Tom Hanks

The Graham Norton Show: BBC1, review

Tom Hanks, Florence Pugh and Anthony Joshua helped Graham Norton -- and the rest of us -- ring in the new year

Fry: I'd like to be on QI again; Tom Hanks is a QI fan

Fry, who hosted over 3,000 hours of the much loved programme, also revealed that he was asked to host University Challenge before he accepted the QI job.

Preview - The Graham Norton Show

With the 2017 movie scene kicking off to a good start with the likes of award winning productions such as La La Land and Lion, and new music from Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, The Graham Norton Show's most recent series has had a rather star-studded guest line-up.

Chris Ramsey: meeting Tom Hanks was like meeting God

Chris Ramsey has compared meeting Tom Hanks to what he imagines meeting God would be like and added that he was like "charisma on a stick".

James Corden on US TV review: witty, inspired...

Though unknown in America, James Corden tore down talkshow conventions and performed admirably, especially in a retrospective of Tom Hanks's career.

There's a massive spider on the wall in the men's toilet at the nursing home where Derek (Channel 4) works. Is it after the fly perhaps? No, because this is Ricky Gervais wobbly hand-held mockumentary style. Who is this camera operator supposed to be though? A recovering alcoholic? A resident? Maybe with Parkinson's? Certainly with no previous experience of camera operation - it's lurching all over the place, zooming in and out, I'm feeling a bit airsick to be honest. Oh for a bit of fly-on-a-wall steadiness.

And what are these amateur documentaries supposed to be, do you ever ask? I suppose a residential care home is a more likely subject than a Slough-based paper company, but I'm wondering if the whole mockumentary idea is a little tired?

Anyway, the reason for the big spider is of course to demonstrate Derek's nature. He's terrified of it but he certainly doesn't want it killed. "Go and get a cup, catch it," he tells Dougie (Karl Pilkington). "Make sure you catch it, and let it go free." Derek may not be the brightest tool in the box, or the bravest, but he's a good guy, kind and gentle, and he loves animals.

You can tell that Derek's not so bright, a bit backward, because of the way RG plays him. He hunches over a little, tilts his head to one side, darts his eyes around, grimaces idiotically, and he holds his hands in front of him, like some kind of rodent. Plus, he's not so good at declining his verbs. "Animals always tries their best," he says, demonstrating his selflessness and love of animals as well as confusion over the third person. It's the same on Twitter: "I loves animals," tweets @MrDerekNoakes. It's always a dead give away, poor verb declension ...

That's the biggest problem with Derek. Not, as some have said, that it mocks people with learning difficulties (it's too kind for that, and tries to be sympathetic). Just that it's a very crude portrayal. Gervais's previous characters - David Brent and Andy Millman - are not, I suspect, so very different from RG himself, kind of grotesque caricatures. Here he's trying to be someone else completely, and it's awful.

It may not be fashionable, but I'm a fan of Ricky Gervais. I used to like him on the radio with Stephen Merchant. Then The Office pretty much changed comedy on television, invented awkwardness. Extras was bold and bloody hilarious. I also very much enjoyed his Golden Globes hosting - baring a cheeky British arse to humourless Hollywood. But he's no Tom Hanks himself (and Derek's not Forrest Gump). Karl Pilkington also - I enjoy his Idiot Abroad show but he's no great actor.

Derek's father has moved in. He's a ladies' man, and he likes a drink (well, he seems to be Irish, maybe Derek isn't totally lazy-stereotype free). But the old man is a good 'un too. He's got a photo album, pictures of himself on holiday - France, Germany, Morocco, Spain - with a different lady in each place. "That's the point in travelling, boy: nookie." "Newquay?" says Derek, darting his eyes around, shaking his head. "I haven't been to Newquay."

A pun! Nookie, said a bit drunk and a bit Irish (same thing innit?) sounds a bit like Newquay. Especially if you're a half-wit ...

That's the other big problem with Derek. That it's not very smart. Or very funny. Or very good.

The mighty Graham Norton returned to his Friday night chat-berth last week, when he was greeted with open arms by viewers, and tonight the slightly less mighty Ross is back. The unspoken but received wisdom is that Norton gets the good guests, but the opening show is stellar. Tom Hanks is the guest everyone wants because he's a pro - easy-going, effortlessly funny, he knows what's required of him and he delivers. He'' with Ross tonight to talk about his new film Captain Phillips, based on the true story of the hijacking of a ship by Somali pirates. The word "Oscar" is already being bandied about. Fellow guest Sandra Bullock could be up for glittering prizes too with her new film Gravity, about stranded astronauts.

The brainchild of Adam Chase, one of the key writers on Friends, Clone is a new comedy series starring Jonathan Pryce as a brilliant scientist who unveils the result of his life's work: the first human clone, intended to be a prototype super-soldier. It soon becomes apparent that this is far from the case - the Clone (played along the lines of Tom Hanks in Big by Stuart McLoughlin) is more likely to hug someone than shoot them. There's no doubt that this is an interesting premise for a comedy, it's just a shame that it has to resort to crude gags, canned laughter and weak slapstick to get laughs. Nice riff around the smoking ban though, and Mark Gatiss is great as an odious Army colonel. Must try harder.