That Mitchell & Webb Sound

David Mitchell praises Sky Sports parody of Mitchell And Webb football sketch

On Friday (April 18), the sports broadcaster posted an advert for their coverage of EFL football over the Easter weekend, with presenter David Prutton using manic mannerisms and exaggerated promotional language that rang a bell for many comedy fans. The video, complete with Prutton's yellow-shirted suit, was a reference to a much-memed sketch from That Mitchell And Webb Look in 2008, which originally appeared in their radio series That Mitchell And Webb Sound, in which Mitchell spoofed the nature of footballer broadcasters with lines like, "Catch all of the constantly happening football here, it's all here and it's all football, always!"

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David Mitchell and Robert Webb have lost none of their comedy momentum: the series continues as energetically as it started last week. This time, the running sketch is Mitchell as the "Radio 4 sommelier", with suggestions for a wine that will augment the most laughs in each section of the show. The most unexpected hilarity comes in a scene set in a tavern close to Count Dracula's castle where the endless list of vampire lore - ward them off with water, crucifixes, garlic etc - is given a very funny new twist.

A final word of praise for the wonderful Olivia Colman, whose skills as a comedy actress are put to good use.

Review: That Mitchell & Webb Sound

What comes across most strongly is that Mitchell and Webb clearly love what they are doing.

Anyone who witnessed David Starkey's altercation with Victoria Coren Mitchell on Question Time earlier this year will not be surprised to learn he is namechecked not once but twice in this brilliant sketch show. David Mitchell proves that revenge is a dish best served cold and seasoned with plenty of laughs.

David Mitchell attacks David Starkey in new series

The new series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound lambasts the TV historian six months after he was rude to Mitchell's wife Victoria Coren on Question Time.

Radio Review

So high is the standard of That Mitchell and Webb Sound that out of the 30 minutes, roughly 75 per cent was crackerjack.

How vividly we remember when and where we hear special things on the radio, staying in a car to hear the end of a football match, being in a garden and braving hay fever not to miss a word of a play. Six Augusts ago I remember walking round the Italian Garden in Hyde Park, listening to the very first episode of That Mitchell and Webb Sound and laughing so much my glasses steamed up and I couldn't see the fountains.

They were just starting off in Channel 4's Peep Show then but had been around on the comedy scene long enough to have established their act and attracted the BBC. Radio's tiny cheques (but careful fostering) helped them to a BBC TV series. As with Dead Ringers, however, radio fans who followed them found the same jokes but with pictures, slower, still funny but not exactly fresh. Last Tuesday evening they began their fourth Radio 4 series and it was simply brilliant.

Twelve sketches, written by an encyclopaedic list of writers, lit up the air. Caesar, with a spin doctor. The iReckon, a device to enjoy the thoughts you want in the order that suits you. A reprimand to employees for using their extraterrestrial portal as a dustbin ("What must the aliens think of us?"). A parody of an interview where there's nothing to say but they won't be let go until they say what the producer wants. Parodies of TV ads and BBC formats. A look forward to 2040 and Sky BBC12. Their rapport with the studio audience is remarkable, their supporting cast is first-rate. Will I mind if all these jokes turn up again on television? Not really. If it were the other way round, TV first, I would.