Morgana Robinson's The Agency. Morgana Robinson. Copyright: Happy Tramp Productions
Morgana Robinson's The Agency

Morgana Robinson's The Agency

  • TV sketch show
  • BBC Two
  • 2016
  • 6 episodes (1 series)

Impressionism sketch show starring Morgana Robinson as the stars of talent agency Mann Management. Also features Cavan Clerkin, Gemma Whelan, Perry Benson, Seb Cardinal, Rebecca Humphries and Claire Skinner

Episode menu

Series 1, Episode 2

Vincent receives news of a huge audition for EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy opposite a Hollywood A-lister. Also in this episode, we meet pop star Cheryl Cole, and Danny Dyer is up for an unlikely award.

Preview clips

Further details

Vincent receives news of a huge audition for EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy opposite a Hollywood A-lister. For Natalie this is a dream come true, but with her dad unwilling to look after himself, Natalie must come up with a faultless plan for dad before she can get to the casting.

Meanwhile, Joanna Lumley is hemorrhaging the filming budget while on her travelogues. With this in mind, Vincent has concocted a solution by keeping 'Jo Jo's' far flung travels much closer to home.

Also in this episode, we meet pop star Cheryl Cole and the new love(s) in her life, and Danny Dyer is up for an unlikely but flattering award.

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 3rd October 2016
Time
10pm
Channel
BBC Two
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Wednesday 16th May 2018 10:00pm Gold
Thursday 17th May 2018 1:35am Gold
Wednesday 3rd October 2018 12:00am Gold
Wednesday 3rd October 2018 1:20am Gold
Monday 1st July 2019 2:25am Gold
Sunday 6th October 2019 2:05am Gold
Monday 7th October 2019 1:10am Gold
Friday 27th December 2019 2:50am Gold
Saturday 28th December 2019 1:00am Gold
Monday 16th March 2020 1:10am Gold

Cast & crew

Cast
Morgana Robinson Various
Cavan Clerkin Vincent Mann
Gemma Whelan Kat Cassidy
Perry Benson Mr Cassidy
Seb Cardinal Tim
Rebecca Humphries Rachel
Claire Skinner Narrator
Guest cast
Lolly Adefope Essex County Council Official
Gabby Best Mariola
Asim Chaudhry Trevor
Natasia Demetriou Receptionist
Nish Nathwani Carpet Salesman
Tony Way Carpet Salesman
Toby Williams Essex County Council Official
Terry Mynott Morgan Freeman (Voice)
Writing team
Jack Bayles Writer
Matt Morgan Writer
Sarah Morgan Writer
Nico Tatarowicz Writer
Neil Webster Writer
Miles Chapman Writer
Mark O'Sullivan Writer
Steven Burge (as Steve Burge) Writer
Production team
Tom McKay Director
Jack Bayles Producer
Neil Webster Executive Producer
Kate Daughton Executive Producer
Ben Palmer Executive Producer
Morgana Robinson Associate Producer
Mark Henson Editor
Alex Beverly Production Designer
Rosalie Clayton Casting Director
Lynsey Moore Costume Designer
Oli Russell Director of Photography
Jo Jenkins Make-up Designer
Chris May 1st Assistant Director

Video

Cheryl's new love

Cheryl introduced us to her new love, Buster.

Featuring: Cavan Clerkin (Vincent Mann) & Morgana Robinson.

Press

'Natalie Cassidy' is the star of the show again this week. Morgana Robinson obviously knows she's her best impression and she's not afraid to milk it. Tonight, Natalie's agent rings her with some fantastic news: Morgan Freeman is auditioning female actresses for a role in his new film and she's been invited to attend. The role is perfect for her: she's to play a cockney astronaut. But she can't find anyone to look after her grumpy old dad (he's actually my favourite character in tonight's show) so she'll have to take him with her to meet Morgan Freeman, but he's stuffed in his armchair, refusing to "go up London". We also see Cheryl Cole who's through with worthless men and is trying to find a new soulmate with various pets, but neither the cute wee dog nor the tortoise can seem to understand her emotional needs.

Julie McDowall, The National (Scotland), 3rd October 2016

This mock doc - following a talent agency's celeb clients, all of whom are played by Robinson - seems on the surface to be subtler than most impression shows. In its second episode, though, it suffers familiar diminishing returns. Each character has one weekly variation on their one basic joke: if that's not funny, the whole thing's a grind. Tonight, Mel and Sue (though you couldn't tell it was supposed to be them) decide to try some time apart.

Jack Seale, The Guardian, 3rd October 2016

In Morgana Robinson's The Agency impressionist imagines that all of the celebrities that she mimics are represented by the same agent. The agent in question is Vincent Mann (Calvin Clerkin) who runs the wittily titled Mann Management and looks constantly exasperated by his client base. Those of us who'd watched Robinson's previous shows such as The Morgana Show and Very Important People will recognise the majority of the impressions here with Fearne Cotton, Adele and Cheryl Cole being some of Vincent's many clients. However the main focus of the first episode of this mockumentary focused primarily on Eastenders actress Natalie Cassidy as she prepared for the National Television Awards. I felt Morgana did well in crafting a story for the put-upon Cassidy who tried her best to look after her family whilst at the same time being a famous soap actress. Robinson's performance presented the fictional Cassidy in an incredibly sympathetic light and I felt she was also able to impersonate her mannerisms perfectly. The same can't be said for Robinson's impression of Danny Dyer which certainly wasn't nearly as nuanced and instead involved her shouting in a cockney accent. The story in which Dyer also tried to become a children's author wasn't that amusing and most of the gags were pretty obvious. It didn't help that Robinson's Danny Dyer sounded incredibly similar to her Gregg Wallace and if she wasn't made up to look like each of them then I think you'd struggle to spot the difference. The other prominent storyline in this first episode saw Vincent try to secure some stage work for Miranda Hart to broaden her range. Unfortunately Miranda couldn't deal with the Pinter material without launching into her comedy routine, irritating both the director and her co-stars in the process. Whilst I found Robinson's Miranda impression to be quite impressive, the story itself was quite obvious and as an audience member I knew exactly where it was going. Overall I found The Agency to be incredibly hit-and-miss and if hadn't been for the well-imagined Natalie Cassidy segments I may not have made it through the entire episode. Although I do feel Robinson is a talented impressionist, I don't think The Agency works as well as it should and as there's six more episodes to go I can't see myself sticking around for any more.

Matt, The Custard TV, 2nd October 2016

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