Mark Gatiss

In Psychoville, the goblins have been running riot for some time. Last night's stunning episode balanced dark drama with dark comedy, leavened with a perfectly pitched, yet subversive, homage to Hitchcock's Rope shot in two long takes. The serial killer obsessed serial killer David (Steve Pemberton) has been killing people, under the evil aegis of mother Maureen (Reece Shearsmith).

It says something about the skill of the men's writing and performance that you look past the grotesque drag of both characters instantly. You laugh at the ridiculous mix of homeliness and psychopathy and at the deliciously childish wordplay, then shudder at the truth of their relationship: incestuous, yes, but their bond - the shady death, finally revealed here, of David's father - was movingly evoked, as was their shared dependence on one another.

The script was devilishly fast and crafty. Mark Gatiss was brilliant as the camp and unknowing interloper bringing the secrets of the past to the surface. He seemed to be a policeman, but wasn't: he was an am-dram devotee after a role, and hopeful that his brazen theatricality would win David and Maureen into casting him in a murder-mystery event. The twist was that they were going to kill him, believing him to be a real policeman, but let him go when they discovered he was not. He was murdered ultimately, having discovered that Maureen had killed David's father, not David (as David had believed). David hadn't known that either.

Matt Lipsey's direction would surely have made The Master proud: in the claustrophobic confines of David and Maureen's scuzzy, blood-spattered flat the camerawork was as unrelenting and viciously playful as the script. The over-stylised, freaky vibe of Psychoville can sometimes appeal only to the dedicated, the horror and comedy too grave-robbingly close to its cousin The League of Gentlemen. However, this episode was supremely classy and stood alone as a fluent, delicious piece of television. Lucky you if you caught it.

Things took a weird turn in Psychoville, even by said show's agreeably weird standards. The whole interlinking plot thing took a time-out to allow Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton to indulge themselves in a homage to Hitchcock classic Rope, perfect murderers Maureen and David Sowerbutts doing the dance of death around guest star (and League Of Gentlemen mate) Mark Gatiss. Admittedly it was movie buff heaven but it smacked of selfindulgence. Psychoville's impressive head of macabre steam came grinding to a halt and though we learned some vital clues - Maureen is rather more than an over-indulgent mother - I missed the randy dwarf and madcap midwife action.

Of all the episodes in this strange series, this is the strangest and most fascinating to date. It is a homage to Alfred Hitchock's 1948 film Rope with James Stewart, which told the story of two young men who murdered a classmate, put his body in a wooden chest and invited the victim's friends and family round to dinner. It was a daring and experimental film, shot as though it were taking place in real time using long, unbroken takes. The same technique is used here, with a single location and only three characters - the comic killers (Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton) and their unfortunate victim (Mark Gatiss) - shot in two long takes. The effect is theatrical, claustrophobic and totally mesmerising. One of the greatest pleasures of watching television is coming across a complete surprise; in the fast-forward world of snappy editing, tonight's episode has a shocking originality.

A one-off special edition of the spoof phone-in show, an eve of Budget salute to all the things we don't know and can't grasp about what's happened to the economy and why having a balance in the bank is suddenly a bad thing. Presented, as ever, by the utterly witless 'Gary Bellamy' (Rhys Thomas) with the only too believable callers played by Paul Whitehouse, Amelia Bullmore, Felix Dexter and co, with special guest Mark Gatiss. Word is that this show is about to transfer to television. Ah well, that'll be another one gone to where the big money grows.

This gentle sci-fi comedy hasn't found its feet yet mainly because the clone is irritating rather than amusingly innocent. Plus Jonathan Pryce's Frankenstein character is a bit two-dimentional. At least Mark Gatiss's twitching and grimacing as a sadistic colonel is something to relish.

Jonathan Pryce and Mark Gatiss in a new sitcom on BBC3? We sat down in eager anticipation, and 30 minutes later, got up feeling intensely disappointed and frustrated. A high concept plot about a failed experiment to create a super-soldier, three or four good lines and an intrusive laughter track do not add up to a decent new sitcom. This first production from Ash Atalla's (The Office) new production company was a real disappointment - and Pryce looked embarrassed to be in it.

Jonathan Pryce is renowned as a fine classical actor with a good reasoon: he's a bit rubbish at comedy. This was made all too clear in Clone, a curious hybrid of sci-fi and sitcom which cast Pryce as a scientist whose attempt to create a perfect soldier backfires when instead of a Terminator he ends up with a freaky belly-buttonless nerd who behaves like Frank Spencer.

Much hilarity was obviously supposed to ensue but Pryce's boffin was neither crazed nor cruel enough to divert attention from Adam Chase's misfiring script, which strangely gave its only good gag to Mark Gatiss as a mildly psychotic army officer. When Pryce's perfect creation turned out to be a klutz, he told Pryce: 'Your career is over, it's ancient history - like a dial-up internet connection or pubic hair in porn'. If only the rest of Clone had been so well observed.

When you have people like Jonathan Pryce and Mark Gatiss onboard, you had better make it good, but this was pretty lame. The acting was good and Gatiss really was hamming things brilliant, but everything else was pretty awful. There were some nice touches and ideas, but these didn't carry out. In fact it didn't feel like a sitcom, it felt like a very low-budget film. The plot was so familiar and very filmic too. I just didn't see the point of it really.

The laughter track was annoying and, to be honest, so was pretty much everything else. Now, I'm not saying this is bad as Coming Of Age, but the fact that Clone is getting mentioned in the same sentence as that monstrosity says it all.

The brainchild of Adam Chase, one of the key writers on Friends, Clone is a new comedy series starring Jonathan Pryce as a brilliant scientist who unveils the result of his life's work: the first human clone, intended to be a prototype super-soldier. It soon becomes apparent that this is far from the case - the Clone (played along the lines of Tom Hanks in Big by Stuart McLoughlin) is more likely to hug someone than shoot them. There's no doubt that this is an interesting premise for a comedy, it's just a shame that it has to resort to crude gags, canned laughter and weak slapstick to get laughs. Nice riff around the smoking ban though, and Mark Gatiss is great as an odious Army colonel. Must try harder.

A new six-part sitcom starring Jonathan Pryce as Victor Blenkinsop, a research scientist involved in top-secret government experiments, under the watchful eye of the bonkers Colonel Black (Mark Gatiss). When his latest project, a cloned super-soldier, turns out to be no more intelligent than a new-born baby, Blenkinsop takes the clone and his feckless assistant on the run... Unfortunately, a couple of cute visual gags aside (the secret entrance activation, for example), the whole project is derailed by ridiculous slapstick, a weak script and an intrusive laughter track. At one point, Gatiss' Colonel Black says, You just don't get it, do you? My career is on the line! As Pryce's answer of What about my career? is greeted by Black's laughter, I felt the overwhelming urge to join in...