Chris O'Dowd

Christopher Guest: From Spinal Tap to Family Tree

The Spinal Tap creator's new BBC Two comedy series is a winning example of his trademark ad-libbed style. James Rampton meets him - and talks to the show's star, Chris O'Dowd, about working with his hero.

Nina Conti: I almost wrote myself out of Family Tree

Ventriloquist jokes that watching Chris O'Dowd in the improvised Christopher Guest comedy meant she left herself with no lines.

Preview: Family Tree - Spinal Tap meets The IT Crowd?

It's directed by Christopher "Spinal Tap" Guest, it stars homme du jour Chris O'Dowd. What could possibly go wrong with new TV comedy Family Tree, which comes to BBC Two this July. I've just watched the first episode and I'm totally thrown. It is clearly intended to be a comedy, but so far the laughs are painfully thin on the ground.

It's Graham Norton's last soirée of the series (next week's episode is a best-bits review) but he'll have to go some to top Chris O'Dowd's fly-eating moment. He's lined up a pair of Hollywood heavyweights for the occasion: Samuel L Jackson, talking about his latest role as campaign chairman of One For The Boys, a charity raising awareness of men's health problems, and Sandra Bullock, whose cop comedy The Heat is out next month.

Voicing characters in animated films has become a must-have on the CV of any self-respecting actor these days, so it's no surprise that Steve Carell, one of the more recognisable faces of US comedy, is bouncing around on Norton's sofa to champion his new role as Gru in Despicable Me 2. Jostling alongside Carell are Irish actor Chris O'Dowd (Moone Boy, The IT Crowd) - star of US mockumentary Family Tree, coming soon to BBC2 - and US singer Josh Groban, fresh from a gig at London's O2 arena. But will any of tonight's guests be as trigger-happy on the red chair lever as Russell Crowe was last week?

The career of actress, comedian and, of course, ventriloquist Nina Conti is, quite deservedly, beginning to take off. Her BBC4 documentary A Ventriloquist's Story - Her Master's Voice was nominated for a 2013 BAFTA, while the sitcom Family Tree, in which she appears with Irish actor Chris O'Dowd, has recently premiered on US TV channel HBO, before it arrives on BBC2 later this year.

Yes, Nina Conti Really Is on the Radio is apparently a pilot episode, but on the evidence of this first instalment there would be no justice if a series wasn't commissioned as a result.

If truth be told, a relatively high percentage of new radio comedy rarely lives up to expectations, so it is a joy to come across a rather old-fashioned light entertainment format with enough of a modern edge to entertain contemporary audiences.

There is charm, self-deprecating wit and originality about the way Conti interacts with her puppets - on this occasion Monkey, Gran, Dog and old-time entertainer Charlie - and her special guests, physicist Jim Al-Khalili and former X Factor contestant Wagner, along with members of the live audience.

Listeners at home don't see Conti's technique, and have to settle with brief descriptions of the puppets, but none of that matters. At the beginning of the show, Monkey suggests that ventriloquism is a dead art, so it might as well make a suicide pact with another dying genre - radio. Fortunately, both seem to be blooming, and this programme proves why. Let's just hope that when a series is commissioned, the show is broadcast in an earlier time slot than 11pm.

In a year that saw Sky dominating the comedy world with its nurturing hand and bottomless resources, this lovable, easily distracted sitcom stood out. An offspring from the fertile Little Crackers, the six-part Irish sitcom about a young boy growing up in Boyle in 1989 darted about like a toddler on sweets. Contemporary hits, cartoons and insane cutaways were all employed to hilarious effect, and the switch from sweet to rude was never a queasy one. The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids star Chris O'Dowd co-wrote and co-starred as "Mert'n" Moone's grown-up, imaginary friend.

Taking us into dark heart of father/son relationships

One of the pleasures of Little Crackers (Sky1), the series of short comedy Christmas films that only three years in already feels like a warm tradition, is spotting the one that has the legs to grow into a fully fledged series. Chris O'Dowd blazed that trail, snapping the cherishable Moone Boy out of his Cracker. And this year my money's on Dylan Moran.

After the success of Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy and Kathy Burke's Walking And Talking it was hard not to expect big things from Sky1's latest lot of Little Crackers.

But I can't see any of this year's first batch making it to a full series. Joanna Lumley's much-hyped look back at her early modelling days was particularly uninspiring. But with efforts from the likes of Paul O'Grady, Sharon Horgan and Jason Manford still to come this week perhaps we shouldn't give up all hope just yet.

Jonathan Ross keeps the hecklers in check as he hosts the annual comedy gongfest. And while there are some glaring omissions from the shortlist - notably Grandma's House and Fresh Meat - there's still plenty of fine talent jostling for the top spots, with Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve slugging it out with political satire The Thick Of It for Best Sitcom gold. But if there's any justice in the comedy world, then David Rawle should be a shoo-in for Best Breakthrough Actor with his peerless performance as 11-year-old Martin in Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy.