That Mitchell And Webb Look. Image shows from L to R: David Mitchell, Robert Webb. Copyright: BBC
That Mitchell And Webb Look

That Mitchell And Webb Look

  • TV sketch show
  • BBC Two
  • 2006 - 2010
  • 24 episodes (4 series)

Sketch series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb in various roles, from tramp-detectives to participants of impossibly difficult maths quizzes. Stars David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Olivia Colman, James Bachman, Paterson Joseph and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 873

Press clippings Page 6

That Mitchell And Webb Look 3.2 Review

Hit-and-miss. Just kidding! Well, it wasn't as good as last week's opener, but there weren't too many sketches that didn't make me giggle or smile, if only a few that had a genuinely brilliant idea behind them.

Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 19th June 2009

Thursday night is the new Friday night, judging by the amount of comedy on TV this evening. Mitchell and Webb take a pop at their critics here with a sketch about the irksome nature of writing "hit-and-miss" shows. "We've done two hit-and-miss series now, can't we go for some-thing different?" asks Webb. "If we didn't perversely include 50% of deliberately unamusing material, people would have to think of something else to say," replies Mitchell. There are quite a few hits tonight, particularly Please Remain Indoors, a post-apocalyptic quiz show.

Hannah Pool, The Guardian, 18th June 2009

The duo know their critics well: 'If we didn't perversely include 50 per cent deliberately unamusing material,' says David Mitchell in a self-referential script meeting in tonight's episode, 'they'd have to think of something else to say.' Well, that's us told, then. Happily there are more hits than misses in this instalment.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 18th June 2009

We've always been big fans of Mitchell and Webb whether it be in Peep Show, David popping up on panel shows or Robert skiving in The Smoking Room, but for some reason their sketch show has never really hit the mark. However, on the whole this first episode of series three had a higher hit rate than the less memorable second series.

The Custard TV, 17th June 2009

On Thursday, the return of That Mitchell and Webb Look served up a clinical assassination of The Apprentice, and its viewers. Webb and Mitchell are BBC producers, in the process of inventing The Apprentice. Webb is asking Mitchell why anyone would want to watch a show where, every week, a bunch of idiots screw things up. "Everyone will think that they're the only person to have noticed that all the contestants are idiots," Mitchell beams. "I've got a hunch that, for some reason, people feel this never stops being worth commenting on." "And remind me," Webb asks, "how do these ironic viewers show up in the ratings?" "They show up the same, my friend. They show up just the same."

The culturally incisive nature of Mitchell and Webb's sketch comedy is one thing. Increasingly, however, the news that many will want to know about the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look is this: currently, just how scorching do Mitchell and Webb look? Has it become any easier to work out which one you'd have sex with first? As a diligent correspondent I can report that the important facts, viz the first episode, are:

Mitchell in full Victorian rig, shouting "Have you got any idea how hot I am?" Mitchell lounging on a sofa reading a newspaper, just like he would if he were your husband, and you lived together. Webb as Santa's evil brother, Russ, singing an absolutely filthy, 18-certificate version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town - and then kissing a woman with his sensual, endless man-mouth.

Insane man-hotness aside, this third series of Look has an unexpected, and profoundly thrilling, sense of going up a gear. In the first episode, at least, Mitchell and Webb seem to have chucked out all the old stalwarts - no Numberwang, no tramps with head-cams - and, instead, turned in the tightest, brightest half-hour of sketch comedy since A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

If the rest of the series is as effortlessly superior as the first episode, Mitchell and Webb will probably be credited with reviving the long-dormant TV sketch show. And making a long, hot summer borderline unbearable for a lot of women.

Caitlin Moran, The Times, 13th June 2009

Ah. Another prime-time comedy from the BBC. Brace yourselves, fun-lovers. Actually, this one isn't bad. It may not be Peep Show, but give me That Mitchell and Webb Look over Kröd and his (not-so)-merry men any day. The problem I've always had with sketch shows is the transparency of the thought process. The really great ones are either so extremely astute as to poke fun at something everyone can recognise but no one's noticed, or they're so left-field as to be absurd.

Not too worry. Last night delivered, on the whole. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, either, and it was a considerable improvement on the rather mediocre first two series. We could, probably, have done without the door-bell replacing, dog-firing cannon, but the hopeless spooks with their floating duck disguises and newspaper peepholes were laugh-out-loud funny, as was the competitive dinner-party chat between rocket scientist and brain surgeon, though I think my favourite would have to be the poor community-support policeman who's ridiculed for being unable to commit police brutality, only, you guessed it, "community support brutality". I wonder if that happens? Probably.

Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent, 12th June 2009

TM&WL Series Three Review

I am yet to find a single preview of That Mitchell and Webb Look that does not read something along the lines of 'well, it's no Peep Show, but it's alright I guess...'. People have something against this sketch show and I can't really work out why. Would the opening episode of the third series give my fellow telly critics more to praise - or more to support another 'meh' review?

Anna Lowman, TV Scoop, 12th June 2009

Review: That Mitchell and Webb Look 3x1

Despite David Mitchell's understandable dislike of football, I'm going to describe the first episode of the new series as 'a game of two halves'.

The Medium Is Not Enough, 12th June 2009

That Mitchell & Webb Look 3.1 Review

With the proviso that first episodes of sketch shows are intentionally the strongest to lure audiences in, I found this opener solidly written and very funny for the most part. There were only a few obvious duds, with most of the sketches hitting their marks and a handful eliciting big laughs.

Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 12th June 2009

The third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look revealed that David Mitchell and Robert Webb can flit more deftly than Matt Lucas between comedy series (Peep Show) and sketch show. The first of the sketches encapsulated Mitchell and Webb's grasp of comic brevity: it gently satirised the conventions of a Poirot mystery. As their unmasking approached, the killer suddenly acquired a villainous voice and cigarette holder. The duo also made a very funny joke out of that thing we do when looking around the house for something, patting both our pockets as we rock on our knees.

Best of all was a satire of The Apprentice, which had the duo as TV executives watching a tape of a show featuring a relatively meek CEO - a Sugar-lite - dismissing a contestant politely and apologetically. But it didn't quite work, the executives thought, and so rethought the concept. "We deliberately pick 16 idiots - real idiots, arseholes as well," one of the men said, "and then we watch them screw everything up." But honestly, who would want to watch that?

Tim Teeman, The Times, 12th June 2009

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