Alan Carr

TV Review - Alan Carr: Chatty Man

With Chatty Man, Channel 4 look like they've found the solution to their hole in the listings. Alan Carr is a warm and witty bloke, who has managed to win over fans of stand-up and TV comedy, as well as winning over the likes of my mum, who adores him. All in all, it was a show that felt very familiar in a nice way.

Alan Carr: Chatty Man Review

Another popular comedian is handed a chat-show to try their luck, with predictably poor results. Alan Carr's an amusing fellow on-stage doing stand-up (and the best thing about the awful Sunday Night Project), but his new series Chatty Man did nothing but present further evidence against giving funnymen an interviewer's job. They're performers, not facilitators of anecdotes.

With Graham Norton set to join BBC One's chat-show line-up, toothy comedian Alan Carr attempts to fill the hole that Norton left on his defection in 2004 with this new show. Sadly, it just appears to be a rehash of Norton's So formula - sketches with celebrity cameos, an irreverent take on showbiz news and the internet. On the plus side, Carr's guests are presenter Bruce Forsyth, actress Heather Graham and actor-cum-journalist Ross Kemp. Pet Shop Boys provide the music.

The comedian Alan Carr is certain to be a distinctive chat show host, each week offering what the programme-makers call "a good old natter with three celebrity guests from the showbiz world". No surprise appearance from Barack Obama, then. His guests tonight are Bruce Forsyth, the US actress Heather Graham (Scrubs, The Spy Who Shagged Me) and Ross Kemp, whose documentary series In Search of Pirates on Sky1 has become one of the highlights of the week's viewing. The Pet Shop Boys will close the show with a performance of their latest single, Did You See Me Coming?

We are used to seeing him on TV with pal Alan Carr but here he goes solo. Chat shows are hard to get right - see Davina McCall and Lily Allen - but JLC has the enthusiasm of an excitable puppy and who can resist that? His show promises to be a mix of chat and music - and by music I mean he will sing.

If you liked The Sunday Night Project, but thought Alan Carr and those pesky guest hosts had a nasty tendency of eclipsing human-eclipse Justin Lee Collins, you're in luck. JLC is off the leash and hosting his own show, featuring celebrity interviews, zany competitions and a potentially cringeworthy spot of karaoke.

Independent Review

Though the format was beyond weak, the writing provided flashes of affectionate Brit wit.

Now here's a pun-loaded title if ever I heard one. This is a new introduction to Radio 2's regular Saturday lunchtime Comedy Hour. Sadly, it also sounds like another half-baked attempt to allow the BBC to air some of its comedy archives.

Archive comedy clips have never sounded so odd. Alan Carr interweaves segments from the BBC archives with his own fictional escapades. In this first show, he goes on a hen night that somehow ends up involving Les Dawson, Ross Noble, Michael McIntyre, a lamppost and plenty of cling film.

On the face of it, Tonightly's mix of topical gags, spoof characters and sketches does not seem entirely ground-breaking and indeed remarkably similar to its Channel 4 predecessor, The 11 O'Clock Show.

On first viewing, Tonightly is a lot safer than its predecessor, and grindingly familiar. Bloke does gags about news, bloke sits behind desk to introduce female co-host who does... more gags about news.

Whether the new talent on show becomes established in the way of its late-night Channel 4 predecessor, I'm not so sure. But hats off to Channel 4 for trying out a TV comedy show which features neither a panel show element - or Alan Carr.