Press clippings Page 49
Mitchell & Webb to star in embassy comedy drama
David Mitchell and Robert Webb are to star in a new BBC Two comedy drama about a British Embassy team in Tazbekistan.
British Comedy Guide, 23rd August 2012Robert Webb: I worry people think I'm like Jeremy
Robert Webb tells Metro he's nothing like his Peep Show character Jeremy, why he hasn't watched co-star Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur, what he has planned for David Mitchell's stag night and all about his new film The Wedding Video.
Andrew Williams, Metro, 15th August 2012David Mitchell: an equation for risk-free levity?
When is it OK to start making light of terrible events? That's the comedian's perennial question. Some say there are things you should never joke about. Others that there's no "unfit subject for comedy", just lots of unfit jokes.
David Mitchell, The Observer, 29th July 2012David Mitchell: My new British citizenship test
Theresa May wants to put patriotism at the centre of British identity. Doesn't she know our national spirit is more about pasties, panto and Keith Chegwin?
David Mitchell, The Observer, 15th July 2012This week the show it features not one, but two, token women!
Josie Lawrence and Sarah Millican join host Rob Brydon and team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell to help sort fact from fiction.
Also in tonight's episode we hear about the evil eye expression Huw Edwards employs during interviews.
And former Corrie star, game-show host and corpser extraordinaire Bradley Walsh fails miserably to maintain a poker face tonight.
His story - involving the theft of some mashed potato - will be submitted to the show's usual ruthless scrutiny, cross-interrogation and lightning wit.
Jane Simon, The Mirror, 25th May 2012"Talk about the Euro and do it with some level of insight!" demands David Mitchell of Lee Mack, in that pretend-outraged voice he uses a lot on this show. Mack gets his own back by demanding that Mitchell talk about last year's Carling Cup final. Neither of them can oblige, of course, but that's not the point: they're putting to the test the idea that Huw Edwards has an "evil eye" expression he uses to cut colleagues short in a studio discussion if they're going on too long. Edwards scowls a lot to demonstrate.
Sarah Millican, Josie Lawrence and Bradley Walsh are the other guests, with Walsh enjoyably corpsing as he tries to pretend he once stole mashed potato from his teachers.
David Butcher, Radio Times, 25th May 2012David Mitchell is sandwiched between two TV giants this week. Literally. Pointless's Richard Osman and The Inbetweeners' Greg Davies are both about 6ft 8 in tall where Mitchell is a good ten inches shorter.
Osman's dry wit has won him a cult following among daytime viewers but given the wider platform of primetime TV, it turns out he's genuine comedy gold. His first attempt to bamboozle his opponents involves a Cluedo-esque story about burying a badger with the Banker from Deal or No Deal. It leaves his fellow panellists crying with laughter. Patsy Kensit has her comedy moments too, though. When asked rhetorically by a straightfaced Osman, "You're not an actress, are you, Patsy?" she swiftly replies: "A lot of people would say no."
In the remainder of the show Bob Mortimer insists he can split an apple with his bare hands, while Davies reveals he is the schoolboy creator of the "Snorkel Parka Music Practice Room" game.
Jane Rackham, Radio Times, 18th May 2012The joy of this series is the way it veers into comic byways. For instance, when Gabby Logan claims she throws things across the room at night to remind her of things to do in the morning, the discussion spins off into the question of whether or not she has slept with her team captain, David Mitchell. (He's on masterful comic form, but then, when isn't he?)
The "This is my..." round is genuinely harder to guess than usual: is mystery-man Kevin an EastEnders superfan who changed his name to Albert Square, Christian Jessen's surgeon or Lee's bum double from Not Going Out? Other tangents include an impression of the Alien stomach-burst scene from Rob Brydon.
David Butcher, Radio Times, 11th May 2012Ah, Des O'Connor. Indefatigable crooner, Morecambe and Wise foil, chat-show host and borderline national treasure. Who knew he's daft enough to eat cat food by accident? Or is he? Maybe his long, peculiar story about how he dined on this strange dish in a holiday villa is all nonsense.
O'Connor, looking as bronzed as a 70s sideboard, is a game contestant on Lee Mack's team, and quickly gets into the spirit of the show after a giggly start. Meanwhile, on David Mitchell's team, Rhod Gilbert regales us with an account of the acute trauma he suffered at an airport.
And comic actress Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony, Miranda) apparently plays a texting-game with her husband while he's at the swimming baths. Worse, she once rode her uncle's mobility scooter with disastrous consequences. Perhaps. It's a great show, and what Friday nights are for.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 4th May 2012There's a sad story from Richard Bacon: when he worked in McDonald's his girlfriend joined the queue for his till and dumped him when she reached the counter.
Of course, it could be complete tosh and the fun lies in the inquisition. As Bacon is on David Mitchell's team that means he's extensively quizzed by Lee Mack, backed by Clare Balding and a giggly Miranda Hart. And Balding is entertainingly cruel when Bacon reels off some facts about the cooking times of burgers.
Also, Dale Winton reveals how, as a child, instead of a comfort blanket or a teddy bear, he slept with a potato, while Hart insists she was a judge at the Identical Twins of the Year Award.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 27th April 2012