John Cleese

'Golden age' of comedy is over says Cleese

Comic John Cleese says he fears after 50 years in the industry that the 'golden age' of comedy is over and being funny is the hardest thing in the world.

The 30th anniversary of The Meaning Of Life is another excuse for the five remaining Pythons to get together and reminisce. No need for an interviewer as they bounce observations among themselves, comparing memories of the movie's making before tut-tutting on the wider state of modern comedy production. They're looking elderly but their wits are undimmed; only when John Cleese singles out sketches in The Meaning Of Life in which Terry Jones starred as the film's weakest does a shadow of animosity flicker across proceedings.

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What is it with the name Kevin and connections? In the film world it is Kevin Bacon who is separated from all other actors by six degrees or fewer. In the British comedy world it is Kevin Eldon. Though you probably don't know his name, his face is familiar from Big Train, Nighty Night, Fist of Fun, Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, and so on. He is, in other words, part of that Armando Iannucci-Chris Morris-Stewart Lee set; but until now he has always been in the background, performing cameos.

His own TV show It's Kevin (Sunday, BBC Two) seemed fresh, unpredictable, and, more importantly, funny, especially the opening number in which he sings about the show's title. I had a sneak preview of the second episode, because I enjoyed the first so much, and was pleased to see he sings a different variation on this each week. I was also glad to see the return of a sketch from episode one which imagined what "Naughty German Adolf Hitler" would be like if he spoke as plummily as Beatles producer Sir George Martin.

This was in the tradition of surreal juxtaposition favoured by Monty Python. Another sketch, about a man with a strange medical condition called Soundtrackitis (which meant that his every utterance was accompanied by a relevant clip of music), also felt Pythonesque. And the way Eldon linked sketches by addressing the audience directly from a sofa on a white set reminded you of the John Cleese links in And Now For Something Completely Different.

While all this may suggest that, actually, it is almost impossible to be completely different in comedy, I felt Eldon had a good stab at it. Confident and imaginative, the sense of humour reminded me of another unsung comedy stalwart Simon Munnery, and when I saw Munnery popping up in odd sketches it made sense that they would be friends.

The sketches were a bit uneven and felt a bit student fringe-like at times. But I liked Eldon's take-it-or-leave swagger. And some of the throwaway lines such as "Queuing is a great British tradition, like the Proms and dogging" made me laugh out loud.