Robert Webb

Robert Webb: Why Tristram Hunt didn't cut it as a comic

Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, was not 'reliably funny' during his days performing in the Footlights at Cambridge according to his co-star Robert Webb.

Comedians in politics: An open letter

Rupert, you hobble yourself from the outset by challenging something which no one is proposing: giving Steve Coogan a job outside of the Alan Partridge series. No one is saying that, not me, not you, not David Mitchell, not Russell Brand, not Robert Webb.

In its second episode, Ambassadors (BBC Two) really started to motor.

Ambassadors, BBC Two, ep3, review

The script for BBC Two's Ambassadors manages to make David Mitchell and Robert Webb significantly less funny than they are in real life, says Andrew Pettie.

Mitchell and Webb's diplomatic comedy drama goes out with a bang as revolting Tazbeks tangle with presidential armed forces.

British ambassador Keith Davis (David Mitchell) is whimpering on the neutral sidelines but luckily for the oppressed locals, wife Jennifer (Keeley Hawes) has enough empathy to make up for her husband and does what she can to rally support for the humanitarian cause.

As for deputy Neil Tilly (Robert Webb), he's got his hands full with a fierce Foreign Office interrogation specialist on a mission to ferret out spies in high places.

A flinty government vetting officer turns up at the British Embassy in Tazbekistan. He's so tough he walked from the airport 15 miles away and is barely perturbed by the fact that the country is in the grip of revolution.

As the power fails and shots ring through the night air, British ambassador Keith Davis and his deputy Neil Tilly (David Mitchell and Robert Webb) have to think on their feet. Someone has to suck up to the president's monstrous daughter, a primped, plastic surgery-obsessed brute with her own wine label; while Keith has to make peace with the insurgents, though they are late for a rendezvous: "You can't expect punctuality from rebels," he says with true British grit. "They are rebels, aren't they?"

It's been an engaging series; I hope it returns.

Russell Brand responds to Robert Webb

Russell Brand has responded to Peep Show star Robert Webb's criticism of his recent political campaigning, suggesting that Webb's Oxbridge shielded him from problems in the world.

Ambassadors is the low-key acerbic comedy drama set in a British embassy in the fictional central Asian country of Tazbekistan. The first episode had some tonal problems as it struggled to establish whether it wanted to be funny or clever, and often failed to achieve either.

But it was OK, and at times mildly amusing, which already put it out in front of most of the competition. That said, you expect better than occasionally mildly amusing from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who maintained a level of demented brilliance in Peep Show for years.

And in the second episode they were indeed much better. Some of the improvement could be attributed to a wonderful turn by Tom Hollander as an obnoxious prince who stumbles luxuriously around the globe as a trade envoy creating international crises - a great comic idea, and one wonders who could possibly have been its inspiration.

More than that, though, it was a matter of characters falling into place and the place finding its character. Webb is oddly convincing as a cynical idealist assistant to the ambassador, and Mitchell shows a conflicted steeliness and sensitivity that goes some way beyond his stock gift for the florid rant.

The writing, by James Wood and Rupert Walters, was sharper too. Several plot strands were neatly combined, and there was an impressive resistance - as shown with the Prince Mark storyline - to succumbing to the obvious. Rather than bash you over the head with jokes, it takes a more diplomatic approach. And I don't care what Steve Coogan says about him, Mitchell has persuaded me on this one.

Comedians: stop writing each other tetchy open letters

The public pseudo-conversation between celebrities such as Robert Webb and Russell Brand is excruciating.

Robert Webb's letter to Russell Brand

Robert Webb tells Russell Brand: your New Statesman essay has made me rejoin the Labour party.