Terry Mynott

Brilliant impressions by ace mimics Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott on Channel 4's passable new comedy offering Very Important People.

But the dazzling duo's alleged all-out attack on celebrity culture was about as hard hitting as Daybreak.

Therefore, it wasn't very funny.

How mortified must Gordon Ramsay be that Terry has noticed he swears a lot? Wow!

And Danny Dyer will be reeling after Morgana depicted him as a bit of a Cockney. Who knew?

Why spoil Mr Mynott's seamless Bear Grylls with far-fetched tosh about him doing a George Michael in the Gents? Hee hee.

What VIP needs to do is hit 'em where it hurts. Below the hypocrisy belt.

Eg... Gord Almighty pretending he was a crack-spear fisherman when he couldn't catch a cold.

Or born contriver Grylls tucked up in a warm hotel when he was supposed to be braving the harsh conditions of the wilderness.

In fairness... don't suppose Frankie Boyle enjoyed being portrayed as a nasty little troll. And Jonathan Woss's ongoing midlife "kwisis" showed potential.

Go for jugular. Simply copying self-satisfied stars is pointless...

VIP prioritised 'important' over 'mockable' people

Very Important People saw some uncanny impressions from Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, but the duo often fell into the trap of trying to 'do' celebrities just because they were Very Important, even if they couldn't impersonate them very well.

Grace Dent on televsion: Very Important People, C4

I'm rather obsessed with Very Important People, the latest work from Morgana Robinson, Terry Mynott and Matt Morgan. I just love this show; the mimics are good and the material strong.

More hits than misses at Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott's new C4 impressions show Very Important People.

Adele struggling to order a round of drinks and Danny Dyer's Britain's Hardest Commute were both brilliantly done. But the merciless dissection of Frankie Boyle's shock tactics was the highlight: 'Every night Frankie checks the news to see if a child has been murdered.'

Way to go, VIP. Keep it unfriendly.

The showpiece of Channel 4's new Friday night comedy line-up is a brand new impressions show.

Morgana Robinson appears with one of her co-stars from The Morgana Show, Terry Mynott - a comedy actor so unfamous he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page yet.

But he absolutely steals this first episode with his spot-on take of the BBC's favourite groovy scientist Professor Brian Cox, posing in front of areas of natural beauty wearing high street brands.

It's the voice that makes it so funny - and it's a parody that's cutting but sweetly affectionate too.

I doubt though that Bear Grylls will be as pleased with the job they've done on him as he tries to survive in the suburbs.

Mynott's take on David Attenborough explaining the lifestyle of Frankie Boyle is another zinger.

Behind the rubber masks, it can be hard to tell who's doing who.

Morgana impersonates men too. Her Russell Brand isn't a patch on her Natalie Cassidy, though.

You can't help being trepidatious about this new impressions show. It's focused on the trashier end of celebrity, it stars Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, who received mixed reviews for The Morgana Show, and the fact that it's a new impressions show is worrying in itself.

Much of Very Important People is indeed cheap and derivative, leaning heavily on gaps filled with swearing and, in the case of doing Brian Cox as a preening fop, jokes that were dead and gone 12 months ago. But I must admit that Robinson's takes on Frankie Boyle, Danny Dyer and Natalie Cassidy had me spluttering merrily.

As Mitchell & Webb once pointed out, it's in the nature of the sketch show to be patchy. And this new C4 offering combining sketches with impressions maintains that archetype. Starring Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, Very Important People mostly trains its sights on the banalities of celebrity culture. It's a risky strategy; these are the softest of targets - is it necessary to take the piss out of Amy Childs and Joe Swash when they're already giving it away by the bucketload? Still, VIP does hit the mark often enough to suggest that these are talented performers, even if their material needs to challenge them more. Brian Cox is good-naturedly skewered for his vanity - gazing at stars, boasting about his jacket and bullying his hapless cameraman along the way. And the sketch in which Frankie Boyle is observed in his natural habitat (the book signing, searching for news of murdered children on the internet) by David Attenborough at least has the advantage of feeling like a hunt for some bigger game. Far from perfect, but worth keeping an eye on.

In the 70s, audiences laughed in appreciative recognition as Mike Yarwood impersonated a range of public characters, even including trade union leaders. With latterday cultural fragmentation and the thin spread of increasingly nondescript "celebrities", the job of an impressions show such as this, starring Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, becomes all the harder. It is telling that they often have to announce who it is they're doing. Still, this is as capable as could be expected; in the first episode, Bear Grylls tries out his survival skills in the suburbs, while David Attenborough studies at close hand the remarkable animal that is Frankie Boyle.

From Spitting Image to Dead Ringers, satirising powerful public figures through mischievous impressions has been a popular shtick among British comedians. But Channel 4's new sardonically named sketch show, led by able newcomers Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott, subverts the familiar blueprint. Like Bo Selecta's less surreal cousin, it opts to target C to Z-listers - products of ITV2 celebrity filler, the blogosphere and reality TV.

By design, this is a dangerous game, often relying on an audience obsessed with the kind of inane "celebrity" culture it seeks to send up. So while it's just about possible to relate to a sketch involving ex-EastEnder Natalie Cassidy in a faux reality show called I'm Doing This Now - "just hosing down the bins, really" - a mocked-up musical with Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon falls flat.

Ultimately, it's the humour involving better-known subjects - including uncanny impersonations of Gordon Ramsay and David Attenborough - which keeps Very Important People afloat. It's a brave experiment, taking a deserved swipe at vacuous popular culture norms. But will people see the funny side?