Walliams & Friend. David Walliams. Copyright: King Bert Productions
Walliams & Friend

Walliams & Friend

  • TV sketch show
  • BBC One
  • 2015 - 2017
  • 7 episodes (1 series)

Sketch show starring David Walliams, with special guest stars. Also features Morgana Robinson, Mike Wozniak, Ashley Gilmour, Mikel Sylvanus, Emmanuel Kojo and Jason Lewis

Press clippings Page 2

TV Review: David Walliams & Friend

It would be easy to mock the easy game show spoofs and the repetitive one-note Middle Class Jeremy Kyle gag but there is actually a lot to like here.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 9th December 2016

Harry Enfield resists the urge to screech "Only me!" as he joins the high-concept sketch show built around a different special guest each week. With such a veteran on board, Walliams mostly cedes the spotlight as the pair romp through some scattershot spoofs, including a skewering of MasterChef that entertainingly reimagines Gregg Wallace as a petulant, fussy eater. The talented Morgana Robinson, meanwhile, does some brilliant work in the margins.

Graeme Virtue, The Guardian, 2nd December 2016

I was lukewarm about this sketch show last week, but there's a definite improvement tonight as Walliams's "friend" and comedy partner this evening is Harry Enfield. In a silver wig and a nice pink dress, Harry Enfield plays the Queen who's amazed to learn she's descended from Queen Victoria in Who Does One Think One Is? "Who'd have thought it? Little old one related to royalty?" Walliams awkwardly explains who Victoria was and the Queen enquires, "Was she named after the pub in EastEnders?" No? "Ah. One sees...."

The pair also do a great sketch mocking Torode and Wallace from Masterchef. It makes for a vastly superior show, but maybe also a tiny bit of embarrassment for Walliams as he's totally outclassed by Enfield. If only we could have Harry back every week. However, I've peeked ahead to the third episode and it has someone equally as talented.

Julie McDowall, The National (Scotland), 2nd December 2016

Preview - Walliams and Friend

The David Walliams comedy vehicle continues apace this week dragging Harry Enfield along for the ride.

Gareth Hargreaves, On The Box, 2nd December 2016

Walliams & Friend review

Walliams & Friend was a reminder of how good Harry Enfield's Nineties sketch shows were.

Gerard O'Donovan, The Telegraph, 2nd December 2016

Preview: Walliams & Friend with Harry Enfield, BBC1

After last week's edition in which David Walliams teamed up with youngish turk Jack Whitehall this week he teams up with oldish master Harry Enfield. And not surprisingly, given Enfield's sketch comedy pedigree the result is very good indeed and at some points positively brilliant.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 1st December 2016

Walliams & Friend was presumably given a full series off the back of the seasonal goodwill (hic!) shown by viewers towards the pilot last Christmas Eve. Aside from the funnier of their two Sherlock skits there was little to stretch the talents of Walliams or his first friend Jack Whitehall in the opener on Friday night. In fact, some of the sketches were so lame it would be an insult to CBBC if I suggested they would have been turned down by CBBC.

It's a real shame. Walliams is one of the sharpest off-the-cuff comics out there. Sadly, when it comes to scripted sketch shows he's like a bald man on a windy day. Just stick the wig on and hope for the best.

Ian Hyland, The Mirror, 27th November 2016

Walliams & Friend review

The problem for most of these sketches are so blandly decontextualised they could have been written any time in the past 40 years, and the punchlines tend to be feeble.

Jasper Rees, The Arts Desk, 26th November 2016

The conceit here is that every week David Walliams's sketches are played opposite a different sidekick. Tonight, it is Jack Whitehall, who proves a surprisingly versatile counterpoint, as a pathological status-flaunter and a passive-aggressive Sherlock Holmes, among others. It doesn't all land - dating shows have long been in on their own joke - but the album of operatic football chants feels as if it could one day be revealed as prophecy.

Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 25th November 2016

David Walliams interview

David Walliams has got an impressive list of famous faces together to play the Friend in his new comedy sketch show series.

The Sun, 25th November 2016

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