Rick Edwards

The third Comedy Lab pilot of the series is a mockumentary tackling the issue of disability, an issue rather important to me as I suffer from Asperger's syndrome.

Rick and Peter begins with T4 presenter Rick Edwards (whom I'd never heard before) becoming an internet sensation following a YouTube montage clip of him repeatedly mocking the disabled. As a result he's ordered by a Channel 4 executive (Miles Jupp) to attend a school presentation given by Hollyoaks and Cast Offs star Peter Mitchell, who is paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair.

In terms of mockumentaries, it's not the most innovative ever made. Many shows have covered the supposedly nasty (albeit fake) attitudes of a celebrity. And it also features other guest stars like Nicholas Parsons and Giles Cohen in self-deprecating roles, but this idea has been implemented numerous times in shows such as Extras.

However, my main problem with Rick and Peter is actually the relationship between the two. Since Rick mocks the 'mind disabled' rather than the 'leg disabled', surely the character should be made to do something with someone with a more relevant disability?

The problem with that, of course, lies with TV networks' obsession with the visibly disabled. I know that I'm 'mind disabled', but I look normal - and TV doesn't like that. It seems to me that unless you have a disability in which you look different (missing limb, dwarfism, etc.) or require some sort of, for want of a better term, hardware (wheelchair, white stick, hearing aid) you'll not get a look in on TV because they'll be asking: "How can the viewers tell you're disabled?"

In the end all that happens is that we get comparisons with Rain Man, which is inaccurate because he's a savant and most autistic people are not. Either that or it's Tourette's syndrome and you get someone swearing their head off, which again most Tourette's sufferers do not do. If we don't do something odd we don't get a look in, which really frustrates me. In terms of my disability, the only one I can think of appearing in a British sitcom was one of the children in the Jasper Carrott sitcom All About Me, which is widely regarded as being one of the worst sitcoms ever made. Plus that child is somewhat overshadowed by the main narrator of the story, a boy in a wheelchair suffering from cerebral palsy.

I don't think that Rick and Peter will get a full series, but if it does I hope they cover all ground when it comes to disability, not just what you can see.

T4's Rick Edwards plays an exaggerated version of himself in this Officey, Twenty Twelve-ish mock-doc about an egocentric TV presenter, written by the brilliant Tom Basden. Channel bosses rap Rick's knuckles over a "retard" remark and tell him he must present coverage of the paralympics. He has to "shadow" Peter, a Hollyoaks actor in a wheelchair leading to a brilliant comic denouement. Definitely has series potential.

No More Women:

Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne have taken the no-budget irreverence of their BBC4 game show We Need Answers to the web with this intensely competitive name game.

Filmed in dimly lit rooms around their offices and the BBC, as well as on-set, No More Women features Key and Watson simply naming famous people in turn against the clock.

The trick is for each of them to create a new rule before their opponent's next go - for example "no more names with the same letter twice in a row" or for ruthless players, "no more women".

To enliven what is essentially a pub game, Horne wittily commentates on the action off-camera in much the same offbeat way as on the main TV show, incessantly layering on graphics and fact boxes.

And as the tournament has progressed, they've roped in T4 presenter Rick Edwards and Radio 1's DJ Nihal to challenge the regular players in some "exhibiton matches".

No More Women for T4's Rick Edwards

So, after four tense head-to-heads between Mark Watson (losing) and Tim Key (winning), we thought it was time to take No More Women to the next level with what can only be described as 'An Exhibition Match'...