Karl Minns

Video: Karl Minns: 'My battle with depression'

Comedian Karl Minns has spoken of his continuing battle with depression. The performer is discussing his real-life struggles and the issue of men's mental health as part of Norwich Theatre Royal's Creative Matters season. Minns is part of the comedy duo The Nimmo twins.

This superb series of comedy monologues concludes with the characters who started out as the butt of the joke and the mysterious name on the mobile respectively, but have gradually grown into the centre of Karl Minns' intricately plotted love hexagon. The understated nature of this comedy is so different to BBC3's normal output that it seems to have gone under most people's radar: thankfully, the previous episodes with Meeshell, Tyler, Luke and Devine are still available on iPlayer for another 7 days. Thanks to the overlapping nature of each storyline, you can almost start watching with any episode - but do catch all six.

In Mouth to Mouth an Essex-girl called Meeshell recounted dumping her best friend and her boyfriend to try to win a version of The X Factor. The level of humour of this illustrated monologue can be judged from the phonetic spelling of her name, by lines such as "I'm not age-a-list, I just don't want to smell piss when I sing" and by the writer Karl Minns' belief that spastic colons and testicular cancer are of themselves funny. His one-liners kept on coming, unfortunately. No sooner was her unbelievable whine over than we heard the story again from Meeshell's cynical ex-boyfriend Tyler in the second part of the double bill. Anna Nightingale as Meeshell and Alex Price as Tyler produced the sorts of trying-too-hard performances normally inflicted only on audition reels. Sadly, it will be a while before Minns is hailed as the next Alan Bennett.

Meeshell is a girl of our times. Obsessed by fame, convinced she's a dead good singer, she'll do anything to bag a No.1 single and a celebrity footballer boyfriend because 'they even smell famous'. And if this entails dumping your best friend and your boyfriend in front of an 8 million-strong TV audience, then so be it.

Welcome to Mouth To Mouth, a modern amorality tale that deconstructs the X Factor generation through a sextet of comic monologues told straight to camera. Subtle it isn't - Meeshell is a character only just this side of Catherine Tate caricature - but this bitter little drama of dreams dashed and friendships betrayed on the potholed road to talent-show glory makes a nifty companion piece to the ongoing travails of Jedward, Stacey, Joe and the rest.

Writer Karl Minns has littered his script with knowing pop references (Meshell on boyfriend Tyler: 'We're like the Ting Tings - he presses all the buttons at the back and I get all the glory') and it's that sharp voice that gives Mouth To Mouth its pout. Meeshell may seem like a typical airhead but behind the pink fluff there's a soul of steel. Slacker Tyler looks for all the world a loser but he's not above a kiss-and-tell when the price is right.

Whether Mouth To Mouth's concept can stand four more episodes - the same tale spun out through the eyes of all the players - remains to be seen. But I'm hopeful of seeing a snatch of Fame Search, the show that propelled Meeshell to her YouTube moment of loved-one dumping fame. 'A girl group won,' our heroine noted bitterly. 'One lezza, one bi, one straight. Called Threeway. Bit gimmicky.' Louis Walsh is on the phone already.

Last Night's TV - Mouth to Mouth

I'm not sure what to make of this new BBC3 comedy; on the one hand, writer Karl Minns is certainly capable of extreme funniness, but I'm not sure the format or the characters worked.

Analysis by The Custard

With great guile, writer Karl Minns weaves together three monologues to tell the stories of the three members of girl group Cats Eyes, teasing out the true story. He shows the same touches as Alan Bennett did in Talking Heads, only gently revealing that the people talking about their lives are painting a rosy picture of misery.

Another comedic swipe at the pop industry, this time following three girls - Anna Nightingale, Pippa Duffy and Ayesha Antoine - as they try to carve a career with their group, Cats Eyes.

Interweaving monologues, songs and drama, it's lightweight but lovable with a witty script from Karl Minns and additional material available online at Bebo.