Ian Hyland

I was wrong about The Jonathan Ross Show

A month ago I wrote a short and not entirely complimentary obituary for The Jonathan Ross Show. Since then though? Jonathan Ross has posted three corking shows in a row for the first time since he moved to ITV in 2011 - and with Boris Johnson to come this Saturday he could even stretch that to four.

Benidorm may have ceased being my cup of sangria a long time ago but fair's fair, the latest series finale was a cracker. It's unlikely you'll ever see Joan Collins, Rustie Lee and The Krankies together on the same bill again though. Well, unless they're called as character witnesses at the next Operation Yewtree trial.

It was a bit rich of Jonathan Ross to call C4 "f***ing idiots" for cutting Steve Coogan short at The British Comedy Awards.

You were the host, Jonathan. Perhaps if you'd kept a tighter rein on the earlier ramblings - yes you, Will Ferrell - poor old Coogan would not have suffered such a gross invasion of his publicity.

By all accounts Coogan gave a pretty funny speech. So I guess if C4 had left it in it would have looked totally out of place on this show. The night opened with Rossy admitting "It's hard to know what makes good comedy" and ended with us in no doubt as to what does not.

No wonder so many people complained when the BBC cut short a repeat of Mrs Brown's Boys to announce Mandela's death. We're so starved of laughs these days we must protect the few we have.

The rant by Johnny Vegas detailing everything that is wrong about British comedy should be nailed to the wall of every TV office. Failing that, just nail it to Jack Whitehall. His face gets everywhere these days.

Last Friday's HIGNFY could be the worst episode ever

The Mirror's TV critic Ian Hyland says the BBC's flagship topical comedy show needs more female talent, cleverer gags and more amusing material.

Jonathan Ross guest list is as flat as a pancake

Jonathan Ross's guest list is as flat as a pancake while Graham Norton picks the cherries. Even Alan Carr's Chatty Man is putting Ross to shame as he is forced to plug ITV's mediocre shows.

Graham Norton gets prime cuts, Jonathan Ross get scrag end

It looks like the old Jonathan Ross has gone forever. Maybe the Sachsgate scandal beat it out of him. Maybe he's grown lazy in his old age.

A wave of TV comedy letdowns

If timing really is everything in comedy the BBC must have been pretty pleased with itself last Tuesday night. Because just days after the Beeb aired Margaret Thatcher's sendoff, its comedy department contrived to bury the reputation of one of her most vocal critics.

The best music show on TV right now is not even a music show. It's E4's beautifully realised nostalgic drama My Mad Fat Diary. Every time I watch it I end up downloading something from iTunes.

I know some viewers are still unsure about Room 101's new three-guest format, but it's steadily becoming my favourite TV panel show. And it was great to see Cilla Black on there the other week after such a long absence from primetime TV.

This week's star, though, was Alex Jones, who railed against people who enjoy repeat viewings of movies because, 'Watching the same thing over and again is a waste of your life.' Good job The One Show viewers don't think like that.

Ahead of the first episode of his latest C4 offering, Derek, Ricky Gervais claimed that releasing a new TV show was like 'landing in Normandy and feeling the bullets rain down'. Now, I'm not going to suggest Ricky has been spending a bit too much time in Hollywood, but does he seriously think he suffers for his art like World War II troops suffered on those beaches? It's all very worrying.

The only reason Derek isn't the most schmaltzy and emotionally manipulative programme I've ever seen is because Simon Cowell got there first. But then, Ricky has been displaying a siege mentality lately that would make even Sir Alex Ferguson blush.

For someone who professes not to care what people think, he's spending an awful lot of time on Twitter retweeting praise for Derek from starstruck followers who probably only tweeted in the first place in the hope that he would retweet it. Stranger still, Ricky and his showbiz chums have decided the 'knives are out' in the industry, particularly among the nation's TV critics. I've asked around and the general feedback is no such vendetta exists.

Sure, there is bemusement that Ricky appears to feel he has divine immunity from criticism - ironic really, given that when he's feeling in a particularly trolling mood Ricky likes to tell people God doesn't exist.

Most critics actually reacted fairly favourably to the pilot episode of Derek, which makes Ricky's decision to come out fighting now all the more baffling. Unless of course the bravado is a smokescreen to disguise the fact that a) Derek isn't really that controversial and b) the full series isn't really that good. It's by no means the worst programme I have ever seen.

There are some gentle laughs to be had. Kerry Godliman is superb as Hannah, the hybrid of Tim and Dawn from The Office, who runs the care home. And Karl Pilkington is fabulous at being Karl Pilkington in a bad wig as Dougie the caretaker. It is also refreshingly free of awkward celebrity cameos - although with Ricky's track record we can't rule out Michael Parkinson popping up in episode six trying to sell life insurance to the home's OAP residents.

Derek though takes schmaltz too far. It's basically a half-hour version of that pet charity campaign that featured a shaggy old dog shivering in the rain whimpering, 'Nobody wants you when you're old'. But instead of appealing for cash, Ricky is seeking credit. He'd love to be lauded for bravely tackling dangerous issues, when all he's really doing is throwing up a series of fairly obvious and nauseatingly sentimental crowd-pleasers with a side order of mawkish piano music.

No one is going to knock him for saying kindness is magic, or standing up for autistic people, or being nice about old people, or giving da yoof a second chance, or raging against busybody council bureaucrats. But he's hardly taxing himself - or us - here.

He's writing by bumper sticker. And while it might be magical for Ricky's ego if we were to continue to kindly avoid the massive elephant in that care home sitting room, I really can't bring myself to do it.

Because the simple fact is this. As well as being written by, performed by, directed by and edited by Ricky Gervais, Derek is also spoiled by him. His hammy performance as Derek Noakes is the biggest letdown of the entire show. Moreover, as a character, Derek is the least believable and least interesting thing in it.

If he didn't show up in the second series I don't think the show would suffer for it. I'd even go so far as to call any enforced absence a kindness.