Alistair McGowan

Jonathan Ross rounds off his BBC career this week with his final chat show on Friday, and this love-letter to comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Ross, a devotee of the pair's sardonic, surreal sketches, tells us that Pete and Dud were his first TV comedy love. Their series Not Only... but Also ran on BBC2 between 1965 and 1970. It will surprise no one to learn that the BBC subsequently wiped the tapes of many of its 23 episodes, some of which survive only in script form. Which is where we reach the chancy bit of Pete and Dud: the Lost Sketches. Ross's guests - including Alistair McGowan, Angus Deayton and Hugh Dennis - gather to re-create some of these vanished comedy gems. I hope it works.

Right up until the late Seventies, it was common policy for the BBC to wipe reels containing previously broadcast programmes in order to make space in the archives and save money by reusing the tape. One of the most significant casualties was Dudley Moore and Peter Cook's seminal comedy sketch show Not Only... But Also, of which fewer than half of the 22 episodes survive - despite apparent efforts by Peter Cook to purchase the masters from the BBC before they were wiped. While some of Pete & Dud's famous routines have been recovered from other filmed performances, others now exist in script form only.

Hence this project, spearheaded by Jonathan Ross, to resurrect Moore and Cook's lost sketches by reperforming them with a group of contemporary comic actors, including Adrian Edmondson, Alistair McGowan (who is rather good as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling) and Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis. The scripts still sparkle despite the passing of time, but the performances, perhaps inevitably, make you miss the real Pete and Dud all the more. However, the film has undoubtedly been made with the best of intentions, and includes rare archive footage of the original duo in action too.

"Hey, do you remember that teddy bear you had as a kid? You really loved that thing, huh? Bet you'd love to have it back, wouldn't you? Well here it is! We've cut off its head and vomited on it for you too!" Some of Cook and Moore's deleted Not Only But Also sketches are ruined beyond repair by a horrific line-up of Angus Deayton, Alistair McGowan, Hugh Dennis and Adrian Edmondson. Watch this if you enjoy becoming murderously angry before you go to bed on a Sunday night.

The 1980s, according to the blurb for this, was a decade "defined by vacuity". You could say the same about branded "list" shows and talking-heads compilations, but the Grumpy series has often shown itself to be the best of a bad bunch and this programme includes contributions from Ronni Ancona, Fiona Allen and Alistair McGowan, who delivers bang-on impressions of pop singing styles of the era. Spandau Ballet, Roland Rat, Cabbage Patch Dolls, shoulder pads, big hair - easy targets one and all.

Come on now, it wasn't that bad. To listen to the churls assembled here, you'd think the 80s were a uniquely evil time. You'd think Filofaxes, Roland Rat and nouvelle cuisine made our lives a vale of tears. But the more the talking heads rage about how hateful it all was, the more you wish they'd pipe down and let us enjoy the clips. One glimpse of a ludicrous Spandau Ballet video or a shot of Chris Waddle's mullet is worth any number of "I hated Orville" quotes. But there are real laughs here: Alistair McGowan's impression of the distinctive 80s pop vocal is bang on.

TV matters: The Impressions Show

Jon Culshaw does a spot-on impression of . . . Alistair McGowan.

Remember that thing Alistair McGowan always used to do where he'd get video of footballers on mobile phones and dub over their voice ordering a pizza or something? H-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s. This is the same thing but with animals and people like Jason Manford doing silly voices not impressions. Still, it has a certain charm.

BBC say no to return of Alistair McGowan's Big Impression

Comic Alistair McGowan has slammed the BBC for dashing his hopes of a TV comeback. He and co-star Ronni Ancona are keen to make a new series of their successful show. But after a four-year absence, the Beeb say they are not interested.

Stephen Mangan, a wonderful television actor who can do radio very well too (it's a rarer gift than you'd think) plays Sam, a fantasy novelist who gets swirled off into the alternative universe of Lower Earth to do battle for ownership of a magic sword which controls (naturally, what's the use of a magic sword otherwise?) everyone down there. Alistair McGowan plays his fiendish opponent Lord Darkness. There's an Elf Lord too (Darren Boyd), a dwarf called Dean (Kevin Eldon) and a Warrior Princess (Sophie Winkleman). Dave Lamb plays Sam's dog, Amis.

Stephen Mangan and Alistair McGowan, meanwhile, are away with the fairies. ElvenQuest (6.30pm, Radio 4), a six-part comedy from Richard Pinto and Anil Gupta, sees a fantasy novelist whisked off to a parallel universe where he must battle some evil lord or other for possession of the traditional enchanted pigsticker. "For whoso'er wields the sword shall rule all of Lower Earth", etc.