David Mitchell (I)

Steve Coogan's press freedom letter to David Mitchell

Last week, Observer columnist David Mitchell wrote a piece in which he argued against the involvement of politicians in press regulation. Here Steve Coogan, a supporter of the campaign group Hacked Off, responds.

Plunging bravely into a ethical faultline was BBC2's Ambassadors, which is about foreigners in a little-known Central Asian nation. Borat! I hear you exclaim. But this three-part comedy drama is not a politically incorrect gag fest. It stars the comic duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and appears to be aiming to fit in some thoughtful messages about foreign policy. Mitchell plays the British ambassador to a sandy republic called Tazbekistan who has to deal with arms and business deals, desert despots, self-absorbed western activists, and peculiar local customs. Webb plays his diplomatic deputy who's engaged in dodgy sidelines.

The first episode struggled for a consistent tone. Mitchell appeared to be the only funny man in the show - by which I don't mean that he was the only actor who managed to make us laugh, but that he was the only person who seemed to be starring in an absurdist comedy. The other actors inhabited a straight-up drama that just happened to have amusing lines in it. Mitchell's character romped around the wilds of Tazbekistan hunting, accidentally shooting the mighty horned ibex, the beloved national animal. His pudgy face peeking out from under a cartoony deerstalker, he acknowledged looking like Elmer Fudd. The rest of the cast delivered wisecracks, but in the manner of, say, a smart-ass detective show. Webb's worldly character, with his blackmail worries, wouldn't have been out of place in a crime thriller.

Genres jostled with each other like expats at the bar of a far-flung Irish-style pub. The show's desire for mild moralising also collided with its own premise. Yes, the programme is about consuls in an exotic locale, but we can't have too many jokes about weird local practices, so let's also make fun of British stereotypes. The result is a half-hearted scene of the Tazbek president carving up an ibex carcass and another of an imported English pork-pie festival. In the mix is some chit-chat about the deadly aspects of British helicopter sales. Still, I'm happy to say the second episode, which features a (fictional) royal dignitary, is more surefooted. Mitchell's ambassador becomes less spoofy, and the programme gets into its stride of making points about the farcical nature of international relations.

Ambassadors stars Robert Webb and David Mitchell as diplomats in an oil-rich, but human rights-impoverished ex-Soviet state called Tazbekistan.

When the pair are not working to sell British-made helicopters to the brutally oppressive regime, they are trying to spring their countrymen from prison, hosting interminable functions, fending off blackmailers and surrendering to the demands of local customs, such as drinking one's body weight in vodka.

First impressions were favourable - the animated title sequence is fabulous. The show isn't bad either, once you divest yourself of all expectations. Despite the presence of its two stars, Ambassadors is neither sitcom nor sketch show, but a comedy drama that takes its drama very seriously.

Mitchell and Webb come across exactly the same as every other vehicle they've starred in, but they are both charismatic performers and serve the material well.

The highpoint of episode one was the self-obsessed actor - is there any other kind? - sent by the British Council to perform his turgid, one-man production of Frankenstein, and nearly creating several diplomatic rifts in the process.

Spooks meets Yes, Minister in Ambassadors

If Spooks had a one-night stand with Yes, Minister, the fruit of that union would be something akin to Ambassadors (BBC Two), in which Peep Show duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb work their socks off to show us there's more to their double act than the hapless misadventures of Mark and Jeremy. It almost works.

Ambassadors review

David Mitchell and Robert Webb shine in this inconsistent but promising comedy drama.

It's good to see David Mitchell and Robert Webb back together on television, though Ambassadors is more Graham Greene than it is Peep Show. There are some funny bits, but it's a drama with a light touch, rather than an out-and-out comedy. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as this is an engaging, even winning, hour. Mitchell is Keith Davis, Britain's new ambassador to Tazbekistan, a (fictional) central Asian country with a terrible human rights record. His highly capable deputy is Neil Tilly (Webb), a man with a private life that could turn out to be his downfall.

The well-meaning Davis has to secure a huge Tazbekistan order for British helicopters and hopes that a limp Best of Britain-themed party, including a one-man version of Frankenstein performed by a preposterously pretentious actor, might do the trick.

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Ambassadors, BBC Two, review

David Mitchell and Robert Webb bring to life this new comedy drama about the inner workings of the British embassy in a fictional Central Asian republic.

Great cast but unlikely to earn our lasting affections

No, sorry, it's not as funny as Peep Show, but Ambassadors, the new David Mitchell and Robert Webb collaboration, which began last night, isn't really meant to be.

Mitchell and Webb on Ambassadors

We interview the stars of BBC Two's comedy drama. Why does Robert Webb struggle to visit France? And why did David Mitchell ignore Eamonn Holmes at an airport?