Elijah Wood interview: 'British comedy is wittier'

Ahead of starring in Netflix's new Dirk Gently series, the Hollywood actor talks about why he thinks British comedy beats its US equivalent.

Samuel Barnett gets title role in Dirk Gently USA

Samuel Barnett has been cast as the lead opposite Elijah Wood in Dirk Gently, BBC America's eight-episode series based on the cult novels by Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams.

Elijah Wood cast in BBC America's "Dirk Gently"

Elijah Wood has been cast in Dirk Gently, the upcoming BBC America comedy from writer and director Max Landis. Wood will play Todd [seemingly an American Richard MacDuff], the assistant to the title character, an eccentric detective. The series is based on the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency novels by the late Douglas Adams.

Now this could be interesting: Robin Williams is a guest tonight and he is a notoriously loose cannon. Undoubtedly he's a clever and witty comedian, but he finds it hard to turn himself off. So will Williams be "on" when he takes his place on the Norton sofa? He shares the limelight here with busy young Elijah Wood (recently on BBC3 in the very odd US comedy Wilfred) and with our own Jennifer Saunders, who returns to TV screens at Christmas with an Absolutely Fabulous special.

Tonight's chat-show guests are American comedian-actor Robin Williams and actor Elijah Wood (yes, they have a film out - the animated penguin comedy Happy Feet Two), plus Jennifer Saunders, who has recovered from breast cancer and is working on new episodes of Absolutely Fabulous to mark the sitcom's 20th anniversary next year. Music comes from JLS.