David Mitchell (I)

A third series for David Mitchell and Robert Webb's sketch show, and the standard is less patchy than before; highlights include the police officer explaining to a community support officer the difference between police and community support brutality.

David Mitchell Interview

'I should probably be thinking seriously now about not living in a grotty flat on my own'

Sketch Writing Masterclass with David Mitchell

We thought we'd let you know what hints and tips the team at radio comedy passed on to the writers at the masterclass with Gareth Edwards and David Mitchell.

Sketch shows can be hit-and-miss but this often wildly funny TV version of David Mitchell and Robert Webb's Radio 4 series That Mitchell and Webb Sound scored more than most when it first aired on BBC2 in 2006. Long before Webb became an unlikely sex symbol with his Lycra-clad Flashdance turn on Let's Dance For Comic Relief, the sight of him dressed as a banana and doing a silly dance while eating a banana was similarly, stupidly funny. Also introduced here are the self-doubting Nazis, a cruel vicar and two vapid, camp bores.

A rollicking teen comedy, the show revolves around Will and his gang of geeky friends. Will's basically an (even) shorter David Mitchell: posh, calamity-stricken and with a tendency to lodge his foot somewhere in the vicinity of his tonsils. He - for those who skipped the first series - used to be educated privately, but is currently roughing it in a comprehensive thanks to his mum who, he said ,"hasn't scraped enough money together to send him to his old, frankly better school". I know, I know: what a nob, right? Well, yes - except for the fact that he's rather likeable - likeable to the audience, at any rate, if not to the female population of his school. In last night's episode, the class got sent off on a geography trip. Cue lots of Jolly-Boys-style misdemeanors and school-level smut.

Bit by bit, the series has plenty to recommend it. The acting's strong, especially from half-dozen or so main players. And it's properly funny, too. But - well, what to say? - it's just not Skins. There's no sex (aside from a failed attempt at fumbling from their teacher "paedo Kennedy"), no drugs (just a half-bottle of vodka that Will seems to think can be shared between - get this - the whole class). And, crucially, there's none of that knuckle-gnawing self-importance that characterises most teen show. Which, perhaps, is the problem: instead of laughing with the characters, we're laughing at them, at their naiveté, their youth. In fact, it's almost impossible to avoid the feeling that it has been written for adults, or, if not for adults, then by adults without much memory of adolescence. Most teenagers don't view themselves as quite the humorous bundle of awkwardness and charm that they seem here. That's something you develop later, a convenient way off shrugging of your own humiliating youth. Or maybe not, perhaps retrospect, like padded bras and pregnancy, arrives earlier with each generation.

Radio Head: David Mitchell

The Unbelievable Truth, for instance, should never have been recommissioned. It's only funny when Clive Anderson is speaking. They could more profitably devise a show that was just Clive Anderson, speaking.

Its failures as a quiz are admirably demonstrated by the fact that the scoring is now inverse to the drollery, so that Clive scores no points at all, and Lucy Porter sometimes wins. I don't care about scoring when it's like I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and it's meant to mean nothing, but they can't all be spoof game-shows. Some of them have to be actual games that work.

Radio Head: David Mitchell

And David Mitchell's periodic clashes with Paul Merton have to stop. They meet on Just a Minute: the incumbent ruler (Paul) sees that he is being challenged by a younger chimp (David).

The challenge is unworthy of his mighty chimp rule; rather than rising to it, he just becomes grumpy. Nicholas Parsons is powerless to leaven the atmosphere. It is ruining everything. I think the short answer is a leave of absence for David Mitchell. Or maybe start him somewhere he can't do so much damage, like The Archers, or From Our Own Correspondent.

Radio Review: The Unbelievable Truth

This Radio 4 panel game hosted by David Mitchell is unbelievable for several reasons, good and bad.

The panel game show packed with more lies than Bernard Madoff's investment portfolio returns for a new series. Tonight's panellists take turns to mumble their way through a humourless collection of untruths while the other three buzz in with their dull interjections if they think they have spotted an assertion that is true.

One of the comedy game show world's finest minds, David Mitchell, is barely heard in his role as chairman, apart from when he announces the scores at the end.

David Mitchell returns as chairman of the panel game in which comedians have to talk lies about a topic, hoping they can sneak three nuggets of truth past their fellow players. One of Radio 4's best recent additions to its panel game roster. And that's the truth.