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The Word was a magazine-style entertainment show that ran from 1990 to 1995 on the UK’s Channel 4. It was helmed by Mancunian motormouth Terry Christian and a medley of once and future stars, including Amanda de Cadenet, Dani Behr, Katie Puckrik, and Mark Lamarr. The show was the brainchild of Charlie Parsons and Terry Christian, who were tasked with filling the hip, cultural hole left behind by the departure of music-oriented, youth-skewed shows like The Tube.

The Word began life in August 1990 as a tame, tea-time shadow of the fearlessly innovative show it would later become. What saved it from becoming a real-life version of Nozin’ Aroun’ – the spoof youth show so insufferably condescending it prompted Rik to destroy his TV set in the anarchic 1980’s BBC sitcom The Young Ones – was the decision by Channel 4’s Chief Executive Michael Grade to shift transmission from 6pm to late-night. Unmoored from pre-watershed restrictions,...

Lil Wayne hashed out a settlement with the tour bus driver who claims Weezy threatened to kill him, but the problem is he forgot to send the check ... according to the driver, who's filed a new lawsuit. According to the docs ... Mark Jones claims he hasn't seen a cent of the $75k settlement dough. We broke the story ... Jones claims Wayne unloaded a death threat during a 2014 ride between tour stops. Jones also wants an...

By 1967 the dictatorial Nikkatsu studio president Kyusaku Hori had had enough. He approached filmmaking like an auditor going over a company’s finances, there were boxes to be ticked and conventions to be adhered to. His corporation was a factory, mass producing entertainment for the cheaply exploitable youth market. The constant spanner in Hori’s assembly line was Seijun Suzuki. Over the previous twelve years, he had directed thirty-nine films and in that time had developed a canon of hysterical, hallucinatory and heretical works. With each production, the insanity became more liberated, excessive and frenzied. He was the enfant terrible of Japanese cinema and Hori was done with his shit.

As a warning shot, Suzuki’s next film would be given only a shoestring budget with the cautionary note that he was ‘going too far’ and needed to ‘play it straight’. Suzuki responded with Branded to Kill, an expressionist fantasia...

Never Mind the Buzzcocks has been cancelled after 28 series, with the BBC confirming the much-loved show will not be returning.

The ingenious - and often hilarious - pop music panel quiz arrived on screens way back in 1996, and ran for over 260 episodes.

Hosts including Mark Lamarr, Simon Amstell and Rhod Gilbert have appeared alongside team captains Phil Jupitus, Sean Hughes, Bill Bailey and Noel Fielding. Here are some of the greatest moments.

1. Boys will be boys!

Preston took an immediate dislike to being described by Simon Amstell as a "professional celebrity" on introduction, before Amstell joked that his band The Ordinary Boys have no fans.

But it was when he began to read extracts from Preston's then-wife Chantelle Houghton's biography - with the line "The photoshoot was for the Daily Mail, which made me feel really posh and upmarket" - that he stormed off the show in disgust.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks has been cancelled.

Channel controller Kim Shillinglaw and BBC entertainment controller Mark Linsey have confirmed the end of the show, Broadcast reports.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "After 28 series we've decided not to bring Never Mind the Buzzcocks back to the BBC. This will create space for new entertainment formats in the future.

"We'd like to thank the team at Talkback, Rhod Gilbert, all the brilliant hosts over the years and of course Noel and Phill for the years of enjoyment they've given BBC Two viewers."

The pop music panel quiz first aired in November 1996, and has run for over 260 episodes over 28 series.

It was hosted by Mark Lamarr for its first 17 series. Guest presenters took over for the 18th run, before Simon Amstell took over hosting duties for four series.

The show returned to having guest hosts for series 23 to 27 and Rhod Gilbert took the role...

He’s no stranger to controversy and Lil Wayne is on the receiving end of some new legal drama that involves a man who used to drive his bus.

According to TMZ, Mark Jones is suing the “Mrs. Officer” rapper for false imprisonment, assault and emotional distress stemming from an incident that occurred last summer while driving Wayne and his crew to Buffalo, New York.

Jones says he tried to pull over to put gas in the bus around 11:30pm when Lil Wayne freaked out, and supposedly threatened to pistol whip and kill him. Furthermore, Mark alleges that Wayne pulled out a gun, cocked it and told him, “I want to get to the hotel now.” Lil Wayne is yet to comment on the claims.

Lil Wayne is being sued by his bus driver who claims the rapper was trying to kill him. According to the lawsuit -- obtained by TMZ -- Mark Jones claims he was hired to drive Wayne and crew around for his 2014 summer concert tour. First stop: Buffalo.   Jones says he pulled over at around 11:30 Pm for gas. He says Wayne became irate and started cursing, to the point the driver became scared and continued driving without refueling.

We asked Den Of Geek’s writers to recommend brilliant comedy shows that deserve to have more of a fuss made about them. Here they are...

Banging a drum about stuff we love is more or less our remit on Den Of Geek - hence what many readers have started referring to as the ‘inexplicably regular' appearance of Statham, squirrels and Harold Bishop from Neighbours on these pages.

To that end then, we asked our writers which comedy shows (past and present, UK or otherwise, on TV, radio, or online…) deserved more praise, and here are the ones they chose. You might already like them too, or you might discover something new to dig out and enjoy. That’s the fun of it.

Please note that this list isn’t ranked in any order, nor is it exhaustive. It’s compiled from the opinions of a group of different people,...

'The Apprentice' hopeful James Hill has an assault conviction. The 27-year-old budding businessman has been revealed as a convicted criminal who attacked a bus driver for speaking to his girlfriend. The victim, Mark Jones, told The Sun newspaper: ''I was talking to Hill's girlfriend at the time who I knew worked at a children's soft play area. Hill stormed over and began throwing his fists. ''My drink went flying. He threw punch after punch. I'm not sure how many connected. ''I fell to the floor and one of my contact lenses fell out. As I looked up I saw a boot coming towards my...

BBC commentator Steve Wilson made an unfortunate gaffe during last night's World Cup match.

While German fans were celebrating their eventual 7-1 demolition of Brazil, Wilson mistakenly claimed that they were singing 'Deutschland über alles' in the stands.

However, the controversial line - translated as 'Germany above all' - has not been used in the German national anthem since the end of WWII.

Viewers soon aired their complaints about the error on Twitter:

BBC commentator Steve Wilson - are you sure the fans were singing 'Deutschland uber alles' and not 'Einigkeit und recht und..' #research

— Sean O'Conor (@SeanWoking) July 8, 2014

This commentator needs to stop calling the national anthem Deutschland Uber Alles... this isn't nazi germany.

— Oliver Deane. (@Ollie_J_Deane) July 8, 2014

Did the BBC commentator say the German national anthem was "Deutschland uber alles"? Is it still 1939! Outrageous #bbcworldcup

— Ron Lewis (@RonLewisTimes) July 8, 2014

BBC Sport, the German national anthem is Not Deutschland Uber Alles.

Huey Morgan stunned fellow celebrity contestants on Never Mind the Buzzcocks last night (November 4) by smashing his mug in anger before walking out after an altercation with hosts Rizzle Kicks.

It's quite been a while since the BBC show saw such a dramatic outburst from a disgruntled guest. So we present 15 similar moments of madness and controversy from the series - from Preston stomping off, to Dappy flying in - below:

Boys will be boys!

Preston took an immediate dislike to being described by Simon Amstell as a "professional celebrity" on introduction, before Amstell joked that his band The Ordinary Boys have no fans. But it was when he began to read extracts from Preston's then-wife Chantelle Houghton's biography - with the line "The photoshoot was for the Daily Mail, which made me feel really posh and upmarket" - that he stormed off the show in disgust. He...

It used to be easy to spot the baddies - they were the ones with the facial scars and incurable megalomania. These days, they hide in plain sight

If you ask me, Mike Myers has a lot to answer for. By taking the piss out of James Bond's Blofeld in the Austin Powers franchise, he made it almost impossible for a modern audience to relish a big-screen, larger-than-life villain. The collarless jacket, the scar, the Persian cat, the wheelchair – they've all gone the same way as the prosthetic limb, the dwarf and the third nipple. Villains can no longer spend a scene describing what they are going to do before, inevitably, they are killed off in some improbable way. The last Bond villain died with a knife in his back. He didn't even get a larger-than-life death.

Speaking personally, it is the deaths of my bad guys that often keep me going.

Review Andrew Blair 15 Jul 2013 - 06:09

An oft-released Doctor Who adventure gets a high-definition reissue. Spearhead From Space is well worth picking up, Andrew writes...

Spearhead From Space has been released several times (twice on VHS, four times on DVD, and it's on iTunes). Due to it being entirely on film as opposed to video (industrial action meaning it had to be filmed largely on location, where film would be used instead), it is the only story from the original run of Doctor Who that can be released on Blu-ray without upconversion, and so here we are.

I was unable to get a copy of the omnibus edition I rented from a video shop in Hereford in 1994 for comparison, but certainly the picture quality here is as crisp as Quentin or Quavers. Blemish free, it's never looked better, and it's always looked good. Derek Martinus and his camera and editing crew throw in flourishes throughout,...

Review Andrew Blair 21 Jun 2013 - 07:25

A documentary or a mockumentary? Andrew catches up with Shooting Bigfoot at the Edinburgh International Film Festival...

What do we know about Bigfoot? We have a regularly updated list of comedians who haven't seen one, thanks to Richard Herring's podcasts. We know, thanks to Anchorman, that his penis smells like a turd covered with burnt hair (although this smells like desire to some people). What Shooting Bigfoot reminds us during its introduction is that he has a strange appeal to children, a legendary creature who really belongs in the imagination of the young. Or possibly those with child-like minds. There are other truths to be found in this film. It's sad, hilarious, and will provoke debate among those who witness it.

We live in a world where The Apprentice is accepted as entertainment, with its paper-thin façade of realism concocted in the editing suite.

Blur's Alex James will host a new BBC Two series based around the best bits of hit panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

What a Load of Buzzcocks, which will air in late spring, will look back at pop history over the last 16 years and revisit key years and events through classic Buzzcocks episodes and clips.

Buzzcocks was originally hosted by Mark Lamarr and featured Phil Jupitus and Sean Hughes as team captains.

Simon Amstell took over from Lamarr as host, before the show adopted a rotating guest host policy, while other team captains over the 16 years have included Bill Bailey and Noel Fielding.

"I've always been a big fan of the show and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the highlights from the past 16 years," said James.

Exec producer Dan Baldwin said: "What a Load of Buzzcocks' comedy narrative will provide the perfect retrospective look at...

Bradley Wiggins is set to host 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'. The Olympic gold medallist - who was reportedly offered the opportunity to take part in 'X Factor' - is being lined up by the BBC to host the music quiz show, previously fronted by Simon Amstell and Mark Lamarr. According to The Sun newspaper, bosses at the BBC are also keen for Liam Gallagher to take part in the same episode because of the friendship they struck up when they met at the GQ Awards in September. Speaking after the Olympics in August, cyclist Bradley said he would not take part in...

Mark Kermode's polemic is both endearing and informative

Mark Kermode, history will relate, is a man with an appropriately cinematic origin: his name, look, and place in cultural life are clearly the result of a failed experiment with a matter transporter in which the genomes of Frank Kermode and Mark Lamarr were accidentally spliced. Here is an erudite critic with a proper appreciation of schlock; a celluloid-loving fogey who candidly prefers Breathless to À Bout de Souffle; and a man with the vanity to sport a quiff, yet who identifies himself as a jowly doppelgänger for Richard Nixon. This is the book of his mid-life crisis. If he's been a film critic for a quarter of a century (and, what's more, the "most trusted" in the UK according to a 2010 YouGov poll), what's the point of his existence when Sex and the City 2 is a smash hit?

Kermode's...

David Tennant follows in the footsteps of Mark Lamarr, Simon Amstell and guest presenters Frankie Boyle and Dermot O'Leary this week as he chairs a Doctor Who themed version of Nevermind the Buzzcocks! Featuring Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley and Bernard Cribbins with regular Phill Jupitus and Catherine Tate and Jamie Cullum with regular Noel Fielding, the Doctor Who themed edition is likely to be one of the reinvigorated shows most popular editions yet. Check out these...

To some visitors, perhaps the only vaguely magic thing in Swindon is the seven-island road junction beside the fire station, which is so baffling it has been branded the "magic roundabout". But that hasn't stopped Disney World in Florida selecting the Wiltshire town as the first twin town in its 38-year history.

The other parallels are equally hard to fathom – the Orlando theme park counts Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Snow White among it denizens, while Swindon boasts Melinda Messenger, Mark Lamarr and Billie Piper. But Disney executives today yesterday chose Swindon ahead of 24 other British towns, including Blackpool, which at least has a rollercoaster, and Brighton, which has a helter-skelter and a ghost train.

Perhaps tellingly, the Disney executives picked Swindon not by visiting, but by watching a video slideshow produced by resident Rebecca Warren, 20.

She managed to draw implausible but ingenious parallels between a local zoo and the Animal Kingdom section of Disney World,...

Simon Amstell has reportedly decided to move on from his role as host of the BBC quizshow Never Mind The Buzzcocks. The 29-year-old took on the post from Mark Lamarr in 2006 and has since won a number of awards for his work at the helm. However, a source told The Sun that Amstell now wants to concentrate on other projects. "Simon is a funny guy who can think on (more)...