Harry Hill

Preview: Harry Hill in Professor Branestawm Returns

It is fair to say that this will be a pretty Marmite affair, dependent very much on whether you find Hill's brand of inoffensive, zany, slapstick-silliness funny, or a total turn-off.

A second outing for Harry Hill as the Steve Jobs of slapstick inventions, absent-mindedly terrorising the quaint village of Great Pagwell with his daft contraptions. Branestawm's pre-eminence is challenged by snide Professor Algebrain (Steve Pemberton), a heel-clicking Euro-rival determined to win a lucrative inventing competition bequeathed by the late Lady Pagwell. A considerable amount of buffoonery ensues. The game cast includes Vicki Pepperdine and Simon Day.

Harry Hill on Professor Branestawm

Madcap comic says he is always interested in testing himself - even if it means making brave failures like presenting Stars in their Eyes and writing his X Factor musical I Can't Sing.

Preview: Harry Hill's Professor Branestawm is back

The show is cheesy, corny but winningly charming as Charlie Higson packs his script with all the silliness he can muster.

Radio Times review

Harry Hill returns as the multi-spectacled boffin of Norman Hunter's children's books. After Branestawm's TV introduction last Christmas, his cartoonish adventures are once again adapted by in-demand writer Charlie Higson. This time the chocolate-box village of Pagwell is, fortuitously, hosting an invention contest. But has Branestawm met his match in the ingenious Professor Algebrain (Steve Pemberton)?

Among an extraordinary cast giving fruity performances are Diana Rigg, Simon Day, Vicki Pepperdine, Matt Berry and his absurd intonations, Sophie Thompson and David Mitchell. From the clips available to RT, it's wildly eccentric, old-school and very funny - with a barking mad chase sequence.

Harry Hill may return to ITV with spoof cookery show

The comic, real name Matthew Hall is hoping to bring his madcap comic creation back to the channel three years after ending Harry Hill's TV Burp.

Pictures: Harry Hill filming Professor Branestawm

Harry Hill looked worlds apart from his usual appearance when he was pictured filming scenes for a short film about inventor Professor Branestawm for a BBC One Christmas special.

Pictures: Harry Hill's new beard

Still sporting his signature black frames, Harry Hill appears to have opted for a more rugged style as he grinned for photos alongside Bruce Forsyth at his book launch in London on Thursday.

Why can't the BBC do good comedy anymore? Recently we've had truly awful things such as Citizen Khan, Mrs Brown's Boys and, currently showing, the embarrassing Mountain Goats. The last time the BBC managed to provoke a laugh from me was with Murder In Successville on BBC3, a channel soon to be shoved online only.

And there were laughs in the one-off special of Burnistoun, but this was shown in Scotland only. When it comes to the BBC's mainstream, UK-wide comedy, where oh where is the good stuff?

Maybe they feel this terrible dearth of excellent comedy, as they're giving us a reunion show with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse looking back - yes, looking back - to the good old days.

The programme puts Enfield and Whitehouse on stage together in front of an admiring crowd and parodies the An Audience With... shows, but the nice twist is that when we flash to shots of the audience we see Enfield and Whitehouse in the crowd, dressed up as various famous people, and asking cheeky questions. Jimmy Carr, Harry Hill, Ricky Gervais and Prince Charles are all gloriously ridiculed and in between we have great clips of the comedy pair's old shows.