Adam Buxton and Liz Kershaw join protest at BBC

Up to 2,000 people mass at Broadcasting House to hear DJs and bands voice opposition to closure of digital station.

Adam Buxton's Bowie cover keeps BBC under pressure

Half of Adam and Joe team records cover of Changes - with words rewritten in support of threatened BBC station 6 Music.

BBC 6 Music's Adam Buxton: live webchat

The BBC 6 Music DJ, actor and comedian Adam Buxton is in comments on this story from 11am to answer your questions.

Adam Buxton webchat: give us your questions

What would you like to ask 6 Music DJ, actor and comedian Adam Buxton?

Adam Buxton set for 6 Music return this month

One half of Adam and Joe returning with solo 'compilation tape' show - with hopes of duo being back on air later in the year.

The Persuasionists - Adam Buxton responds

The Persuasionists, it's fair to say, has had attracted a very vocal response from readers of this blog.

One of its stars, Adam Buxton (seen playing Greg, who does not have a beard) was away during transmission of the first episode, but now he responds with this special video.

Episode two of The Persuasionists (BBC2) did not reward the theory that this new sitcom needed time to bed in. It's set in an advertising agency and features a talented cast (Adam Buxton, Simon Farnaby, Daisy Haggard) you have probably seen being funny in other things, but if you laughed at this, I'd like to try a handful of whatever pills you're on. Actually, I did laugh once, when a character tried to encapsulate Australian culture with the words "Have you ever worn shorts to a funeral?" but, had I not been watching in a professional capacity, I would have switched over long before that point. It's hard to locate exactly what went wrong with this project, so I'm recording a verdict of death by misadventure.

Never let it be said I don't give things a chance. The second episode of The Persuasionists was marginally better than last week's yawn-fest, mainly because there was more going on, but "The Handsomeness" was still a laugh-free zone for the most part. Things perk up whenever Daisy Haggard or Simon Farnaby are around acting silly, but it's otherwise a waste of time and talent.

The plot this week involved a campaign for beauty cream "Night Gak", being modeled by bimbo popstar Victoria (Kelly Adams), who revealed to Greg (Adam Buxton) that she's looking for an "ordinary" boyfriend, prompting him to demonstrate his innate facileness in order to woo her. Meanwhile, Emma (Haggard) was given a position of power that led to her quarantining all the ugly employees in the agency's boiler room.

Look, there's definitely potential in an advertising agency sitcom with an episode focusing on beauty, but The Persuasionists is too daft to land any insightful blows, and its surrealism isn't clever enough to feel inspired. The IT Crowd does a far better job of skewering workplace/pop-culture targets via oddball, larger-than-life comedy. Here, you just have Iain Lee acting like he's still reading The 11 O'Clock Show's autocue, and Jarred Christmas bellowing.

Advertising sitcom The Persuasionists was so imbecilic, you had to see it to believe it. Episode one centred on the marketing campaign for "Cockney Cheese" and the slogan "Cockney Cheese. Leave it aaaaaat !"

"If he's a Cockney man, strolling along in Cockney London," pointed out their client, 'Cockney Jim'. "He wouldn't be surprised to find some Cockney cheese ? Would he ?"
Er... no.

The Persuasionists stars Adam Buxton, Jarred Christmas, Simon Farnaby, Iain Lee, Lee Ross, and is written by Jonathan Thake. Boys, your friends are embarrassed to know you.

'From the makers of The Inbetweeners!' trumpeted the press release. 'Written by the man renowned for the "slag of all snacks" campaign for Pot Noodle!' it continued in full big-sell mode. OK, so the second claim was a touch desperate, but there was still a sliver of optimism twitching in my remo-finger as I prepared to be persuaded by The Persuasionists (BBC2).

How wrong can you be? Despite gaining kudos for a title that sounded like it was dedicated to a cult 1960s harmony group who only ever recorded two tracks on an obscure Memphis label before imploding in a soul stew of drugs and sibling-related adultery, thus guaranteeing legendary status, The Persuasionists turned out to be as tasty as, well Pot Noodles - and cold ones, at that.

There were warning signs: Iain Lee, for one, here sporting a strange spray tan and spray-on hair and the same self-satisfied sneer that made him so irksome on The 11 O'Clock Show. Surely, though, he'd be balanced out by Adam of Adam & Joe fame and a script, by Jonathan Thake, that promised an insider's assault on the absurdities of advertising.

Well, no and no. 'Adam Buxton - what were you thinking?' was the note I wrote as his character Greg turned out to be as dripping with weary clichés as the rest of Thake's join-the-dots advertising idiots. Thake might have a killer way with advertising slogans but, on the evidence of The Persuasionists, he can't tell the difference between satire and stereotyping. The Persuasionists was rammed to its smug rafters with the latter.

Come to think of it, does advertising even need sending up? Such an easy target, and The Persuasionists, with its shouty Australians, dodgy foreigners with big pencils and smelly Cockney cheese gags, missed it by a country mile. Now watch it clean up at next year's Comedy Awards.