Kathryn Flett

From Spaced to Black Books to the very deeply brilliant Look Around You, P.S. (it's just easier on the RSI, frankly) invariably makes me laugh, as did his new sketch show, commissioned on the back of an amusing spoof showbiz news clip circulated on the interwebnet, and which was in every conceivable way the perfect giggly antidote to three hours of Murphy's Law.

P.S. is a brilliant impressionist, too - his uncanny Chris Tarrant, host of the absurd quiz show 'Heads or Tails', was only undermined by the premise not being nearly as absurd as it appears. Serafinowicz may not be aware of the deliciously unsophisticated Australian gambling game 2-Up, which makes craps look like poker, but I suspect he may want to investigate.

Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 7th October 2007

Post The Office, as it were, Martin Freeman hasn't quite found his vehicle. Hardware had its moments, but there weren't enough of them, however, in a C4 Comedy Showcase - effectively a short series of pilots - entitled Other People, he might have it. As a 1980s child magician Greg Wilson tasted fame, of the Royal Variety variety, before having his career destroyed by being called a 'fucking wanker' in a live phone-in during kids' TV show 'Crikey! It's Saturday'. Now, bitter and thirtysomething, working in a sofa shop, he copes with the reverse in fortunes by being, mostly, bitter.

'Do you know who gets to choose Employee of the Month?' asks his up-tight boss. 'Ant and Dec? People get to text-in?'

I don't know who gets to choose Pilot of the Month at C4 but there's surely some mileage in a Big Brother-style interactive public vote, in which case Other People gets mine. Come to think of it, perhaps all TV comedy should be commissioned by text? Or, failing that, Ant and Dec.

Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 7th October 2007

Observer Review

David Renwick gets the tricky balance of light and shade, comedy and drama, potential romance and its itchy underbelly absolutely right.

Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 2nd October 2005