Kevin Eldon

Opinion: mainstream v alternative - is the gap closing?

We live in interesting times for comedy. I never thought I'd see Sara Pascoe on The Graham Norton Show. Maybe the gap is closing between what we describe as alternative and what we describe as mainstream. Maybe one of the legacies of Comedy Vehicle is that it did attract comedy fans to more cerebral notions of the nature of comedy. Sadly not enough for BBC2's beancounters.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Spencer Jones, Kevin Eldon and Andy Hamilton.

It's Kevin review

To sum: Kevin Eldon has been on your TV for ages, so it's thrilling to see him get his own show, show off his own writing, and carry a vehicle with his own antics. A real treat.

I come to the first CBBC programme I think I've ever reviewed for this site however it's one that's quite dear to my heart. As somebody who grew up in the late 1980s/early 1990s Danger Mouse was a show that I probably watched almost every episode of. So it was with great trepidation that I approached the new series that aired all this week on the BBC's children's channel. After suffering through the sub-par Thunderbirds remake I didn't have high hopes but I was pleasantly surprised by what was on offer. Although the graphics were inevitably better than those offered in Danger Mouse's original incarnation everything else about the show remained untouched. I did feel that, unlike Thunderbirds are Go, Danger Mouse offered something for everyone with the central plot appealing to younger viewers whilst older children and parents would've liked the wicked humour employed by writer Ben Ward. I particularly liked the fact that the voice of Come Dine With Me Dave Lamb provided the narration as he added an extra comic touch to proceedings. He was also there to provide a little nod and wink to the audience at home especially at the end when he tried to debunk several aspects of the plot. In voicing DM, Alexander Armstrong had particularly big shoes to fill but I felt he did an admirable job. Although it was quite obvious to picture him providing the voice he still brought a mix of bravado and comic timing needed to pull off the role. However I thought the best contribution came from Kevin Eldon who provided a note-perfect Penfold voice-over which gave some added authenticity to the piece. Although I know I'm not the target audience for Danger Mouse it was nice to see that those behind this reboot didn't insult those who watched the cartoon the first time around. Ultimately this was a show that provided something for everyone and I wouldn't be surprised if it got a weekend repeat on one of the main BBC channels so more people can experience its charm.

The originalDanger Mouse was an Eighties cartoon on ITV that was essentially a rough parody of James Bond. DM, with his eye patch and his flying car, was charged with saving the world from a large toady Blofeld called Baron Greenback. David Jason used to voice the mouse with Terry Scott as Penfold. Now Alexander Armstrong is "DM" and the comedian Kevin Eldon as Penfold the hamster.

I also wondered what children would make of Danger Mouse v2.0's narrative style, which was so self-reflexive and knowing that at times it was like an episode of Sherlock. "Now, the world's 12th greatest sidekick Penfold will speak the first line of the new series," said our narrator early on, before going on to point out the show's improbabilities, saying "I'm sure the writers will have perfectly reasonable answers to these questions."

But just when I was about to get really angry about what had been done to another childhood memory I went back and watched a few vintage DMs. It turned out they were all pretty arch too.

My instinct was that all of this would go way over the heads of my kids, who tend to laugh at pratfalls and fart gags (and I hardly need stress that I have no idea where they got that from). But I have a feeling that the wordiness and the ironic humour seeps in. That might be one reason why I remember Danger Mouse fondly without, until this week, being quite sure what it was that I fondly remembered.

After Thunderbirds and Clangers, another risky return for a beloved children's TV classic. The wham-bam scenes that kick off Danger Mouse V2.0 initially suggest a particularly inelegant reboot. But all the Hollywood overkill is in service of a gag, and soon we're back to the very British, fourth-wall-breaking silliness that defined the original. Suave Alexander Armstrong and squeaky Kevin Eldon make for a winning DM and Penfold, while Dave Lamb, the voice of Come Dine With Me, is the very hands-on narrator.

TV review: Brilliantman!, Sky Arts

Sky's silent comedy season comes to an end this week and they've saved the best until last. For those mourning the demise of Kevin Eldon's BBC Two series here is a chance to see the ubiquitous character comedian/actor in the lead role in his very own comedy one-off.