Stephen Mangan

"Episodes" concerns a pair of brittle - but improbably naïve - British writers (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig). They are lured to Hollywood with the promise that their successful UK series about an elderly, erudite school headmaster and his charges will translate fabulously to the U.S. They are assured the show will happen with only minimal changes. Not! The stunned pair is forced to accept Matt LeBlanc (playing himself) as the series star. LeBlanc is deadpan and adorable riffing on his own image/reality as an actor whose best days were a decade ago (when he was one of the stars of "Friends"). Matt's got guts, and he can act. He is strikingly comfortable allowing himself to appear unsympathetic and cynical. And handsomer now; he has allowed the gray in his hair to grow in.

But the heart of "Episodes" is the dry, withering rat-tat-tat between Mangan and Greig. It's Nick and Nora Charles, it's Maggie Smith and Michael Caine in "California Suite." It's the real deal for anybody who has had to negotiate vicious showbiz bullshit. And even if you haven't had to do that, it is fabulous to watch, and to listen to. The writing is super-clever and spot on.

Stephen Mangan explains 'Episodes' role

Stephen Mangan has revealed details of his new sitcom Episodes.

Often in this show a panellist manages, through artful stumbling, to make everyone else think that a true story is made-up nonsense. Much harder is to pick up a card and read a fabrication you've never seen before, then convince the assembled wits it happened. There's a solid-gold example of the latter tonight, though to say who pulls it off would of course spoil the point. Aside from that, it's a slow starter, but takes off when David Mitchell cross-examines Kevin Bridges over a horse the latter supposedly bought by mistake in Bulgaria. Also taking part, Prof Brian Cox, a giggly Keeley Hawes and Stephen Mangan.

It's a quite funny idea - a spoof documentary with Stephen Mangan and Rhys Thomas as a pair of hapless British buddies walking to the north pole, carbon neutrally, to save the planet (and my lawn?). It's marginally more entertaining than watching Ben Fogle and the rowing dude doing this kind of thing for real. I like the rival team, a pair of gay Norwegians who split up as lovers but remain together as a polar exploring team, somewhere around 85 degrees north. And the shooting of a polar bear is fun. But there's too much filling between the laughs - it's really a sketch idea, dragged out to movie length.

Brian Tongue and Mark Bark-Jones, concerned about global warning and hoping to get a bit of Bono and Bob Geldof-style sainthood along the way, are making the world's first carbon neutral, vegetarian, organic expedition to the north pole. Stephen Mangan plays Bark-Jones as the ultimate eco bore, superior, self-pitying and ultimately likable; while Rhys Thomas's carefree Brian Tongue appears to be going along for the ride. The irreverent, comic tone is judged well - until the sentimental ending goes and ruins it all. Helen Baxendale makes a cameo as the sympathetic film-maker following the pair.

Stephen Mangan on life after Green Wing

The star of the cult comedy on working with True Blood star, Alexander Skarsgård, his quiet personal life and why he doesn't regret those Barclaycard ads.

Video: Polar bears in sub-zero comedy

Helen Baxendale and Stephen Mangan star in the low budget comedy, 'Beyond The Pole'. The film was shot in -30 degrees centigrade in northern Greenland and a rifle had to be kept on set to fend off polar bears.

'Beyond The Pole' is showing at the ICA from Friday until February 28, and at selected independent cinemas nationwide from March.

Helen Baxendale on filming Beyond the Pole

The Friends and Cold Feet actress has produced a film about a duo, starring Stephen Mangan, on mission to the North Pole.

Our grey world does not exist except in the imagination of the blue people. A startling statement, perhaps, but to those who heard the first two instalments of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran's My Blue Heaven trilogy the concept should be familiar. To all others, welcome to the Douglas Adams-esque world of Graham Slater (Stephen Mangan), who is employed by his childhood imaginary friend, Mr Fluffy, a blue creature now known as Lapis Lazuli. He has to rid his friend's dimension of poisonous cash from the toxic debts that caused the global recession. Keeping up? Good, because this is brilliant stuff, full of neat wordplay and wonderful characters: Graham's indomitable mother (Phyllida Law) and her improbable stories; the child-like Mr Fluffy; and the steely, honey-voiced tax officer. Top marks (and Gran, too).