Eyeballs: A Double Vision of Delightful Drivel

by Marcus Berkmann

A collection of Dumb Britain and Commentatorballs. This collection of the best of Private Eye's Dimb Britain and Commentatorballs is edited by Marcus Berkmann and illustrated by Robert Thompson and Penelope Beech.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Marcus Berkmann was educated at Highgate School and Worcester College in Oxford in the UK. He began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to computer and gaming magazines such as Your Sinclair. In the 1990s, he had stints as television critic for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Express, and has written a monthly pop music column for The Spectator since 1987.

With his schoolfriend Harry Thompson, Berkmann scripted the BBC Radio comedy Lenin of the Rovers. He came to prominence with his novel Rain Men (1995), which humorously chronicles the formation and adventures of his own cricket-touring team, the Captain Scott Invitation XI.

Berkmann has continued to write newspaper and cricket magazine columns, such as the Last Man In column on the back page of Wisden Cricket Monthly, while producing a number of critically well-received humorous books.

In Brain Men (1999), he applied his sardonic observations to the world of pub quizzes, adopting a similar approach to Fatherhood (2005). In 2005, Berkmann released Zimmer Men, a quasi-sequel to Rain Men describing his transition into middle age with cricket.

Berkmann is also credited as being part of the writing team of the BBC Three comedy show Monkey Dust, and compiler of the Dumb Britain column in Private Eye magazine. In 2009, he set up the quiz company Brain Men with Stephen Arkell and Chris Pollikett.

A Shed of One's Own: Midlife Without the Crisis was serialised by BBC Radio 4 in its Book of the Week slot during 2012. A fan of Star Trek since its first British screening by the BBC in 1969, Set Phasers to Stun: 50 Years of Star Trek, aimed at the general reader, was published in March 2016.

Reviews

[E Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When you see him [Gareth Bale] open his legs like that, it's a fantastic sight" - Gary Neville

[Mrs B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. I read this on my Kindle while out with the dog, laughing every few seconds out loud. Great, I thought: I'll read this while waiting at the vet's office. But since the laughter was great and frequent, I decided that I could not in fact read this at the vet's office, in consideration of others. It's a wonderful book, and sure to lift spirits. I read it straight through and would happily read a second installment.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I both love and despair at the Dumb Britain column in the Eye on a regular basis. And I started reading it because I needed a laugh. As usual I was not disappointed. I don't often actually read the Commentatorballs column in the magazine, but I may start to now because some of them were equally priceless. An excellent choice for a good chuckle.

[Tim]

good for a dip in

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Commentatorballs section may be the printed word that has made me laugh the most, ever ever ever.