Matt Lucas

You may think that rock and roll musicians in particular are in no need of being satirised, as they do the job pretty well themselves. Well, that doesn't mean they aren't ripe for a bit of a ribbing. Matt Lucas, himself no stranger to making the michael out of rock gods with David Walliams in Rock Profile on BBC2, hosts this chronological countdown of the best of the mickey-takers.

Step forward Neil Innes with his tales of Rutlemania; Harry Shearer, who turns the amp all the way up to 11 with Spinal Tap (surely the definite send-up/homage) and the Hee Bee Gee Bees... remember Meaningless Songs (in Very High Voices)? They had Angus Deayton among their number but got Richard Curtis to write the lyrics. Not bad.

Quite why Stella Street is here is a bit of a mystery to me - just because Phil Cornwell and John Sessions get to practise their Mick and Keef voices doesn't make it satire.

Plenty of great music, a few lightly tossed anecdotes and - voila! - an hour of high-quality entertainment.

Thumb up or thumb down? I'm going to be really courageous and go with a... thumb sideways.

There's definitely some funny stuff here, but not nearly enough; also, some first-rate comic actors, too, like Matt Lucas (Little Britain USA) and Sean Maguire - he's Krod - is good here too. It's a nearly-all-Brit cast, and as you know, the Brits do genre satire better 'n anyone else in the solar system... the holy grail being Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

As mentioned, Matt Lucas as the evil Chancellor Dongalor is the standout; also good, Philly comic Kevin Hart as hapless magician Zezelryck.

But the series needs to be funnier, much funnier. Maybe in time...

Shooting Stars 'back in autumn'

Surreal comedy quiz show Shooting Stars will return to the BBC this autumn, according to its stars Vic Reeves and Matt Lucas.

Reeves, 50 - real name Jim Moir - told the Daily Express the show would return with Ulrika Jonsson and Jack Dee as team hosts.

Iranu indeed: Shooting Stars is back

Reeves and Mortimer's anarchic game show Shooting Stars is to return for a full series on BBC2 following a one-off special last Christmas.

Vic and Bob will be reunited with the team captains from the Christmas special, Ulrika Johnson and newcomer Jack Dee, for the 6 x 30-minute series. Matt Lucas is also onboard as drumming man-baby George Dawes.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer first hosted their anarchic celebrity quiz show in 1993. The first of two programmes marking the show's 15th anniversary tonight is a documentary about the making of it - and, like Shooting Stars itself, the film is funny, eccentric and a little self-indulgent. Interspersed with interviews with some of the celebrities who found themselves subjected to Reeves' and Mortimer's particular kind of comedy (which veered from the surreal to the mildly offensive), the presenters themselves play various crew members reminiscing about their time working behind the scenes. This is a suitably unique way to contemplate a programme which Martine McCutcheon calls 'bizarre' and of which Larry Hagman said, "I've done some loony shows in my time but this is certainly the one."

Shooting Stars launched the career of Matt Lucas - who played scorekeeper George Dawes before he went on to global fame with David Walliams in Little Britain - and latterly also co-starred the often self-confessedly drunken comic Johnny Vegas.

Little Britain USA Episode 2 Review

David Walliams and Matt Lucas are stuck in a comedy rut trying to shock desensitized teens and twentysomethings. The excuse here is that they're just introducing old characters to fresh-eyed Americans, so they have every right to recycle. So, for British audiences tuning into this unofficial 'fourth series', it's all very flat, repetitive and brainless.

Little Britain USA Review

You spend quite a lot of the time analysing what Matt Lucas and David Walliams have changed in their bid to crack America - and why. (Happily, the urinating old woman seems to have gone, along with the vomiting one.) You spend much of the rest wondering what on earth its target audience will make of it.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams certainly can't be accused of buttering up to American audiences in Little Britain USA, which begins with Tom Baker grandly informing HBO's viewers that we let you win the War of Independence because you threatened to cry if we didn't. They're not going to be accused of overdoing it with new material either. There are some fresh characters here, including a redneck sheriff who gets an erection as he displays weapons to his deputies, and a former astronaut who can't get over the fact that he was the eighth man on the moon and not the first. But mostly they've simply transferred the British regulars Stateside, and not worried much about the plausibility of the move. Quite how Marjorie Dawes comes to be conducting an American weight-loss class isn't clear, though it has to be said that imagining American sensibilities coming in contact with her rasping lack of tact adds a novel twist to the basic gag. Rosie O'Donnell sportingly takes a cameo, which allows two pieties to be outraged at once: Are you fat because you're a lesbian, she was asked by Marjorie, Or are you a lesbian because you're fat?

The show would be a lot easier to like if you had the sense that such calculated shocks were serving something other than mere shock itself.

Jim Shelley Review

It's the last sketch of Little Britain USA and Bubbles de Vere displays the kind of sharp observation totally lacking in the 'comedy' up until then. I think it's very important to know when to stop, Bubbles confesses, having gambled - and lost - her dress, wig, and ruby-encrusted 'panties' on the roulette table.

I only wish Bubbles had thrown her ludicrous fat suit into the pot, too. With the losing streak David Walliams and Matt Lucas were on, that would have been the end of her, guaranteed.

Little Britain USA Review

Has Little Britain become too much of a monster? Whether it has or not, it's impossible to deny that Matt Lucas and David Walliams have pulled off a sensational achievement. The first episode of Little Britain USA featured content that was every bit as good as the home-grown version and for that alone Lucas and Williams should be congratulated, applauded and showered with medals.