Ingrid Oliver

Watson & Oliver on the art of the double act

Oh double acts and their conversational helices! Sentences beginning in one mouth finish in another, or return to their starting place for a final flourish. It's even worse when they speak at the same time. Thus it's a bemusing task, recreating the substance of a chat with Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver - aka Watson & Oliver.

I'm a big fan of sci-fi and fantasy comedy, but ElvenQuest has always come across as "good, not great". However, this new, fourth series started with an episode which could change my opinion...

For those unfamiliar with the series, it's a set in a Tolkien-esque fantasy world called Lower Earth, where a group of "Questers" are trying to find the all-powerful Sword of Asnagar. Two of the Questers are Sam Porter (Stephen Mangan), a fantasy writer from our world, and his dog Amis, who's transformed into a human (Dave Lamb). Both were sent to Lower Earth by the other Questers.

Elf leader Vidar (Darren Boyd), Dean the dwarf (Kevin Eldon), and warrior princess Penthiselea (Ingrid Oliver, though formally Sophie Winkleman) complete the cast.

In this opening episode, the Questers defeats some trolls in the kingdom of Premenstrua - ruled by unpredictable Queen Eleanor (Louise Delamere), who is celebrating her birthday and wants a present. The 'present' is the entire story of the Questers, which they must write up over the course of a single night on pain of death...

Probably the main reason this episode stood out was because of Sam, and how useless he is in comparison to the others. But by the same token, the characters are the main issue with the series.

Some of them are great - especially Lord Darkness (Alistair McGowan), whose cunning plans often get too cunning... and he's brought down by something simple like forgetting his keys. However, other characters aren't so well fleshed out. Penthiselea just seems like a typical fantasy, sci-fi heroine - somewhat violent and slightly sexual, but often just filling a gap because the writer thought they needed at least one woman in the story and they couldn't think of anything more imaginative.

If the writers manage to flesh out their creations more than this series could well be perfect. That's the only thing holding ElvenQuest back.

Some of the sketches may go on a bit too long, but their mix of slapstick silliness and biting comic observation have made Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver a very welcome addition to the TV comedy roster. Tonight's delights include Playboy Mansion glamour girls April and Candy attempting to avoid the attentions of Hugh Hefner on the golf course, and a timely spoof of The Apprentice.

The first episode of Watson & Oliver was, on the whole, pretty poor. It began well - I was especially fond of the opening sketch in which Lorna Watson draws eyebrows on her face in response to Ingrid Oliver's feelings, which became more and more ridiculous as the conversation went on. The duo are good physical performers.

However, I didn't enjoy the second half of the episode nearly as much.

The problem seems to be the writing. Some of the sketches seemed lack any purpose, like the friendly conversation between a prisoner and a warden. It totally stumped me, and I think judging by the audience reaction the studio didn't realise understand it either (mostly light tittering and nothing more).

Concerning the writing, I think that the most interesting aspect of Watson & Oliver is that while Watson and Oliver are the main writers, there is a larger bunch of writers providing "additional material". In the opening episode, for example, Kevin Cecil, Ali Crockatt, David Scott, Alex Lowe and Robert Mills all contributed. In other words, apart from the two stars, all the writers are men writing for female roles. Perhaps if Watson and Oliver wrote all their material there'd be a fluidity to the show and it might, well, be a bit better.

Still, it's probably best to see what comes up in future episodes...

The newest thing in comedy sketch shows - and doesn't that very phrase feel antediluvian? - is Watson & Oliver, well known to Edinburgh Fringe audiences. They're an appealing duo. Ingrid Oliver has a thrillingly low voice - Fiona Bruce meets Victoria Coren - she's a dead ringer for Myleene Klass (who is duly ridiculed), and she can really act. Lorna Watson is blond, brittle and has to work harder for laughs. Their opening gambit was a direly old-fashioned bit of sub-Morecambe & Wise before-the-show backchat, but, once they settled down, their sketches were inventive and unusual. In a spoof of a TV Jane Austen serial, the mob-capped duo tittered like six-year-olds about pin cushions to a pair of bored Mr Darcys, then switched abruptly to double entendre. ("Our dance cards - we eagerly await the filling of our slots by two special gentlemen.") A Victoria Wood-style pastiche of 1950s ladies' kitchen conversation - all pinnies and hair-rollers - was surreally punctuated by Watson's response-appropriate eyebrows. A greasy-spoon café became a symphony of shouts and orders in which everyone called everyone else "darling" - "Cup o'tea, darlin'?" "Keep the change, my darlin'" - until someone silenced the room by saying "Love". In what is clearly meant to be the show's signature sketch, the girls do their impression of Prince William and Kate tucked up in bed, unable to find anything to talk about except their wedding day. But couldn't they have found a better punchline subject than Pippa Middleton's over-prodded rump?

The best sketch imagined two Playboy bunnies squeaking competitively about how pink their living quarters were, how appealing their fake boobs, how delightful their lives, until they were summoned to cuddle up to the saurian Hefner. Between retchings, they competed as to which had a better excuse not to fulfil this noisome duty. It was a gift of a subject to these two funny, appealing women, and they seized it with unladylike glee. I look forward to seeing a lot more of them.

New sketch comedies have been so mediocre recently that the format itself has sometimes looked on its last legs. However, portents for this new show are good. For a start, Robert Popper is producing. Also, it's been dropped straight into the BBC2 schedules without the customary trial period on BBC3/4, which indicates a certain assurance. Sadly, this confidence seems misplaced. Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver have good chemistry, but the scripts and ideas remain resolutely earthbound. There's a sketch lampooning mannered costume dramas. An extended, tedious musical turn from John Barrowman. A sketch about the enduring hilarity of working-class people's vocabulary and speech patterns. But nothing to suggest that Watson and Oliver might buck the trend.

Watson & Oliver: Bring out the Barrowman

Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver's new comedy sketch show is a peculiarly old-fashioned thing.

The Beeb's new comedy signing is about as edgy as Lorraine Kelly's guide to budget family dinners. There's more than a whiff of nostalgia in Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver's debut comedy sketch show, and if you long for the cheekily innocent days of French & Saunders, Watson & Oliver looks set to satisfy that itch. Expect period drama pastiche, Wills and Kate jokes, and live studio audience laughter aplenty.

It would be so easy to shoot this sketch show by a couple of relatively unknown comedians, Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver, right out of the water. I could say that on the whole it's pretty poor, with a few thin laughs in a clutch of woefully under-written sketches. I could say that Watson & Oliver must have known it was in trouble when it gave a substantial guest spot here to John Barrowman playing a preening, narcissistic version of himself.

I could add that with a lot more work Watson & Oliver might find themselves a niche on television after a successful live-performance career. I could say all of these things. But I won't.

New tonight is a sketch show featuring Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver, a comedy duo I'm probably meant to have heard of.

Watson & Oliver (BBC2, 10pm) would no doubt love to become the new French & Saunders, but on this early evidence the only thing the duos have in common is they both think they're way funnier than they actually are. Not so much Watson & Oliver, then, as Watson The Other Side.