Noel Fielding

Audio: Fielding on the undiluted madness of new series

Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding has said he lost himself while filming his new series.

He told Radio 5 Live's Richard Bacon that the 54 characters he played erased his memory of who he was, but that he wanted to expose the viewer to the "undiluted madness".

Luxury Comedy has been commissioned for a second series.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, review

The Boosh performer's latest TV effort abounds in surrealism but lacks coherence... and jokes.

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Noel Fielding: The new face of surrealism

Noel Fielding's new solo show may be the most surreal thing ever seen on TV. He reveals all to his old friend and ShortList columnist Danny Wallace...

Noel Fielding's new sketch show has been publicised widely - there's not a bus shelter in my hometown of Stockton without a poster of Fielding in some bizarre costume.

When you watch the show it gets even weirder. Fielding is living in a treehouse in a jungle, with an aardvark butler (played by Noel's brother Michael) and with Andy Warhol (Tom Meeten) as his cleaner. Then there are other characters played by Fielding, including a New York cop with a talking knife wound, a lion in a zoo going slowly insane, and a games teacher with shell shock - who is also a chocolate finger.

Normally I like it when comedians push at the extremes, whether it's in terms of language, situation or realism/surrealism. However, Luxury Comedy appears to be one of those rather rare cases of going too far instead of not far enough. His earlier work, The Mighty Boosh, was itself bizarre and wonderfully funny, but also had the added advantage of Julian Barratt keeping things in control and from going too off the wall. This show is just bizarre, though - all surrealism and seemingly without comedy.

For me the best bit was seemingly the sanest, which was Fielding's drawing of Pele holding a china cup and kicking what was either a ball or the saucer for the cup. I think it worked because at least you can connect the show with something that exists in the real world. The same is true with the 'Warhol' character.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy is too far disconnected from anything recognisable to make it funny. A good piece of art perhaps - totally maverick - but that's about it.

Number of members of interminably crap indie band Kasabian who contribute to the music: 1

Number of references to eating rainbows: 1

Number of references to eating rainbows that make you want to punch your television: 1

Number of former Mighty Boosh employees involved: 4

Number of cheese tanks: 1

Number of cheese tanks that make you want to travel back in time and kill Salvador Dali: 1

Number of people who sat blank-faced at the television while it was on: 422,000

Number of blinding on-screen colours: 3,455

Number of drug-dealing flies called Figo: 1

Number of drug-dealing flies called Figo that make you want to go and nail-bomb the whole of Camden: 1

Number of jokes: 0

Number of people called Julian Barrett who appear to have carried Noel Fielding up to this point in his career: 1

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy review

Some scenes don't work as well as others and if you're not a fan of The Mighty Boosh, this definitely won't be for you. However, if Fielding's aim was to create something in the spirit of the notoriously surreal Spike Milligan, I think he's achieved it.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy: Charming chaos

Crammed into a short space of time, they sketches provide us with twenty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds of charming and potentially addictive chaos. Those who long for The Boosh to return will be happily sated in the meantime.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy review

It's a shame that it wasn't anywhere near as funny as it was colourful.