Mathew Baynton

The final part of Mathew Baynton and James Corden's action-movie-spoof-com begins with the fugitive pair backed into a corner, an unlikely Hollywood plot device their only hope of escape. But escape they do, just as they grasp that the (not entirely intelligible) plot they're caught up in is linked to Berkshire Country Council, the boys' hitherto dullsville workplace. The friction between comedy and thriller has produced sparks of brilliance in this series, mainly in the magnificent incongruity of Corden's lovable loser Phil.

Have you been watching ... The Wrong Mans?

Will James Corden and Mathew Baynton survive their wickedly funny crime caper involving Russian gangsters, MI5 and the Berkshire town planning office?

Today's fan poll: if you had to choose between James Corden and Mathew Baynton being mistaken for a rent boy and forced to perform a boy dance for the pleasure of drunken Russian gangsters, who would you plump for?

Right answer. It was Baynton's Sam, the little of this little and large combo, who lost a last remaining shred of dignity as The Wrong Mans (BBC Two) cranked up the thrilling element of its comedy-thriller plot.

It was just one memorable moment in an episode that also involved Corden getting mugged by an airbag. Visual comedy doesn't often do it for me but The Wrong Mans gets it spot on.

Described memorably as 'a scrawny hobbit and a male Clare Balding' - now you come to mention it - Baynton and Corden have fast developed into a winning double act, the latter resisting the temptation and letting Baynton's befuddled straight man set the tone. Thus far, The Wrong Mans is getting it totally right.

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.

Highly enjoyable, The Wrong Mans (BBC Two) is also highly recognisable, as if it had been designed to fulfil all the requirements of British screen comedy.

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.

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.