Are being done next week on August 12th - anyone going please let me
know.
Paul Merton and Clement Freud are on the panel and the practice in
recent years has been that the other half of the panel is different for
each show so four people get to try their wares rather than two.
I wondered if Graham Norton, who has done just one JAM recording this
year, his lowest total since 1998, might be going, but it seems not.
I also wondered about Ross Noble who is in the UK at the moment and I
assumed would include the Edinburgh Festival on his list given he has
been a star there many times. But he is instead going to a festival in
Devon.
So other possibilities - Chris Neill has a show there this year and is
due another go on JAM. Fred MacAulay returned last year and was - I
thought - very very good. Janey Godley had a place at the JAM table at
Edinburgh in the past two years. She did do the
show again earlier this
year however, and is I think, not so great that she deserves another run
so soon. Other past JAMsters appearing at Edinburgh but I feel to be
unlikely are Barry Cryer, Arthur Smith, Richard Vranch, Nick Revell, Lee
Simpson, Bill Bailey, Kate Robbins, Rhod Gilbert, Robin Ince and Sean
Lock.
Newcomers are hard to pick of course, but I thought I'd mention a few
I've spotted who are at Edinburgh this year and must have a chance.
Mike McShane - is appearing with Paul at the Festival, and the Whose
Line Is It Anyway veteran would make an excellent JAM panellist.
Wouldn't it be nice to hear an American accent on the show again. I
think he could even be a closet JAM fan as he mentioned Nicholas once on
Whose Line!
Rich Hall - I believe he is the most popular QI panellist after the two
regularts despite not seeming to know very much. What he can do is a
sort of deadpan
surreal that is usually hillarious. His delivery would
be a bit slow to make him a star at JAM but he'd be hillarious at the
banter.
Clive James - I used to love his TV show back 15 or 20 years ago. I'm
guessing highly unlikely but I would love to hear him have a go.
Jimmy Carr - yes the TV star has a show at Edinburgh this year. He does
seem to enjoy doing game shows so again - unlikely but...
Rhona Cameron - a rising name in stand-up and by all accounts, very
funny. And the producers are always looking for a woman.
Ed Byrne - have seen him a couple of times on the telly and thought he
looked just the JAM type - sharp, witty.
I'll be interested to see if I get even one of out of four guessed
correctly!