The Luke McQueen Pilots. Luke (Luke McQueen)
The Luke McQueen Pilots

The Luke McQueen Pilots

  • TV comedy
  • BBC Three
  • 2018
  • 3 episodes (1 series)

Comedy series from up-and-coming comedian Luke McQueen. Also features Mark Silcox and Juliet Morrish.

Press clippings

After his vampire exposé mock-doc and an ultra-awks sex travelogue, the third of Luke McQueen's daft pilots is a delirious send-up of staged dating shows like Love Island. Six attractive young hopefuls vie for the hapless standup's affections, though the real star is a demonic Teddy Ruxpin.

Graeme Virtue, The Guardian, 21st September 2018

Review: Luke McQueen Pilots - The Luke of Love

At a running time of an hour this episode is a little too long.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 19th September 2018

The Luke McQueen Pilots: The Luke of Love review

Some of the scenes are certainly funny, especially the image of the comedian as a baby, 'Pukey Lukey', in a segment purportedly designed to test the contestants' mothering skills, which again goes on too long. Meanwhile McQueen crashing a date in the real world is as embarrassing as it gets, another step towards the inevitable collapse of the format.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 19th September 2018

TV/Online review: The Luke McQueen Pilots

The second of his three pilots spoofing TV formats is a little close to home for comedian Luke McQueen.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 12th September 2018

The Luke McQueen Pilots: Sex With My Father review

After a disappointing opening episode that failed to make its mark among so many other awkward mockumentaries, the second of Luke McQueen's supposedly aborted BBC pilots is on a firmer footing. Even if the title star is outshone by fellow comic Mark Silcox, who quietly steals every scene he's in.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 12th September 2018

The Luke McQueen Pilots review

The outrageous standup moves into TV with a mock-doc full of public stunts, faux-naive interviews and blood-letting.

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 8th September 2018

A new mock-investigative series begins with a report on our "hidden vampire crisis". Fitfully funny, although McQueen's faux-naif-meets-Russell Brand shtick (standing in a street yelling "Lower the age of sexual consent!" in order to protect virgins from vampires) is an acquired, er, taste.

Ali Catterall, The Guardian, 7th September 2018

TV/Online Review: The Luke McQueen Pilots

McQueen doesn't exactly re-invent the spoof documentary wheel here, but he throws himself into the proceedings with gusto.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 7th September 2018

In The Luke McQueen Pilots, McQueen plays a comedian making a failed documentary about the so-called British vampire crisis. It is not exactly a spoof, though there is a laboured joke about doing something "like what Stacey Dooley or Reggie Yates would do". It is, in its better moments, a spoof of spoofs, though that may be an accidental by-product of inhaling the exhaust of those who have done that sort of thing with more precision (Chris Morris, Sacha Baron Cohen, Charlie Brooker/Philomena Cunk).

The bit where McQueen pours milk over his head is quite funny. The bit where he meets an online paedophile is less so. It's a pretty tough line of humour, the paedophilia gag, and it's not clear whether the individual in question is an actor or a real pervert. There's also a passing joke about Barry Chuckle, who died recently, and a mock protest in which McQueen pretends that Theresa May is a vampire.

Alastair McKay, Evening Standard, 7th September 2018

The Luke McQueen Pilots: review

Such uncomfortable hidden-camera pieces are what defines this first Luke McQueen Pilot, but they are rare moments in a show that can otherwise feel anaemic, with dubious ideas stretched thin.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 5th September 2018

Share this page