Greg James interview

Greg James on becoming an actor, selling out and his idol Michael Palin: "I love taking the piss out of radio."

Greg James: I can't wait for people to see my comedy

Radio One DJ Greg James is set to make his acting debut in a new one-off BBC comedy he's writtten called Dead Air.

Radio Times review

Radio 1 DJ Greg James is the poor rube dropped into the entertaining, immersive murder mystery. He's got to work out why Reese Witherspoon, owner of Successville's biggest chain of bars (see what they did there?), has been murdered. Playing junior to the gruff, unorthodox-verging-on-insane DI Sleet (deadpanned brilliantly by Tom Davis), he's criticised for being "a bit camp and weird".

But then he's got to contend with Prof Brian Cox as an awe-filled forensic scientist and Frances Barber giving a delicious turn as a rapacious Mary Berry, owner of strip club Soggy Bottoms. He can't help laughing incredulously at it all and neither will you.

Preview, Murder In Successvile, Greg James, BBC3

This is not sophisticated, carefully-crafted humour like, say, Inside No. 9, but there is something enjoyably stupid about it, even though it looks like it has cost a couple of quid to make. I fear the worst - this ludicrous off-the-cuffs series may be growing on me.

What to expect from Murder in Successville

Dermot O'Leary, Greg James and Jamie Laing are among the brave celebrities playing detective in BBC Three's new improvised comedy.

Greg Rusedski and Russell Tovey? Gregg Wallace and Russell Grant? Greggs the Bakers and Russell & Bromley? Of all the Greg(g)s and Russells in the world, it's Radio 1 DJ Greg James and comedian Russell Kane who team up to present this new spin on the irreverent chat show theme. The bromantic banter is sprinkled with a selection of celeb guests - tonight the featured talent includes Brit hip-hoppers Rizzle Kicks and the Haitian-American chart-topper, dirty talkin' Jason Derulo.

The inexplicable cult of Russell Kane continues to find a refuge on BBC Three, as the stand-up and his R1 DJ chum Greg James follow Unzipped and How to Win Eurovision with their first chat show.

Staying In is apparently filmed in a mock-up of the 'man den' they would live in if their tiresomely overemphasised bromance was ever consummated.

So celebrity guests including Tinie Tempah, Nicole Scherzinger and Chris 'Thor' Hemsworth can expect to be interviewed in anywhere from the kitchen to the broom cupboard. Sounds unmissable, eh? Poor old BBC Three. While its documentaries, dramas and even comedies have improved stratospherically over time, its entertainment shows are stuck in creative quicksand (Russell Howard's Good News is as wretched as it is popular), trying harder and harder while sinking faster and faster.

Video: Russell Kane and Greg James on Unzipped

Russell Kane and Greg James tell us about their new BBC Three show Unzipped which looks into the strange secrets of the British public using an alternative comedy census.

The new series of Unzipped starts on BBC Three at 10pm on Wednesday 3rd October.