Five questions for BEASTS

Silly comedy trio BEASTS return to Edinburgh in August, bringing their mad bag of sketches to the Pleasance. They let Giggle Beats in on their new show, SOLO, working with Tom Parry of Pappys, and more.

Interview: Pappy's

Hold on to your takeaway pizzas, Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Tom Parry return to BBC3 on June 2 for the second series of Badults.

The Typhleotris is a freshwater fish that lives in Madagascar's limestone caves, a habitat of such consummate darkness that nature has not bothered to provide it with eyes. But even the Typhleotris, with a bag over its head, sealed inside a box, would have been able to see the jokes coming in Badults.

Not all the jokes, it has to be said. BBC3's new sketch show/sitcom hybrid served up several that were genuinely inspired and laugh-out-loud funny, suggesting the fault lay in lacklustre quality control rather than any shortfall in comic creativity.

But the wheat was bulked out by an awful lot of chaff, not to mention corn, which is very surprising for an inaugural episode out to impress.

Written and performed by Ben Clark, Matthew Crosby and Tom Parry - hitherto best known as award-winning fringe troupe Pappy's - Badults places immature adults into a flatshare environment, inevitably inviting - and suffering - comparison with a host of other comedies, notably The Young Ones, The Big Bang Theory, New Girl and even the works of the Three Stooges.

It has manic energy to spare, an engaging cast, cheerfully throwaway plotlines and an instinctive understanding of how to extract the most from its predominantly studio-bound setting.

The surreal inserts - Darwin comes alive off a £10 note to comment on the action - look a bit tired, and the central characters need far clearer delineation, but Badults shows a lot of promise.

However, poor Emer Kenny will need an awful lot more to work with if she is going to make any impression as fourth flatmate Rachel, sidelined almost as soon as she appeared and looking every bit the arbitrary, add-on female.

Another spin on the tried-and-tested flatshare sitcom formula, this one follows the goonish antics of Ben Clark as Ben, Matthew Crosby as Matthew and Tom Parry as Tom - you see what they did there - three thirtysomethings who make The Inbetweeners look like the epitome of sophisticated cool. So if the broad strokes of overgrown schoolboy comedy, with the odd spot of bizarre musical theatre fantasy thrown in, is your bag, then Badults will hit the spot.

Tom Parry interview

When Digital Spy recently spoke to Tom Parry - one third of comedy troupe Pappy's - about their upcoming sitcom Badults, conversation inevitably turned to the group's famous podcasts.

Pappy's interview

After being nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award and winning a 2013 Chortle gong, sketch trio Pappy's - aka Tom Parry, Matthew Crosby and Ben Clark - have made their own anarchic BBC Three sitcom, Badults. Here they talk about the show, which is due to air from next month...

The real Keith Lemon

Life's not exactly easy as peas when you're walking around with the same name as an outrageous comic creation - just ask Keith Lemon.