Steve Bennett (I)

Dead Funny review

It's not clear why Dead Funny has remained dormant for so long, for this revival, directed by Terry Johnson, hits all the marks with strong actors, great characters, and a bitingly funny script than conspire to make a show as funny as any of the comedy greats it celebrates.

Review: Al Murray: Let's Go Backwards Together

Flourishes of great writing elevate many pieces, but they also serve to show up failings when he seems to have more straightforward content.

What's The Facts? sets out to be a different sort of mockumentary - not the hidden-camera type that's so prevalent but a spoof of more tabloidy popular factual shows in which comedian Jason Lewis tries to draw links with all sorts of odd things. It's a real mash-up - a stream of consciousness mixing surreal observations with odd real-life clips from the news and the nether reaches of the internet. There are some sketches in there too, but they're taken from YouTube, not generated by this show's writers.

Clip shows are ten-a-penny of course, and this may be an attempt to do something different with the format. But it doesn't essentially change what it is - while the random nature of the narrative makes it hard to invest since so little of it makes sense. It doesn't add much to the footage anyway. You'd probably be better off disappearing down your own YouTube hole for half an hour.

All About The McKenzies comes to ITV2 with a track record, having already been a pretty successful internet series. Samuell Benta - who did just about everything here, acting, writing, directing - plays his namesake Samuell McKenzie who has ambitions of Hollywood superstardom via rapping, acting and modelling But he's working in a restaurant after a relationship breakdown, and stuck in his overcrowded parents' home, with relatives everywhere, talking fast and over each other.

The sophistication level is set early doors with a fart gag, and the second half starts with an extended diarrhoea scene. While it has a nice energy, from the hip-hop credits to animated inserts, it's all rather over-acted, signposting ordinary lines ought to be funny. Add in very broadly-drawn characters, plots that make little sense and cheesy plinky-plonky background music, and the overall tone makes All About The McKenzies seem more like a CBBC comedy based around the sassy young character of Angel than a mainstream offering. And not a very good CBBC comedy at that.

Review: Parsnips, Buttered by Joe Lycett

Parsnips, Buttered never aims to be anything but a silly diversion - presumably for the Christmas gift market - and on that count it scores. I certainly won't be emailing a letter of complaint from a fictitious alter-ego to the publisher...

Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back review

This seems like it could - maybe - have been a good idea for a two-minute Dead Ringers sketch. But stretching the idea of what Nigel Farage gets up to away from frontline politics into a 35-minute mockumentary makes for very slim pickings indeed.

Camden Comedy Club birthday gig review

Free burgers, prosecco, ice cream and, of course, birthday cake were dished out to create a party spirit... though it was barely needed: the audience on a mundane Tuesday night was as bawdy as many a weekend club.

The Comedian's Guide to Survival review

Films about comedians are rarely funny, but The Comedian's Guide To Success breaks that curse by taking the angst and insider jokes of Louis CK's Louie and playing it broader, less arthouse. It's flawed, but with the movie taking its own advice about persistence, director and writer Mark Murphy more than gets away with it.

Tony Law review

This isn't, perhaps, vintage Law, but he's never less than intriguing: funny peculiar as much as it is funny ha-ha, though if you buy tickets for a show with a title as cumbersome as A Law Undo His-elf What Welcome, that's only to be expected.

Shirley Ghostman's Spooktacular review

The whole show would benefit from being tighter, but Wooton's performance is as, erm, spirited as you could want, as he sells his ideas with bold conviction - even overcoming the evil juju that got into the PA system and cursed his headset mic.