Viz is a British adult comic magazine founded in 1979 by Chris Donald. It parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with extensive profanity, toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and generally sexual or violent storylines. It also sends up tabloid newspapers, with mockeries of articles and letters pages. It features parody competitions and advertisements for overpriced 'limited edition' tat, as well as obsessions with half-forgotten kitsch celebrities from the 1960s to the 1980s, such as Shakin' Stevens and Rodney Bewes. Occasionally, it satirises current affairs and politicians, but it has no particular political standpoint.
Tracey Ullman is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties and Three of a Kind. After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English actress, comedian, singer, and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, she co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders, for which they jointly received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009. Saunders later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster.
Keith Howell Charles Allen is a British actor, pantomime star, and television presenter. He is the father of singer Lily Allen and actor Alfie Allen, and brother of actor and director Kevin Allen.
Simon Donald is a co-founder and former co-editor of the British comic magazine Viz.
Sid the Sexist is a character from the British satirical comic Viz, first appearing in issue 9 in October 1982. The strip was created and mostly drawn by Simon Donald until he left the magazine in 2003, when Paul Palmer took over as artist.
Dawn Roma French is a British actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series French and Saunders (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, and playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2020). French has been nominated for seven BAFTA TV Awards and won a BAFTA Fellowship with Saunders in 2009.
Showdown in Little Tokyo is a 1991 American buddy cop action film directed by Mark L. Lester, who also produced with Martin E. Caan. The film stars Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee; it was the latter's first American film role. The film was released in the United States on August 23, 1991. The film gained a cult following among action fans especially for the chemistry between Lundgren and Lee.
Hans "Dolph" Lundgren is a Swedish-American actor, filmmaker and martial artist. Born in Spånga, Sweden, Lundgren became interested in martial arts at a young age. This would lead him to hold the rank of 4th dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and become European champion in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, while studying to get a master's degree, he became the boyfriend of singer Grace Jones. With her, he moved to New York City and started to take acting classes. In 1985, Lundgren had a breakthrough role playing the lead villain as an imposing Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago in Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV.
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–1999), played a recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), and performed frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield. From 1999 to 2001, she starred as Linda La Hughes on the BBC sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, for which she received a British Comedy Award and two BAFTA nominations.
John Patrick Thomson is an English comedian, narrator and actor best known for his roles in The Fast Show, Men Behaving Badly, Cold Feet, 24 Hour Party People, The Brothers Grimsby and Coronation Street.
Fiona Allen is an English comedian and actress, most known for her work on Channel 4's Smack the Pony between 1999 and 2003.
The Punisher is a 1989 vigilante action-thriller film directed by Mark Goldblatt, written by Boaz Yakin, and starring Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr. Based on the Punisher character from Marvel Comics, the film changes some details of the character's origin, and eliminates the signature skull logo; instead, The Punisher uses a knife with the skull on its pommel. It was shot in Sydney, co-starring Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori, Nancy Everhard, and Barry Otto.
Saturday Live is a British television comedy and music show, made by LWT and initially broadcast on Channel 4 from 1985 to 1988, with a brief revival on ITV in 1996. A few one-off editions have also been screened sporadically, including a contribution to the BBC's 1993 Comic Relief telethon. It was based on the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live but otherwise had no direct connection to the show.
Kev F. Sutherland is a Scottish comedian, caricaturist, and comic strip creator. He has drawn for a variety of publications, including The Beano. He has produced several shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including The Sitcom Trials and The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.
Graham Dury is a British cartoonist. He is known for his work with Viz, having contributed to the magazine from its early years. He co-conceived and personally created The Fat Slags, one of the magazine's most famous strips.
Would I Lie to You? is a British comedy panel show aired on BBC One, made by Zeppotron for the BBC. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007, starring David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains. The show was originally presented by Angus Deayton, and since 2009 has been hosted by Rob Brydon.
The Fat Slags is a British comic strip appearing in the alternative British comic Viz. The characters made their debut in 1989, their first appearance being in issue 36. The eponymous slags are Sandra Burke and Tracey Tunstall, known to other characters as San and Tray. They are depicted as overweight, eating large amounts of food, mainly chips, while also having a lot of casual sex. As with other Viz strips, the strip's authors use a brash writing style. "Slag" is a British English word for "slut", or loose woman.
