Alexander Armstrong

I Want My Wife Back is a truly unfortunate title, in that it not only reveals a tin ear for titling of programmes but will let snarky reviewers change the W to an L. And, yes, I wouldn't mind that half-hour back.

Everyone, I imagine, likes Ben Miller (the non-smug Alexander Armstrong) but not even he, nor Caroline Catz, could quite save this derivative sitcom, not while the likes of Camping and Fresh Meat exist. A love-rat boss? A surprise party gone wrong... surprised? A pleasant middle-class English chap caught out lying by an insistent pedant, his lies getting more outre and unmanageable by the minute? Well, I laughed until I stopped, which was frightfully quickly.

How the BBC turned down Hunderby

The BBC turned down the chance to make Hunderby, creator Julia Davis has revealed. And she had sack Alexander Armstrong from the key role of Doctor Foggerty, after she found a more suitable actor in Rufus Jones.

Radio Times review

Heaven knows, there's not much to laugh about in the news, which almost perversely means we need more than ever the pungent satire of Have I Got News for You. If we can't make fun of our fears, then we're lost.

Scotland's former First Minister Alex Salmond, now MP for Gordon at Westminster, is one of the guests. He has appeared on the show before, though some years ago, back when everyone, including him, had more hair.

Also trying to help us to forget our troubles is Sara Pascoe, a cheerful stand-up who's clever enough and observant enough not simply to be the female comedian who fills the "we need a woman" chair.

Hosting is everyone's favourite, the twinkly and urbane Alexander Armstrong. As MC of Pointless, he's king of the daytime quiz show, and also recently topped the classical music charts with his first album, A Year of Songs. Let's hope he gives us a tune.

I come to the first CBBC programme I think I've ever reviewed for this site however it's one that's quite dear to my heart. As somebody who grew up in the late 1980s/early 1990s Danger Mouse was a show that I probably watched almost every episode of. So it was with great trepidation that I approached the new series that aired all this week on the BBC's children's channel. After suffering through the sub-par Thunderbirds remake I didn't have high hopes but I was pleasantly surprised by what was on offer. Although the graphics were inevitably better than those offered in Danger Mouse's original incarnation everything else about the show remained untouched. I did feel that, unlike Thunderbirds are Go, Danger Mouse offered something for everyone with the central plot appealing to younger viewers whilst older children and parents would've liked the wicked humour employed by writer Ben Ward. I particularly liked the fact that the voice of Come Dine With Me Dave Lamb provided the narration as he added an extra comic touch to proceedings. He was also there to provide a little nod and wink to the audience at home especially at the end when he tried to debunk several aspects of the plot. In voicing DM, Alexander Armstrong had particularly big shoes to fill but I felt he did an admirable job. Although it was quite obvious to picture him providing the voice he still brought a mix of bravado and comic timing needed to pull off the role. However I thought the best contribution came from Kevin Eldon who provided a note-perfect Penfold voice-over which gave some added authenticity to the piece. Although I know I'm not the target audience for Danger Mouse it was nice to see that those behind this reboot didn't insult those who watched the cartoon the first time around. Ultimately this was a show that provided something for everyone and I wouldn't be surprised if it got a weekend repeat on one of the main BBC channels so more people can experience its charm.

The originalDanger Mouse was an Eighties cartoon on ITV that was essentially a rough parody of James Bond. DM, with his eye patch and his flying car, was charged with saving the world from a large toady Blofeld called Baron Greenback. David Jason used to voice the mouse with Terry Scott as Penfold. Now Alexander Armstrong is "DM" and the comedian Kevin Eldon as Penfold the hamster.

I also wondered what children would make of Danger Mouse v2.0's narrative style, which was so self-reflexive and knowing that at times it was like an episode of Sherlock. "Now, the world's 12th greatest sidekick Penfold will speak the first line of the new series," said our narrator early on, before going on to point out the show's improbabilities, saying "I'm sure the writers will have perfectly reasonable answers to these questions."

But just when I was about to get really angry about what had been done to another childhood memory I went back and watched a few vintage DMs. It turned out they were all pretty arch too.

My instinct was that all of this would go way over the heads of my kids, who tend to laugh at pratfalls and fart gags (and I hardly need stress that I have no idea where they got that from). But I have a feeling that the wordiness and the ironic humour seeps in. That might be one reason why I remember Danger Mouse fondly without, until this week, being quite sure what it was that I fondly remembered.

After Thunderbirds and Clangers, another risky return for a beloved children's TV classic. The wham-bam scenes that kick off Danger Mouse V2.0 initially suggest a particularly inelegant reboot. But all the Hollywood overkill is in service of a gag, and soon we're back to the very British, fourth-wall-breaking silliness that defined the original. Suave Alexander Armstrong and squeaky Kevin Eldon make for a winning DM and Penfold, while Dave Lamb, the voice of Come Dine With Me, is the very hands-on narrator.

Alexander Armstrong: 'I don't need to play James Bond'

His dream gig has landed in his lap at last.
"I haven't cared this much about getting a part for so long," says Armstrong.

Danger Mouse: inside the remaking of a kids' classic

The rodent spy returns for 2015 with a slick new look and the voice of Alexander Armstrong. As we find when we visit the vocal booth though, the cartoon's anarchic spirit remains.

Alexander Armstrong to release debut album

Known to millions for his TV and comedy work, Alexander Armstrong, a former choral scholar at Trinity College Cambridge, announces he has signed his first album deal with East West Records, a label of the Warner Music Group home to a diverse roster of artists from Michael Bublé to Simply Red and actor Hugh Laurie.

This is the episode in which Jeremy Clarkson was set to return fire on his erstwhile employers. It looks as if he's decided that discretion is the better part of valour, but with the election now only a fortnight away, whoever is invited along instead - it'll be Alexander Armstrong, won't it? [actually Stephen Mangan] - will have plenty to talk about. In JC's absence, Miles Jupp and Camilla Long will be picking up the slack alongside Merton and Hislop, who must have been hoping for some sort of Angus Deayton-style valedictory humiliation.