Ben Miller (I)

There now follows a public service announcement: The Royal Bodyguard is the latest series from Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni, the writers of defective Ben Miller vehicle The Worst Week Of My Life.

Even if you weren't privy to that TV insider knowledge before tuning in, engorged and undoubtedly sleepy at the fag end of Boxing Day, you probably had your suspicions within the first minute. That was how long it took for the plucky actor/stuntman playing the newly beloved Prince Philip to be kicked in the face by a horse.

Long-standing employees of both ITV and BBC, Bussell and Sbresni deal heavily in the physical origami and mimeographed pratfalls of farce, and Worst Week - the name now universally shortened as a mark of fiscal respect, since the format has sold in 120 territories - was their industry klondike. With the evergreen and ever-game David Jason as its bumbling fulcrum, The Royal Bodyguard felt like the writing partnership consciously cashing in their hard-earned commercial clout; as well as scripting duties, they shared directing and producing responsibilities too. They must also share the blame.

The concept isn't terrible. The 71-year-old Jason plays gormless career soldier Guy Hubble, hand-picked by the Queen to handle royal security, despite being a Frank Spencer-grade disaster magnet: think Some Monarchs Do 'Ave 'Em. A gifted physical performer, the artist formerly known as Del Boy never seemed less than totally committed in his calamitous role, be it in full military uniform, bowling club blazer or Pa Broon underwear. But in this first episode, where Hubble somehow thwarted a royal assassination attempt at a Commonwealth conference in a Scottish hotel, the direction was flabby and slapdash. Even boilerplate farce relies on precise timing, and everything seemed more than a little off. It doesn't bode well for the rest of the series, and made me nostalgic for Dangermouse, a 30-year-old animated series where Jason proved he could sound dapper, dashing and absolutely charming in the service of Her Majesty.

This new studio-based sitcom pilot from Channel 4 starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller is best described as a decent effort, but probably not worth returning to.

While the fact that it has a live audience would be enough to make most reviewers vomit in disgust, for me the main problem with this Edwardian sitcom is that it pales into insignificance following the BBC's showing of The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff last week.

Like the latter, Felix & Murdo uses silliness and satire as a focal point for its humour - my favourite moment was the cash machine operated by a young boy inside it - but it just wasn't as good as The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. Of course, The Bleak Old Shop... has had a lot of practice - what with it first starting off on radio - and if it's given a full series it may improve, but I doubt it.

On the plus side, it was good to see Marek Larwood playing a straighter role than normal. It would be nice to see him continue in straighter acting as well as his more humorous and bonkers roles.

'Felix and Murdo' pilot seen by 650k

Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller's new Channel 4 pilot Felix and Murdo made a quiet impact on TV last night, overnight viewing figures indicate.

You know that feeling you get when a brand-new sitcom arrives and spends most of its first series wobbling around, trying to find its comedy feet? Well you don't get that here. Simon Nye's pilot feels like an old favourite within seconds: two young gents in 1900s London exchanging smut, anachronisms and posh banter. Put crudely it's Edwardian Men Behaving Badly.

With Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller in the leads, the chemistry is as slick as one of their sketches, but writ large. Felix (Miller) is a banker with a sideline in inventing: he devises a terrifying "electricity toothbrush" and a cash dispenser (a small boy inside dishes out cash); while Murdo (Armstrong) is a cocky toff who takes up the javelin to compete in the London Olympics, hoping to impress Felix's suffragette sister. ("What is all this boats for women nonsense?")

The plot goes a bit loopy but the characters gel, the tone works and the rhythms are up and running. Roll on a full series.

Comedy pair Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller star in this one-off sitcom about two jolly posh chaps in London in 1908 - the year the Olympics came to town. Felix (Miller) is supposed to be running the family bank with his sister Winnie but instead prefers to party and fool around with his fiancée. Murdo just likes to party and chase Winnie. "Marry me," he says. "We're too different," she replies. "You can change," he responds. But the realisation that an Olympic athlete can be attractive to women - or, more precisely, Winnie - inspires Murdo to enter the games as a javelin thrower. With Felix as trainer, his chances are only handicapped by a strict regime of drinking, smoking and taking drugs. Plus the fact that he can't throw the javelin.

Felix and Murdo is written by Simon Nye, who created Men Behaving Badly - and with its two male characters, knockabout banter and slight over-reliance on jokes about sex, it is very much an Edwardian Men Behaving Badly. The fact that they have unusual names doesn't disguise the point that Felix and Murdo are really Gary and Tony in old-fashioned suits. Still, the period setting allows Nye to give us the occasional amusing line.

The year's 1908. The scene is the sitting room of old Oxford chums and modern men about town Felix (Ben Miller), an inventor, and Murdo (Alexander Armstrong), the ghosts of the past for a whole slew of sitcom characters to come.

Simon Nye's affectionate Edwardian version of Men Behaving Badly is a gleeful and (presumably) knowing mash-up of every anarchic comedy you can think of, from The Young Ones and Blackadder, to Ab Fab and, of course, Armstrong & Miller (the best bits of which follow), and it's a total hoot; as surreal, silly and puerile as you'd expect - and Armstrong & Miller fans would demand.

Produced for the Comedy Showcase season, this pilot was held over for C4's Christmas season despite having not a flake of snow or festive motif in it. It should stand out like a beacon amid all the repeats of second-rate sitcoms, Christmas specials and period dramas, whilst offering some fun period jokes of its own.

The mad, loose plot of sorts is surprisingly topical, taking in as it does the arrival of the Olympics to the capital and the world of banking, but largely it acts as a tree on which hang such baubles as scatological jokes, laugh-out-loud sight gags, a surreal clubbing scene, lots of Viz-style lewd humour and plain stupid lines such as: 'What is all this boats for women nonsense? Just give them all a boat.' Titter ye, as Frankie Howerd might have said.

Fans of comedy duo Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong should lap up this spiffingly funny one-off comedy. It's written by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) and is set in London in 1908, the year the Olympics first came to the city.

Murdo (Armstrong) and Felix (Miller) are posh, fun-loving friends who happily indulge in a drink-and-drugs fest while one of them attempts to complete in the Games, and the other plans a sudden marriage to a lady called Fanny (obv), and all the while they utter a non-stop stream of innuendo.

The rave-dancing sequence is hilarious, Armstrong and Miller are a joy, and they're well supported by Georgie King, Katy Wix and Lizzie Roper. Let's have a full series, please.

Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong team up in time for the Olympics to recreate the first time the games came to Blighty in 1908 in this one-off, hilarious sitcom. The two Edwardian toffs love nothing more than making ignorant innuendos and attending "biff" classical raves as they prepare for the javelin competition.

Video: Ben Miller suffered heat stroke filming new role

Ben Miller has been based in the Caribbean for six months where he has been filming for his new television role as a detective inspector who has been deployed to paradise.

Liam Gallagher and Super Nanny. Two people I never expected to type in the same sentence, but they'll both be chatting with Alan on tonight's show.

If only Noel had thought to put Liam on the naughty step, Oasis might still be together, but instead Liam's new band Beady Eye will be performing while Jo Frost tells all about her new C4 series: Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance.

Also on the show are Thandie Newton and Ben Miller talking about their new film Huge. It's a comedy drama about two struggling London comedians. Thandie's in it, and Ben's directed it, but one early review has called it "the worst shot film I've ever seen". Ouch.