Morgana Robinson

Whoever decided to commission this series should be fired and never allowed to work in television again. Not since Horne and Corden had the temerity to think that just because they had been on a successful (and massively overrated) sitcom that they could write on their own has a sketch show annoyed me to this degree.

Amazingly, The Morgana Show somehow manages to be lazier and more dim-witted than Horne & Corden. I refuse to label it as a comedy because after half an hour of TV time it didn't raise a single laugh. Not even an acknowledgement smile. I thought the caricatures on The Impressions Show were terrible but that was before The Morgana Show plopped onto the screens. Do we really need another series that relies on hackneyed sketches about Fearne Cotton? And what the hell is the Boris Johnson stuff all about?

I find the whole thing offensive. Not in a politically correct, "you shouldn't be saying those things, it's a bit cruel" kind of way (although that is a valid point) but just imagining the smug crassness of everyone involved in its production and slapping each other on the back thinking that what they are making is in any shape amusing or entertaining. Morgana Robinson is certainly confident in her performances but she's not funny.

Morgana Robinson is the new comedy wunderkind who has gone straight from bit parts in cult shows to her own five part-series. But there's a huge gulf between being funny for 90 seconds in one sketch and holding together a whole 30 minutes. The opening sketch of Bozza as a schoolboy with Tourette syndrome was quite funny - if rather familiar - for about 20 seconds. Dragging it out for a couple of minutes killed it entirely. The rest of the show followed much the same pattern. At her best, Robinson is one of the sharpest and funniest comics around: unfortunately, this show didn't do her any favours.

We must part with our celebration of female- fronted comedy, thanks to The Morgana Show, a witless sketch vehicle for newcomer Morgana Robinson. Why has she got her own show? Is it because her agent is the powerful John Noel, who numbers Russell Brand among his clients? I wonder.

Like the similarly charmless Katy Brand, Robinson's toothless parodies of the likes of Boris Johnson and Cheryl Cole are an apolitical affirmation of the celebrity status quo, not an attack on it. They lack the backbone required for anything other than staggeringly uninspired whimsy.

And when Dom Joly escapes from the jungle, someone should alert him to The Morgana Show's suspiciously familiar bellowing mobile phone businessman. Shameless stuff.

The Morgana Show, Channel 4, review

Ceri Radford reviews the new sketch-based comedy show starring new talent Morgana Robinson, whose impersonations include Cheryl Cole and Fearne Cotton.

The Morgana Show couldn't be more different from Frankie Boyle's show [which was scheduled before it]. Slow-burning, character-based sketches which often didn't go anywhere but were mostly watchable purely because of the performances. Morgana Robinson came to the attention of Channel Four executives after sending in a home-made DVD and was fast-tracked to the cast of the TNT Show before being given her own series.

Many of the sketches featured brilliantly crafted characters, such as has-been Hollywood actress Madolynn, but lacked any funny lines. There's no doubt that Robinson is an excellent character comedienne, and does the best impression of her good friend Fearne Cotton that you are ever going to see, but too many of the sketches felt like nothing more than a showcase for her acting abilities without providing much humour. There were some exceptions, such as a really enjoyable sketch about a couple who run a funeral home.

While it wasn't brilliant, there was enough quality in The Morgana Show to deserve a look at the second episode, which will feature some more characters. Which is probably more than Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights deserves, sadly.

Continuing Tuesday night's sour comedy hour, The Morgana Show is a brand new five-part sketch show that's similarly humorless and prolonged to Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights - although there's a glimmer of potential because its star, Morgana Robinson, is clearly a talented performer and mimic. It's just a shame the writing can't match her. Unusually, Channel 4 commissioned this show after being impressed by Morgana's self-made pilot, without testing the water by showing it as part of the Comedy Lab season, or on late-night E4.

It's great someone had faith in this show, and for someone like Morgana to be rewarded for her proactive nature in getting themselves a TV show made, but that made the disappointment of The Morgana Show itself cut even deeper. I wanted this to be a comedy treasure to discover and spread the word to others, but it turned out to be fool's gold.

It's another character-based sketch show; one with a slight League Of Gentlemen vibe, spliced with sketches you'd expect to see in a darker version of The Fast Show. Indeed, Morgana Robinson reminded me of Caroline Aherne at times, particularly during a sketch where she plays the owner of a funeral parlour married to an oafish husband. Other characters include: Madolynn, a prima donna Hollywood star now in her middle age; a pair of news reporters who trade insults with each other before the cameras roll; and homemade videos featuring a boy called Gilbert, filmed by his long-suffering granddad on a camcorder in the early-'90s. There are also a smattering of celebrity impressions: a good approximation of Cheryl Cole (seen reading an uncouth Dannii Minogue's Tarot cards backstage on The X Factor), Boris Johnson as a bumbling public schoolboy, and a truly uncanny Fearne Cotton (repurposed as a hyperactive daredevil stuntwoman, above-left).

By the end of this first episode, one thing was clear: Morgana Robinson's a talent in need of some good writers. Her Fearne Cotton impression was marvelous, and Gilbert is a convincing character with a lot of reality to him, but practically everything fell flat because it wasn't especially funny (no memorable punchlines or clever twists), and too many characters felt derivative (the monstrous actress cliché, bickering news reporters, etc.)

Call me easily pleased but from the moment I heard the line 'I'm Fearne Cotton and I'm going to break my face into little pieces! Amazing! Ow!' I was on side with The Morgana Show. Some targets are crying out for a good kicking and every so often Morgana Robinson nailed one.

Morgana who? Exactly. When an unknown comedy talent goes straight from obscurity to a headline show it smacks of behind-the-scenes string-pulling. Robinson's has come courtesy of Russell Brand's agent, a regular at the restaurant where she used to work. But there's a sweet old-school showbiz lilt to that story, so we won't hold it against her.

Besides, if she was rubbish it wouldn't work. But while The Morgana Show, which welds together celeb impressions with character skits out of the Little Britain/Catherine Tate mould, is a hit and mish-mash affair, the best bits will make a great best bits clip on YouTube. The daytime TV presenters who mutter 'like each other, like each other' under their breath while bitching their brains out are at the top of my list.

The smart thing is, at the end of the first episode I had no more idea of what Morgana really looks like than I did at the beginning. Which was zero. Two years down the line, when she's been on everything from Mock The Week to Celebrity Juice and we're sick of the sight of her, the thrill will be gone. For now, she gets the benefit of the doubt.

The Morgana Show: why we need more female comedians

Channel 4's new Morgana Robinson-fronted sketch show is funny and cutting - qualities many male-led comedies struggle to achieve.

Characters in Morgana Robinson's new sketch show include a washed-up Hollywood actress, some local news reporters who go overboard with the light-hearted banter ('We like each other!' they boom) and some grunting hicks. It's loud, bold and physical - the sort of show that will probably beat you into submission.

I know what you're thinking: Morgana who? The funny girl isn't a household name, but we expect that to change after Morgana Robinson's debut tonight.

The 28-year-old's impressions made such a big, er, impression on Channel 4 talent spotters that she got her own five-part series without having to do the usual Comedy Showcase pilot first.

Her Fearne Cotton sketch is so spot on you'd be forgiven for thinking the Radio 1 DJ was doing a cameo, and being gorgeous as well as fluent in Geordie makes Cheryl Cole an obvious target.

She does a mean Dannii Minogue too but many of her comic creations - like a faded Hollywood siren - are characters she's created from scratch. And she's just as funny when she's dressed up as a fella. You might have already seen her awkward pre-teen Gilbert on C4's TNT Show and she also does Boris Johnson as a schoolboy. This may be the first you've heard of Morgana - it won't be the last.