The penultimate episode is better than last week's dire effort, but only just. The misses far outweigh the hits in Little Britain USA, and sketches that might have once been funny (if only because of the shock-factor) now look past their sell-by-date.It's time to call it a day with Little Britain, if Matt Lucas and David Walliams have any professional pride. Hopefully, HBO won't ask for a second series. I doubt L&W would turn down a big pay-cheque if the Americans are gullible enough to have the same 15 sketches replayed in slightly-altered fashion for another 6 weeks next year. A sketch-by-sketch of episode 5:
Emily Howard: The terrible transsexual is arrested by the police and questioned, meaning "she" has to begrudgingly give truthful answers about her name, gender, etc. Hasn't this idea ran its course now? Well, yes, of course it has – but that never stopped Little Britain before.
Mark & Tom: The gym buddies return to unconvincingly flick each other with towels, in a sketch seemingly written to show how the make-up artists can make fake, erect penises. And that's it.
Ellie Grace: The worst character of the new series, by far. There is nothing funny about a cloyingly "cute" kid using rude words to describe her sickening affection for her equally-sickening mother. Horribly, horribly unfunny.
Senator David White: The MP character who has to explain his scandalous activities to the press waiting outside his house, gets a US makeover. The joke is, of course, exactly the same as before. This sketch just about works because the character isn't overexposed (in either version of the sketch show), and his excuse for having sex with a transsexual prostitute were comically silly.
Linda: Great to see a minor favourite make her US debut (in two sketches), although neither quite seems to work in front of the US studio audience. As usual, throaty-voiced university receptionist Linda is forced to describe the appearance of students to her boss on the phone – the joke being that every student belongs to a minority group (black dwarf, "ladyboy"), so Linda can't help mentioning that in playful-but-disparaging terms. A funny idea, but it didn't quite click here for some reason. Not sure why.
Phyllis: A favourite of the USA series (although that's not saying much), the old lady who's forever being bossed around by her "talking" pet dog returns. This wasn't the best sketch (the dog talks her into throwing a brick through a window), but I still grin at the insane idea behind it.
Sebastian: The best sketch of the episode, with Sebastian passing love-notes to the American President during a meeting at the UN. Great to see these characters outside of the Oval Office, although the punchline (the Saudi Arabian leader mistakenly thinks the notes are for him) wasn't actually the best punchline available. Surely it would have been better, and more logical, if the Arab thought the letter came from the US President -- who had actually passed it to him? Regardless, at least this sketch actually had a proper structure and didn't rely on nudity or gross-out.
Vicky Pollard: Too dull to even contemplate.
The Ashby's: Unusual one-off sketch with a David Lynch-style punchline that actually poked fun at Americans taking vacations inside their own country all the time. Basically, a couple on holiday come to realize that another couple are... well, them. A bit strange for Little Britain, but memorable because of that.
Lou & Andy: I know this pair are the unofficial stars of Little Britain, but they just bore me to tears now. A trip to the zoo results in "disabled" Andy leaving his wheelchair to have his arm bitten off by a lion. Another example of LB's recent use of cartoon violence (after the Marjorie Dawes sketch last week), which I'm not a fan of.
Bubbles: Cruise ship, nakedness, social embarrassment, prosthetic boobs. Only this time with guest star Robert Vaughan (The Man From U.N.C.L.E). As drab and forgettable as usual.
26 October 2008 / 31 October 2008
HBO, 10.30pm / BBC1, 9.30pm
