Christmas Catch-up

The Christmas edition of Radio Times has run out of pages, so I guess that's the official end of Christmas and New Year television. Here are some mini-reviews of shows I watched, but won't get around to reviewing properly...

I was disappointed with Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death, weren't you? Great animation, some fun moments, imaginative action scenes, a few good in-jokes (especially Ghost and Aliens), but it all felt too insular, predictable and repetitive to me. Wallace gets another love-interest, there's another killer on the loose (human this time), Wallace just gets dopier and needs rescuing again. The only notable change was having the obligatory dog turn out not to be the villain's accomplice. After the Curse Of The Were-Rabbit feature-length movie (shown earlier that afternoon to highlight this point), Loaf & Death felt like a step backwards for Nick Park. Why not create some new characters, instead of sticking to the safe bet of W&G? Oh well, 15 million people watched, which will hopefully bankroll a BBC-funded movie before Peter Sallis snuffs it.

The Peter Serafinowicz Show Christmas Special was surprisingly good fun, given the fact I disliked the original sketch show when it aired earlier last year. The quality control was definitely higher (although the next-day midnight extended repeat reinserted a lot of grot) and I was glad it didn't just put a festive spin on old sketches. A good 85% of it was new stuff -- and I'm still giggling at the intimidating estate agent ("did I arks you?") and the insane job interview ("you passed the test!") Let's hope a second series builds on this upswing in quality.

Contrarily, the QI Christmas Special was... well, just a regular episode of average quality. I can understand they've run out of seasonal trivia, but this "fire and freezing"-based special wasn't worthy of the Christmas Special tag in the slightest. A big disappointment on that count, but I thought Dom Joly showed promise as a new panellist and Rob Brydon was very funny. I loved his recurring gag of explaining obvious things as if they were secret gems of knowledge.

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special was background sparkle for me on Christmas Day. The second "voting scandal" for Strictly in as many weeks overshadowed it, too. This time, four couples tied with 39 points after the judges scores were added up, so the studio vote was entirely redundant, meaning Len Goodman had to put the top four into order of merit before voting could continue. But it was all nicely edited to look like this was the accepted way of handling the situation. As for the show itself: well, Kelly Brook was robbed.

Mock The Week Christmas Special? Nope. Mock The Week repeats all edited together, I think you'll find. Bah, humbug!

I caught bits of Alan Carr's Christmas Ding Dong. I hated the first series of this gameshow (with Carr mistreating "civilian" people in front of his chummy celebrity pals), so it was no surprise the second series quickly changed the format to a celeb-versus-celeb competition. This panto-themed special seemed quite fun, but the only thing I can remember is Paul Daniels planting a smacker on Alan Carr.

The Have I Got News For You? Christmas Special was okay, even though it was just another normal episode, masquerading as a festive special because of fancy dress. I just wish they'd give Alexander Armstrong the hosting job full-time and ditch the annoying guest-host idea entirely.

The 25th anniversary Blackadder Rides Again documentary was fifteen minutes of worthwhile information and footage, separating clips that sometimes didn't even last to the punchlines. G.O.L.D's Blackadder documentary a few months ago covered most of the bases here, so this was a bit tiresome for me. For fans, there wasn't much to get terribly excited about -- unless you liked to be reminded how dour and humourless Rowan Atkinson is in real life (he admits it himself), wanted to see a clip from the original pilot episode (is the whole thing available as a DVD extra?), and that terrible last shot of Blackadder Goes Forth (before a bit of slo-mo and piano music transform it into one of British comedy's greatest moments.)

ITV really didn't have a good Christmas, did they? Did they have anything worth watching? Oh yes, Affinity. Shame I missed that. Harry Hill's TV Burp Review Of The Year seemed like a safe bet, but I think I can feel a backlash coming on for Mr. Hill. After winning two BAFTAs this year, I'm kind of expecting more from this show now. And, truth be told, it all looks a bit too half-baked, formulaic and childish to me now. Maybe it always was? The clever, eagle-eyed observations are being swamped by desk-set slapstick. There are still some laughs, but this special wasn't much fun. I hope Harry manages to recharge for 2009, but ITV are flogging their only comedy hit to death with this extended run. A breezy seven episodes every three months is enough for me.

Charlotte Church's Nutcracking Christmas Special was on in the background, so I caught bits and pieces. For me, Charlotte's still a damn terrible presenter who should stick to singing. And the full-on celebration of Wales over the past five years is beginning to annoy me (with Ruth Jones and Rhydian flying the Welsh flag here.) Want proof that Charlotte Church should just disappear, or get back in the recording studio? Check out her unfunny secret camera stunt with Jeremy Edwards (feeding him ideas as he auditioned panto actresses) A terrible moment in Charlotte's hand, rescued completely by James Corden grabbing her mic and ad-libbing funnier ideas than anything Charlotte's feeble mind could improvise.

While hardly in the festive spirit, Top Gear's Vietnam Special was great, blokey fun. Clarkson, Hammond and May pootling up Vietnam in clapped-out scooters, aiming to complete the journey in eight days. Torrential rain, unexpected natural beauty (a good advert for the Vietnam Tourist board, funnily enough), war memorials, silly games, a daft driving license challenge, and more staged comedy interludes (the transporting of cumbersome gifts was particularly strained.) As usual, you're never sure what genuinely happened, and what was orchestrated by the production team weeks in advance... but when it's all this entertaining, I really don't care enough to complain. Catch it on Dave in 2009, every two hours.

I also saw BBC Four's Crooked House three-part chiller from writer-actor Mark Gatiss, and thought it was very good. In fact, I liked it enough that full review will hopefully be along next week.

What about you? Did the Christmas TV schedules impress you this year? Too many repeats? Were the specials not really special enough? Did anyone care about the return of oldies like The Royle Family, Rab C. Nesbitt and Jonathan Creek?

THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW 1.6 – "Episode 6"

So the series came to an end with another pretty weak episode, now cluttered with familiar sketches/characters who haven't progressed since episode 3, and with less freshness.

A sketch-by-sketch:

O! News: Well, we had a finale for Cake Hospital (which was only funny the first time), an amusing bit where George Lucas re-released Star Wars as a text-only opening crawl, a daft John Cleese sex tape, and weird "face wipe" plastic surgery that gets rid of celebrities' facial features. Above all, this last instalment mainly served to remind you that Peter Serafinowicz only has about 10 impressions.

Rings Wings Bings Tings... Magazine: An advert for a magazine if you're interested in the aforementioned "tings".

Acting Masterclass... With Marlon Brando: It began slowly, but contained enough good stuff to make it eventually worthwhile. I particularly liked how Brando was portrayed as Jabba The Hut, got all depressed about how many people had died in the time it took a student to relate a story, slurped from a massive cola drink and then did a large steaming turd. Pretty funny.

Cannibal Island: Didn't Chris Morris do this in Brass Eye? Oh well. It was well-observed and quite funny, but hardly an original thought.

Who Would Like To Win £100? A parody of Millionaire, but set in the 1930s, with antiquated abilities to play the game (the audience take part in a ballot, you have to telegram a friend, the music's provided by a harpist, etc.) Funny.

Christmas Pudding Sofa: A sofa advert, lovingly mixed with a food advert. Shrug.

Butterfield Time Line: The obese presenter now shows us his own take on the "speaking clock" service, where he personally tells you the time if you ring him. Poor.

Complico: Awkwardly-priced items for sale. Amusing and quick. 3/5

A Guide To Modern Life... Let's Pretend To Have Witnessed A Murder: These started brilliantly, but it's now too surreal for its own good. It worked better when it was plausible self-help vids, but there are a few chuckles to be had.

Michael-6: The robotic talk show host -- would you believe it malfunctions again! Are we stuck in a loop here?

Zombie Chat: Groan.

Buy-It Channel: This time they're selling weapons grade plutonium and accidentally lift the containment lid on the product. Disappointing.

Ringo Remembers... Christmas 1979: A parody of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", but now with sexually suggested lyrics, which Ringo wasn't happy about. Great impressions and a nice style reproduction of the video, but that's about it.

And that completes the series. I'm not sure if it'll be back, as the reviews were mixed and I don't think it got particularly good ratings. It didn't help that flop sitcom Vivienne Vyle was its lead-in, either.

While it was nice to have a sketch show not dominated by catchphrases and characters (as Little Britain and Catherine Tate are), the level of humour barely rose above wry smiles and the odd chuckle. There were some great ideas and a few inspired moments (usually in the 70s instructional films), but too many duds dragged everything down.


8 November 2007
BBC2, 9.30 pm

THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW 1.5 – "Episode 5"

I was very disappointed last night. After a moderate creep up in quality since episode 2. Episode 5 was straight back to unfunny, languid, stretched, weak ideas. This was the worst episode yet, sorry to say...

A sketch-by-sketch:

BBN News: As much as I like the idea, it's getting tiresome now.

Acting Masterclass... with Robert DeNiro: Good impression, but not one of the best sketches. I quite liked the improv scene with DeNiro and Brando, though – where DeNiro's talent stretches to just choosing to say "milk"!

O! News: The Sarcasm Of The Christ was amusing, but Robin Williams saying the "x-word" was a miss, and a Donald Trump sketch was just alright (in the UK, Trump's not really known enough for a parody to work that well.)

Butterfield International Hotel: I've grown to quite like the character, but this wasn't very good. That said, the idea that the hotel's stars were actually asterix's warning of problems was funny.

Dead Or Undead: Parody of Deal Or No Deal where the boxes either contain skeletons or zombies. Stretched to breaking point.

Robot Hunter: A South African Steve Irwin tracks wild robots in a woodland. Sounds much funnier than it was, sadly.

Evile Cream: Moisturising cream parody; so weak I've forgotten the joke.

James Bond Bestiality: Suave 007 is accused of bestiality with a flamingo by local cops... and gets away with it. Hmmm...

Sexual Classics: Pastiche of those classical album ads, but with the recordings of a sexual nature. Not bad.

Modern Life... Let's Have A Good Night's Sleep: Great music and vibe with these sketches, but this wasn't one of the best. Quite liked the constant sausage eating bits, though.

BuyIt Channel: Prince Charles sells a crown encrusted with invisible "ghost diamonds". Ye-es.

Dental Patient Chat: Sigh.

Laurel & Hardy "Soap & Water": Fun little parody of those black-and-white classics, but now with swearing! "What did you fucking do that for?" Actually very funny.

Columbo: Very, very bad. Only included so Peter can do a weak impression of Peter Falk and the episode can end with Columbo-style credits.


I actually hate being so down on TPSS, as I was giddy with excitement over this show a few months ago. I adore Look Around You and think Peter himself is a gifted performer, but the writing quality and standard of ideas has been very low. There's enough pace and amusing moments to make it just about watchable, but it's wholly forgettable.

THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW 1.4 – "Episode 4"

Yes, I'm still watching. There's not much else on at 9.30 on a Thursday night and at least TPSS isn't relying on catchphrases and repeating sketches joke-for-joke. Well, not quite.

Interestingly, my blogs about Peter Serafinowicz are amongst the most popular according to my stats -- so there's clearly a lot of love out there...

The sketch-by-sketch review:

Buy It Channel: I like the style of these shopping channel sketches, with Catherine Shepherd a particular delight as the female co-host. This time, the presenters' too-honest selling technique is interrupted by an ant infestation... leading to spiders, and later snakes being released to tackle the escalating problem. A funny idea that's nicely developed and escalates.

BBN News: Quick and funny, this time embellished with a reporter only able to explain the news via a game of Pictionary.

Acting Masterclass... with Ralph Fiennes: Not the best use of this acting masterclass idea, although the idea to transform Fiennes into Rigsby from Rising Damp was fun.

Alcoholic Chat: A chat-line, with alcoholics.

Poirot Loves Miss Marple: Hercule Poirot basically interrupting his investigations to shag Miss Marple without his assistants realizing what's going on. Not bad, but did it justify recurence throughout the episode? No.

O! News: Always one of the show's highlights, but this week's was a little bland: Hugh Heffner is gay, Stallone doing another Rocky and Al Pacino performing in a one-man Godfather musical reprise.

Butterfield Diet: Well, the character's growing on me, and this was the best use of him so far – a painfully low-food diet program, with a 24-hour mass-binge on Saturdays.

Michael-6: A one-sketch joke, pointlessly returning every week.

Amnesia Magazine: Obvious, but an amusing idea.

Déjà Vu Magazine: Har-har.

Modern Life... Let's Get Fit: These 70s instructional films are usually the best thing on TPSS, but this one was the weakest yet. Mildly amusing at times.

Paranoia Magazine: Yeah, we get it...

License To Tell Jokes: James Bond's classic quips, used as stand-up material for Roger Moore on a new DVD release. Good stuff.

Ringo on "Imagine": Perfect impression, as Ringo remembers John Lennon's original lyrics to "Imagine" – which were boastful and self-obsessed. Worth a chuckle.

Duke Barrel Cheese: The cheese for liars. Odd and quite funny.

So yeah; below-average overall, and perhaps only better than Episode 2 because the characters/ideas have embedded themselves now.

I still think this series is disappointing and desperately in need of quality-control, but when the sketch show competition (beyond Catherine Tate and Little Britain) is dross like Tittybangbang, it's comparatively a work of genius.


25 October 2007
BBC2, 9.30 pm

THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW 1.3 - "Episode 3"

Well, I enjoyed episode 3 much more than episode 2, but The Peter Serafinowicz Show still strikes me as a promising sketch show Pilot that's been prematurely put into production...

The sketch-by-sketch review:

Butterfield Karaoke Bar: I don't like this Butterfield character, who served a purpose in episode 1, but the joke's already worn thin. Here, the dour, obese man tries to sell us his karoke bar. A mildly amusing rap rescues it from the doldrums.

Vader In Love: Peter's a huge Star Wars fan (he was Darth Maul's voice) so I suppose a Star Wars sketch was inevitable. Fortunately, the affection really comes through and the idea is sound. Basically, Darth Vader is sidetracked from his nefarious schemes by Commander Ada Larkin (the future Ada Vader?), a pink version of himself, whom he falls in love with. This was a recurring sketch and one of the funniest.

Internet Ham: Another of those daft adverts, this time taking the mickey out of internet shopping, where you get ham delivered to your CD-ROM by entering a special code into a website.

O! News: Hit-and-miss, but I liked the idea Gary Numan has become Gary Oldman... Cake Hospital's donut rape raised a grin... but more could have been done with David Lynch parody You'll Get Diarrhoea.

Acting Masterclass... with Kevin Spacey: A return to from after the unfunny Al Pacino last week, with a good impression of Spacey from Peter. I like the twisting of him into a hurtful, egotistical prick. The way he belittled a student for "lying" in improv was excellent.

Lola Llarlagh & Nancy Cohlesterhols: Two women (one played by Peter, with an annoying extended laugh), who sell "Gem Mania" on a TV shopping channel. Quite amusing.

BBN News: The buzzer sketch is a little highlight for me, have to admit.

Antiques Eater: Weak idea, really. A crusty antiques expert eats expensive or sentimental items the public have brought him for valuation.

Michael-6: This joke wasn't funny the first time, but atleast the robotic presenter's sketch is over with quickly.

Which Hand Is It In? Like the Millionaire sketch in episode 1, another random and silly game, this time in the style of The Weakest Link. Poor.

Caveman Chat: Ug.

Modern Life... Let's Have An Orgy: Wonderful! These are the highlights of the series and should get their own spin-off. Peter's somehow perfectly suited to parodies of 70s instructional films, and this is the best yet. Love the Orgy P69 you need from the post office!

Gravies Of The Ancients: Humdrum advert about a gravy magazine.

Ringo Remembers... Goldfinger: The awful Beatles sketch last week is avoided, with Ringo instead drumming away to an unused theme tune to Goldfinger. Annoyingly catchy song, but not quite hilarious.

So yes. An improvement on episode 2, but not quite as good as episode 1 (probably because it's lost its freshness now). This series is still a disappointment to me. It lacks much intelligence and has nothing new to add to the sketch comedy form. But.. it kept me entertained for 30-minutes.