I only just watched this on catch-up, and rather wish I hadn’t bothered now. The Wall is BBC Three's new "entertainment" series, hosted by Rhys Thomas (a Fast Show goon who has spent the past decade trying to catch a break) and Alexa Chung (sexy, but bone-legged/headed Popworld co-presenter.)
The Wall was a low-standard studio-based show with typical ingredients: a bit of chat on a sofa (special guest Jonathan Ross – WTF?), a gimmick with the stage being divided by a talking wall (incredibly pointless), a smattering of "comedy" performances and sketches, before live music greeted the end credits. Which couldn't come soon enough.
I've never liked Rhys Thomas (who decided to wear Number Six's jacket from The Prisoner, oddly), but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's always been crippled by bad writing. He wasn't too shabby as himself here, and managed to squeeze a few laughs when dressed as Alan Sugar in the otherwise crap Apprentice parody "The Applic*nts".
I haven’t seen much of Alexa Chung's work, but she was pleasant and easy on the eye -– although her presenting skills don't stretch to comedy, and she noticeably had no chemistry with Thomas. It might be wise to leave her out of the comedy and focus on the musical side of the show.
Tittybangbang's Lucy Montgomery (Thomas' real-life wife) continues to be employed by the BBC, despite only being able to play ugly men in sketches that contain no jokes. Comedy troupe We Are Klang tried their damnedest with Vic & Bob-esque surrealism 10 years after it went out of fashion, but failed. Similarly outdated was Simon Brodkin, who dragged out a Stavros/Borat hybrid in the unfunny shape of Dr Omprakash, a "sexpert" delivering obvious and unfunny gags alongside Chung.
Filler material came from a woeful "High Street Musical" skit (hidden cameras film a man singing to people minding their own business), Tony Izzet (a mouthy cockney drives around, shouting about things, ending most sentence with "izzet"), and the nonsense of weighing a pretend Mark Ronson's head (played by Tony Way; a refugee from Montgomery's Tittybangbang and Thomas' Blunder.)
It was left to Keith Chegwin (of all people!) to provide actual entertainment with his "High Street Quiz" -- where 3 members of the public have the chance to win £6000 by answering one simple question each. The twist being that one of them is a plant, who will get his question wrong on purpose to lose them the cash. A good example: Chegwin asks "a Star Wars character: Princess...?" and the plant quickly replies "Diana." While hardly revelatory stuff, it tickled the funnybone, and I still find Chegwin's enthusiasm and people skills enjoyable.
But the rest was turgid. I have no idea what Jonathan Ross was doing on there, but they made full use of him regardless, as they clearly couldn't believe their luck. But Ross is so overexposed that hearing him ramble on about his family, pets and sex-life was tedious. And his attempts to look edgy, while politely smiling at the comedy crimes happening around him, added another layer of cringe to the whole show.
8 April 2008
BBC Three, 11.00 pm
