Beehive

The comedian: Barunka O'Shaughnessy

Barunka O'Shaughnessy once worked in a jam factory in order to make ends meet. Now she is one of four performers in E4's new all-female sketch show, Beehive, which has been compared to both Smack the Pony and French and Saunders.

Sketch shows really are ten a penny these days, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell them apart, but Beehive can at least boast the distinction of an all female cast. However, any initial hopes that this show may prove the successor to Smack The Pony are quickly dashed.

Beehive certainly has its moments, but not enough of them. Highlights included the demure geishas who were prone to very noisy flatulence, the playground full of George Michaels and the three musketeers whose 'all for one and one for all' philosophy extended to going out on a date. But a smile was all that these managed to raise, with the rest of the sketches leaving me cold.

I am assured by people whose judgment I trust that the episode I caught was an uncharacteristically weak one. Also, the show's quartet of performers are all funny and charismatic. So Beehive probably deserves the benefit of the doubt, and a second chance. It might be a slow developer, but I am not hopeful.

A mix of a little bit of originality and some shameless (but superbly done) copying of other comedy shows, this had a high enough laughs to gags ratio to make sure we'll stick with it. Hopefully there'll be more original ideas as it progresses.

If you want to understand the comedy in Beehive, E4's new all-female sketch show, it helps to have a sense of recent television history. One of the sketches here is a virtual remake - shall we say homage, to be polite? - of a classic French and Saunders sketch in which a young child tries to explain the facts of life (a synthetic adult notion of what it would be funny for a child to say, which contrasts markedly with Outnumbered). Elsewhere, you can see the influence of Blackadder II's Queeny (in a sketch in which Queen Elizabeth tries to pretend to her courtiers that she's not a virgin at all), The Fast Show's orange make-up lady (in a returning routine about two passive-aggressive South African air hostesses) and Smack the Pony pretty much everywhere (but particularly in the little video vignettes that interrupt the bigger set pieces).

Memories of Smack the Pony are going to give them the most trouble, because the team here are just not quite as assured about underplaying the comedy (and some of the studio shoots look a little bargain basement). But when they follow their own lines, they can be funny and unexpected. There's a nicely pointless fantasy in which they appear as Russells Brand, all styled and talking like the celebrated Sachs offender. And there was something pleasingly enigmatic about the sketch in which one of the girls claimed to be able to replicate a famous scene from Alien, jabbing between her outspread fingers with a carving knife at dazzling speed while staring impassively in front of her. When she did eventually look down, she discovered she'd cut off all her fingers, an expensive bit of prosthetic work that they rather milked in the reaction shots. But it was the deadpan response of her friend that really made it funny. "I'm sorry... but... is this still part of the film?" she asked quizzically, looking at a shambles of fingertips and blood.

Beehive Review

While I am wary of damning anything after just one episode, I don't think that too many people were holding their breath that E4's Beehive, aired last night would deliver us an all-girl comedy band of the quality of Smack The Pony - and they were right not to.

Four woman dressed up as Russell Brand rummaging through a rubbish bin exclaiming 'forsooth' and 'perchance' makes for a diverting image. But like most of Beehive, the comedy sketch show from whence it sprang, it was only half an idea - a cartoon cut-out in search of a gag to hang it on. It's just too easy to get this sort of half-baked stuff on the telly these days.

A new sketch show with a female cast who'll be vaguely familiar from other comedy shows. It favours sight gags using brash, colourful costumes and props, but they can't disguise the fact that the scripts are far too crass, loose and random. Look out, though, for the four Russell Brands.

The ladies behind this new all-girl sketch show - Alice Lowe, Sarah Kendall, Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Clare Thomson - have earned their stripes around some of the best: their comedy CVs include shows with Mitchell and Webb, Steve Coogan and the Little Britain boys. Here they extrapolate events from pop culture - the girls scallywag about as four Russell Brands and there's a what-they'd-really-say take on Sex and the City. They then add in everyday moments with a surreal veneer - should you go on a date dressed as a duck?, etc. A few bits of nostalgia and poignancy may raise smiles, but Beehive is otherwise a punchline-free zone.

Hmmm, an all-women sketch show - could this be the new Smack The Pony? In a word, no. For every funny skit several fail to raise a smile, let alone a laugh.

It's a shame. There's real comic talent here - one, Sarah Kendall, is a brilliant stand-up who always makes me laugh in her day job. But the scripts are looser than Sex And The City's Samantha (who they spoof, along with the rest of the girls). And some sketches are just pointless.

There's a crude SATC moment when a waiter says to a smutty Samantha: 'Please stop that. You are sad and embarrassing.' At times watching this, I thought the same. It's not all bad, though. Their homage to Alien is funny (no, they're not spoofing the scene you'd expect), as is their Weird Science skit, when two nerdy girls try to make the perfect man.

The second of tonight's double-bill is the better episode, greatly helped by their quartet of Madonnas. The sheep-herding sketch will tickle the funny bone of many a dog owner. And possibly Guy Ritchie.

Stinging Criticism

Sarah Kendall, Alice Lowe, Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Clare Thomson are decent performers, but the writing lacks the subtlety and ­characterisation necessary to draw in the audience.