James Corden

James Corden interview

Actor may not be universally loved, but at 36, and armed with an OBE, he faces daunting role, as Late Late Show host on US TV.

James Corden panned on Twitter for 'awful' narration

James Corden has been criticised for his narration of Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, with hundreds of viewers branding him "awful" on social media.

This year has only just got out of the starting blocks, but it is already shaping up to be quite a special one for James Corden.

He was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours list, and in March he will be off to the US to host The Late Late Show on CBS five nights a week.

And after his perfect sitcom The Wrong Mans ended 2014 on a high, the actor is back on our screens tonight in this Roald Dahl short story.

In this adaptation by Richard Curtis, Corden plays the on-screen narrator.

He stars alongside Dame Judi Dench and, incredibly, Dustin Hoffman, who play Mrs Silver and her love-struck neighbour Mr Hoppy, who lives in the apartment above hers.

It's hardly a stretch for either of their talents, but it's rather sweet to see them both doing something so playful, and to hear Dame Judi reciting Dahl's nonsense dialogue: "Worg Pu! Ffuts Pu! Thoos Pu!"

The story is charming, but so slight, that to reveal even one detail would probably ruin it completely for any viewers who don't know it already.

But after Victoria Wood's That Day We Sang, and the return of Last Tango In Halifax, it's heartening to see that TV no longer views love as the sole preserve of the young.

Curtis has also provided Mr Hoppy with a love rival, but it's a tortoise called Alfie who will provide him with the greatest challenge.

Radio Times review

Esio Trot (it's "tortoise" backwards) is a drama of the type that broadcasters save up for Christmas and New year, when we are all feeling a bit soppy, mellow and disinclined to be too critical.

It's the slightest of stories, a tale as thin as a fairy's wings, which isn't to say it's not heart-warming and rather sweet. There's just not much to it. Still, with Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench as leads, and James Corden as a cheerful (onscreen) narrator, Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer's adaptation of the Roald Dahl book is a starry confection.

Hoffman is lonely, diffident Mr Hoppy, who has long nurtured a secret love for lively, glamorous, rather brassy neighbour Mrs Silver (Dench). The pair exchange polite pleasantries on their balconies and Mr Hoppy thinks he's in with a chance, if only he were bold. Then Mrs Silver buys a tortoise called Alfie, who becomes the object of all of her affections.

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The Wrong Mans is not unfunny. There was much to smile about, and a terrific poke against Top Gear. But I think the move to America has harmed the show. Two council workers being caught up, in Britain, inside a network of drugs and kidnappings and bombs is borderline funny/credible. Move them to Texas, and to a Texas jail, with real racist thugs, and for it to work comedically one has to reduce the real villains to cartoon dolts. Which works less well as a thriller. It was always going to be an uneasy thing to pull off, a comedy-thriller - there's a long and ignoble history of failures in that genre - but earlier Corden and co-writer Mathew Baynton managed it, and last week they didn't, not so much. Maybe it's just that I don't like James Corden, a judgment about which he will surely lose sleep.

Dustin Hoffman (shy) and Judi Dench (not shy) fluff around in Richard Curtis's soft-as-sponge adaptation of Roald Dahl's twilight romance as two neighbours bonding over a tiny tortoise. James Corden pops in and out to narrate, although to be honest, you'd have to have had a pretty heavy NYE the night before to get lost here.

James Corden to be made an OBE in the New Year Honours

It is reported the Gavin & Stacey star, 36, will honoured in the annual list published on December 31

The best finale this Christmas undoubtedly belonged to this ambitious mix of action, comedy and espionage. The Wrong Mans was an unexpected blast of brilliance in its first series, so it's unfortunate that James Corden's imminent U.S fame (as new host of The Late Late Show) has apparently curbed any longterm ambitions for this show. Instead, we now only get a two-hour Christmas special, which I like to consider an unofficial four-part second series. Far surpassing series 1 in terms of production values and confidence, this saw Sam Pinkett (Baynton) and Phil Bourne (Corden) in witness protection as factory workers in America, before another combination of bad luck and mistaken identity found them imprisoned with hardened criminals, working as bomb-makers for a gang of terrorists, and pursued across Europe as they doggedly attempted to get back home for Christmas. Not always as laugh-out-loud funny as you want it to be, The Wrong Mans is nevertheless hugely entertaining and takes such obvious delight in playing with genre conventions and clichés. It's a shame there won't be more, but to be honest it would be ridiculous if Sam and Phil kept finding themselves in vaguely similar predicaments again and again. Great to see the show end on a high.

Radio Times review

How would any of us, the ordinary goofs of the world, cope with finding ourselves toe-to-toe with international gangsters and rogue spies? The Wrong Mans never fails to work good-hearted comedy from the scenes between macho lunks and our two council workers from Bracknell, forever way out of their depth and making it up as they go along.

In this episode there's a scene where they have to detail their experience in bomb-making to some glowering chaps in black. Phil (James Corden) improvises desperately about having once put Mentos in a bottle of Coke, which "really did go absolutely everywhere." Will this sort of endearing bluster get them home for Christmas?