Robert Webb

Sketch shows can be hit-and-miss but this often wildly funny TV version of David Mitchell and Robert Webb's Radio 4 series That Mitchell and Webb Sound scored more than most when it first aired on BBC2 in 2006. Long before Webb became an unlikely sex symbol with his Lycra-clad Flashdance turn on Let's Dance For Comic Relief, the sight of him dressed as a banana and doing a silly dance while eating a banana was similarly, stupidly funny. Also introduced here are the self-doubting Nazis, a cruel vicar and two vapid, camp bores.

Grouchy Young Men review

At first we thought this was a cheeky rip-off of BBC2's Grumpy Old Men until Robert Webb's voiceover confirmed it was from the same makers.

A trio of Guillemots banging away on the piano is not the only reason FM gave me hope for the future of the British sitcom, though they undoubtedly helped. This radio station romp, with Chris O'Dowd and Kevin Bishop as Smashey & Nicey for the noughties, oscillated so wildly between cool and naff it was as weird as watching Morrissey chitchat with Adrian Chiles on The One Show.

Though it's certainly the greatest radio-based sitcom since Frasier, FM can't decide whether it wants to be down with the kids of give 'em a kick up the skinny jeans. It tries too hard and not hard enough, throwing in rubbish jokes and sharp one-liners with scant regard for quality control, yet somehow - unlike the over-praised No Heroics, its closest cousin - it's actually funny.

That's largely down to the sheer likeability O'Dowd and Bishop bring to the pair of ludicrous out-of-touch muppets they are playing. The kind of DJs who got into it because they like the sound of their own voices not because of anything as daft as the music, they're past their shelf life and they know it. But that doesn't mean they're going to let any young'uns muscle in on the act.

It's no instant classic and there's nothing much in the way of a plot but FM has its finger sharply on the ageism dial like no other sitcom. Drag yourself away from the comedy genius of Robert Webb doing a Jennifer Beals impression and give it a go.

David Mitchell is fast becoming king of the panel game. He's scarily good at them, so it's no wonder he's called on to lend his wits to shows from QI to Mock the Week, and from Have I Got News for You to a Radio 4 show called The Unbelievable Truth that's not a million miles from this.

This is the one where he and Lee Mack are team captains and Angus Deayton is chairman. The contestants have to bluff their way through various tales while their opponents work out which are true. So, for instance, did Gabby Logan really once steal red liquorice from Madonna's dressing room? Under close questioning from Rob Brydon it looks less and less likely. And is the mystery guest really Logan's former gymnastics rival, Mack's swimming teacher or, in fact, Robert Webb's ex-girlfriend?

Brydon and Mitchell make a great pair and what could be a stilted format is saved by some brilliant interplay and Brydon's flights of fancy.

Things improved radically on Friday with the return of Channel 4's best comedy in the history of laughter. Yes! Peep Show's back!! I only discovered this gem last year but the complete DVD collection now sits proudly displayed on my shelf and I'm reliably informed that makes me immediately cool so way hey!

Most shows entering their fifth series would be showing signs of aging and losing the edge that made them so intriguing but that's not so here. Thanks to the surreal brains of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and the always wonderful performances from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Peep Show appears to be going from strength to strength at a stage when other shows wilt under the pressure.

The world of Peep Show is surreal, of course, but the scripts and acting draw you into the world of Mark and Jez so well you don't want to leave. David Mitchell recently said he'd like Peep Show to carry on for years and, if this is the standard they can keep it to, I'd be happy about that too.

As we return for the fifth series of this engagingly filthy comedy, Mark (David Mitchell) is getting drunk and maudlin on wedding champagne as his flatmate Jeremy (Robert Webb) urges him to go out on a double-date: Beggars can't be choosers, she's an actual woman.

Mark - remember, this is a man who once based his romantic strategy on the Siege of Stalingrad - arms himself with a copy of the Friends of the British Museum magazine and goes forth again to search for love...

I adore Peep Show and I adore Mark and Jeremy, an amiable pair of misfits trapped in a squalid, mutually destructive friendship. Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's script is packed with the kind of quotable funny lines that should be on T-shirts, and Mitchell and Webb are both just marvellous.

Series Two Review

Many sketches you maybe don't laugh out loud out, but are left incredibly impressed, and thinking 'where the hell did they get *that* from!'

Interview with David Mitchell and Robert Webb

The Telegraph interviewed David Mitchell and Robert Webb in the build up to the second series of the show.

That Mitchell and Webb Look is an uproarious sketch series from the fine folks at BBC America that, unlike most of its ilk, hits far more home runs than groundouts. Written and performed primarily by the comedic duo of Robert Webb and David Mitchell, it's a cleverly cheeky pastiche of offbeat characters and biting wit that's rife with dead-on social commentary.

Series Two Preview

Sketch shows are difficult. Less so if you're running the same catch-phrase characters every week, where you change the setting but just feed people the same lines over and over. That Mitchell and Webb Look aims higher than this and is that much funnier for doing so.