David Walliams

Come Fly With Me is tasteless comedy

The latest comedy series on BBC1 by David Walliams and Matt Lucas is not racist, but it is full of crude racial stereotypes.

Little Britain special to be made for Royal Wedding?

Little Britain stars Matt Lucasand David Walliams are to bring back their hit comedy sketch show for a one-off, themed around the April nuptials.

It was funny that Matt Lucas and David Walliams's much-heralded airport-based mockumentary, Come Fly With Me, crowned a week when Heathrow was full of people not flying with anyone. But was anything else funny? The two of them are terrific mimics, and their array of characters is vast and all are well played. And it had its broad moments of hilarity - I liked the Japanese schoolgirls waiting for Martin Clunes and the security officer cupping the genitals of male passengers. But too much of the material was thin, too many of the sketches overworked and the punchlines too obvious. At this time of year one hopes for ho, ho, ho, but I came away thinking no, no, no.

I met Ronnie Corbett once. It was during my time as a gossip columnist on this paper. I spotted him at a party and, somewhat starstruck, decided to approach and introduce myself. He was all right, I suppose, though not terribly polite. He didn't, he sniffed, read The Independent. More of a Telegraph man (must be the jokes). Anyway, he's 80 now, and BBC2 has devoted a few hours of scheduling to the occasion. First up was a rerun of The Two Ronnies Christmas Special from 1984, and then Being Ronnie Corbett, a fawning programme of dedications. We got Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Michael Palin, Miranda Hart, Rob Brydon, Stephen Merchant, and Bill Bailey. Even Bruce Forsyth put in an appearance. They all heaped praise on him, and deservedly so. After all, it wasn't them he was rude to at a party, was it? And he's jolly funny, or used to be, back in the day. Repeated clips of The Frost Report and The Two Ronnies were testimony to that. His more recent stuff, less so. That Extras sketch is great, of course - "a bit of whiz, you know? To blow away the cobwebs" - but, really, Ronnie, Little Britain? "I was just grateful to be included," was his explanation. And, to be honest, I believe him. This is a man whose raison d'être has been making people laugh; of course, he wants to keep up with the times. Why else would he agree to cuddle a half-naked Lucas in the least funny show on television?

Charming and entertaining documentary Being Ronnie Corbett pays homage to the nation's favourite vertically challenged comedian.

Ronnie celebrated his 80th birthday at the start of this month, and he is in sparkling form here as he looks back on his career spanning half a century.

It goes from his early days feeling up Danny La Rue's boobs during West End cabaret shows, to his snorting cocaine off a toilet seat in Extras, via his famous chair where he delivered his signature shaggy dog stories.

Fellow comedians including the likes of Rob Brydon, Matt Lucas, David Walliams and Catherine Tate queue up to give him a not insubstantial verbal pat on the back.

What could be more festive than an old-fashioned light entertainment special? Apart from Santa eating sprouts, not much. This one-off all-star sketch show marks Ronnie Corbett's 80th birthday earlier this month and sees him joined by a host of younger comics including David Walliams, Matt Lucas, Catherine Tate, Harry Enfield and Miranda Hart, who has said that she studied the effect of Corbett's little looks and head turns to the audience. There's even a reprise of Corbett's signature rambling armchair anecdotes, written by Ben Elton, plus music from Charlotte Church.

Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams return in this mockumentary about an airport. New caricatures include bickering husband-and-wife pilots, gossipy check-in girls, a paparazzi photographer and the owner of a budget airline. With near-the-knuckle humour, cross-dressing and "blacking up", be warned it won't be to everyone's taste.

Interview: David Walliams and Matt Lucas

David Walliams and Matt Lucas are having the time of their lives on a decommissioned jumbo jet at an airfield in Surrey.

Come Fly With Me: fasten your seatbelts...

Matt Lucas and David Walliams's follow-up to 'Little Britain' is an airport mockumentary that takes their brazenly un-PC humour to startling new levels. Can such contentious comedy still fly in the 21st century? Dominic Cavendish predicts a bumpy ride.