Kevin Bishop (II)

Finally, Channel 4's Comedy Showcase returns - essentially The X Factor for sitcoms. Every week there's a new pilot, with the most popular being commissioned for a whole series - before, presumably, having a nervous breakdown and being admitted to the Priory.

First up for the phone vote was Campus - the new project from the Green Wing team: essentially Green Wing but set in a red-brick university, not a hospital. The show is already so well-formed that finding it having to audition for a series seems bizarre - like Patti Smith turning up to an X Factor audition in Cardiff, and doing Piss Factory to a gob-smacked Simon Cowell.

The writer/director/producer Victoria Pile has two trademark techniques: creating worlds where a horrible, dark surreality keeps oozing through the cracks; and characters who take childlike gestures to extremes - walking past a shelf and pushing all the books off with a triumphal air, stealing lipstick from a handbag and putting it on during a conversation, shouting "Shut!" at a door that's already shutting.

Although, like Green Wing, Campus works as an ensemble of freaks, perhaps the most intriguing mutant is Vice Chancellor Jonty de Wolfe (Andy Nyman). Initially, he looks like the weakest character - a small, bumptious David Brent clone who keeps attempting Jamaican patois to make a point. But by the end of the show he has turned into a more sinister version of the shopkeeper in Mr Benn - wandering around the library in a floor-length taffeta ballgown, urging depressed students to commit suicide and, on one occasion, simply disappearing in the middle of a monologue, as if it were a Las Vegas floor-show, leaving his English lecturer Matthew Beer (Joseph Millson) holding a madly clattering clockwork monkey, and his jaw.

The 2007 Comedy Showcase resulted in series commissions for The Kevin Bishop Show, Plus One and Free Agents, from which The Kevin Bishop Show has made it to a second series - making it very much the Leona Lewis of the enterprise. But Campus is far superior stuff to Kevin Bishop. It makes Kevin Bishop look like ... David Sneddon. Campus - it's a yes from me. I'm putting you through to Boot Camp.

Does the world really need a new impressions show? Probably not, but this new vehicle for Jon Culshaw, along with Corrie refugee Debra Stephenson isn't too bad on the whole. Katy Brand and Kevin Bishop could learn a thing or two from this.

Following in the footsteps of Kevin Bishop's cringe-fest, Peep Show is back to remind us (and Channel 4) what TV comedy is all about. With Mark and Jez still co-habiting in Croydon and drowning in each other's apathy, it's clear not much has changed (and of course we wouldn't want it any other way). Mark gets promoted and celebrates by getting a new boiler; and also gets Jez a job at his office, providing a platform for a rather brilliant quote regarding a work / porn incident. One of these idiots might be the father of Sophie's baby (anyone else secretly hoping it's Super Hans?). Recently Robert Webb told us that the thing that gets shouted at him most is "Oi, Peep Show". He sighed. But everyone, including him, knows this is the best thing they've ever done by a country mile. Lovely.

Among the celebrity couples being predictably skewered tonight are Cheryl and Ashley Cole, Katie and Peter, Phil 'n' Fern, and even Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman.

You could never accuse this show of being lazy - but as Kevin Bishop's hairstyle changes almost faster than your brain can keep up, the sense of urgency about all these rapid-fire sketches is in danger sometimes of over-riding the sense of comedy.

Still there's plenty in the mix tonight to raise a smile, including Gok Wan, Billie Piper's next project, Diary Of A Call Centre Girl and a news story about transfer deadlines for soap stars featuring a cameo from former Corrie star Bruce Jones.

Kevin Bishop spoofs TV, film and more famous faces in another edition of his sketch show. The pace with which these sketches race past the eyes feels like the cat's sat on the remote again, resulting in a high-speed dash through the channels. Fully appreciating the ethos of 'more is more' and that once a punchline's been dropped, it's time to get the heck out, Kevin's comic blunderbuss delivers an enviably high gag-to-sketch ratio. And don't you just love his Brad Pitt?

Not for Kevin Bishop the diplomatic approach: his sketch show puts the boot into the foibles of the entertainment industry he's intrinsically a part of. Impersonations - a staple of Bishop's comedy - are pretty thin fare on their own, but this rapid-fire sketch show also hits some worthy targets. In tonight's show, we are shown the tragedy of Derren Brown's cab-driving brother, Darren, see Hugh Laurie's out-takes from House, and - most enjoyably - observe TV comedy's boom-and-bust duo James Corden and Mathew Horne in a remake of On the Buses.

This is the perfect sketch show for people with a short attention span or for anyone who is too busy to watch TV or go to the movies. Here are all the shows you meant to get around to watching, brilliantly held up for ridicule by Kevin Bishop and co.

In the opening programme of Kevin's new series, still in the channel-surfing format, he does the dirty on Frost/Nixon and Horne and Corden, offers a genius Gok Wan impression, mocks The Secret Millionaire and (in the blink of an eye) pieces together Michael Jackson: What Really Happened. Plus about a hundred others. You could never accuse this show of not giving you value for money.

And if, like me, you dutifully sat through the entirety of Channel 4's Red Riding series, trying to stay awake on the basis that it was dark and Northern and therefore must be somehow good for you, consider the final sketch tonight to be your just reward.

Return of the hilarious comedy sketch show in which Kevin Bishop takes potshots at Gok Wan and Harry Hill.

Along with two packets of Munchies and a strawberry Nesquik, one of our Friday night treats is this smashing comedy, which flicks between spoofs of TV shows, films and adverts. Somehow, the previous series managed to win nothing at the British Comedy Awards, despite several nominations, and this travesty will hopefully be righted with Kevin's new potshots at the likes of Simon Cowell.

Kevin Bishop is a kind, if hyperactive, lad in real life. The best moments of his show are when he's being rude about stuff we hate: the gurning of Horne and Corden, the stupid Gok Wan rhyming and anglophile Americans. There's also a nice take on Frost/Nixon sequels. Parkinson/Emu, Best/Wogan and Reed/Aspel. The duff moments are his take on House (don't mess with Laurie) and a sketch that's a bit too close to John Thomson's Bernard Righton. We've not seen his Harry Hill yet as it wasn't in this ep, but it better be good. Or else.

Kevin Bishop Interview

The Kevin Bishop Show is back next week for another round of television trashing and celeb mocking. This series, Cheryl Cole, Kerry Katona and Stephen Hawking are among the unfortunate elite of celebrity targets being bashed by the Bishop.