Press clippings Page 26
The writing may not reach the heights of Little Britain at its best (what does?) but Come Fly With Me has enjoyable moments. Matt Lucas's way with a reaction shot is always a joy. There's a good sketch involving a couple complaining about their experience on FlyLo's new cruise service, where David Walliams plays an overbearing wife, but Lucas's worn-down husband is the real star. Similarly when we re-enter the tense world of Simon and Jackie Trent (Britain's first husband-and-wife pilot team), it's Lucas who shines as penitent Simon. Plus cheapskate airline owner Omar shows off his idea of a flat bed seat and hopeless immigration officer Ian Foot gets a geography lesson.
David Butcher, Radio Times, 1st January 2011Come Fly With Me is tasteless comedy
The latest comedy series on BBC1 by David Walliams and Matt Lucas is not racist, but it is full of crude racial stereotypes.
Balaji Ravichandran, The Guardian, 28th December 2010Viewers protest at Lucas and Walliams's 'minstrel show'
Thousands of viewers have complained that the Christmas Day show by comedy duo Matt Lucas and David Walliams on BBC1 was racist.
Simon Cable, Daily Mail, 28th December 2010Come Fly with Me, a spoof documentary series from Matt Lucas and David Walliams, was a little unlucky in its timing, following a week or so in which the only airport stories that mattered were about cancellations and flight delays. Quite a few of its potential viewers must have felt sick at the thought of even looking at a terminal building. It needed some luck too, because although it had some good characters there's a coarseness to much of the comedy that matches the unconvincing prosthetic work. Perhaps it's all meant to be cartoonish and obvious, and I'm guessing that Little Britain fans will have a good time. But with all the blacking-up and dragging-up and camping-it-up it sometimes felt as if it had been resuscitated from the Seventies without any modernisation work. Dick Emery would have loved it.
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 27th December 2010Little Britain special to be made for Royal Wedding?
Little Britain stars Matt Lucasand David Walliams are to bring back their hit comedy sketch show for a one-off, themed around the April nuptials.
The Sun, 27th December 2010It was funny that Matt Lucas and David Walliams's much-heralded airport-based mockumentary, Come Fly With Me, crowned a week when Heathrow was full of people not flying with anyone. But was anything else funny? The two of them are terrific mimics, and their array of characters is vast and all are well played. And it had its broad moments of hilarity - I liked the Japanese schoolgirls waiting for Martin Clunes and the security officer cupping the genitals of male passengers. But too much of the material was thin, too many of the sketches overworked and the punchlines too obvious. At this time of year one hopes for ho, ho, ho, but I came away thinking no, no, no.
Phil Hogan, The Observer, 26th December 2010Come Fly With Me most watched comedy of 2010
Over 10 million people watched the debut of Matt Lucas and David Walliams' new comedy show Come Fly With Me on Christmas Day.
British Comedy Guide, 26th December 2010I met Ronnie Corbett once. It was during my time as a gossip columnist on this paper. I spotted him at a party and, somewhat starstruck, decided to approach and introduce myself. He was all right, I suppose, though not terribly polite. He didn't, he sniffed, read The Independent. More of a Telegraph man (must be the jokes). Anyway, he's 80 now, and BBC2 has devoted a few hours of scheduling to the occasion. First up was a rerun of The Two Ronnies Christmas Special from 1984, and then Being Ronnie Corbett, a fawning programme of dedications. We got Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Michael Palin, Miranda Hart, Rob Brydon, Stephen Merchant, and Bill Bailey. Even Bruce Forsyth put in an appearance. They all heaped praise on him, and deservedly so. After all, it wasn't them he was rude to at a party, was it? And he's jolly funny, or used to be, back in the day. Repeated clips of The Frost Report and The Two Ronnies were testimony to that. His more recent stuff, less so. That Extras sketch is great, of course - "a bit of whiz, you know? To blow away the cobwebs" - but, really, Ronnie, Little Britain? "I was just grateful to be included," was his explanation. And, to be honest, I believe him. This is a man whose raison d'ĂȘtre has been making people laugh; of course, he wants to keep up with the times. Why else would he agree to cuddle a half-naked Lucas in the least funny show on television?
Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent, 24th December 2010Charming and entertaining documentary Being Ronnie Corbett pays homage to the nation's favourite vertically challenged comedian.
Ronnie celebrated his 80th birthday at the start of this month, and he is in sparkling form here as he looks back on his career spanning half a century.
It goes from his early days feeling up Danny La Rue's boobs during West End cabaret shows, to his snorting cocaine off a toilet seat in Extras, via his famous chair where he delivered his signature shaggy dog stories.
Fellow comedians including the likes of Rob Brydon, Matt Lucas, David Walliams and Catherine Tate queue up to give him a not insubstantial verbal pat on the back.
Jane Simon, The Mirror, 23rd December 2010Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams return in this mockumentary about an airport. New caricatures include bickering husband-and-wife pilots, gossipy check-in girls, a paparazzi photographer and the owner of a budget airline. With near-the-knuckle humour, cross-dressing and "blacking up", be warned it won't be to everyone's taste.
The Telegraph, 23rd December 2010