Tales From The Lodge review

Despite the cast's commitment as they spark engagingly off each other, the contrived narrative doesn't really slot together.

Inside No. 9 - The Devil Of Christmas review

Like with all of Inside No. 9 however, the real twist in the tale comes at the very end. Of course it would be bad of me to spoil it, which just goes to show what incredible writing talent Shearsmith and Pemberton have. The horror and dark twists certainly come as a surprise, while the commentary provides the humour. It is worth watching a few times because you can easily miss some gags.

In Morgana Robinson's The Agency impressionist imagines that all of the celebrities that she mimics are represented by the same agent. The agent in question is Vincent Mann (Calvin Clerkin) who runs the wittily titled Mann Management and looks constantly exasperated by his client base. Those of us who'd watched Robinson's previous shows such as The Morgana Show and Very Important People will recognise the majority of the impressions here with Fearne Cotton, Adele and Cheryl Cole being some of Vincent's many clients. However the main focus of the first episode of this mockumentary focused primarily on Eastenders actress Natalie Cassidy as she prepared for the National Television Awards. I felt Morgana did well in crafting a story for the put-upon Cassidy who tried her best to look after her family whilst at the same time being a famous soap actress. Robinson's performance presented the fictional Cassidy in an incredibly sympathetic light and I felt she was also able to impersonate her mannerisms perfectly. The same can't be said for Robinson's impression of Danny Dyer which certainly wasn't nearly as nuanced and instead involved her shouting in a cockney accent. The story in which Dyer also tried to become a children's author wasn't that amusing and most of the gags were pretty obvious. It didn't help that Robinson's Danny Dyer sounded incredibly similar to her Gregg Wallace and if she wasn't made up to look like each of them then I think you'd struggle to spot the difference. The other prominent storyline in this first episode saw Vincent try to secure some stage work for Miranda Hart to broaden her range. Unfortunately Miranda couldn't deal with the Pinter material without launching into her comedy routine, irritating both the director and her co-stars in the process. Whilst I found Robinson's Miranda impression to be quite impressive, the story itself was quite obvious and as an audience member I knew exactly where it was going. Overall I found The Agency to be incredibly hit-and-miss and if hadn't been for the well-imagined Natalie Cassidy segments I may not have made it through the entire episode. Although I do feel Robinson is a talented impressionist, I don't think The Agency works as well as it should and as there's six more episodes to go I can't see myself sticking around for any more.

Morgana Robinson's The Agency, a new sketch/impressionist show, uses a narrative format to showcase her talents. It's set in Mann Management, a talent agency run by Cavan Clerkin's Vincent, who has let documentary cameras in; Robinson plays his clients.

Some impressions work better than others - Robinson's Natalie Cassidy (Sonia from EastEnders), Cheryl Cole and Fearne Cotton are uncannily good - while others (Danny Dyer, Gregg Wallace) are surprisingly off the mark. Where last night's opener (of seven) did score, however, was in the fantastical writing (five writers are credited) - imagining an endlessly disappointing suburban existence for the always optimistic Cassidy, or the rather creepy menage imagined in the scenes chez Mel and Sue, where Mel's husband has to grit his teeth at their relentless punning.

Binging: Pulling

Sharon Horgan's much-missed sitcom is very funny, but, perhaps more importantly, it broke all sorts of television taboos. Here's Hannah Dunleavy on why you should put it on your to-watch list. Immediately.

Back to 2006 for the first episode of Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly's sitcom about three filthy wastrels from Penge. Donna (Horgan), drifting towards marriage with rancid manchild Karl (Cavan Clerkin), realises on her hen night that she's got a lot of aimless partying still to do with her pals (Tanya Franks and Rebekah Staton). The extent to which female characters get all the funny lines by revealing their rotten souls would still feel groundbreaking today. And this opener is flab-free: one killer scene after another.