Katy Brand

Puppets, it would seem, can get away with pretty much anything. Under normal circumstances all comic references to Anne Frank are subject to a blanket prohibition, but Mongrels extracted guilty laughs by suggesting that it was an overzealous game of Yahtzee, not Dutch collaborators, that gave away her whereabouts to the Nazis.

Mongrels features a menagerie of endearing fluffy animals, with occasional support from a passing live actor, the star of which is a sensitive, confrontation-phobic, urbane urban fox called Nelson. Other characters include a snooty Afghan Hound bitch, a kleptomaniac pigeon, a latino cat and several rats. Episode one opened with a houseful of cats dining on the rotting corpse of their elderly owner, moved swiftly on to embrace the twin themes of defecation and castration, paused briefly for a musical number extolling the virtues of prejudice, before climaxing in a Saw style torture scene involving the use of microwave ovens.

Somewhere in the frantic mix sweet natured Nelson found time to embark upon a doomed romance with a chicken, prompting several oddly touching moments, before the show, and the fox, reverted to their true 'red in tooth and claw' natures.

Mongrels sets out to be offensive, but does so with an irresistible combination of wit, imagination and gleeful enthusiasm. I laughed out loud several times, I sniggered childishly throughout and on at least one occasion I felt sick, which counts as a ringing endorsement.

To borrow a gruesome Americanism, the show features the "vocal talents" of Lucy Montgomery, Dan Tetsell, Rufus Jones and Katy Brand, all of whom sounded as though they were having more fun than is decent.

New comedy about a group of urban animal puppets voiced by Katy Brand, Lucy Montgomery, Dan Tetsell and Rufus Jones. It calls to mind Top Cat and Basil Brush but with added adult content. Tonight, a fox goes on an internet date with a chicken and they encounter a familiar problem on a boating lake. Meanwhile, our feline hero goes in search of a new owner when his elderly one drops dead and gets partially eaten by her other cats. The bad taste stuff is nicely judged and the jokes are good - it might just have furry little legs.

Meet Nelson, the metrosexual, chicken-dating fox, spoilt Afghan bitch Destiny, cynical pigeon Kali and tomcat Marion who's about to be neutered. At first glance this knockabout comedy with puppet animals interacting with humans smacks of CBBC, but a barrage of rude words and black situations soon swing it firmly into adult territory. With Paul Kaye and Katy Brand providing voices, a brief homage to Only Fools and Horses, and despite some tasteless jokes (about Harold Shipman and Anne Frank), this is utterly beguiling.

Take a TV executive at random (easily done) and ask them their favourite comedy. After saying "I don't actually have time to watch TV", they'll then look up an answer on Twitter and say Family Guy. Gosh, they love Family Guy.

The people who made Mongrels clearly had the Griffin family in mind. The set-up is some urban puppet animals (best is Rufus the rather metrosexual 'urbane fox') sitting around and having adventures. But that's an excuse for some sketches, songs and low-rent celebrity appearances. As such, it is a bit hit and miss. (It might just be us being prejudicial but the worst bits mainly come from the voice of Katy Brand.)

But, the hits are genuinely funny and even the laugh-free moments have a well-written sheen. Time and effort have been spent on the jokes - and it shows.

That meerkat ad has a lot to answer for: here we have an adult puppet show in which one of the main characters (a cat) has an almost identical accent. What those meerkats don't do is rob little old ladies, defraud celebrities or swear their furry little heads off, which is what the parade of animal puppets indulge in here. The sterling cast includes Katy Brand voicing a cynical pigeon and tonight's 'special guest', Toby Anstis. Utterly stupid but very funny.

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