Dougray Scott

Review: Urban Myths: Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder

Let's just say it is worth watching to the end of this neat little film written by Dave Cummings and directed by Sean Foley - and not just for a little in-joke for those familiar with the actual film that eventually became a huge hit.

The high body count in this series, and the storyline's refusal to go back and rake over old ground, means there are great characters everywhere, barely known before being discarded at the side of the road. Following Nick Moran's small-time crook and Dougray Scott's surprisingly vulnerable spook, in this episode there's a bit more of Karel Roden excelling as Marat, the Russian gangster who is caught between his country's security services and ours.

Making him tender and childlike fits with the tone of a penultimate episode that's the most thrilling yet but also the most heartfelt, as we get to know Sam and Phil more deeply, just as they have to decide whether to risk everything to become heroes.

The laughs often come with a fist-pumping cheer not far behind: Mat Baynton's line at the end of a fantastic four-way punch-up with an FSB heavy could be a quotable highlight from an Edgar Wright movie.

If you couldn't tell that The Wrong Mans was a Big Deal from the explosive trailers and high production values, then the quality of the supporting cast should confirm it: Dougray Scott, Sarah Solemani, Benedict Wong, Emilia Fox, Nick Moran, Dawn French, Tom Basden...

Even more impressively, each turn (Fox and French excepted, although we suspect there'll be more to come there) makes an impression, while creator-stars Mat Baynton and James Corden nail the odd couple dynamic that keeps this occasionally leaky vessel afloat. We join Sam (Baynton) and Phil (Corden) drifting further out of their depth at the hands of psychotic gangsters Moran and Wong, before a show-stopping presentation from Sam saves his professional hide while bringing the danger even closer to home.

It's in these collisions of the workaday and the white knuckle that The Wrong Mans works best, as the more traditional thriller elements stubbornly fail to coalesce with any conviction. But it's never dull and frequently very funny.

Cheeky chappy James Corden sticks to type but nevertheless tickles with former Gavin & Stacey co-star Mathew Baynton in this fun comedy-thriller about two office drones embroiled in a case of mistaken identity. After answering a lost mobile phone, Sam (Baynton), a figure cut closer to a Quentin Blake illustration than an Iron Man-style superhero, is burdened with the company of eager beaver colleague Phil (Corden) when he goes to the rescue of a hostage.

The evolving bromance has a familiar flavour, but it's by steering clear of complete spoofery that The Wrong Mans finds its surprisingly comfortable stride, somewhere between gags and action. The success of films like Kick-Ass suggests we're a public with a soft spot for have-a-go heroes, making Corden and Baynton's offering well gauged. It's the television equivalent of jelly: not particularly sophisticated, but a pleasant treat all the same.

Famous faces (David Harewood, Dougray Scott) are underutilised, sliding past the camera as if on a conveyor belt peopled by Corden's celebrity pals. Luckily, Baynton's impressive comic dexterity covers everything from deadpan to daft, tempering Corden's potentially dominating presence and making for a balanced double act.

Love him or hate him, James Corden undeniably does have a range of talents - actor, writer and co-creator of some very funny comedy (we'll politely forget the car crash of his misguided BBC sketch show with Mathew Horne). And now, dontchaknow, he's come up with another comedy vehicle, The Wrong Mans (****), which had a very accomplished debut last night.

Corden, late of the National Theatre and Broadway, has co-written, with fellow Gavin & Stacey alumnus Mathew Baynton, a comedy thriller in the style of Simon Pegg and Joe Wright's Cornetto trilogy, with appreciative nods (in the title) to Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller and, in camerawork and misfit leads, to Peep Show.

Baynton is nice but weedy Sam, who wakes up one wintry morning with the mother of a hangover, only to find his pushbike has been stolen so he has to walk to work, as a town planning and noise guidance adviser for Berkshire County Council. On his way, he's the only witness to a car crash and he picks up a ringing phone; a man issues threats and in later calls it's clear a woman has been kidnapped.

At work Sam takes postboy Phil (Corden) into his confidence. Phil is beside himself; he's a 31-year-old living at home with his mum and he keeps trying to organise fun days paint-balling or bowling with his colleagues (oblivious to the fact they all think he's a boring knob); for him, this mystery is his very own live-action Grand Theft Auto, and he convinces Sam not to call the police but to try to rescue the woman and become heroes.

The opening episode efficiently essayed the set-up, and there are some promising relationships to be explored in the following five weeks. Sarah Solemani (who was so brilliant in Him & Her) is Sam's boss, but also the girlfriend who recently dumped him because he was too needy, while Tom Basden is the horrible colleague we'd love to be taken down a peg or two.

Corden clearly has pulling power, as those names above suggest, and Dawn French, Nick Moran, Rebecca Front and Dougray Scott will appear in future episodes - although David Harewood, who appeared briefly last night, shot his scenes before his Homeland stardom. The opener had some neat twists and turns and ended on a great cliffhanger. Definitely one to stay with.

Everything is right about this slick new sitcom

There are some hefty names attached to this project, but it's not because the material needs filling out with someone's ego. It's more likely because the likes of Dougray Scott, Nick Moran and Dawn French know top-quality work when they see it.

Spoofing action-filled, big budget American TV series, The Wrong Mans is both sitcom and thriller. Created by and starring James Corden and Matthew Bayton, as a luckless duo working for Berkshire County Council whose blue-collar lives are turned upside down by a chance phone call. Mistaken identities prompt comic mishap as they are drawn into a murky world of international espionage. The supporting cast includes Dawn French, Sarah Solemani, Rebecca Front, Dougray Scott, Emilia Fox, Nick Moran, Stephen Campbell Moore and Tom Basden - the very Best of British.