Julian Barratt

Noel Fielding's new sketch show has been publicised widely - there's not a bus shelter in my hometown of Stockton without a poster of Fielding in some bizarre costume.

When you watch the show it gets even weirder. Fielding is living in a treehouse in a jungle, with an aardvark butler (played by Noel's brother Michael) and with Andy Warhol (Tom Meeten) as his cleaner. Then there are other characters played by Fielding, including a New York cop with a talking knife wound, a lion in a zoo going slowly insane, and a games teacher with shell shock - who is also a chocolate finger.

Normally I like it when comedians push at the extremes, whether it's in terms of language, situation or realism/surrealism. However, Luxury Comedy appears to be one of those rather rare cases of going too far instead of not far enough. His earlier work, The Mighty Boosh, was itself bizarre and wonderfully funny, but also had the added advantage of Julian Barratt keeping things in control and from going too off the wall. This show is just bizarre, though - all surrealism and seemingly without comedy.

For me the best bit was seemingly the sanest, which was Fielding's drawing of Pele holding a china cup and kicking what was either a ball or the saucer for the cup. I think it worked because at least you can connect the show with something that exists in the real world. The same is true with the 'Warhol' character.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy is too far disconnected from anything recognisable to make it funny. A good piece of art perhaps - totally maverick - but that's about it.

I would love to take a holiday in Noel Fielding's imagination - a psychedelic menagerie of custard and spandex, designed by preschoolers on a sugar rush.

His new sketch show sees him cut loose from Mighty Boosh partner Julian Barratt. It's as though someone snapped the string on a helium balloon, leaving him free to bob around in his own little universe.

Part wonky animation, part live action, the first half, which includes a sketch combining Ready Steady Cook and a space launch, is just the wrong side of random to gel.

But in part two, the weirdness pays off when we meet the optimistic Dandelion - a man in a cheap lion suit showing us around his home at the zoo.

Another new character, Roy Circles, comes into his own. Roy is a PE teacher, widow and war hero. He also just happens to be a chocolate finger. Deal with it.

Fans of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt's The Mighty Boosh will be familiar with the ideas on offer here: cartoonish characters, dream-like scenarios, quirky phrases. Fielding virgins, however, will be utterly confused by this solo sketch outing. The cult comedian takes surrealism to extreme lengths, with costumes, creatures and characters mostly unexplained, but there are some nice ideas: a recurring segment playing up the pretentiousness of art is a particular highlight. Fielding's an impressive character actor too, with a knack for amusing accents. Essentially, though, Luxury Comedy is made for Boosh fans and Boosh fans alone. If the phrase 'I slice bits of rainbow and put them in pitta breads' tickles you, give it a whirl. If not, probably best to stay away from this psychedelic sketch show.

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Running nightly this week are this year's seasonal shorts little crackers from Sky One, which annually tries to make up for the dearth of decent original drama and comedy from January-November by gorging us with a festive selection box featuring some of the best-known names in the business.

This time they've got the likes of Victoria Wood, Catherine Tate, Stephen Fry, Kathy Burke, Julian Barratt, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey - oh, the list goes on, basically anyone who's ever appeared on a panel game is either appearing in, writing or directing one of these 12-minute films, mostly based on autobiographical stories about their childhoods.

And like a selection box, there are a few yucky praline noisette ones. David Baddiel's film is as annoying as he is, though it does feature a good impersonation of Record Breakers star Norris McWhirter by Alastair McGowan, who must have been delighted to get a chance to do an impression he probably last did as a child. Chris O'Dowd has a dull grumpy Santa story and Dawn French oddly casts herself as the late Queen Mother.

But there are some nice strawberry cream ones too: Victoria Wood's is a sweet, nostalgic tale, Julian Barratt's teenaged heavy metallers are quirky and Kathy Burke's memory of meeting Joe Strummer is endearing. Anyway, they're all over so quickly that even the ho-hum ones are watchable enough - shame though that for Sky, decent original programmes come barely more than once a year.

A very pleasant spoof spy show, which boasts The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt in the title role. It's actually written by the two other comic actors David McNeill and Colin Hoult who make up the cast. It's twenty minutes long, set in the Seventies and features lines such as: "I thought I was in love with your mother. But it turns out that your mother was you... wearing a lovely hat." And exchanges like: "Zimbani wants a new Africa with him at the wheel." "He wants to turn Africa into a car?" Enjoyable - but making it half an hour, let alone trying a series, would be pushing it.

Isn't Hollywood a hoot? That's the rationale behind this new show from funnyman Marc Wootton, who plays three Brits determined to make it big in LA. Talentless filmmaker Brendan, wannabe action hero Gary and disgraced psychic Shirley Ghostman ruffle feathers wherever they go. The twist is that Wootton is the only one acting, whereas the producers, directors and casting agents that he befuddles are genuine, unwittingly going about their business. Deadpan narration from The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt completes the set-up, and the result is surprisingly effective. It's already proved a hit Stateside, with Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David giving it a thumbs-up.

Kristen Schaal will be familiar as superfan Mel from Flight of The Conchords, but she also writes and performs in this comedy pilot, Penelope Princess of Pets. The premise is bizarre: Penelope can talk to the animals and, on a sightseeing trip to London, learns that an MP called Stone (Julian Barratt) plans a war between the humans and the animals.

Kristen Schaal, the amusingly creepy/kooky obsessive fan woman from Flight Of The Conchords, plays Penelope, a sort of Prozac Nation Saint Francis Of Assisi, and Julian Barratt is her nemesis, an evil Tory MP. Quirky rather than hilarious, but worth a squizz on an off-night for telly generally.