John Phillips (III)

Off The Telly Review

Shorn of the excesses of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lead Balloon reveals traces of true brilliance. Perhaps it would be more palatable to many if they actually did admit the link instead of constantly denying the obvious.

For all the quibbles, however, I can't stress enough that Peep Show is by far the best sitcom of recent years.

The Mark Steel Lectures

For me, the Radio 4 series of The Mark Steel Lectures was a delight. In each episode, he proved himself to be one of the few people who can talk passionately and entertainingly about relatively academic subjects. Some were naturally more interesting than others - a subject like Aristotle is always going to be difficult to sell to a comedy audience, after all - but all were entertaining, with a good balance of facts and jokes. This was often achieved by concentrating as much on the subjects' personalities as their achievements, and usually the best moments would be the asides, reflecting how modern society would interpret each subject's activities and eccentricities.

Lucas and Walliams, by contrast, seem content to sit in a comfort zone, churning out near-identical jokes over and over and over again. Whereas the League's characters became deeper and more complex over time, Little Britain turned into The Fast Show. Characters would come on, do the same old routine, say their catchphrases and go.

In theory, Britain's Best Sitcom should have been interesting viewing. What prevented it from being so was the insistence on dragging out a two-hour countdown to become a 12-week bore; the shameless attempts to persuade the public to keep heightening their phone bills; and the very simple fact that it is extremely difficult to keep talking about why you love a particular sitcom without endlessly repeating yourself.

Still Game Review

Still Game received a much more low-key launch, which is a great shame as it is a corker of a sitcom, with Jack and Victor emerging as wonderful characters.