Rafe Spall

This week Pete realises what we all noticed a few seconds into the first episode: that he's a petty, selfish git. He can't keep his mouth shut when Barry starts banging on about spirituality after his newly transplanted heart has given him a taste for spare ribs. Pete shouts his crackpot theories down, upsetting Barry so much he gets another heart attack. So Pete decides to do something unselfish: marry a South African woman looking for a green card. A good cast, headed by the likable Rafe Spall, work well to deal with the rather unlikely and convenient situations the script throws at them.

Sitcoms about men in their 20s seem to arrive at the conclusion that their characters might be buffoons but, at bottom, they're decent guys. Not so Pete Versus Life: since episode one Pete (Rafe Spall) has been lurching from strong lager to furtive bunk-up with some gusto, wonderfully unconcerned about the consequences of his actions. Tonight's episode pits Pete against some strong opposition when he becomes involved with an older woman whom he meets at an art auction. What will summarisers Colin and Terry make of his performance?

Pete Versus Life, a study in oafishness and emotional inadequacy among young men, flagrantly trespasses upon Peep Show's territory but provides its own twist. Instead of an internal monologue, the titular hero, a down at heel sports writer, is provided with a pair of studio pundits to provide commentary, backed up with appropriate statistics, upon the embarrassing events in Pete's life as they unfold.

It is an original and clever gimmick, all the more effective for being used sparingly. Pete is winningly played by the terrifyingly versatile Rafe Spall.

The second episode of this new comedy series turns on an esoteric point of sexual etiquette that it's probably best not to dwell on in great detail here. Suffice it to say, though, that however edgy the subject matter, the familiar, slightly seedy, male crapness at the centre remains enjoyably familiar. Tonight, sports writer Pete (played by Rafe Spall) must face down some tricky opponents. These include sophisticated ex-flatmate Jake, a kebab shop proprietor and a pretentious shop assistant. His progress is summarised by commentators Colin and Terry.

This crass comedy series has a novelty factor. As our protagonist, hapless journalist Pete Griffith (Rafe Spall), stumbles through life, a pair of sports commentators analyse his progress. Perhaps the writers were worried they hadn't staked out their target audience of beery twenty-something lads clearly enough. Tonight Pete goes to a party where his self-satisfied friend Jake reveals an intimate detail about his sex life. Pete can't keep the secret to himself. Cue endless references to the sex act as the episode continues. Spall has a winning presence but his talent can't save this shoddy effort.

Putting the "com" into sitcom, Terry McIlroy and Colin King (Ian Kirkby and Simon Greenall) are back with more expert analysis of a Premier League prat. Sex expert Tracey Cox is also on hand this week, to explain the benefits of a certain bedroom technique that Pete and his friends can't stop talking about.

The trouble with this show is that Pete (Rafe Spall) is so thoroughly unlikeable that instead of being the star of the show his tedious adventures are little more than an unwelcome distraction from Terry and Colin's running commentary to the action.

Although it is very funny, if there was a way of just watching these two on the red button - and removing Pete (and his mates' endless stream of annoying girlfriends) from the equation altogether - the show would be much improved.

Pete Versus Life review

Rafe Spall is easily the best thing in this new Friday night comedy. You really want to like Pete, but boy is it an uphill battle.

An atrocious new sitcom about a self-centred wally (Rafe Spall) whose misadventures are analysed by a pair of omniscient sport commentators. It's a clumsy attempt at subverting the genre with a unique gimmick à la Peep Show. But whereas the subjective camerawork and inner monologues in Peep Show enhance the comedy, this crude device actively discourages it.

Not that it would be funnier without it. Utterly charmless, it exhibits all the worst aspects of modern British comedy, including irritating sub-The Office performances and characters behaving crassly in awkward situations in lieu of actual jokes. An embarrassing comedy from the comedy of embarrassment

Pete Versus Life (Channel 4, also Friday), a new five-part comedy drama, took one clever idea and ran amok with it. If life is like sport, then where are the commentators? And so we had Pete (Rafe Spall), an ordinary - that is to say lazy, selfish and intermittently very stupid - twentysomething. And we also had anchorman Colin (Simon Greenall) along with wise-cracking former footballer Terry (Ian Kirkby), who commented on Pete's ups and downs as if they were part of some huge, slam-dunking sport event.

This format was funniest when the pundits used flashy graphics to illustrate run-of-the-mill facts: a profile sheet on Pete's nemesis, Jake (Daniel Ings), which revealed that he could grow a full beard in three days; or a pie chart showing an irritating character's favourite topics of conversation.

In the first episode, Pete inadvertently impressed a girl when he was lying about his commitment to green causes, and had to tie himself up in knots of dishonesty to keep her interested. He was helped - and hindered - by an assortment of friends, including his flatmate Kurt (Chris Geere), who has a rigidly proprietorial attitude towards his Weetabix. It was all funny enough, though the punditry gimmick was at times pushed to the limit. Surely they're not going to follow Pete and his girlfriend into the bedroom, I thought, cringing. But they did, complete with the inevitable performance chart. Schoolboys across the land rejoiced.

Still, this was a perfectly decent comedy, with the added extra of a satire on sporting hyperbole served up on the side. But at the end of the day it will be interesting to see whether this combination has enough legs to last the full 180 minutes.

Pete, played by Rafe Spall, is a laddish lad making a right bollocks of his 20s. Commentating on his life - everything, including what happens when he uses a made-up concern for the environment to lure young women back to his bedroom - are a couple of very unreconstructed middle-aged sports pundits: "The hand wrapped round the old bald-headed giggle stick, it's always a magic moment."

They pause the action, interpret Pete's life with stats and graphics. They can even see into his mind; know that he thinks about Wayne Rooney when he's about to reach the finishing line sooner than he'd hoped, in the bedroom, like. I don't know why they're commentating on Pete's life - maybe it's because he is trying to become a sports journalist himself. It's just one of those things you have to run with - like that documentary that was being made in The Office.

Some of this doesn't quite come off; a lot does. It's certainly ambitious, and original. The characters are great: hapless Pete; the nightmare fiancee of Pete's best mate who's coming on the stag weekend in Amsterdam because they're not just lovers, they're best friends, too; the inappropriate commentators. And at times, in an awkward kind of way, it's very funny.