Henning Wehn: What's so funny about the Germans?

The Brits think the Germans have no sense of humor, so how did a German comedian make it big on the UK comedy circuit? Henning Wehn reveals all to DW.

This week's new comedy

Reviews of Sam Fletcher, Ian D. Montfort and Henning Wehn.

Lifting groin flaps on Austrian flyerers

This is Otto's fifth time at the Fringe. Before, he has performed with fellow German Henning Wehn.

The Matt Lucas Awards is the radio adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 show And The Winner Is... in which Matt Lucas and his panel of guests - this week it was Jason Manford, Henning Wehn and Graeme Garden - present awards in unusual categories.

The main worry with any radio adaptation is will it carry off the transfer from radio to telly? By the looks of things I'd say that it's doubtful, which would be a huge shame because I'm a big fan of the radio show.

To me it seems that the TV version has strained too far from the original format. Let's start from the beginning with the opening titles. When I saw the original pilot that was on the BBC website some time ago (and which I've reviewed previously) there were some things I enjoyed, like the catchy "excruciating theme tune."

The song is good, but I can't stand the animated opening titles, which were just too cheesy. You don't need to mute your TV, but you do need a blind to cover the scene until the show properly starts. Also, a word of advice: don't put a character from a much more successful show (in this case Vicky Pollard) in the opening titles, reminding everyone that the older show was brilliant and this new show may well not be as funny...

Moving on to the actual show, the pilot was set in a ritzy studio while the series is set in a mock-up of what is supposed to by Lucas's flat. According to a blog by co-creator of the series Ashley Blaker, they thought the ritzy studio didn't work. But I don't think the flat works either. It comes across as a bit gimmicky for me.

Then you have certain awards in which the guests are made to do stupid activities, like drawing a nude model and having to sing terrible football songs while dressed up as the singers in question. It just gets more cheesy as the show goes along.

I hope the series improves, but to be honest I have my doubts. But if the BBC does decide to cancel it, I hope they don't get rid of it all together and it returns to the radio.

What is it with celebrities and their parents? First Sarah Millican uses her TV show to introduce the world to her dad and his words of wisdom, now Matt Lucas has roped in his mum Diana to provide the comic links for The Matt Lucas Awards.

Truth be told, Mrs Lucas proves good fun, and fits in rather well with the surroundings. Indeed, the show itself is as snug, cosy and comforting as a mother's embrace. If anything a little more edge would have been welcome.

The premise mimics traditional showbusiness award ceremonies, only with bizarre and previously neglected categories such as 'smuggest nation' and 'worst football song ever'. A panel of three celebrity guests are charged with providing the nominations and arguing their case, while host Lucas fires off non-stop quips before deciding on the winner.

It's a pleasant enough distraction, and inaugural guests Henning Wehn, Jason Manford and Graeme Garden proved good value, but The Matt Lucas Awards is clearly a show in the grips of an identity crisis.

The set - a studio-bound facsimile of Lucas' living room - is reminiscent of The Kumars At Number 42, while the format invariably invites comparisons to Room 101. The only truly original aspect of the programme - the designated performance corner where the celebrities indulge in costumed karaoke - is by far the least successful. I'm afraid it looked suspiciously like padding.

Which is the smuggest nation on Earth?

It's not me asking that question - well, it is, but not originally - but the host of a new show called The Matt Lucas Awards (BBC1, 10.35pm).

That host, though you may find this hard to believe, is Little Britain's Matt Lucas, who originally did a similar programme on Radio 2.

Each week he's joined by three guests - tonight it's Jason Manford, Graham Garden and German stand-up comic Henning Wehn - to debate the sort of award nominations which for obvious reasons don't get a look-in elsewhere.

Others under consideration include the most dreadful football song ever sung.

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.

While his partner in catchphrase comedy David Walliams has been busy with headline-grabbing, charitable sporting heroics and judging Britain's Got Talent, Matt Lucas has been developing this panel show that's such an easy win of an idea, it's a wonder nobody's thought of it before. Based on Lucas's radio show And the Winner Is..., the format is a low-key awards ceremony for a diverse array of unsung topics - from "dullest pastime" to "least likely to have actually occurred Bible story".

Each week, three celebrity guests will suggest nominees for various suitably wacky categories and then fight it out with Lucas to prove their case. First up, comedy types Jason Manford, Henning Wehn and Graeme Garden debate subjects such as "dreadfullest football song ever sung" and "smuggest nation of people" (that one's between the Swedes, the Chinese and the English, they reckon). Covering topics we can all muster up an opinion on, it's essentially a more celebratory Room 101. A fun enough watch, if you can stomach the self-indulgent theme tune featuring a cartoon Lucas singing about being "that man from those other shows you like".

Henning Knows Best (Radio 2, Saturday), features comedian Henning Wehn - regularly hilarious as a guest on Radio 4's The Unbelievable Truth - looking at the British from a German point of view. The first programme was about class and, while there were some lines to make you smile (Wehn said his father told him to leave Germany in 1984 because all the jobs had been taken by "chirpy, lovable, violent Geordies" in Auf Wiedersehen Pet) much of it relied on flat cliches and we also had to suffer Peter York talking unfunny twaddle. "It's their bank balance," he said, asked for the defining clue to someone's class. Apart from a couple of nasty lines - working-class people used to be too busy working "to hunt for paedophiles or buy track suits from Sports Direct" - this was safe, obvious stuff.