Funny Business

Visual Comedy - a Lecture by Rowan Atkinson, MSc (Oxon) All you ever needed to know about how to be funny without saying a word. A university lecturer leads us through the silent world of visual humour with the help of Kevin the mime artist. Also featuring Buster Keaton , Jacques Tati , Peter Sellers , John Cleese , Steve Martin and many more.

Being a stand-up is the loneliest job in comedy. Five years ago, American comedian Al Lubel gave up a successful career as a lawyer to go on the road in search of fame. Now he faces his biggest challenge yet, on the show that can make or break any new comic - The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

"It's like a marriage" says comedian Tommy Cannon, as this film examines the close but stormy partnership which goes to make up a comedy double-act.

Roseanne Arnold is one of America's funniest, richest and most controversial women, with a top-rated sitcom. This film goes behind the scenes as tempers fray when she is dissatisfied with a script. In the words of head writer Bob Myer, "situation comedy is a great gaping maw into which writers are thrown and eaten up alive".

From religion to sex to language, comedy has always pushed the boundaries of taste. This is a mockumentary style film about the making of a documentary about offensive humour.

The last programme in the series tries to find out whether there are any sure-fire rules on how to make a hit comedy movie, from the initial concept through to the starstudded Hollywood premiere. Comedy director David Zucker describes his ten golden rules of comedy, as seen in both the Airplane! and The Naked Gun films, and others offer their tips on what makes cinema-goers laugh.