Katy Wix

Anna Crilly and Katy Wix have converted last year's very good sketch pilot on Channel 4's Comedy Lab into a full series, and deservedly so. There are some super moments here, not least the filthy German Countdown spoof Kuntworts, featuring a cameo from Lee Mack, and the bizarre Congratulation, a daytime TV show which doles out congratulations to the public delivered in dicey West Indian accents followed by gusset flashing. In terms of originality, you can't argue with that.

This sketch show from Anna Crilly (Lead Balloon) and Katy Wix (Not Going Out) skewers TV shows and genres with affectionate/savage accuracy. So Great British Bake Off becomes Rice Britannia, with Crilly doing an accurate Mel Giedroyc, and a clever Apprentice skit is believable down to the ugly businesswear and nonsensical parts of speech. Mucky in places, silly in others and funny more often than not, Anna & Katy are great performers.

Is the sketch show dead? Obviously not in the eyes of commissioners, because here's another one. But does the format still have legs? That's a tougher question. As is always the way, this new Anna Crilly and Katy Wix offering (coming after a Comedy Lab pilot in 2011) is hopelessly patchy. The Great British Bake Off spoof doesn't really go anywhere and soap parody The Lane doesn't even start anywhere. But elsewhere, there's some promise.

The pair are strong on detail, skewering the grammar-mangling of The Apprentice ('you should have cleared that with myself') and crafting a pungently German take on Countdown, complete with oompah band interludes. So as a standalone show, this has its moments. All the same, we anticipate the numbing effect of seeing these sketches repeated, with minor variations, for the rest of the series and wonder if talented comedians couldn't find a better format to deliver their ideas.

Interview: Anna & Katy

We talk to Anna Crilly and Katy Wix about the C4 series that was almost called "Chicken & Farts".

Like many comedy sketch shows, this first outing from likeable duo Anna Crilly and Katy Wix is a hit-and-miss affair. That's fine, though - the pair are still settling in and their skewed take on TV favourites offers plenty of promise. "Congratulation", a daytime show spoof done in West Indian accents falls flat, but there's a hilarious Scandinavian version of Countdown (complete with bewigged cameo from Lee Mack) and they nail the ludicrous business banter of The Apprentice to a tee.

Anna & Katy interview

A couple of years after their well-received Comedy Lab, Anna Crilly and Katy Wix have finally got their own full-length sketch show, which starts this Wednesday on Channel 4.

You'll never watch Countdown in the same way again after seeing comedians Anna Crilly and Katy Wix's hysterically funny and rather rude German version of the quiz show. It's just one of the laugh-till-you-cry sketches in the duo's brand-new series. We defy you not to giggle as the girls do an uncanny pastiche of TGBBO's Me and Sue presenting tent-based boil-off show Rice Britannia. And Lord Sugar had better watch out, as the pair full of a hilarious send-up of The Apprentice. Genius.

Sparky late-night comedy from Katy Wix about Ben (Reece Shearsmith), a scientist on a sub-Antarctic island doing a study of the albatross. There's another scientist on the island with him but they don't communicate, so Ben takes to keeping an audio diary. As you can imagine, there isn't much scope for social adventure on this island and Ben is not what you'd call adventurous anyway. But, in a Pooterish way, he is quite funny, even when all he's doing is losing his watch. Also starring Julian Rhind-Tutt and Alison Steadman, produced by clever Tilusha Ghelani.

Lee Mack is all over BBC1's Friday night line-up tonight.

As well as his regular stint as team captain on Would I Lie To You?, he's also rubbing shoulders with Zac Efron and Matt Le Blanc on The Graham Norton Show for anyone who just can't get enough of him.

Here, his sitcom almost lives up to the promise of its title as Lee, Tim, Daisy and Lucy attempt to go on a camping trip but don't actually get out of the car.

Lee is trying to prove that he's more of a real man than Tim.

It's a contest which hardly seems worth taking part in, but perhaps that's why he's gallantly allocated the lion's share of one-liners to dim Daisy (played by Katy Wix) and is content to take more of a back seat.

Literally, in this case.

The best lines tonight go to smashing Katy Wix as Daisy, Tim's remorselessly stupid girlfriend. Daisy is a woolly-hatted thumb-head, a dim pixie, a clot. She thinks camping is sexist because of its terminology: "One-man tent, guy rope" and eczema is a National Park.

Daisy is at her most wide-eyed when the Not Going Out quartet head to the woods for a night spent in tents under the stars. Disaster quickly looms when Tim's car breaks down and Lee (Lee Mack) decides to behave like a real man to impress his adored Lucy. But there's something nasty in the woods and no one feels brave. It's all very silly, but you will laugh, despite yourself.