Stephen Mangan

Radio Times review

This will be the 42nd instalment of The Comic Strip Presents pageant to be aired over the best part of 35 years, and it promises to be the kind of shamelessly silly, flight-of-fancy spoof that has become something of a national institution in the other 41.

The target for their satirical boot this time is the phone-hacking scandal, but transposed to the disco-era 1970s. Rebekah Brooks (Maxine Peake) is here a naive northern girl who more or less accidentally becomes chief executive of News International and roller-skates (literally) through life unaware of the dreadful things going on around her.

One of the only survivors of the troupe that first launched Channel 4 on air in 1982 is Nigel Planer, here playing a hen-pecked Rupert Murdoch, while Stephen Mangan reprises his Tony Blair turn (as a groovy rocker) and Harry Enfield dons the bald cap to embody Brooks's sometime husband, Ross Kemp.

In which mostly grumpy and sometimes quite old celebs reflect on the problems that ensue when leaving the house to go to work or the shops, or even to head out on holiday or for a jolly. In more detail, that means the likes of James Corden, Jonathan Ross, Ruth Jones and Stephen Mangan discussing the guilty thrill of buying a cheap round down the pub, the seething anger that underpins making tea for office colleagues, and performance anxiety - when packing shopping at the supermarket.

A series that shows self-deprecating Britishness isn't solely the preserve of Grumpy Old Men repeats on Dave. VBP wheels out reliable talking heads (Vic Reeves, Nigel Havers, Stephen Mangan) to anatomise various points of British difficulty, and this week, it's social awkwardness. Air kissing. Hugs. Reflex apologies. All are fraught with difficulty and embarrassment. As for having a nice day, you shouldn't suggest that to Nigel Havers. "I'm having a very nasty day," he says. "But it's nothing to do with you."

Radio Times review

Because Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane have created such a host of fabulous supporting characters over the four series of Episodes, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig's bemused-Brits-in-LA Sean and Beverly can take a back seat in this hilarious season finale and let the carnage unfold around them.

The Matt/Merc feud reaches an exquisitely absurd climax on the set of the LeBlanc-fronted new game show The Box (is it me or is the format for this actually quite good?). And Helen Basch's envious suspicions about her girlfriend Carol also come to a head in a rollicking 30 minutes that shows just how deftly plotted Klarik and Crane's writing is. Thank the showbiz gods there will be another series. Or as Matt might put it: "Bring on the bugs!"

Series four of Episodes is the best yet

As the curtain falls on the fourth series of the Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan comedy, Ben Dowell says the show has never been better.

Radio Times review

Jealous studio boss Helen Basch (Andrea Savage) hates Tamsin Greig's Beverly because she thinks she loves her girlfriend Carol (Kathleen Rose Perkins). Helen also hates the oily Merc Lapidus so she sets him up to do a game show with his sworn enemy, the cash-strapped Matt LeBlanc. Matt's not talking to Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly either, because the Brit abroad writers snubbed his services for their hot new show.

Packed with brilliant lines, this is an eventful episode that shows how nimbly plotted this suave, assured, knowing, skilled and very funny comedy is - and the surprising directions it can take you. A joy.

Radio Times review

If Matt's money worries weren't bad enough, his dad's heart attack could push him over the edge. Dick LeBlanc (a fabulously grouchy Alex Rocco) is living in a condo that his cash-strapped son needs to sell. But will he survive surgery?

It's a bleaker-than-usual visit to sunny LA, with most of the action focused around Dick's hospital bed where, bizarrely, Beverly and Sean (Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan) have joined the vigil. But the gags are still pretty sharp, especially when it comes to the regular telephone bulletins Beverly gets from the deliciously insecure Carol.

Radio Times review

The Matt LeBlanc comedy has been on form this series, partly because it has been unafraid of pushing the boundaries of taste. And this episode is another deliciously questionable corker that sees Matt agreeing to make a paid celebrity appearance at a war criminal's birthday party in order to allay his growing financial worries. It's either that or leaking a sex tape.

And the vile former network boss Merc Lepidus rears his head in about as literal and unwelcome a fashion as possible. Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig's bewildered Brits Sean and Beverly continue to battle Sean's former writing partner (also known in LA as "that Tim guy") and there is a deft cameo from a surprise guest.

Stephen Mangan: 'I had to learn not to be too gobby'

The actor, 47, on wearing tights, how Green Wing changed his life, and why he wouldn't want to be more famous.