Morgana Robinson

Grace Dent on televsion: Very Important People, C4

I'm rather obsessed with Very Important People, the latest work from Morgana Robinson, Terry Mynott and Matt Morgan. I just love this show; the mimics are good and the material strong.

The showpiece of Channel 4's new Friday night comedy line-up is a brand new impressions show.

Morgana Robinson appears with one of her co-stars from The Morgana Show, Terry Mynott - a comedy actor so unfamous he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page yet.

But he absolutely steals this first episode with his spot-on take of the BBC's favourite groovy scientist Professor Brian Cox, posing in front of areas of natural beauty wearing high street brands.

It's the voice that makes it so funny - and it's a parody that's cutting but sweetly affectionate too.

I doubt though that Bear Grylls will be as pleased with the job they've done on him as he tries to survive in the suburbs.

Mynott's take on David Attenborough explaining the lifestyle of Frankie Boyle is another zinger.

Behind the rubber masks, it can be hard to tell who's doing who.

Morgana impersonates men too. Her Russell Brand isn't a patch on her Natalie Cassidy, though.

You can't help being trepidatious about this new impressions show. It's focused on the trashier end of celebrity, it stars Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, who received mixed reviews for The Morgana Show, and the fact that it's a new impressions show is worrying in itself.

Much of Very Important People is indeed cheap and derivative, leaning heavily on gaps filled with swearing and, in the case of doing Brian Cox as a preening fop, jokes that were dead and gone 12 months ago. But I must admit that Robinson's takes on Frankie Boyle, Danny Dyer and Natalie Cassidy had me spluttering merrily.

As Mitchell & Webb once pointed out, it's in the nature of the sketch show to be patchy. And this new C4 offering combining sketches with impressions maintains that archetype. Starring Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, Very Important People mostly trains its sights on the banalities of celebrity culture. It's a risky strategy; these are the softest of targets - is it necessary to take the piss out of Amy Childs and Joe Swash when they're already giving it away by the bucketload? Still, VIP does hit the mark often enough to suggest that these are talented performers, even if their material needs to challenge them more. Brian Cox is good-naturedly skewered for his vanity - gazing at stars, boasting about his jacket and bullying his hapless cameraman along the way. And the sketch in which Frankie Boyle is observed in his natural habitat (the book signing, searching for news of murdered children on the internet) by David Attenborough at least has the advantage of feeling like a hunt for some bigger game. Far from perfect, but worth keeping an eye on.

In the 70s, audiences laughed in appreciative recognition as Mike Yarwood impersonated a range of public characters, even including trade union leaders. With latterday cultural fragmentation and the thin spread of increasingly nondescript "celebrities", the job of an impressions show such as this, starring Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, becomes all the harder. It is telling that they often have to announce who it is they're doing. Still, this is as capable as could be expected; in the first episode, Bear Grylls tries out his survival skills in the suburbs, while David Attenborough studies at close hand the remarkable animal that is Frankie Boyle.

From Spitting Image to Dead Ringers, satirising powerful public figures through mischievous impressions has been a popular shtick among British comedians. But Channel 4's new sardonically named sketch show, led by able newcomers Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, subverts the familiar blueprint. Like Bo Selecta's less surreal cousin, it opts to target C to Z-listers - products of ITV2 celebrity filler, the blogosphere and reality TV.

By design, this is a dangerous game, often relying on an audience obsessed with the kind of inane "celebrity" culture it seeks to send up. So while it's just about possible to relate to a sketch involving ex-EastEnder Natalie Cassidy in a faux reality show called I'm Doing This Now - "just hosing down the bins, really" - a mocked-up musical with Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon falls flat.

Ultimately, it's the humour involving better-known subjects - including uncanny impersonations of Gordon Ramsay and David Attenborough - which keeps Very Important People afloat. It's a brave experiment, taking a deserved swipe at vacuous popular culture norms. But will people see the funny side?

VIP asked for autographs while dressed as Frankie Boyle

Mimic Morgana Robinson has revealed how she was manhandled by fans - who refused to believe she wasn't a bloke.

Spitting image for the 21st Century!

Morgana Robinson, a waitress-turned-actress does a very convincing impression of Adele for a 21st-century version of the Eighties satire show Spitting Image.

Hands up anyone who's heard of Morgana Robinson. Despite her near invisibility on the comedy radar, Channel 4 has obviously decided Morgana is The Next Big Thing and commissioned an entire series based on... what, exactly?

Judging by the first episode, the answer would appear to be her ability to match Frankie Boyle in the use of the f-word, and her passable imitations of Fearne Cotton and Cheryl Cole. Sadly her own characters are little more than lazy, one-dimensional stereotypes that merely limp off the page.

Robinson's most "famous" creation, 14-year-old Gilbert the uber-nerd who's attempting to make a video diary with the help of his granddad, has apparently already garnered a following on YouTube. Despite the standard-issue geek clothes and inch-thick lenses, however, Gilbert barely passes for 17, never mind 14. Robinson also takes whining teenspeak to such a level that the dialogue is basically indecipherable.

Some sketches, like the bickering TV reporters, are mercifully short. Others, most notably Madolynn the past-it Hollywood starlet making a complete fool of herself in a restaurant, drag on interminably. Vicious drunks are not funny, particularly with lines like "This toe was caressed by Martin Scorsuzu". Even less tasteful is an attempt by her husband Norman to excuse her behaviour. As she topples off her chair, taking the tablecloth and crockery with her, he turns to their mortified companions and mutters "She has Asperger's". Boyle would have been proud.

Equally unlikeable are Joyce and Barry Dickens, funeral directors from Chumley, Yorkshire. Barry is a mine of useless information who never shuts up, much to the annoyance of acid-tongued wife Joyce, who never misses an opportunity to tell him what an absolute cretin he is. "You know the Aztecs used to burn stupid people, Barry". And what could be more hilarious that watching the two of them get all lovey dovey during a memorial service while the poor unfortunate corpse has his legs sticking out because Barry is too much of a dozy git to pick the right size of coffin.

The annoying commuter on a train who shrieks into his mobile the entire journey, a couple of senile Chelsea Pensioners who appear to have wandered in from a Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse sketch, Lady Gaga attempting to steer a riding mower in some kind of bizarre headgear - on it goes, all accompanied by the obligatory canned laughter. Heaven knows if it was performed in front of a live audience the silence would have been deafening.

Robinson's talents obviously lie in impersonation rather than straight acting - the highlight, such as it was, of the first programme was a 12-year-old Boris Johnson attempting to win a prep school debate by running roughshod over the opposing team. But alas she is no Catherine Tate - the lack of memorable characters does nothing but drag the show down.

If The Morgana Show had started out as a one-off pilot, and Robinson and co-creator James De Frond had been given a chance to fine-tune the sketches over time, the show might have evolved into something passable. But dumping her in at the deep end with a whole series to fill just highlights the weakness of the material. Back to the drawing board on this one.