacher at secondary school you never connected with, wh...

Tonight's was a pretty typical episode of University Challenge, with the normal goings on a a quiz show feature two teams trying desperately trying to prove their high-end education was worth their presumably high fees. I shall keep my summary here tonight brief as I'm suffering from very-nearly-falling-asleep territory, other than today "See below for my tweets collated into one handy online document"; you can't say fairer than that. St Andrews Vs. St John's - Cambridge (09.10.17) 8:02PM: St Andrew's Davies was created specifically for #UniversityChallenge in a petri dish. 8:03PM: Where do they find these people? Oh...Cambridge. 8:05PM: Wasn't one of those St Andrews studying divinity? Speak to Devine-Stoneman in the other team. 8:08PM: I'd like to do a study on how many people wear roll-necks under jackets in everyday life, compared to contestants on #UniversityChallenge 8:10PM: Leighton's lik...