Noel Fielding

"Television needs a madman," says Noel Fielding, and he delivers lunacy in spades in a new sketch show which is even more madcap than The Mighty Boosh. In the spirit of Kenny Everett but stranger still, the skits revolve around a crayon drawing of Pelé and a talking knife wound.

Nigel Coan brings Noel Fielding's dreams to life

Nigel Coan is the director and animator behind Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, and is therefore responsible for the unenviable task of bringing the dream world inside Noel Fielding's head onto the small screen.

A (cough) zany sketch show set in a darkly childlike fantasy world of its architect's devising, Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy will doubtless appeal to anyone who's enjoyed the erstwhile Mighty Boosh man's work in the past.

But I must admit that everything he's ever done has left me not so much cold as frozen to the point of death. It's not that I don't "get" his humour - on the contrary, I understand perfectly well what he's trying to achieve - it's just that as an absurdist comedian he's so painfully uninspired and laboured.

Nevertheless, I honestly tried to approach this with an open mind, hoping that left to his own devices Fielding would prove that he's capable of more than pedestrian student whimsy. But as ever I was left bewildered as to how anyone could ever fall for this charmless rubbish.

Undeservedly self-regarding, he patently thinks of himself as a mind-blowing surrealist bursting with astonishing ideas (A sentient chocolate finger! A Noo Yoik cop with a talking wound!). But in reality he's the tiresome equivalent of the unfunny office clown persistently proclaiming how "mad" he is, but without ever once backing up his claims of comic ingenuity. His wide-eyed wacky dream-weaver shtick wouldn't be so embarrassing if he was actually funny, but at the age of 38 he just comes across as an overgrown adolescent attention-seeker with delusions of iconoclasm. Boasting a gaudy melange of deliberately amateurish animation, set design and costumes, his show certainly looks quite nice, and it's agreeable in theory to see something on television with a distinctive aesthetic. It's just unfortunate that Noel Fielding is in charge of it.

Chat between Alice Cooper and Noel Fielding

An intimate chat between the shock-rock great and the Luxury Comedy funnyman. Warning: contains dead chickens and goth golf clothing.

Meet Noel Fielding's cast of Luxury Comedy characters

Psychedelic chefs, a manta ray music producer, and 'Tron Quixote': all in a day's weird work for the team behind Noel Fielding's new E4 show.

Noel Fielding: how Dalí and Senna influenced my comedy

From the eyeball-slicing Spanish surrealist to the 'enigmatic and spiritual' Formula 1 driver, a who's who of Boosh big-ups...

There's a strong line-up of guests for Wossy to grapple with obsequiously tonight. First up is former boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe, who talks about his first post-Harry Potter film role in the forthcoming spine-chiller The Woman in Black (a film adapted from Susan Hill's novel, incidentally, by Ross's wife Jane Goldman). Secondly, there's garrulous Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding, who's about to launch his brilliantly surreal new E4 show Luxury Comedy. Finally, and requiring no introduction, is Sir David Attenborough. British soul singer-songwriter Seal also drops in to perform his new single, Backstabbers.

Interview: Noel Fielding on his new sketch show

For his latest project, Noel Fielding has moved into sketch comedy. That means more room for his own breed of oddball...

Noel Fielding announces date for E4's Luxury Comedy

Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding has unvieled the date for the premier of his new show - 26th January.

British comedy threw many unusual shapes between 2000 and 2009. Catherine Tate's longform survey of the hits of the decade is hefty enough to stick with. A selection of great clips is punctuated by Tate interviewing - in the loosest possible sense - people like David Walliams, Rob Brydon, Noel Fielding and Alan Carr about what made their shows fly. And Tate's former Doctor Who co-star David Tennant quizzes Tate about her own comic creations.