Frankie Boyle

Frankie Boyle attacked for autism comments

Comedian Frankie Boyle has been attacked over his ''sickening'' comments about 2,100 schoolchildren who formed the Olympic rings in their school grounds to raise money for charity.

This new impressionism show started on Channel 4 this week as part of a big comedy line up on the channel (along with 8 Out of 10 Cats, Alan Carr: Chatty Man and Stand Up For the Week).

It features Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott impersonating a certain range of people. In this first episode there's heavyweight political figures but instead that particular class of usually pointless celebrity - the likes of Gordon Ramsey, Amy Childs and Danny Dyer.

Now for me impressionism usually has one big problem, which is trying to get the performer to look like the person they are pretending to be as well as getting to sound like them. That's why I think the best impressionism shows are Spitting Image and the radio version of Dead Ringers, because in both shows you don't see the performers, only the image in your head, or the rubbery visage.

In terms of this show, I'm not the best to judge the quality of the impressions, although that's because I tend not to watch most of the shows that those particular people perform in. I've never watched The Voice or Embarrassing Bodies, so I don't really know what Jessie J or Dr. Christian Jessen sound like.

However, in terms of the ideas that were generated, I found them to be good. I liked the sketch in which David Attenborough was observing Frankie Boyle in his natural habitat, and Fearne Cotton's children's game show in which kids try to act like celebrities.

If I were to be more critical I'd say that the satire isn't as hard hitting as it could be. It's not as vicious as Spitting Image was, so it's more akin to Dead Ringers in that respect. But still, it's a decent enough programme and should do well in my opinion...

Brilliant impressions by ace mimics Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott on Channel 4's passable new comedy offering Very Important People.

But the dazzling duo's alleged all-out attack on celebrity culture was about as hard hitting as Daybreak.

Therefore, it wasn't very funny.

How mortified must Gordon Ramsay be that Terry has noticed he swears a lot? Wow!

And Danny Dyer will be reeling after Morgana depicted him as a bit of a Cockney. Who knew?

Why spoil Mr Mynott's seamless Bear Grylls with far-fetched tosh about him doing a George Michael in the Gents? Hee hee.

What VIP needs to do is hit 'em where it hurts. Below the hypocrisy belt.

Eg... Gord Almighty pretending he was a crack-spear fisherman when he couldn't catch a cold.

Or born contriver Grylls tucked up in a warm hotel when he was supposed to be braving the harsh conditions of the wilderness.

In fairness... don't suppose Frankie Boyle enjoyed being portrayed as a nasty little troll. And Jonathan Woss's ongoing midlife "kwisis" showed potential.

Go for jugular. Simply copying self-satisfied stars is pointless...

More hits than misses at Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott's new C4 impressions show Very Important People.

Adele struggling to order a round of drinks and Danny Dyer's Britain's Hardest Commute were both brilliantly done. But the merciless dissection of Frankie Boyle's shock tactics was the highlight: 'Every night Frankie checks the news to see if a child has been murdered.'

Way to go, VIP. Keep it unfriendly.

The showpiece of Channel 4's new Friday night comedy line-up is a brand new impressions show.

Morgana Robinson appears with one of her co-stars from The Morgana Show, Terry Mynott - a comedy actor so unfamous he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page yet.

But he absolutely steals this first episode with his spot-on take of the BBC's favourite groovy scientist Professor Brian Cox, posing in front of areas of natural beauty wearing high street brands.

It's the voice that makes it so funny - and it's a parody that's cutting but sweetly affectionate too.

I doubt though that Bear Grylls will be as pleased with the job they've done on him as he tries to survive in the suburbs.

Mynott's take on David Attenborough explaining the lifestyle of Frankie Boyle is another zinger.

Behind the rubber masks, it can be hard to tell who's doing who.

Morgana impersonates men too. Her Russell Brand isn't a patch on her Natalie Cassidy, though.

You can't help being trepidatious about this new impressions show. It's focused on the trashier end of celebrity, it stars Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, who received mixed reviews for The Morgana Show, and the fact that it's a new impressions show is worrying in itself.

Much of Very Important People is indeed cheap and derivative, leaning heavily on gaps filled with swearing and, in the case of doing Brian Cox as a preening fop, jokes that were dead and gone 12 months ago. But I must admit that Robinson's takes on Frankie Boyle, Danny Dyer and Natalie Cassidy had me spluttering merrily.

In the 70s, audiences laughed in appreciative recognition as Mike Yarwood impersonated a range of public characters, even including trade union leaders. With latterday cultural fragmentation and the thin spread of increasingly nondescript "celebrities", the job of an impressions show such as this, starring Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, becomes all the harder. It is telling that they often have to announce who it is they're doing. Still, this is as capable as could be expected; in the first episode, Bear Grylls tries out his survival skills in the suburbs, while David Attenborough studies at close hand the remarkable animal that is Frankie Boyle.

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