Written by Holm and Ian Handford, who describe the film as a "tragic comedy," the short is a fictional account of the first crossing of Lake Winnipeg by a multinational Scandinavian man--hauling expedition, and the humour is found in the many hilarious deadpan monologues of the survivors of the expedition trekking across the ice.

Things to watch out for include Mark James' deadpan reply when, as the battle raged, Andrew Castle (pictured) wished him an enjoyable couple of hours, Monty telling the gallery that the next person to heckle him would be thrown out and the gesture made by Ollie's caddie when he was the victim of yet another Yank loudmouth after playing his approach to the 17th green.

His bug-eyed, deadpan visage and strangulated, French-accented whine conveyed a feeling of dangerousness, used to striking effect in such films as "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon." A comedian in the 1950s could get a sure laugh by imitating Lorre's supposedly stock line, "Do you haff the infoomashun?" Today it seems that Mr.

Tricks of illusion are characteristic of this practice, and the deadpan shell encloses a civilised airy elaboration of the villa that turns inwards around a central atrium, secluded from the neighbouring houses that surround it, but admitting the bosky garden at the rear and distant views of the city.

The best of the columnists in this collection writing today tend to think small rather than in the grand Lippmannian manner: Art Buchwald, Russell Baker, and Molly Ivins working in a deadpan comic style; Jimmy Breslin and Murray Kempton hanging out around the police precinct and criminal-courts building; Ellen Goodman in casual conversation at the dinner table.

After facing accusations of being glum and grumpy earlier in his career, fans of the Dunblane superstar have come to appreciate his deadpan sense of humour.

DEE is for deadpan and Jack Dee promises to be at his grumpy best when he arrives in the Midlands.

GROUCHY, deadpan, comic genius, they're all words or phrases used to describe Rich Hall, who is playing live at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield on Sunday, March 16.

With deadpan humour, straight ahead jabs to the reader, and intimate little double--takes, "A Professor's Unforgettables" reads as smooth as corn silk.

It's a role that suits Steve Carell's deadpan, sad-sack persona to a tee, and the gay twist offers a few moments of comic genius, especially with Arkin.

And the pair of painted Styrofoam "leaping legs" that hung in the middle of the main room were a sort of deadpan version of the artist's many fantastical, often spectacularly dismembered life-size figures.

Mackenzie's deadpan delivery and inconsistent differentiation take some getting used to, but once the book develops its momentum, nothing will keep the reader from wanting to finish it.

I love the slow mumbling crowds, the rich, deadpan Brummie humour and the characters.

It has been a year since scolds from Roger Rosenblatt to David Brooks exulted that the ironic would now give way to the iconic, the sarcastic to the bornbastic, the deadpan to the grave.

Even fans of Mills' previous two novels may be unnerved by the weirdness of this stark fable, but his ability to seduce with a deadpan humour and steady narrative progression is as sure as ever in this distinctive and deceptively simple book.