Mathew Baynton

Mid-year review: The Wrong Mans

I didn't expect to be enjoying The Wrong Mans as much as I am, but it's doing something incredibly well: the thriller aspect is effective, while the humour is present without overshadowing the drama. It's a very difficult balance to get right, but writers James Corden and Mathew Baynton have managed it.

I'm not sure who Jim is in The Wrong Mans (BBC Two). But he phones Mr Stevens just at the right time. Or the wrong time, depending on how you see things and how you see James Corden in particular. You see, Mr Stevens, whose wife has been kidnapped by Mr Lau, has Corden's character Phil in a car crusher. It exerts 150 tonnes of pressure and can crush a car in 45 seconds, so it's not going to have much trouble with Phil, Mr Stevens tells him.

I think it's another film spoof. Goldfinger, Kick-Ass, Superman III, Pulp Fiction again? All of the above possibly. I know there's Hitchcock in there but I haven't been spotting all the film references in The Wrong Mans.

Go on then, Mr Stevens, let's see it, please! There are some - me included - who think that James Corden would be much improved by being subjected to 150 tonnes of pressure and crushed into a more compact cube-shaped version of James Corden. Where's his head? Oh, I see, round there, ha, yes I think that works.

No, I'm not being fattest, I'm being guffest. Meaning I'd like to see the guff, the hot air, all the shouting and laddishness, maybe the contents of his colon too, squeezed out of him. And if that makes him smaller, and cuboid, and therefore more easily stored away somewhere, then so much the better. I'm not a massive fan, can you tell? But then this bloody Jim rings, and Mr Stevens changes his mind about crushing Phil.

I'm not a massive fan of The Wrong Mans either. As I mentioned the other day, I suspect that Corden and Mathew Baynton are more performers than writers. This feels like they've sat down together, chuckling at everything and chucking everything at it - their favourite movies, a bag of poo, an awful lot of themselves, obviously. They've had a brilliant time making it ... yup, that's it, self-indulgence; I think they're having a much better time than I'm having, and I'm not sure that's how TV should be. Even though the BBC has clearly thrown a whole lot of money at it it, because these are big comedy stars and they've got some famous guests coming on too, it still doesn't work, because it's not smart enough in the first place. A comedy thriller that's too silly to be thrilling and not funny enough to be funny.

Oddly, I seem to be a little bit on my own here, and everyone else thinks it's brilliant. Yeah, well, everyone else is an idiot too then.

A town planner's view of The Wrong Mans

James Corden and Mathew Baynton's new comedy of council staff engulfed by a sinister plot gets some things spot-on - but planners are more fun in real life, says Derek Carnegie.

I'm holding out hope for BBC One's The Wrong Mans. Mathew Baynton from CBBC's Horrible Histories plays Sam Pinkett, an employee of Berkshire County Council who gets mixed up in a thriller plot-line entirely at odds with his mundane existence to date. Gavin & Stacey's James Corden (who also co-wrote the script with Baynton) plays his colleague Phil Bourne, a man who makes up in enthusiasm what he lacks in common sense.

Wisely judging that the Hitchcock reference will go over our heads, this first episode of six spent much of its time in setting tone. Thanks to slick direction and, one suspects, a large chunk of the BBC's autumn budget, it certainly looks as good as a Hollywood thriller.

It's only a shame that the combination of ordinary blokes and extraordinary setting won't feel original to anyone who's seen Shaun of the Dead or any other Simon Pegg/Nick Frost collaboration. Unlike Pegg/Frost, Baynton/Corden isn't yet a natural double act with natural chemistry. Instead, they came across like the straight man(s) in search of a comedian.

Still, if Baynton and Corden don't do it for you, we're promised forthcoming episodes will include a supporting cast of contemporary comedy talent to compensate. There's Him & Her's Sarah Solemani, The Thick of It's Paul Higgins and Dawn French, among others. As the trail for next week's episode revealed, Lock Stock's Nick Moran will also be stomping around doing his well-worn cockney gangster bit. But don't let that put you off.

Laughter, a doctor once said, is the best medicine. This week's opening episodes of two new sitcoms should only be prescribed by a Crippen-like physician, such was the dearth of merriment among them.

In its defence, The Wrong Mans is essentially more comedy-drama than straight sitcom. It's saved from being yet another James Corden vanity project (I'm not a fan of his, let's get that out of the way) by being co-written by and co-starring Mathew Baynton, who appeared in Gavin & Stacey but is also part of the marvellous Horrible Histories cast.

Baynton's character Sam is a meek council worker who witnesses a car crash, and after answering a mobile phone at the scene he's plunged into a world of intrigue and kidnapping. Rather than go to the police with any evidence he's got, he's persuaded by office mailman friend Phil (Corden) to keep in touch with the kidnappers and rescue the mystery lady in trouble.

And this turn of events is the main problem - Sam would have gone to the police, and would have ignored any stupid 'advice' from his frankly stupid friend. The opener didn't know if it wanted to play it for laughs (there was some slapstick involving a hospital bed and an anaesthetic) or veer off into crime thriller territory (the episode ended with the pair of them blindfolded and bundled into a van themselves).

The programme therefore fell between the two, and was neither funny or tense enough. Having said that, pilots can be tough so it warrants a second look, mainly because of a strong performance from Baynton and a decent supporting cast including Tom Basden and Sarah Solemani.

Cheeky chappy James Corden sticks to type but nevertheless tickles with former Gavin & Stacey co-star Mathew Baynton in this fun comedy-thriller about two office drones embroiled in a case of mistaken identity. After answering a lost mobile phone, Sam (Baynton), a figure cut closer to a Quentin Blake illustration than an Iron Man-style superhero, is burdened with the company of eager beaver colleague Phil (Corden) when he goes to the rescue of a hostage.

The evolving bromance has a familiar flavour, but it's by steering clear of complete spoofery that The Wrong Mans finds its surprisingly comfortable stride, somewhere between gags and action. The success of films like Kick-Ass suggests we're a public with a soft spot for have-a-go heroes, making Corden and Baynton's offering well gauged. It's the television equivalent of jelly: not particularly sophisticated, but a pleasant treat all the same.

Famous faces (David Harewood, Dougray Scott) are underutilised, sliding past the camera as if on a conveyor belt peopled by Corden's celebrity pals. Luckily, Baynton's impressive comic dexterity covers everything from deadpan to daft, tempering Corden's potentially dominating presence and making for a balanced double act.

James Corden and Mathew Baynton write and star in this new sitcom as Phil and Sam, two friends whose dull existences are complicated by the discovery of a strange mobile phone and an associated gangland hostage situation. These wrong men live in a weird grey twilight with a Belle & Sebastian soundtrack: stylish, but potentially at the expense of much actual comic substance. Corden is on top form with an uber-pathetic variation on his usual shtick, though, while the always brilliant Tom Basden plays the guys' nasty colleague.

James Corden's new six-part comedy caper is assured of a better reception than his last TV outing with the very iffy sketch show Horne & Corden. Maybe because he's got a new comedy writing partner and co-star in Mathew Baynton, of Horrible ­Histories, who played Deano in Gavin & Stacey. So this could well be a case of the wrong man(s), but the right Mat.

This is a hugely ­confident, well-plotted and hilarious new series. Imagine 24 written as a sitcom with Corden taking on the Kiefer ­Sutherland role.

The pair star as workers at Berkshire County Council whose lives are turned upside down when Sam (Baynton) witnesses a ­car crash - the first of many action- packed stunts that set this apart from the comedy run of the mill.

He finds a mobile phone at the crash scene and is drawn into a dangerous kidnapping conspiracy populated by real villains. Mail room boy Phil (Corden) is busting a gut to get involved.

Several years in the planning, the pair have worked all the angles and the action scenes are as convincing as the comedy.

The snow in the opening scene probably wasn't scripted but it gives it a wonderfully cinematic look, while the casting of David Harewood (long before he became a big star in Homeland) is another happy accident.

And just like 24, each episode ends with a massive cliff-hanger moment, guaranteeing you'll be back for more.

Love him or hate him, James Corden undeniably does have a range of talents - actor, writer and co-creator of some very funny comedy (we'll politely forget the car crash of his misguided BBC sketch show with Mathew Horne). And now, dontchaknow, he's come up with another comedy vehicle, The Wrong Mans (****), which had a very accomplished debut last night.

Corden, late of the National Theatre and Broadway, has co-written, with fellow Gavin & Stacey alumnus Mathew Baynton, a comedy thriller in the style of Simon Pegg and Joe Wright's Cornetto trilogy, with appreciative nods (in the title) to Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller and, in camerawork and misfit leads, to Peep Show.

Baynton is nice but weedy Sam, who wakes up one wintry morning with the mother of a hangover, only to find his pushbike has been stolen so he has to walk to work, as a town planning and noise guidance adviser for Berkshire County Council. On his way, he's the only witness to a car crash and he picks up a ringing phone; a man issues threats and in later calls it's clear a woman has been kidnapped.

At work Sam takes postboy Phil (Corden) into his confidence. Phil is beside himself; he's a 31-year-old living at home with his mum and he keeps trying to organise fun days paint-balling or bowling with his colleagues (oblivious to the fact they all think he's a boring knob); for him, this mystery is his very own live-action Grand Theft Auto, and he convinces Sam not to call the police but to try to rescue the woman and become heroes.

The opening episode efficiently essayed the set-up, and there are some promising relationships to be explored in the following five weeks. Sarah Solemani (who was so brilliant in Him & Her) is Sam's boss, but also the girlfriend who recently dumped him because he was too needy, while Tom Basden is the horrible colleague we'd love to be taken down a peg or two.

Corden clearly has pulling power, as those names above suggest, and Dawn French, Nick Moran, Rebecca Front and Dougray Scott will appear in future episodes - although David Harewood, who appeared briefly last night, shot his scenes before his Homeland stardom. The opener had some neat twists and turns and ended on a great cliffhanger. Definitely one to stay with.

Video: James Corden and Mathew Baynton interview

James Corden and Mathew Baynton revealed to Digital Spy that big-budget US hits such as 24, Lost and Heroes were the inspiration for the series.