Christopher Stevens

Murder In Successville review

If you are still convulsed by the kind of irreverent juvenile stupidity that made you giggle till your throat hurt when you were seven years old, give Murder In Successville a look. I'm almost ashamed of how much this made me laugh.

Tune into ITV's hilarious new satirical puppet show

A profile of Newzoids, including an interview with voice actors Debra Stephenson and Jon Culshaw.

Inside No. 9 review

Even if they don't make you laugh, you have to concede Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are the most febrilely inventive writers on TV. But to say they are an acquired taste is like mentioning that absinthe isn't everybody's tipple, and that human sacrifice takes some getting used to.

Raised By Wolves: Smug, self-important, clichéd...

Raised By Wolves doesn't tell us much about Caitlin and Caz's real childhood. Instead, it clamps a pair of rose-tinted specs to our eyes and says, 'Look at that -- that's us as kids. Amazing, weren't we!'

The five contestants were hypnotised and given silly tasks to perform -- like the Generation Game played in a trance. During a round of blowing up balloons and twisting them together, one chap grabbed a pink sausage-shaped inflatable and did something with it so vulgar that host Phillip Schofield had to block the camera angle with his body, seize the balloon and pop it.

It's hard to believe all the antics under hypnosis were really beyond the players' control. A cynic might even suspect that here were five raving extroverts taking full and conscious advantage of an opportunity to show off like mad on national TV, and win a few thousand quid in the process.

Phillip didn't exactly look as if he was enjoying it, but he coped gracefully. This format will quickly grow repetitive, though. In a few weeks, he'll need all his experience to cover up his boredom.

The sketch show with a brilliant star

There's no way to overstate how good the make-up is. Paul Whitehouse first bounced into frame as Maurice, an 80-year-old Jewish motormouth with no sense of when he wasn't wanted. One scene later, he was morbidly obese Graham, spilling over the sides of his armchair like Dolly Parton in a boob tube.

BBC will have to do MUCH better to make kids laugh

The problem was, Pompidou aimed too low. That approach worked well for Little Britain, which gloried in its crudeness. But this was aimed at children, and they're a sophisticated audience who expect a bit of intelligence.

Democracy Dealers review

We've seen the characters before, in their BBC Three sketch show The Revolution Will Be Televised. But the timing of this one-off special was particularly cynical, just weeks before a General Election.

Stop James Corden going to USA - he's just too good!

Millions of us would gladly dial, text or click online to make James Corden realise that he is one of Britain's best-loved comedy actors, and a peerless sitcom writer, who must stay here at the peak of his TV career instead of rushing off to a country that doesn't know him or want him, to waste his talents on a third-rate show, doing work that doesn't suit him.

Ronnie Corbett deserves to get a knighthood

Surely a career of such longevity, which has entertained countless millions, is worthy of a knighthood at the very least. It ought to give the Queen another chuckle, too. The script writes itself: 'Arise, Sir Ronnie. Oh, you're already standing up!'