Jack Dee

Review: Jack Dee's Referendum Helpdesk, BBC2

Nobody seems to have told the person that did the opening credits for this comedy version of Question Time that it is about the EU. Instead subject titles such as "relationships" and "money"Romesh Ranganathan rolled past as if our host, serial cynic Jack Dee, was any old agony aunt.

Power Monkeys is successor to last year's riotously funny Ballot Monkeys, and also written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, but this time a little more miss than hit. They absolutely nailed Donald Trump, by focusing not on him but on a moderate aide's frantic attempts to dial him down (Amelia Bullmore just keeps getting drolly better); and nailed, too, the sinistrata of the Kremlin, its all-too-believable obsessions with the skewed minutiae of the UK media, plus a damned fine gag about Noel Edmonds, surely nature's successor to David Icke. Where they failed was in the Brexit battle bus, by having a joke Ukip fringe-loon at the centre of things. I know this is chiefly written on the day, to keep it as topical as possible, but sometimes the set-up is more important, and the Brexiters were drawn, weeks ago, with a surprising lack of subtlety. I would worry more if the writers were not capable of both fluidity and nuance: expect the swivel-eyes Ukip cliche to soon Brexit the brus, and Jack Dee's dark cynicism to lighten our days. Ballot Monkeys got fiercely sharper as the vote approached: expect the same.

Just like with last year's Ballot Monkeys, Power Monkeys by writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin have worked on their script up to the day of transmission to include as many topical gags as possible. Another similarity between the two shows is that we follow four camps of people with Ballot Monkeys concentrating on the four major parties going into the 2015 General Election. But as this show focuses on the EU Referendum there is only really two campaigns to focus on namely the Vote Remain and Vote Leave groups. Although I do feel that there was probably enough material to focus on just these two groups, I think to keep up the pace that made Ballot Monkeys so enjoyable Hamilton and Jenkin added two more parties just to keep things going. Those parties are the team behind Donald Trump's presidential run as well as two members of Vladimir Putin's staff. I do feel targeting Trump and Putin is quite easy but a lot of the jokes about these two men have already been made elsewhere and I don't think that the writers really had anything new to say about them. So while these segments were funny I think the running joke about Trump not allowing any female journalists to interview him was quite cliched and was done to death. The more interesting parts of the episode involved the two sides of the referendum with the vote leave campaign headed up by the returning Gerry (Andy Nyman) who was working alongside the ultra-patriotic Spencer (Kevin McNally), the focused Preeya (Archie Panjabi) and young Labour supporter Jackie (Gwyneth Keyworth). On the other side of the fence was Oliver (Jack Dee) whose offensive jokes were getting on the nerves of his colleague and fellow remain campaigner Sara (Claire Skinner). It was the interplay between McNally and Panjabi and Skinner and Dee which provided the central highlights of this first episode of Power Monkeys primarily as both sets of performers bounced off each other perfectly. I have to say though I was a little disappointed as I expect a lot more from Hamilton and Jenkin and I feel that Power Monkeys lacked the focus that Ballot Monkeys possessed. That being said I'm going to stick with the show for now as I'm a fan of the majority of the cast and have loved the writers ever since Drop the Dead Donkey. But I'm just hoping the quality of the episodes improve as I would say that the first episode of Power Monkeys was simply a little lacking in big laughs and that's not what I expected from the follow-up to one of the funniest sitcoms of last year.

Jack Dee is all over the EU referendum, it seems. Tonight, he stars as volatile former journalist Oliver, now working at the Conservative HQ's Unity Unit, in a spin-off from the comedy Ballot Monkeys, scripted by Outnumbered creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. Written in the hours before transmission to keep the comedy bang up to date, it satirically follows both sides of the debate, and also has an international dimension, with Donald Trump's plane and Vladimir Putin's office among the settings. Claire Skinner and Amelia Bullmore co-star.

Power Monkeys preview

Channe‎l 4's new six-part topical comedy about the EU Referendum is the latest in 'ripped from the headlines' comedy f​rom the creators of Outnumbered and Drop The Dead Donkey, with each episode shot and edited on the day of transmission.

The Mayoress passes £75,000 funding goal

The Mayoress, the online sitcom featuring top stars like Jack Dee and Harry Hill, has passed its £75,000 fundraising goal.