David Walliams

David Walliams and Alan Carr recreate nude paddle photo

David Walliams and Alan Carr strip naked to recreate Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom's nude paddle board photo.

Walliams & Friend review

With a skit called Carry On Up the Sexual Harassment Tribunal, this was a very, very silly sketch show. But the weirder things got, the funnier it all was.

Sheridan Smith is this week's guest on the defiantly old-fashioned sketch show, joining in with routines about Carry On films and knackered married couples that aren't sure if they're satirising cliche or indulging in it. The best skits are those in which Walliams and his writers cater more sensitively for what Smith can do: her solo turns as a cruise-ship singer frazzled by failure, and as a wife absurdly deluded about her husband's attractiveness, give the show more heart and heft.

TV Review: David Walliams & Friend

It would be easy to mock the easy game show spoofs and the repetitive one-note Middle Class Jeremy Kyle gag but there is actually a lot to like here.

Harry Enfield resists the urge to screech "Only me!" as he joins the high-concept sketch show built around a different special guest each week. With such a veteran on board, Walliams mostly cedes the spotlight as the pair romp through some scattershot spoofs, including a skewering of MasterChef that entertainingly reimagines Gregg Wallace as a petulant, fussy eater. The talented Morgana Robinson, meanwhile, does some brilliant work in the margins.

I was lukewarm about this sketch show last week, but there's a definite improvement tonight as Walliams's "friend" and comedy partner this evening is Harry Enfield. In a silver wig and a nice pink dress, Harry Enfield plays the Queen who's amazed to learn she's descended from Queen Victoria in Who Does One Think One Is? "Who'd have thought it? Little old one related to royalty?" Walliams awkwardly explains who Victoria was and the Queen enquires, "Was she named after the pub in EastEnders?" No? "Ah. One sees...."

The pair also do a great sketch mocking Torode and Wallace from Masterchef. It makes for a vastly superior show, but maybe also a tiny bit of embarrassment for Walliams as he's totally outclassed by Enfield. If only we could have Harry back every week. However, I've peeked ahead to the third episode and it has someone equally as talented.

Preview - Walliams and Friend

The David Walliams comedy vehicle continues apace this week dragging Harry Enfield along for the ride.

Walliams & Friend review

Walliams & Friend was a reminder of how good Harry Enfield's Nineties sketch shows were.

Preview: Walliams & Friend with Harry Enfield, BBC1

After last week's edition in which David Walliams teamed up with youngish turk Jack Whitehall this week he teams up with oldish master Harry Enfield. And not surprisingly, given Enfield's sketch comedy pedigree the result is very good indeed and at some points positively brilliant.

Walliams & Friend was presumably given a full series off the back of the seasonal goodwill (hic!) shown by viewers towards the pilot last Christmas Eve. Aside from the funnier of their two Sherlock skits there was little to stretch the talents of Walliams or his first friend Jack Whitehall in the opener on Friday night. In fact, some of the sketches were so lame it would be an insult to CBBC if I suggested they would have been turned down by CBBC.

It's a real shame. Walliams is one of the sharpest off-the-cuff comics out there. Sadly, when it comes to scripted sketch shows he's like a bald man on a windy day. Just stick the wig on and hope for the best.