Robert Webb

Tonight's joyous patchwork of silliness includes a righteous meat-eater striking a blow against the vegetarians, a brief moment of clarity for Sir Digby Chicken Caesar's sidekick Ginger, and a glorious Bond parody set in a very English casino. Webb's dancing prowess even gets a brief outing in an Austen parody. There seem to be no limits to the scope of subjects M&W tackle - unlike Little Britain, their targets are never predictable; it's just an ever-changing buffet of the unexpected. This is properly crafted funniness for people who like their jokes to contain words and ideas. Superb.

What is That Mitchell and Webb Look? I suspect it is the look of incredulity that passed over my face when I heard they'd got another series. Extremely clever and well performed by two very personable comics, it could still be a lot funnier.

In That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC2) David and Robert discuss the hit-and-miss nature of all sketch shows, including theirs. "If we didn't perversely include about 50% deliberately unamusing material, people would have to think of something else to say, wouldn't they," says David.

"Like we're too self-referential," says Robert.

"Ah, clever."

"And people call us smug," Robert adds, smugly.

Ah, doubly clever, and smug, and knowing. Quite funny, too. It is the only funny sketch of the lot - and there are 12 of them, I reckon, if you count the mini-movie spoofs as one. So when you say about 50%, David, what you really mean is about 92%.

If you lasted through to the end of Krod Mandoon you would have reached That Mitchell and Webb Look, which, three series in, is doing something rare among sketch shows: improving. The first two series were patchy - I might have said "hit-and-miss" but last night's episode featured a sketch lampooning reviewers who say that. Well, anyway: its hit-rate's up. The main characteristic of the show's humour is nerdish pedantry. If something improbable happens in a sketch, the characters won't follow comic convention and go with the flow; instead, they'll draw attention to it.

In one sketch, a man, played by David Mitchell, was having visions of the television chef Gary Rhodes - played by Robert Webb with a foot-high quiff. "Is that what Gary Rhodes looks like?" said Mitchell's character uncertainly. "No," beamed the vision, "but this is the best version of me that your imagination could piece together."

Another thing they do well: the good old-fashioned "subverting expectations" gag. One sketch was about a pair of sleazy snooker pundits reflecting on their time in the game.

"It's been me life," began one. "I've been obsessed with it, me whole life."

Pause. "That and snooker..."

That Mitchell And Webb Look 3.2 Review

Hit-and-miss. Just kidding! Well, it wasn't as good as M&W, but there weren't too many sketches that didn't make me giggle or smile, if only a few that had a genuinely brilliant idea behind them.

Thursday night is the new Friday night, judging by the amount of comedy on TV this evening. M&W take a pop at their critics here with a sketch about the irksome nature of writing "hit-and-miss" shows. "We've done two hit-and-miss series now, can't we go for some-thing different?" asks Webb. "If we didn't perversely include 50% of deliberately unamusing material, people would have to think of something else to say," replies Mitchell. There are quite a few hits tonight, particularly Please Remain Indoors, a post-apocalyptic quiz show.

The duo know their critics well: 'If we didn't perversely include 50 per cent deliberately unamusing material,' says David Mitchell in a self-referential script meeting in M&W, 'they'd have to think of something else to say.' Well, that's us told, then. Happily there are more hits than misses in this instalment.

360 Degrees: Mitchell and Webb

Comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb started life on radio, so when BBC producers had to make a red-button package to accompany the new series of BBC2's That Mitchell and Webb Look/c], it made sense to mine their unused Radio 4 sketches.

That Mitchell and Webb Look, BBC2

We've always been big fans of Mitchell and Webb whether it be in Peep Show, David popping up on panel shows or Robert skiving in The Smoking Room, but for some reason their sketch show has never really hit the mark. However, on the whole this first episode of series three had a higher hit rate than the less memorable second series.

On Thursday, the return of That Mitchell and Webb Look served up a clinical assassination of The Apprentice, and its viewers. Mitchell and Webb are BBC producers, in the process of inventing The Apprentice. Webb is asking Mitchell why anyone would want to watch a show where, every week, a bunch of idiots screw things up. "Everyone will think that they're the only person to have noticed that all the contestants are idiots," Mitchell beams. "I've got a hunch that, for some reason, people feel this never stops being worth commenting on." "And remind me," Webb asks, "how do these ironic viewers show up in the ratings?" "They show up the same, my friend. They show up just the same."

The culturally incisive nature of Mitchell and Webb's sketch comedy is one thing. Increasingly, however, the news that many will want to know about the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look is this: currently, just how scorching do Mitchell and Webb look? Has it become any easier to work out which one you'd have sex with first? As a diligent correspondent I can report that the important facts, viz the first episode, are:

Mitchell in full Victorian rig, shouting "Have you got any idea how hot I am?" Mitchell lounging on a sofa reading a newspaper, just like he would if he were your husband, and you lived together. Webb as Santa's evil brother, Russ, singing an absolutely filthy, 18-certificate version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town - and then kissing a woman with his sensual, endless man-mouth.

Insane man-hotness aside, this third series of Look has an unexpected, and profoundly thrilling, sense of going up a gear. In the first episode, at least, Mitchell and Webb seem to have chucked out all the old stalwarts - no Numberwang, no tramps with head-cams - and, instead, turned in the tightest, brightest half-hour of sketch comedy since A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

If the rest of the series is as effortlessly superior as the first episode, Mitchell and Webb will probably be credited with reviving the long-dormant TV sketch show. And making a long, hot summer borderline unbearable for a lot of women.