Opinion: Best Sketch Ever?

I looked at the screen and could not believe what I was seeing. It looked like a bunch of bearded Amish folk in the Thames TV studio but it sounded exactly like the Sex Pistols on December 1st 1976.

Silly ideas other sketch shows wouldn't consider, written and performed with care and expertise other sketch shows cannot match: that's this series in a nutshell.

Tonight! A time traveller goes back to 1969 to kill Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice before they can finish Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We ask Buzz Aldrin what Neil Armstrong really said when he stepped onto the Moon. Plus, the Amish Sex Pistols.

It's all great, with Kevin Eldon's bold decision to be at the centre of everything giving it an extra bit of authored uniqueness.

Gigglebox weekly #80 - It's Kevin

With the odd, small exception, most of the show is just hilarious.

It's Kevin - Review

It's Kevin has a very high hit rate. Give it a go, just to see something different and interesting.

What is it with the name Kevin and connections? In the film world it is Kevin Bacon who is separated from all other actors by six degrees or fewer. In the British comedy world it is Kevin Eldon. Though you probably don't know his name, his face is familiar from Big Train, Nighty Night, Fist of Fun, Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, and so on. He is, in other words, part of that Armando Iannucci-Chris Morris-Stewart Lee set; but until now he has always been in the background, performing cameos.

His own TV show It's Kevin (Sunday, BBC Two) seemed fresh, unpredictable, and, more importantly, funny, especially the opening number in which he sings about the show's title. I had a sneak preview of the second episode, because I enjoyed the first so much, and was pleased to see he sings a different variation on this each week. I was also glad to see the return of a sketch from episode one which imagined what "Naughty German Adolf Hitler" would be like if he spoke as plummily as Beatles producer Sir George Martin.

This was in the tradition of surreal juxtaposition favoured by Monty Python. Another sketch, about a man with a strange medical condition called Soundtrackitis (which meant that his every utterance was accompanied by a relevant clip of music), also felt Pythonesque. And the way Eldon linked sketches by addressing the audience directly from a sofa on a white set reminded you of the John Cleese links in And Now For Something Completely Different.

While all this may suggest that, actually, it is almost impossible to be completely different in comedy, I felt Eldon had a good stab at it. Confident and imaginative, the sense of humour reminded me of another unsung comedy stalwart Simon Munnery, and when I saw Munnery popping up in odd sketches it made sense that they would be friends.

The sketches were a bit uneven and felt a bit student fringe-like at times. But I liked Eldon's take-it-or-leave swagger. And some of the throwaway lines such as "Queuing is a great British tradition, like the Proms and dogging" made me laugh out loud.

Radio Times review

"At least it's made by somebody who cares," said up-and-coming 52-year-old sketch comedian Kevin Eldon at the start of his first solo series, just after a giant boxing glove had appeared in shot to punch him in the face. This was the joy of It's Kevin: silly set-ups other sketch shows wouldn't consider, executed with a level of care and expertise other sketch shows can't match.

Eldon has appeared in Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, Fist of Fun, Harry & Paul, Nighty Night and countless other revered British comedies, its creators all knowing that his impeccable timing and oddball menace would lift their projects. Big names like Julia Davis have reciprocated by guesting in It's Kevin, but they're not just doing Eldon a favour, and this isn't just a chance for a technically gifted supporting actor to have a go at being the lead in a bunch of sketches. Eldon boldly put himself centre-screen as the host and creator of a programme that lovingly, caringly turned the sketch show inside-out. His writing is as impressive as his acting.

It began with a song-and-dance number in a bright white studio, with ticker tape, Cockney walkabouts, puppets and a thrash-punk interlude. If it had stopped there it would still have been the comedy of the year so far, but on it went, often staying in the white studio with sketches sidling in and out of Eldon's interactions with a cast of helpers. His maintenance man couldn't find the lost property office. His wardrobe assistant spoke only in screams (taken, I think, from that "goats shout like humans" YouTube video). The perfect sandwich was made by Hosni Mubarak, a curt young man with a massive dagger. A man played by David Cann explained that the best sandwich he ever had was one a found under a train seat. "I don't know what was in it. Orangey, yellow sticky stuff."

There hasn't been a sketch show with ideas this good since Big Train in 1998 - Eldon was in that as well. He reprised his famous impression of George Martin, giving the Beatles producer's voice to Hitler reminiscing about annexing the Sudetenland ("I immediately knew that we were onto something big"). But the biggest laughs were stupid visual jokes, superbly performed. The bit where Eldon failed to replace a microphone back in the stand went on for an extremely long time, but I could have watched it for longer.

The scheduling at 10.30pm on a Sunday, and the lack of on-air promotion and advance marketing, suggest BBC2 thought they had a weird dud on their hands, until scores of comedy pros shouted about It's Kevin on social media, and every broadsheet ran a profile detailing Eldon's impeccable pedigree. Then there was the odd flicker of support from the BBC online, too late: only 430,000 people tuned in according to overnight figures.

Those ratings are on a par with Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle - so it was that another original comedy by a rare talent pouring his heart into his career peak was seen only by the niche audience who were already on side. If people who aren't comedy nerds miss It's Kevin, they have really missed out.

Kevin Eldon has been the Mr Whatsisname of countless knowing comedies down the years (Brass Eye, Smack the Pony, Big Train), so it was nice to see him turning up in It's Kevin, his own smart show. It wouldn't be subtle, he warned us (after the longest song-and-dance-based opening sequence since Family Guy), though the glee that went into covering a woman - a "fly psychologist" - in strawberry mousse, feathers and balloons was more Bob and Vic than Ant and Dec. A lot of the humour arrived in inverted commas, pulling the rug from under itself, sending up comedic tropes, pre-empting the viewer's response. Some of it was just nicely silly. There was a poke at popular science documentaries ("Sandwiches. They're everywhere...") and a brilliant reimagining of Hitler with the voice of Beatles producer George Martin, reminiscing about taking Austria by storm in 1939 ("I immediately knew we were on to something big..."). Characters are Eldon's big strength. I liked his cloth-capped Stanley Dewthorpe, who announced himself as "a fictional man from the north of England" before unleashing a stream of finely honed nonsense that juxtaposed (possibly for the first time on terrestrial television) Colin Cowdrey, Dettol and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. That Kevin Eldon is a crazy guy.

A joyous fresh and imaginative take on the sketch format from one of the nation's finest comic performers. Kevin Eldon's appearances in countless cult comedies have left him with a useful contact book, but the myriad star guests aren't simply doing this up-and-coming 52-year-old a favour in his first solo series: the writing is as maniacally funny as Eldon's acting. The scheduling (late on Sunday) suggests BBC2 don't know what a gem they've got here.

It's Kevin, BBC Two, review

It's Kevin is a new sketch show on BBC Two on Sunday nights which does just what sketch shows should: make you forget about all but its silly world for 30 minutes with skits that never outstay their welcome, and you always find the next one funny even if you didn't the last.

Bill Bailey in a pink jumpsuit can't be all bad

The comedy sketch show has scuppered many a talented performer and, in its more tumbleweed moments, it appeared as though It's Kevin (BBC2) was destined to join the ignoble list of failed efforts. But there was just enough originality in Kevin Eldon's attention-deficit approach to the genre to grant him the benefit of the doubt.