Matt Lucas

Matt Lucas's show is 'rude-free'... as his mum is on it

Matt Lucas has been forced to clean up his act - so he can work with his mum.

Tonight's TV pick: The Matt Lucas Awards

Matt Lucas says he was in the mood to do something "a bit less rude" than his cavorting with Walliams, and it's certainly that.

Which is the smuggest nation on Earth?

It's not me asking that question - well, it is, but not originally - but the host of a new show called The Matt Lucas Awards (BBC1, 10.35pm).

That host, though you may find this hard to believe, is Little Britain's Matt Lucas, who originally did a similar programme on Radio 2.

Each week he's joined by three guests - tonight it's Jason Manford, Graham Garden and German stand-up comic Henning Wehn - to debate the sort of award nominations which for obvious reasons don't get a look-in elsewhere.

Others under consideration include the most dreadful football song ever sung.

Matt Lucas's solo project, minus his comedy partner David Walliams, is the flip side to Room 101. Instead of nominating the worst things in various categories, his guests each week will be nominating the best - although sometimes, as tonight, they're giving awards to the worst too.

This show started life on radio in 2009 called And the Winner Is. They recorded an unbroadcast pilot last year which was staged to look like a glitzy award ceremony, but that felt too formal, and so they've taken the show in completely the other direction and it's now shot in a studio masquerading as Matt's front room. His mother's in it too, and it really is his mum - not just Matt in a wig.

It's a fun concept that ought to work - and it also deserves a Matt Lucas Award of its own for the Best Title Song For A Comedy Panel Show as well as Most Overqualified House Band. David Arnold, who's seated at the piano, didn't just write the theme tune for Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, he's most famous as the composer of the last five James Bonds.

The trouble in this first episode is the lack of chemistry between the guests. Jason Manford is a safe pair of hands on any panel show and Graeme Garden tries hard, but Henning Wehn - the self-styled German Ambassador for Comedy - is a bit of an acquired taste, and from the stony expression on Jason Manford's face, he doesn't get the joke either.

While his partner in catchphrase comedy David Walliams has been busy with headline-grabbing, charitable sporting heroics and judging Britain's Got Talent, Matt Lucas has been developing this panel show that's such an easy win of an idea, it's a wonder nobody's thought of it before. Based on Lucas's radio show And the Winner Is..., the format is a low-key awards ceremony for a diverse array of unsung topics - from "dullest pastime" to "least likely to have actually occurred Bible story".

Each week, three celebrity guests will suggest nominees for various suitably wacky categories and then fight it out with Lucas to prove their case. First up, comedy types Jason Manford, Henning Wehn and Graeme Garden debate subjects such as "dreadfullest football song ever sung" and "smuggest nation of people" (that one's between the Swedes, the Chinese and the English, they reckon). Covering topics we can all muster up an opinion on, it's essentially a more celebratory Room 101. A fun enough watch, if you can stomach the self-indulgent theme tune featuring a cartoon Lucas singing about being "that man from those other shows you like".

Audio: Matt Lucas goes solo in new show

Comedian Matt Lucas returns to BBC1 with his new show The Matt Lucas Awards.

Based on his BBC Radio 2 series And The Winner Is... he will give out the prizes that others do not, such as Smuggest Nation of People and Most More-ish Food.

Mr Lucas told BBC Radio 5 Live's Richard Bacon how the nominations are submitted by celebrities each week.

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David Baddiel's comedy about a Muslim man (played by charismatic comic Omid Djalili) who discovers he is Jewish and embarks on a quest that leads him into an unlikely friendship with a Jewish taxi driver (Richard Schiff). With cameos from the likes of Matt Lucas, Tracy-Anne Oberman and David Schneider, it's mildly amusing fare.

Matt Lucas recruits mum for new panel show

Funnyman Matt Lucas is best known for creating and writing Little Britain with David Walliams, but now he's teaming up with his mother Diana for his latest project, The Matt Lucas Awards.