Mel Brooks

Jason Manford interview

Jason Manford talks starring in The Producers in Bromley with Louie Spence and getting Mel Brooks' seal of approval.

ITV2's first new sitcom in years, Plebs works on the basis that young single men have always been pathetic and feckless at every single point in history. To prove it, they've taken the dynamic of The Likely Lads and exported it to Ancient Rome, focusing on three men (two plebs and a slave, technically) desperate to get their ends away.

This should rightly set off alarm bells - 'Is ITV2 the kind of place to be attempting nuanced historical comedy?' you might ask. No, of course it's not. Thankfully, Plebs doesn't try. Instantly reminiscent of Mel Brooks's loose adherence to period and historical accuracy (a la Blazing Saddles), characters say words like 'coolio', 'legend' and 'literally' as though they've wandered in from a WKD advert set at a toga party.

Not that this is some kind of charmless lad-fest - this opening double-bill bursts with originality and thankfully doesn't feel the need to make cheap historical gags every ten seconds. Miraculously, it even makes great use of Danny Dyer, who dominates in the second episode as a gladiator.

Way To Go: Writing a highly-charged comedy

Mel Brooks once said - and I'm paraphrasing here - "Cutting your finger is tragedy. But falling down a manhole and dying... now that's comedy." He's right. Heightened situations of hopeless desperation are far funnier than tiny, subtle moments of pain.

You want this fantasy spoof to succeed, you really do. The cast is good: Matt Lucas can be funny, India de Beaufort is beautiful and the rest of them have some solid work behind them. And the good news is that it mostly hits the target. The bad news is that it mostly aims for late-period Mel Brooks. The strokes are broader than Mr Tickle's breaststroke.