Harry Enfield

Radio Times review

What an absolute delight for the brain and the ears. This new series was created by Jon Canter (the freelance comedy writer who has worked with everyone from Fry and Laurie to Smith and Jones), stars the ludicrously vocally talented Miles Jupp, and tantalises the listeners with three impossible interviews.

Each week, James Boswell, the famous biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson, travels through time to interview a historical figure he could never have met. This week it's Sigmund Freud, next up is Maria Callas and the series closes with Harold Pinter (played by Harry Enfield).

One cannot help feel pity for Boswell as every question, every response, every word he utters is immediately pounced upon and psychoanalysed by Freud (played to neurotic perfection by Henry Goodman). So much so that Boswell ends the interview believing he may well want to kill his father and sleep with his mother.

A work of genius.

100 Hearts: 'an eclectic, starry line-up'

Rowan Atkinson, Harry Enfield and Angus Deayton were among the performers raising money for the Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals charity.

Major comic stars appear for Organ Care Systems gig

A cast including Rowan Atkinson, Clive Anderson, Harry Enfield, Angus Deayton, Rob Brydon and many others will appear in '100 Hearts' at LSO St Luke's, London on February 10 to raise money for pre-transplant Organ Care Systems. John Lloyd of QI and The Museum of Curiosity will then hold a conversation with Andre Simon, Harefield's charismatic Director of Transplants, who will demonstrate the "heart in a box" Organ Care System in situ.

Radio Times review

Some people got a bit carried away and said this was even better than Harry Enfield's 1989 masterpiece, Norbert Smith: A Life. Steady on. But it was the best example yet of Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's resurgence as satirists who have the happy air of not caring a jot what anyone thinks, whom they upset or whether every impression quite works. Spoofing the entire half-century output of BBC2 led to many lovingly crafted jewels and included several things you suspect H&P actually like, but ripped the piss out of anyway. Linking the scattered bits was Enfield in a Comedy Award-winning turn as a sweeping, Schamanic presenter. That he was wandering round a deserted TV Centre underlined the sad subtext of golden eras having passed.

Radio Times review

Jonathan Ross is your host as the nation's comics get together and royally rip the mickey. No tears. No compliments. It's their way of saying they love each other.

The nominations list shows 2014 has been an exceptional year - albeit primarily for white men, who are so glaringly dominant, it's a wonder there aren't any blokes up for best comedy actress.

The evening should belong to Matt Berry, whose riotous Toast of London is in line for six awards, the most nods since Gavin & Stacey seven years back. His fellow best actor nominee Mathew Baynton might have a better chance in the restored comedy drama category - if The Wrong Mans can edge out Rev. and the dazzling Inside No 9.

Or will it be a night for codgers? Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's labour of love Story of the Twos is justly recognised, and there are two noms for a gang of plucky UKTV debutants called Monty Python...

Jack Whitehall hosts a night of comedy and variety to raise awareness of testicular cancer. It's a nice mix of old and new faces, with the first Men Behaving Badly reunion in 16 years and the return of Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. Other appearances to look out for include ridiculously good ventriloquist Nina Conti, the weirdly wonderful sketch duo Cardinal Burns, Angelos Epithemiou's excellent study in idiocy and The Mimic's brilliant Terry Mynott. Not a bad lineup.

Radio Times review

It's sports day at Abbey Grove School and fearsome South African PE teacher Preet (a brilliant Harry Peacock) returns to make Alfie's life a total misery. All the running and jumping enables Jack Whitehall to show what a good physical comedian he is, as Alfie gets pummelled and pursued by the amorous, psychotic newcomer. There's the additional embarrassment of having his Dad (Harry Enfield) on hand.

This is predictable and silly comedy, but there's a charm and warmth at its heart (especially in Alfie's solicitousness towards his students) that carries the day. The boy's an idiot, but at least he's a nice, funny one.

The 80s comedy club where heckling became an art form

What's left of the old Mitre Arms sits on a grim, grey stretch of the A102, within gobbing distance of the Blackwall Tunnel. It looks like the sort of pub where you'd get bottled if you looked at someone in a funny way. So it's hard to believe that in the late 80s this place helped launch the careers of a generation of alternative comedians including Harry Enfield, Vic Reeves, Jenny Eclair, Jerry Sadowitz, Jeremy Hardy and Jo Brand.

Somebody who appears to have no desire to be a fully-rounded grown-up just yet is Jack Whitehall, whose sitcom Bad Education returned for a third series. In the series opener, Whitehall and co-writer Freddie Syborn tried to convince us that much had changed over the holidays. Tarty Chanelle was becoming engrossed in her studies, brainy Ying had become an existentialist and wheelchair-bound Rem Dog had turned Emo. However, I wasn't convinced that anything had changed at all as Bad Education still contained the same juvenile jokes and the recurring gag that Alfie Wickers (Whitehall) was the world's worst teacher. Although things appeared to be turning around for Alfie due to his blossoming relationship with Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) the arrival of his father Martin (Harry Enfield) at the school look to threaten his domestic bliss. Martin threatened to sack one of the teachers due to Abbey Grove's limited budget and the prime target looked to be his idiot son. However, just before Martin could fire anyone, the teachers went on strike with the resulting consequences making Alfie question his teaching abilities. Just when I thought that Alfie's new attitude would make Bad Education interesting again things reverted back to type as the kids once again began to slack off in lessons. Once again I found that the most enjoyable moments of Bad Education featured Matthew Horne as woeful headteacher Fraser who was more interested in selling his new invention, the Segdesk, than he was at running the school. Horne appears to be having so much fun in the role that it's hard not to enjoy his scenes however I personally wish he'd appear more. Meanwhile the young actors who portray Alfie's class are full of energy and eager to make the show as funny as possible. Unfortunately I feel that Whitehall is phoning his performance in this series whilst Solemani is under-utilised as the principled Miss Gulliver. Whitehall recently claimed that this would be the final series of Bad Education, which I feel is the right move as it now seems to be rehashing old ground. I'm just hoping that the sitcom reverts to the quality set by its first series as I'd love it to end on a high rather than peter out with a disappointing final run.