Phil Cornwell

Andrew McGibbon's fantastic (in every sense) comedy The Cornwell Estate had the ridiculously versatile Phil Cornwell in completely Euro-bonkers mode as Hank Zuttermilk, the Dutch lorry driver - his English an explosion of suffixed 'ishes' - his wardrobe an implosion of seventies weekend hippy gear. What makes this series work so well is the preposterousness allied with minute observation in both the writing and performance.

The welcome new series of Andrew McGibbon's The Cornwell Estate had its star, in episode two, playing a Newcastle comic banned by matrimonial injunction from entering the city centre. Instead, he devised a high altitude messaging system by attaching one of his publicity posters to a homing pigeon to semaphore reparation to the teenage daughter he had never met.

The series' co-creator Phil Cornwell plays a different character in each episode, the style of which is pitched midway between Alan Bennett and Alan Partridge. Coincidentally, the breathtakingly talented Cornwell once played a DJ in I'm Alan Partridge. This is comedy drama which holds its nerve, not always going for the obvious joke, bundling nerdiness up with edginess. The opener had Cornwell as a teacher muddling his way blindly through a minefield of potential racism as he tries to coax ethnicity from pupils whose origins may have been far-flung but who were firmly rooted in Potter's Bar.

Speaking of cricket, much was made during the Ashes series of 2005 of the footballification of the game, whereby people who didn't know one end of a bat from the other were caught up in the excitement of a great series. For a time, the summer game became as much of a topic of conversation as the year-round game. It was, to a cricket fan, a frankly unedifying sight and sound, epitomised for me when Adrian Chiles, who had always come across as an amiable if slightly dull broadcaster, went on the radio before the last Test and said that he hoped the match would be rained off so that England could win the Ashes. Only a football fan puts the result ahead of the game. Luckily the next series, in Australia, was a whitewash and the likes of Chiles went back to having sleepless nights about the fortunes of West Bromwich Albion, leaving cricket to cricket lovers, not lovers of events.

But now the Australians are back, the first Test starts on Wednesday (ball by ball coverage on Test Match Special, 5 Live Sports Extra and Radio 4 longwave) and once again the broadcasters will be hoping that Ashes fever will grip the sort of people who think that Andrew Flintoff's first name is Fred. On Saturday there was the first of six "comedy" chat shows under the title Yes It's the Ashes (Radio 5 Live, 11am), in which Andy Zaltsmann and other people paid to be funny will be reacting to events during the series in a thigh-slappingly jocular way. Now, it is possible to funny about cricket - the Australians Roy and HG have been doing it for years. But they aim at the correct audience: the knowledgeable cricket fan. Zaltsmann - who does know and love the game, and has blogs on specialist cricket sites to prove it - has aimed his, it seems, at Adrian Chiles.

So Zaltsmann's programme was filled with "hilarious" made-up facts about the greats of the game, as well as reports from Zaltsmann's friends in Australia and America about how the inhabitants were gearing up for the series. Both countries were in the grip of Ashes fever, apparently - but one of the correspondents was lying. Oh, one's aching sides.

There were a couple of star guests - the comedians Phil Cornwell and Paul Sinha - supposedly there to offer humorous insights, but mainly there to laugh at Zaltsmann's tortuous metaphors (although Cornwell did establish his bona fides as a cricket expert by asking what the significance was of the numbers underneath the crest on the players' shirts. If he didn't know that already, what was he doing on a cricket show? Oh, right - being a Tottenham fan).

This Saturday, of course, we'll be three days into the Test, and Zaltsmann will have real cricket to discuss with Frank Skinner. He likes his sport, as we all know. Football, mainly. Big supporter of West Brom. If Skinner comes, can Chiles be far behind?

You may think that rock and roll musicians in particular are in no need of being satirised, as they do the job pretty well themselves. Well, that doesn't mean they aren't ripe for a bit of a ribbing. Matt Lucas, himself no stranger to making the michael out of rock gods with David Walliams in Rock Profile on BBC2, hosts this chronological countdown of the best of the mickey-takers.

Step forward Neil Innes with his tales of Rutlemania; Harry Shearer, who turns the amp all the way up to 11 with Spinal Tap (surely the definite send-up/homage) and the Hee Bee Gee Bees... remember Meaningless Songs (in Very High Voices)? They had Angus Deayton among their number but got Richard Curtis to write the lyrics. Not bad.

Quite why Stella Street is here is a bit of a mystery to me - just because Phil Cornwell and John Sessions get to practise their Mick and Keef voices doesn't make it satire.

Plenty of great music, a few lightly tossed anecdotes and - voila! - an hour of high-quality entertainment.

Bell tolls for Dead Ringers

The BBC has called time on long-running radio and TV impressions show Dead Ringers. The corporation confirmed today that the show, which starred comedians such as Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Phil Cornwell, would not be returning.

Bell tolls for Dead Ringers

The BBC has called time on long-running radio and TV impressions show Dead Ringers. The corporation confirmed today that the show, which starred comedians such as Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Phil Cornwell, would not be returning.

Cockney geezer Dave Kafka shows us around his estate in the first episode of this amusing spoof kitchen-sink documentary series starring comedian Phil Cornwell - the man behind the world's greatest Mick Jagger impression. Dave has just been released after 'doing nine moon of bird', and is keen to let everyone know about his lawbreaking exploits. But is Dave all mouth and no trousers? Cornwell's observation of the London wide-boy patois is spot on, so much so that you might have trouble understanding him if you're not au fait with the lingo.

Comedian Phil Cornwell leads a different fictional life each week in his new comedy series. Every one, however, draws on his real-life experiences of growing up on a tough London housing estate. For openers, here he is as Dave Kafka who's just come out of jail and moved in with his grandad. Dave fancies himself as a bit of a lad. The thing is, he's nothing of the kind compared to Grandad, who really is a hard case. A very good cast, good production and sharp script make it sound both real and surreal. Listen via a computer to see it, too.

Phil Cornwell (Dead Ringers, Stella Street) heads the cast of this new sitcom from Andrew McGibbon. Dave Kafka is a typical Cockney geezer, returning to a London housing estate after a spell 'inside'. Felix Dexter and Tony Gardner also star. Intriguingly, this radio show will also be broadcast as a film on BBC interactive (i.e., via the red button). How will that work, I wonder?