Charlie Brooker

New sketch show enlivened no end by the prodigious talent of performers like Simon Callow and Kevin Eldon cranking some laughs out of the hit-and-miss material. It doesn't help that every routine is punctuated by the sort of hideous synthesiser riff a junior manager of Dixons would demonstrate on a Casio keyboard circa 1988. Worth it, though, for Charlie Brooker's input and the professionalism of those on show.

Charlie Brooker is back and this time he's sent up your favourite detective series in two-part spoof A Touch of Cloth, which we here at Digital Spy already consider to be one of the funniest shows of the year.

John Hannah and Suranne Jones play DCIs Jack Cloth and Anne Oldman respectively, two coppers trying to connect the dots as series of murders take place in their alien world of c**k jokes, cringeworthy puns and incestuous corpse romancing. It's silly, silly stuff - maybe too silly for some - but the gags per-min rate is far above anything else on television right now. We promise you, something in A Touch of Cloth is bound to make you smile, even if you hate yourself for doing so.

Considerably less impressive [than Toast Of London] is C4 Comedy Presents: Them From That Thing an almost entirely mirthless sketch show that wastes 
a core cast of able comic performers such as Sally Phillips and Fonejacker's Kayvan Novak on weak, strained material (some of which was apparently written by the usually reliable Charlie Brooker).

Its gimmick, such as it is, is casting straight actors such as Bill Paterson and Sean Pertwee in comic roles, but that just comes across as a desperate attempt to give it some identity. This is committee-formed comedy, lacking in 
singular vision.

John Hannah interview

John Hannah adds a touch of cliché to Charlie Brooker's new show.

Charlie Brooker on A Touch Of Cloth

A Touch Of Cloth is a spoof of grim TV whodunits which owes more than a nod to the puns and sight gags of Airplane! or Naked Gun.

Charlie Brooker: The Olympics - better than they looked

Watching sport is usually less interesting than watching cardboard exist. Now my eyeballs are eating up the Games.

Audio Clips: Radio 4 comedy round-up

There has been some great comedy on Radio 4 this week - including the last in the current series of So Wrong It's Right with Charlie Brooker.

Brooker has 'spoken to writers' about more Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker insists there are no concrete plans for new episodes of Black Mirror, which was snubbed at the Baftas at the weekend, but admitted he has spoken to 'lots of writers' about the show's future.

Charlie Brooker interview: 'It's a fairly daft show'

Charlie Brooker returns to BBC Radio 4 with a new series of So Wrong It's Right. Here he talks about some of his own 'worst' things.