Review: Plymouth Comedy Club delivers lots of laughs

Reviews of Ian Cognito, David Arnold, Mike Newall, Bethany Black, Sam Blackledge, Chris Brooker.

As it returns for a second series, Big School really seems to have found its comedy feet. David Walliams' performance is still every bit as subtle as his cross-dressing "I'm a laydee" Emily was in Little Britain. That is to say, not at all.

But Big School is well enough written to survive his camp, asexual gurning and the dream cast add extra polish to an already shiny script.

In tonight's opener, music teacher Mr Martin (Daniel Rigby) is about to launch his pop career. (His single, written by David Arnold and Michael Price, sounds like an entirely credible X Factor winner's song.)

Mr Barber (Steve Speirs) has had to take a career change, PE teacher Mr Gunn (Philip Glenister) is now also teaching geography, and even the confident Miss Postern (Catherine Tate) finds herself at a crossroads in her career.

In one slightly depressing piece of casting, former EastEnder Cheryl Fergison replaces Julie T Wallace as the wordless lab assistant who has the hots for Walliams' Mr Church. Why depressing? Because making someone the butt of the joke just because they don't look like Angelina Jolie feels uncomfortably like bullying.

But the real reason for Big School's success is probably Frances de la Tour. Even when she's not actually on screen, just knowing that she's lurking somewhere in the building as vinegary headmistress Ms Baron is reassuring.

Returning for a second series, The Matt Lucas Awards is continuing to give out awards for all kinds of strange categories - and sadly it's still as bad as the first series.

This opening episode featured Ardal O'Hanlon, Robert Webb and Adil Ray, giving out awards in the categories of "Least compensable UK accent", "Most miserable day of the year", and the "Hidden talent award".

I say it's as bad as the first series - there have been a few changes. The musician David Arnold is no-where to be seen, and the awards are now given out by a panel of three judges. In this episode it was three Olympic bronze medallists.

But the second series has exactly the same problems as the first. It's way too gimmicky. In fact, with the inclusion of the judges you could argue that it's become even more gimmicky. You can tell it's tacky when you see Ardal O'Hanlon trying to sing Squeeze's "Up the Junction" in a Donald Duck voice, while dressed in a Donald Duck costume.

It's a huge shame; I really enjoyed the original radio version of the show, And The Winner Is...

The Matt Lucas Awards is a whimsical panel show where celebrity guests put forward wacky nominations for invented gongs, in silly categories such as "Dreadful-est Football Song".

With the set resembling a pokey flat, the audience sat on couches and the appearance of tiresome everybloke Jason Manford, the first episode felt like the tortured ghost of Baddiel and Skinner's Fantasy Football League returning to haunt a deserted late-night timeslot (the dreadful football songs didn't help).

Despite the creaky gimmick, Lucas remained weirdly buoyant throughout, and there was some odd stuff in the margins. Former Bond composer David Arnold sat glumly at a keyboard positioned stage left, apparently essaying his very own Derek-style portrait of a lonely outsider. Just as Lucas and his drumkit often stole the show in Shooting Stars, so might Arnold become a breakout character, if anyone can be bothered staying up so late.

Matt Lucas's solo project, minus his comedy partner David Walliams, is the flip side to Room 101. Instead of nominating the worst things in various categories, his guests each week will be nominating the best - although sometimes, as tonight, they're giving awards to the worst too.

This show started life on radio in 2009 called And the Winner Is. They recorded an unbroadcast pilot last year which was staged to look like a glitzy award ceremony, but that felt too formal, and so they've taken the show in completely the other direction and it's now shot in a studio masquerading as Matt's front room. His mother's in it too, and it really is his mum - not just Matt in a wig.

It's a fun concept that ought to work - and it also deserves a Matt Lucas Award of its own for the Best Title Song For A Comedy Panel Show as well as Most Overqualified House Band. David Arnold, who's seated at the piano, didn't just write the theme tune for Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, he's most famous as the composer of the last five James Bonds.

The trouble in this first episode is the lack of chemistry between the guests. Jason Manford is a safe pair of hands on any panel show and Graeme Garden tries hard, but Henning Wehn - the self-styled German Ambassador for Comedy - is a bit of an acquired taste, and from the stony expression on Jason Manford's face, he doesn't get the joke either.

The Matt Lucas Awards are the television version of Lucas's Radio 2 show, And The Winner Is..., a reverse Room 101 where guests offer nominations for the host's consideration and, they hope, approbation.

It's a strange, muddled thing that isn't sure what it wants to be. A panel show? Or perhaps a sitcom of sorts? Lucas is indefatigable as he tries to keep everything together and at least give the show some kind of order. His mum Diana is in the "kitchen" of the set, a mocked-up version of Lucas's flat, but she has very little to do, which is a shame as she's charming and sweet.

Guests Graeme Garden (who is particularly game, though he mostly looks uncomfortable), Jason Manford (inevitably) and that strange habitué of Radio 4 shows, the simply baffling Henning Wehn present Lucas with their ideas for "smuggest nation of people". Thus Manford rails against Sweden and, yes, Ikea. The best bits involve musician and laconic wit David Arnold, Lucas's house one-man band.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this show is that the unbroadcast pilot has been made available online.

The Matt Lucas Awards is a TV version of the BBC Radio 2 show And the Winner Is... in which the Little Britain star presents the Lucas Awards to unusual categories, the nominations being decided by three celebrity guests. The BBC decided that the pilot was so good that they've commissioned a full series and have released the pilot on their comedy website.

The first episode featured Dave Gorman, Ruby Wax and Jack Whitehall as guests suggesting nominations for the Lucas Awards for "Most Incomprehensible British Accent", "The Guest with The Most Useless Talent" and "Worst Song by an Otherwise Reputable Artist". Out of the guests, for me it was Wax who was funniest, especially with her ability to memories 400 different camp songs, and her attempt to call Blue's Anthony Costa on Whitehall's mobile phone.

I also enjoyed what Lucas and his house band, David Arnold and The Available Session Musicians, referred to as the "excruciating theme tune", which for me wasn't excruciating at all, but rather jolly.

Overall, it's clear to see why the BBC felt comfortable putting this pilot out - whether or not they will put the pilot on the TV before the series goes out is another matter.