Greg McHugh

Although I finally came out as a Burnistoun fan last week, I'm still not ready to come out for Gary: Tank Commander, back for a third series. I love Greg McHugh in the students comedy Fresh Meat and am in Pot Noodle delirium awaiting its return, but his mincing squaddie show has few jokes beyond the obvious and, often, no actual tanks.

Interview: Greg McHugh

Three years on from the show's BBC debut, Greg McHugh still can't believe the response Gary: Tank Commander has received.

It's a shame that there weren't a few more laughs to be had during Meanwhile, It's Will & Greg, a new sketch show from comedians William Andrews and Greg McHugh. Admittedly, this was only the first offering, and there were hints of potential for future episodes, but as yet not enough of the material hits the mark.

Much was made in the pre-show publicity about how the comedy team was going to "explore the surreal and the absurd through characters and everyday situations", but it felt like the performers were trying just that little bit too hard to be offbeat and zany. The uneven editing between the studio-based sketches and those recorded in front of an audience also did the show no favours, often resulting in the applause sounding anything but enthusiastic.

Review: Meanwhile, It's Will and Greg

Will Andrews and Greg McHugh revive their Ugly Kid sketch talents for radio.

Interview: Greg McHugh

He may have made his name playing naïve objects of ridicule, but Greg McHugh is having the last laugh...

Will is William Andrews and Greg is Greg McHugh and here's their new late-night comedy show, exploring the surreal and absurd through characters and sketches. Some sketches are recorded in front of an audience in Glasgow, some are done just for the studio microphone but, as the aim is to get us to recognise Will and Greg as the centre of their own offbeat universe where the familiar suddenly becomes bizarre, we ought to feel at home wherever they lead us. Gavin Mitchell and Kirsten McLean are the supporting cast. First episode of three.

The hot 100 2011 - Greg McHugh interview

Interview with the man behind Fresh Meat and Gary: Tank Commander.

Greg McHugh on losing Gary Tank Commander actor

Gary: Tank Commander is gearing up for a new series with one of its crack team of squaddies AWOL in River City.

Greg McHugh: filming first scene was worst day of life

Fresh Meat's Greg McHugh has revealed that the show's opening scene was the worst day of his filming life.

As introductory scenes go, Fresh Meat's was unforgettable. "Sorry, I've just got used to wearing trousers of the mind" was the opening line of the year (and no shilly-shallying). To be honest, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's new comedy was going to need both, being (a), on Channel 4and (b), about students. And in the first episode at least, the Peep Show creators' latest managed to re-arrange the hallowed Pot Noodle and bodily fluid-stained duvet of mingin' cowp undergraduatedom and make it look new and bold.

I caution that this was only episode one because I liked the first of Campus, too, and remember how badly that series unravelled. Campus was mainly about the bored, vain, thwarted, cruel lecturers, though, and so far Fresh Meat has only given us one of those.

Long may it concentrate on the students: secretive Oregon, sweet Kingsley, scary Vod, Welshies-are-hot Josie, poshos-are-hotter-thanks-to-Downton-Factor JP, and not forgetting Howard, the token Scot with the obligatory inter-personal issues, played by Greg McHugh, who's managed to erase all memory of Gary Tank Commander with a brushed-forward barnet, one of Sarah Lund's cast-off jumpers from The Killing (The Real TV Event of the Year) and his fondness for a mixing bowl-sized helping of Coco Pops, his "one-er" of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I root for Howard, obviously, but my favourite character is probably JP. Well, when you take his George Osborne-esque certainty, Bullingdon Club japery, monogrammed dressing gown, daddy's money, chronic chat-up technique and idiotic prefacing of the mundane (baked potato, high thread-count sheets) with gangsta rap crudeness, adding them to his sense of absolute entitlement over the best or least grotty room in the student house, he's simply irresistible.

"Yaa, boo, hiss!" This is how we're supposed to respond to JP.