Steve Pemberton

Camping review: a gloriously bleak comedy masterpiece

I'm not yet sure that it's quite up there with Nighty Night or Hunderby, but there's no better comedy around at the moment. The only pity is it's on Sky.

The latest offering from Julia Davis (Nighty Night) focuses on a holiday under canvas. It's a trip to celebrate the 50th birthday of Robin (Steve Pemberton), who's married to Fiona (Vicki Pepperdine), a woman so assertive she puts the campsite kettle "out of bounds" to maintain tent-life authenticity. But can Fiona's itinerary-making authoritarianism survive the arrival of Tom (Rufus Jones) and his new partner (Davis)? A comedy that's best when it's close to the knuckle, which is most of the time.

This new comedy from Julia Davis is brilliantly slow and agonising. You might cringe as you watch the sour and snappy Fi (Vicki Pepperdine), as with comedies like The Office where you wince at David Brent's lack of social awareness.

Fi is a brittle, neurotic woman, dressed permanently in beige, who refers to her kind and timid husband, Robin (Steve Pemberton), as "stupid idiot." She has organised a camping weekend for Robin's birthday and has planned everything with terrifying precision, so when things start to unravel so does Fi's temper. "This isn't really going to work for me" she seethes on viewing the sleeping arrangements and on hearing new visitors arrive unannounced. Even the use of the campsite kettle infuriates her: "It's for an emergency situation only which we would have to define in the moment!"

So when Tom turns up with his frisky new girlfriend who's clad in leopard-skin, the tension is nearly unbearable. With such rough guests, how can Fi possibly police her son's mealtimes and make sure he doesn't eat anything "vaguely homosexual", like sun-dried tomatoes or baguettes?

Radio Times review

Benidorm is ailing. I speak as one who loved the earlier series but, as the eighth opens, it can barely crank out an ounce of credibility in the storylines, let alone a decent laugh. The Garveys are gone and with them any clout Steve Pemberton, Sheila Reid and Siobhan Finneran brought to the show (although Reid will be back for a guest spot).

A new family, the Dawsons (headed by a shrill Julie Graham), make little impact, while Joyce (Sherrie Hewson) seriously considers hiring the deeply unsavoury Marcus (Robin Askwith).

On a positive note, Jacqueline gives her late hubby Donald a touching send-off, aided by hairdresser Troy (Paul Bazely, returning after four years away).

A second outing for Harry Hill as the Steve Jobs of slapstick inventions, absent-mindedly terrorising the quaint village of Great Pagwell with his daft contraptions. Branestawm's pre-eminence is challenged by snide Professor Algebrain (Steve Pemberton), a heel-clicking Euro-rival determined to win a lucrative inventing competition bequeathed by the late Lady Pagwell. A considerable amount of buffoonery ensues. The game cast includes Vicki Pepperdine and Simon Day.

Radio Times review

Harry Hill returns as the multi-spectacled boffin of Norman Hunter's children's books. After Branestawm's TV introduction last Christmas, his cartoonish adventures are once again adapted by in-demand writer Charlie Higson. This time the chocolate-box village of Pagwell is, fortuitously, hosting an invention contest. But has Branestawm met his match in the ingenious Professor Algebrain (Steve Pemberton)?

Among an extraordinary cast giving fruity performances are Diana Rigg, Simon Day, Vicki Pepperdine, Matt Berry and his absurd intonations, Sophie Thompson and David Mitchell. From the clips available to RT, it's wildly eccentric, old-school and very funny - with a barking mad chase sequence.

You should be watching: Inside No. 9

Occupying a Tuesday evening timeslot on BBC Two, it was perhaps inevitable that Inside No. 9 didn't received the recognition it deserves. After only two short series, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have succeeded in creating one of the most original and well-written British TV series in years.

Series two of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's darkly comic anthology comes to a close with a suitably spooky instalment. Tina, an unassuming phone shop employee, enters a looming Victorian villa bearing the titular number, following an instruction to visit the mysterious medium Madam Talbot. Once inside, it soon becomes clear that unseen forces have been preparing for her visit. A fitting end to a second series that has excelled at times. One can but hope a third set of nines is to follow.

Radio Times review

For many, there's only a very fine line between comedy and horror; the two combined are an irresistible cocktail. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are masters in this field. For the final episode of this excellent anthology, they ensure we're snorting one minute and shuddering the next.

I shan't say too much about Séance Time, except that it happens inside a spooky house, where the gullible Tina (Sophie McShera, Downton Abbey's Daisy) is greeted by Shearsmith's character Hives (surely a nod to Laurel and Hardy). Before long, Tina is introduced to a black-veiled, hoarse and hilariously theatrical medium (Alison Steadman). The lights are dimmed and that's when the fun starts...