0/5

Did you miss comedy brilliance?

Wallace and Gromit and NEWStopia's 'Inspektor Herring' episodes were absolute gems. Here's where to catch them again.

Did you miss either of the two brilliant comedy treasures last night?

If you missed Wallace and Gromit or NEWStopia you don’t know what you missed.

Both were comic gems.

Wallace and Gromit’s “A Matter of Loaf and Death” was plasticine brilliance. From its orchestral music to its slapstick serial-killer plot (not to mention those wonderful expressions from Gromit) it was hilarity from beginning to end.

It screens again tonight on ABC2 at 8:10pm, and is available on iView.

Meanwhile NEWStopia‘s ‘Inspektor Herring’ episode was a jewel in the crown. Watching Shaun Micallef, Kat Stewart and Nicholas Bell murmer Russian jibberish for the entire episode (complete with yellow SBS subtitles) was inspiring stuff.

How they managed to make Melbourne look like a Perestroika Russia was a stroke of genius. South Melbourne Town Hall as the Bolshoi Ballet? The Palais Theatre for interiors? Housing commission flats as…housing commission Moscow? Fantastic!

This mystery episode with spies, fish, ballerinas and Andre Rieu was unlike anything commercial television would ever go near.

Direction by Bradley Howard, Cinematography by Jo Donahoe-Beckwith, and Art Direction by Scott Adcock were top notch. Special congrats to their location finder! If you’re tired of cop shows and soaps and want to see Australian television dabble into something different, this was like watching a short film. Somebody this episode nominated for an award, pronto….

You can see it again 1:05am Sunday Dec 7 (that’s very late this Saturday night) or watch it live on NEWStopia’s website.

16 Responses

  1. Inspektor Herring was so good. I loved it. NEWStopia is a great show, and I was a bit disappointed at first that they’d not filmed another NEWStopia episode, but Inspektor Herring was fantastic. The effects to make it look like Russia were outstanding. And I love Comrade Beluga.

  2. What a funny coincidence…. for Brisbane people, while Andre Rieu’s scene was on Newstopia, the real Andre Rieu was performing at Suncorp Stadium…

    If only art intimdated life hahaha

  3. Completely and utterly loved Inspektor Herring! Lots of belly laughs at 10:25 which annoyed my neighbours. And thank goodness for the result with Andre Rieu (not spoiling it for those who missed it).
    Shaun Micallef = Comic Genius.
    I’d love to hear a radio show with Micallef and Tony Martin.
    I caught the last few mins of Wallace and Gromit, thought that was pretty good as well.

  4. Only caught the end of it, but what I saw was brilliant, and having just finished Underbelly, I gotta say that Kat Stewart is one hell of a talent to look out for.

    Nyyyeeeeeeeetttttt!!!!!!

    Gold.

  5. Inspektor Herring was great, the production values were outstanding. What really did it for me was when it had finished I flicked channels and landed on Rush, it looked plain awful compared. Give the Inspektor Herring production team a real drama show. Shaun and the gang were hilarious as always.

  6. I missed the start so i didn’t watch it all but what i did see was looking very good, damn shows on SBS starting at the right time unlike other networks (although House started on time relative to air crash finishing much to my chagrin so ill be skipping air crash from now on, 7 better pick up its act or itll find me skipping TGYH they are on a short leash now).

  7. It was pure genuis!! I was amazed at how great it was, the production, writing, locations, comedy, everything was brilliant. I don’t know how Kat Steward didn’t constantly crack up during her scene with ‘Andre Rieu’.

    This has to be nominated for best comedy in the Logies, and I hope SBS commission it as a series next year. I’m going to have to watch it again.

  8. Inspektor Herring was outstanding. Gives you just that little bit of hope that somewhere out there, there are Australian entertainers willing to make television that doesn’t conform and is worth a watch. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what television can be. Congrats Shaun and the whole NEWStopia team. (Nice to see one T. Martin make an appearance too. Albeit far too briefly.)

  9. And a special commendation to visual effects from Scott Zero of Chroma Media for transforming Melbourne into Russia, and adding breath, snow and explosions!

Leave a Reply