Shaun Pye

'They want Muslims to be offended, but we aren't'

BBC2 sketch "Real Housewives of Isis" has been criticised as 'morally bankrupt' but many say such satire is a British tradition and can help in fight against terrorists.

Seriously dark. Subversive. Unsettling. Taboo-breaking. BBC Three's Monkey Dust was a hidden comedy gem that aired for 18 episodes, before it was sadly called to a halt following the death of co-creator Harry Thompson. If fellow writer Shaun Pye could get a team together for one more episode, we'd love to see it.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret flashes back from its protagonist in the dock, facing a list of farcically extreme charges and dressed (I think) as a jockey. This is, after all, a sitcom co-written and starring the American comedian David Cross from the absurdly underrated and sadly short-lived Arrested Development, one of the funniest, most ingenious TV sitcoms of recent years.

He plays a hapless lackey from an American corporation mistakenly chosen to front a sales campaign for a corrosive energy drink in the UK. It's a standard fish out of water scenario in which our idiotic anti-hero wrestles with a culture he knows nothing about while hopelessly trying to impress an attractive café owner played by Pulling's Sharon Horgan.

The basic gag is that, in an effort to mask his inadequacies, Todd continually digs holes for himself with a torrent of preposterous lies. Cue slapstick farce and Gervais-esque cringe humour (it's co-written with Shaun Pye who appeared as Gervais' nemesis in Extras) which, although well performed by the gifted Cross, often feels forced and underwritten.

Though spottily amusing, it's a disappointment overall, especially given the track record of Cross and Will Arnett, a fellow Arrested Development alumnus who cameos as Todd's monstrously priapic, foul-mouthed boss.

This latest pilot has enough comic pedigree to split the funny atom. David Cross (Arrested Development) and Monkey Dust's Shaun Pye write - the cast includes Sharon Horgan, Will Arnett, Russell Tovey and even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Kristen Schaal. Cross is Todd, a desk monkey who's sent to London by Arnett to promote a hideous energy drink. It doesn't quite hold together, and is short a laugh or five, but the talent suggests it could still be worth a series.

Fans of the cult US comedy Arrested Development will recognise David Cross who played Tobias Funke in that series. This pilot for C4's Comedy Showcase series is his first project for the UK, co-written with Shaun Pye who played Greg Lindley-Jones in Extras - the RADA graduate who was Ricky Gervais's bitter enemy.

So what's this all about? It starts in the US with Todd Margaret (Cross) accidentally promoted by his psychotic boss to head up a UK operation selling energy drinks. Overhearing Todd repeating the aggressive patter on a self-help CD convinces him Todd is the right man for the job - despite being a meek office drone who couldn't sell a sandwich to a starving man. His arrival in London unleashes more misadventures - as well as a meeting with comedy star Sharon Horgan who plays a cafe owner.

By the end of this sharply scripted episode you'll be hoping for a full series to find out what happens to him next - and you can't ask any more of a pilot than that.