Richard Pinto

Let's face it, fantasy isn't a hard genre to lampoon. But spoofs don't always click, as BBC2's Kröd Mändoon proved. Now in its third series, this chirpy sitcom works by virtue of the domestic trivia grafted on to the magical landscape. Stephen "He gets around a bit" Mangan returns as novelist Sam, who nobly volunteers to stay behind while the others set off to kill the man-munching Giant of Rankor (are writers Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto Star Wars fans?). Alistair McGowan tops the excellent cast as the scheming Lord Darkness. I loved his "sinister" incantations: "Volare, oh-oh... cantare..."

As promised here's the finished illustration for the Radio Times radio section to highlight the six part comedy serial 'ElvenQuest' by Richard Pinto and Anil Gupta. Its on Radio 4 on Wednesday night but like all good things from the BBC you can catch it again on the iPlayer (the link will only be active for about another five days) which is how I listened to the first episode and very good it is too.

BBC axes Mutual Friends

BBC1 has axed primetime comedy-drama Mutual Friends after just one series.

The Hat Trick show, penned by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto, was initially planned as a one-off about male friendship featuring comedians Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong but was later commissioned for a 6 x 60-minute series.

Stephen Mangan and Alistair McGowan, meanwhile, are away with the fairies. ElvenQuest (6.30pm, Radio 4), a six-part comedy from Richard Pinto and Anil Gupta, sees a fantasy novelist whisked off to a parallel universe where he must battle some evil lord or other for possession of the traditional enchanted pigsticker. "For whoso'er wields the sword shall rule all of Lower Earth", etc.

If your hobbies include masquerading as a wizard with a magic helmet, a ridiculous name and a penchant for slaying goblins, then Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto's fantastical new comedy should be right up your cobbled street. If not, don't worry - there are still loads of laughs in this affectionate lampoon of a genre that generally takes itself far too seriously.

Stephen Mangan stars as fantasy novelist Sam, who is whisked off to a Tolkien-style parallel universe by a noble elf, a sexy warrior princess and a feisty dwarf called Dean (why are dwarves always Scottish?). It turns out Sam's dog is the Chosen One destined to save 'Lower Earth' from Lord Darkness - an arch-villain reminiscent of David Warner's Devil in Time Bandits and played brilliantly by Alistair McGowan. It's so much fun you'll wish you'd joined the Dungeons & Dragons society after all.

Of course, most shows which open with the father of three small children killing himself might have felt obliged to remain quite dark for a while. Yet, as it turned out, Mutual Friends is a comedy drama with the emphasis firmly on the comedy. Carl's widow Leigh (Claire Rushbrook) was soon dealing with her grief by speaking in a series of wisecracks. Martin and Jen's decision to go for marriage counselling led to the usual scenes of a wimpy bloke in an armchair saying, 'So how does that make you feel?' a lot. Above all, Patrick is so total a representative of male self-centredness that even in an ITV1 sitcom, he might feel slightly broad-brush.

The odd thing, however, is that the result is by no means a disaster. For a start, the script, written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto (Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No 42), seems perfectly content with the fact that it's not pushing back the frontiers of television - and instead gets on with doing the traditional stuff as efficiently and funnily as possible. A strong cast helps too, with Marc Warren in particular showing an unexpected lightness of touch. (Last night he even managed to do the missing-the-school-play scene without going over the top.)

In the end, none of this is quite enough to solve the mystery of why so much talent has been poured into making such a bog-standard TV drama. On the other hand, it does make you fairly grateful that it has.