Stephen Merchant

Jonathan Ross is on his way out, but all hail Graham Norton, whose chat show is breezy, silly and a perfect nightcap at the end of the first day of the working week. I particularly like the way all of his guests end up on the sofa together, rather than each scurrying off to the green room after their moments in the spotlight to giggle self-consciously while everyone else has their turn. Some of the best bits of the last series involved high jinks between the stars, like the hopelessly solipsistic Katie Price coming under the withering gaze of a mischievous Jo Brand. Or model/actress Lily Cole looking lost as she droned on about her new film, while Sue Perkins and Isabella Rossellini were there just to enjoy themselves. Tonight's guests Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant should be good value as they discuss their new film Cemetery Junction. They'll be joined by actress Christina Ricci, and there's music from Pixie Lott.

Stephen Merchant interview

Ricky Gervais's low-key creative partner Stephen Merchant explains why there's no shame in schmaltz.

Telegraph columnist and ubiquitous TV host Graham Norton returns with a new series of his anarchic chat show. Tonight's guests include comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who discuss their new film Cemetery Junction. They'll be joined on the sofa by actress Christina Ricci and there's music from Pixie Lott.

For this two-hour bonanza in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, Channel 4 recently assembled 24 of Britain's best comedians to perform in front of a live audience at the O2 arena in London. So - deep breath - Jack Dee, Andy Parsons, David Mitchell, Fonejacker, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand, James Corden, Jason Manford, John Bishop, Kevin Bridges, Kevin Eldon, Lee Evans, Mark Watson, Michael McIntyre, Noel Fielding, Patrick Kielty, Rich Hall, Rob Brydon, Ruth Jones, Sean Lock, Catherine Tate and Shappi Khorsandi take turns on stage to make it the biggest live stand-up show in British history. If that's not enough for you, Alan Carr and Bill Bailey perform with Stomp and Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Johnny Depp provide additional sketches.

Exclusive: a sneak peek at Cemetery Junction

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have allowed Times Online an exclusive peek at their forthcoming film, Cemetery Junction.

The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO): Review

The American cable TV channel HBO's animated series using the original recordings of The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts features the funnyman himself as well as his longtime collaborator Stephen Merchant.

Stephen Merchant signs on for 'Hall Pass'

Stephen Merchant has signed on for the upcoming Farrelly brothers' comedy Hall Pass.

Ricky Gervais returns ... as a cartoon character

British comic animates pioneering Guardian podcasts for HBO with sidekicks Stephen Merchant and long-suffering Karl Pilkington.

In Radio 2's Very Nearly an Armful - a quote from The Blood Donor, as any self-respecting baby boomer will know - the comedy writer Stephen Merchant analysed their lasting appeal, with the help of Denis Norden, Ben Elton, Beryl Vertue and David Mitchell.

It was to Norden and his writing partner Frank Muir that the two working-class lads, thrown together in a TB sanitorium in their late teens, sent their first efforts at comedy scriptwriting. Norden recognised their raw talent instantly and later put them "in a class of their own". They broke more new ground than any of their contemporaries, he said.

Apart from anything else, Galton and Simpson pioneered what Norden called "the jokeless radio comedy", by which he meant a series (Hancock) which relied on situation and character, rather than an endless stream of gags. It was the beginning of the sitcom.

Its apogee was Steptoe and Son, each half-hour episode a perfect little mini-drama of aspiration, conflict and disappointment, distinguished as much by the fine playing of Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett as it was by the masterly writing of Galton and Simpson.

Miranda is apparently created in a 1970s retro sitcom factory in which leftover bits of Penelope Keith and Felicity Kendal had been mixed up with some Cath Kidston wallpaper to create a kind of comedy mache, if you will - which was in turn left to dry inside a set made of balsa wood and tissues (though sadly not in front of a live studio audience) before viewers are invited to see whether their laughter makes it fall over or merely wobble a bit before righting itself...

Comedically speaking, Miranda Hart's size is apparently everything, so I fear she can never be considered funny outside of the context of her height, and nobody ever says that about Stephen Merchant.

Hart presumably came to terms with the innately sexist Tall = Funny equation (she's 6ft 1in) some years ago, so gags focusing on the idea of a thirtysomething woman who is clearly slightly surprised to be 6ft 1in are bound to feel a bit weird, as if Hart had only just swallowed the contents of the "Drink me" bottle and woken up all oooooh-errr!

But if you can accept the idea that a large lady tripping over cardboard boxes a lot, and being styled like Danny La Rue ("Oh Miranda, why are you dressed like a transvestite?!"), and having an unrequited crush on a handsome chef, not to mention Patricia Hodge as her elegantly trim mother, are intrinsically amusing, then Miranda is very amusing.

For everybody else, though, it's merely a cheap-looking sitcom starring a big girl who keeps being mistaken for a man ("Did he just call me Sir?"), despite not looking remotely like one. Kind of camp, sort of silly and a little bit sweet, but not, I think, quite enough of any of those to matter, Miranda feels like a throwback to an ancient, lost comedy era that is, if not quite pre-Cambrian, then certainly mid-20th century, pre-Cowell.