Chris Morris (I)

That Mitchell & Webb Look review

This new series won't disappoint fans but it's hardly likely to attract a new audience who have become suspicious of the sketch show as a genre following its sophisticated deconstruction in Chris Morris' Jam and Channel 4's Green Wing.

Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are a writing team garlanded with awards for their work on edgy comedies like The Thick of It and Peep Show. They also co-wrote the film Four Lions, Chris Morris's black comedy about suicide bombers. It might seem a far cry from Four Lions to two old codgers, but Bain and Armstrong's likeable sitcom about an ageing pair of ill-matched blokes has the same vein of recognisable absurdity running through it as all their best stuff. As we rejoin Roy (Clive Swift) and Tom (Roger Lloyd Pack), in an episode written by Simon Blackwell, they are eating olives and rice cakes for breakfast while arguing about whose turn it is to do the shopping. The fact that male hopelessness in everything from shopping to romance remains as much a problem in age as in youth is a joke the series plays off well. The pair are still clumsily besotted with their neighbour Sally (Jane Asher) and concerned that she has a new boyfriend ("She keeps going out with men who aren't even remotely us," moans Tom). But now there's a new distraction - a stylish librarian, Barbara, played by Cherie Lunghi.

A welcome return for the Bafta-winning sitcom set in a corporation's dingy computer department. This is the start of series four. Many would have wielded the axe after a patchy debut run. The show's stay of execution was largely down to affection for writer/director Graham Linehan - the man behind Father Ted and Black Books, Chris Morris collaborator and recipient of comedy's Ronnie Barker Award last year. His creation is now worthy of those credentials, going from strength to strength. Tonight's opening episode is entitled Jen the Fredo, after the weak Corleone brother in The Godfather, and is crammed with knowing nods to the revered Mafia movie. Desperate to escape IT, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is made Entertainments Manager by unreconstructed boss Douglas (Matt Berry) - a man given to pronouncements such as, "I like my women how I like my toast. Hot and consumable with butter." Jen's new job means showing braying businessmen a good time - and a theatre trip to The Vagina Monologues isn't quite the ticket. Back in the bunker, geeky Moss (Richard Ayoade) is devising Dungeons & Dragons-style role-play games and heartbroken Roy (Chris O'Dowd) keeps weepily guzzling white wine at his desk. All these plot strands come together ingeniously. Most laughs come from Berry and Ayoade's more cartoonish characters, but Linehan isn't too proud to write in the odd pratfall and it's so well-acted, one scene is genuinely touching, despite its silliness.

Danielle Ward - My Comedy Hero: Chris Morris

My comedy hero is Chris Morris.

Film Review: Four Lions

Chris Morris has been bold in his choice of target, but his home-grown jihadists are little more than sitcom characters.

Four Lions, Chris Morris, 101 mins, (15)

Is anything off-limits for comedy? Chris Morris, of 'Brass Eye' fame, pushes the boundaries again with a story about a inept terror plot on London.

Relatives of 7/7 victims criticise 'Four Lions'

The relatives of victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks on London have called for a boycott of Four Lions, the British feature film being released this week which seeks to satirise four aspiring suicide bombers. The comedy, which satirist Chris Morris began researching prior to the 2005 attacks, tells the story of four young Muslim fundamentalists, including a white convert, who travel from Yorkshire to London for a bungled assault on the marathon.

Four Lions hits a roar nerve

Fans (myself included) may be a tad disappointed by this hugely anticipated directorial debut by Chris Morris. This sporadically chucklesome tale of a bungling bunch of wannabe jihadists from Sheffield is not so much sophisticated satire as sitcom humour.

Fake parties, wet blouses and rivers of milk

Chris Morris's hot-potato comedy about a gang of bumbling jihadists opens today in the UK. One of its stars, Nigel Lindsay, explains what happened when the cameras were off and defends his director against charges of Islamaphobia.

Lions are not a roaring success

The idea behind Chris Morris's latest black comedy is a good deal more daring than the actual execution.