Review - QI: series M, episode 1: a medley of maladies

With the sudden announcement this week that Stephen Fry would be leaving QI after this series, it feels right to have a look this current series, and try to figure out what we can expect to stay and to go when Sandi Toksvig takes over next year. If anything were to be kept from this episode, it would be Matt Lucas. It was his first time on the show and he did very well.

Matt Lucas writes letter supporting child with Alopecia

Overcoming his body issues to carve out a hugely successful career in comedy and crossing over to Hollywood in recent years, the 41 year-old recently handed on some wisdom to fellow Alopecia sufferer 10 year-old Jacob Fitzpatrick, penning a handwritten letter about his own experiences.

The Casebook of Max and Ivan is a new, daft comedy series from Max Olesker and Iván González that boasts some top supporting talent (June Whitfield in the first episode, Reece Shearsmith, Matt Lucas and Jessica Hynes coming up). It's a sprightly, silly show that reminds me a little bit of Milton Jones (though not as surreal), and when everyone calms down a bit, it'll be very good.

Pompidou heads to Netflix

This month will see the launch of Pompidou, a visual sitcom from British comedian Matt Lucas, on Netflix thanks to an agreement with all3media international.

Like Rowan Atkinson's annoying creation, Matt Lucas's down-at-heel aristocrat is a man of no words other than yelps and grunts. Maybe that's why he's called Pompidou because, apparently, the French simply adored the Atkinson twaddle and might go for this, too - but then, have you ever seen French TV comedy?

The pratfalls and shameless mugging here are painful to behold and Lucas chews the scenery throughout, perhaps thinking all the while about how his former partner, David Walliams, is making zillions from writing children's books. But then I always thought this duo overrated, just as I never got Reeves and Mortimer or most other recent British comedy pairings.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate how awful was the thing entitled Pompidou. I might be a little biased, because this pompous-bloke-fallen-on-hard-times sitcom featured three of my very least favourite things - slapstick, deference and the inexplicably beloved Beeb pet Matt Lucas. Even on an objective reading, however, this misguided and ill-disguised attempt to flog to the BBC Worldwide and children's market a sub-Bean, definitely sub-Hulot, half-hour lash-up of silly voices, snobbery and painfully telegraphed misunderstandings made me yearn for the comparatively Shavian sophistications of that exaggerated, whistling, carefree saunter Norman Wisdom would adopt six seconds before falling into a manhole. Insulting to children, insulting even to French people, who seem to like this kind of stuff, and you could find more intellectual creativity in 10 minutes of Bananas in Pyjamas.

This will come as a comic relief to many. Comedian Matt Lucas has given up writing in the English language. Well, at least he has in his latest offering, Pompidou (BBC Twop, Sunday).

Indeed, the only uttering of the Queen's English was "good afternoon". After which, it was a half-hour of boggling gibberish which made an episode of Jamaica Inn sound like a Shakespeare soliloquy recited by Mark Rylance. I do sincerely hope that BBC Worldwide release the scripts of this show in a leather-bound volume. Or did a script even exist?

The set up was quite promising. It centred on the toff Pompidou (Lucas) who cannot afford to live in his rundown stately home, so has decamped to an ugly caravan in the grounds with his butler Hove (Alex MacQueen), and a dog (Dog). After establishing this, it was a slide into befuddlement, as Pompidou and Hove first went fishing, then ended up in the local hospital after the manservant swallowed a bird. No, the feathered variety.

There were moments when I did laugh, but they may have been involuntary spasms upon realising that someone had commissioned this "silent movie". Although, of course, there was speech, just not in a language we recognised.

Was this comedy turned down by CBeebies, because it sounded like everyone, excepting the pooch, had received elocution lessons from In The Night Garden's Igglepiggle? The great surprise was the credits, showing five writers, including Lucas, were responsible for the show. So, that is one to put the kettle on, two to find the cups, and two more to open the biscuits.

I am desperate to say that it was the worst comedy since Amanda Holden's breakthrough role in Big Top, but I am going to hold that judgement until I see a foreign sub-titled version of Pompidou. A version dubbed in Swedish would be my pick, introduced by the chef from Sesame Street.

Pompidou, BBC Two - review

Few laughs in Matt Lucas's almost silent sitcom.

Review: Pompidou, with Matt Lucas

Maybe Matt Lucas can take solace from the fact no one liked Paris's now iconic Pompidou Centre when it first opened. For his new physical-comedy namesake is not an obvious initial hit either.