Matt Berry

Will Toast of London be more than just a one-man show?

From Ricky Gervais to Matt Berry, more comedians are writing and appearing in their own sitcoms, but the test is whether these shows can develop beyond mere character sketches.

Those familiar with Graham Linehan's hyperactive Twitter presence will be unsurprised by some of the subjects tackled in this the hour-long finale of his geeky, live audience sitcom: embarrassing viral videos, anonymous hacktivists, the NSA. It's a testament to his fine plotting skills and mastery of tone that such dark fare is seamlessly woven into the shows usual cartoonish set pieces and Seinfeldian verbal tics ('small-person racist', 'emotionally artistic').

Along the way, our hapless trio of Moss (Richard Ayoade, whose new film The Double features original Reynholm Industries head honcho Chris Morris, fact fans), Roy (Chris O'Dowd, fresh from BBC2's Family Tree) and Jen (Katherine Parkinson, thankfully less shrill than in previous series) do battle with tiny baristas, pepper spray, women's slacks and, er, a van with breasts.

Naturally there are plenty of laughs to be had, especially from Matt Berry, on gloriously silly form as lunatic boss Douglas Reynholm.

But it drags in places and the same old problem remains: the main characters elicit no warmth. As a result, when the IT Crowd depart their basement lair for the last time this viewer was left feeling strangely unmoved. Adios then, nerdlingers: gone neither with a big bang nor a whimper.

Radio Times review

The synthy title music buzzes us in for a last, joyous visit to the basement of Reynholm Industries. Since the last series in 2010, Chris O'Dowd has gone A-list in Hollywood and Richard Ayoade's film-directing debut (Submarine) won him a Bafta nomination. But for some of us they'll always be Roy and Moss, socially inept IT engineers saddled with a vague, desperate manager (Katherine Parkinson) whose talent for making things spiral into wrongness rivals their own.

For this extended, goodbye special, it's business as usual. Playboy company boss Douglas (Matt Berry) is thinking of appearing on The Secret Millionaire, Roy is struggling to keep a new girlfriend ("She said that emotionally I'm on the artistic spectrum..."), and he and Jen are caught on a viral video that upsets the internet. "We p****d off the internet, Jen!" wails Roy. The internet is coming to get us!"

Inside Matt Berry's world

The actor and writer Matt Berry talks about humour, taxidermy, and teaching himself to play the organ.

A mere pilot episode, but in our list because this was the show that finally harnessed and distilled the animal comic talent of Matt Berry. Previously best known as the mad boss from The IT Crowd (where Graham Linehan wrote his lines - here they were co-written by Father Ted's other creator, Arthur Mathews), now he was fruity actor Steven Toast. Toast's humiliations included auditioning for the part of a gay, corrupt detective in a prison visiting room (because the director had been sent down for making racist remarks on his previous job) and a howlingly funny scene where a voiceover job forced Toast to spend the whole afternoon saying one word over and over. Would Toast of London make a hit series? "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeeee-eeeees. YES! Yes. Yes."

Writers' Guild Awards 2012 shortlists

Best Radio Comedy: I, Regress - Matt Berry; Another Case of Milton Jones - Milton Jones, James Cary; In and Out of the Kitchen - Miles Jupp. Best TV Comedy: Holy Flying Circus - Tony Roche; PhoneShop - Phil Bowker, Jon MacQueen; Grandma's House - Simon Amstell, Dan Swimer.

A Day in the Life of a Videogame Scriptwriter

One writer whose stock is pretty high right now is Dean Wilkinson, responsible for the wonderful instructional dialogue spoken by Stephen Fry in LittleBigPlanet and more recently the pen behind the words of Matt Berry's Don Keystone in the forthcoming Worms: Revolution.

Toast of London review

There were some good moments, don't get me wrong (Matt Berry's camp voice and his repeated shouting of "Yes!" when doing a voice-over did make me laugh) but they were few and far between.

Proving that Channel 4's "funny fortnight" doesn't just consist of two year old footage of Peter Kay, the channel have bagged acclaimed writer Arthur Mathews, a contributor to Father Ted and writing partner of the brilliant Graham Linehan for this one-off. Toast Of London charts a day in the life of Steve Toast - played by Matt Berry - a recently divorced actor who embarks on a controversial West End play. So controversial, in fact, that the producer is in imprison for racial chanting, leading Toast to rehearse the part of a corrupt gay detective in a prison meeting room - a suitably hysterical scene helped by the superb Geoffrey McGivern. Let's just hope for a series in 2013...