Dustin Demri-Burns

Asylum, despite Ben Miller, isn't (yet) funny. The premise is fine, the Julian Assange story played for laughs (not that the real-life tale involves any less bathos, hubris and other words the Greeks did best). Miller plays it for high-minded pompous, as a GCHQ whistleblower holed up for 14 months in the London embassy of "El Rico", a banana republic which purely wants to stick a finger up to America but finds Dan Hern (Miller) an increasingly ungrateful and unwelcome guest, simply bored and boring and having lost his media cachet. So El Rico - look at the funny banana republic, welcoming to an embassy ball the funny North Koreans! - also brings to shelter one Ludo Backslash, a mittel-European wanted by urgent Hollywood dollars for having streamed for fun every major film for years.

Much of the conception is by Kayvan Novak, who also appears as the "herpes in a suit" ambassador's plotting son, and Dustin Demri-Burns is the amiable Backslash, and these two alone, never mind Miller, should have guaranteed laughs. But it was written by none of them, and that shows: it has too few quirks, a too-obvious incompetent lawyer, one plot device (a misheard word) so old it's got rust on its moss, and too many stereotypes which were old in the 70s. Come out of the 70s! With your hands UP.

New sitcom from Kayvan Novak, based on the peculiar plight of Julian Assange. Ben Miller plays Dan Hern, a Snowden-like whistleblower holed up in a fictional central American embassy in London after leaking CIA documents. When the media begin to tire of his plight, the embassy head (Novak) offers sanctuary to another fugitive: manchild hacker Ludo (Dustin Demri-Burns). The odd-couple combo takes precedence over anything truly satirical, though Miller and Demri-Burns bounce off each other nicely.

Radio Times review

Co-created by Fonejacker's Kayvan Novak, this new comedy takes its lead from the now slightly-less-than-topical story of Julian Assange taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy - but then that's sort of the point.

A year after he was granted asylum in the fictional El Rican embassy, whistleblower Dan Hern (Ben Miller) is largely forgotten by the world and despised by the embassy staff. He finds his world getting a little smaller with the arrival of another more fashionable fugitive - immature hacker Ludo Backslash (played by Cardinal Burns' Dustin Demri-Burns with a sort of childish glee, and clearly based on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom).

Asylum is a fairly gentle ride without any big belly laughs, but the claustrophobic surroundings of the embassy make a great breeding ground for comic situations, and Miller is in his element as the self-important Dan, whose search for justice is only superseded by his need for access to dodgy websites.

Sky's high-concept comedy, in which therapist Rebecca Front combs over the psyches of her famous patients, concludes its second series tonight with Gracie Fields (Frances Barber) and Daphne du Maurier (Morgana Robinson) among those exposing their neuroses. One of the less amusing, and less admirable, aspects of the show is the male comedians' pantomime dame-style grotesque parodies of women, a gag taken to extremes here as Mathew Baynton, Kevin Eldon and Dustin Demri-Burns play a trio of hideous witches.

Cardinal Burns interview

For all his manic sketches and borderline certifiable characters, Dustin Demri-Burns, one half of award-winning comedy duo Cardinal Burns, takes a serious approach to his craft.

The comic duo breathing new life into the sketch format

The bizarre creations of Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns have earned them cult status; now they're embarking on their first UK tour.

A busy week for Alfie, who has to simultaneously attend Miss Gulliver's book group, pupil Mitchell's leaving do, and headmaster Fraser's live-action roleplay night (while dressed as a hobbit). Boisterous as ever then, but there's a sense that Bad Education is training its sights beyond schoolyard smut in its third series, with some gentle commentary on Michael Gove's school reforms ("He wants to get the kids to write with quills," reports Fraser), and strong guest turns from Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns as a pair of orcs.

Cardinal Burns make a welcome return to the Fringe

Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns, having garnered telly success, are coming back to the live comedy stage.

Radio Times review

Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns wrote a sketch for this series where they played two horror writers, shut up in a room to finish a screenplay, who end up killing each other. They rejected it in the end but, watching this apocalyptic series-closing double bill, you can see where the idea came from. Episode five boasts a tale of festival-going gone wrong that could be by Shearsmith & Pemberton, while the finale gives a couple of long-running characters an icky end.

There are still great little gags popping up here and there, though. Look out for the ultimate "man sneaks away from a one-night stand" sketch.

Cardinal Burns psychoanalyse each other

Channel 4's hit sketch comedy duo Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns get on the couch to psychoanalyse each other