Hit The Road Jack

The very funny Jack Whitehall launches a fairly
funny show of his own. In the way of comedians' first solo TV outings, it's a little fiddly and over-engineered (see also Sarah Millican on BBC2) but cheerful and charming, too, like the man himself.

The idea is that Jack immerses himself in a different part of the UK each week, starting in Wales, where
he joins a male voice choir and gets a cameo in Pobol y Cwm. There are pranky bits (he poses as an alternative sports guru and tricks some rugby players into pretending to be animals) and a guest (Ruth Jones) and a bit of music and a bit of stand-up and yes, it's all a bit scattered and frantic, but good fun.

Frittering away much of the goodwill garnered by his fine turn in Fresh Meat, Jack Whitehall's country-trotting new show embodies the issues faced by TV commissioners in showcasing stand-ups. Stewart Lee aside, it's hard to think of a comedy vehicle that really works (although plenty deliver ratings). Hit The Road Jack is a noisy, chaotic blend of feeble sketches, passable stand-up, superficial chat and hackneyed Candid Camera-style stunts with a musical turn thrown in. The only thing missing is an identity. This opener sees Whitehall riffing on Welsh traits, bantering with Ruth Jones and cameoing in Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm. The laughs are few - over-indulgent studio audience excepted. He can come back, but only once more on the off-chance it's improved.

When Jack Whitehall hurtled on to the live stand-up scene a couple of years back, we found the hype never matched the talent. But it seems C4 knows just what to do with him: he was well cast as a posh boy with issues in the enjoyable Fresh Meat, and now it's fashioned a show that's a good outlet for his exuberance. It's a mixture of stand-up, pranks and chat, during which he immerses himself in different parts of Britain.

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At just 23, Jack Whitehall has been a fixture on TV's comedy panel game circuit for years and his recent appearance in the hit student sitcom Fresh Meat has won him a new set of fans. Now Channel 4 gives him a show of his own for the first time - in which he tours the country, mingling with locals and getting unsuspecting families to put him up before his gigs. He starts tonight in South Wales, playing a cameo role in Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm and, in inspired disguise, taking on the training session of a rugby team. It's all good fun but the broad humour definitely makes it deserving of this post-watershed slot. With guests Ruth Jones and Lethal Bizzle.

Jack Whitehall's stock has risen exponentially recently, thanks largely to his impressively judged turn as JP in Fresh Meat. If only Hit The Road Jack were cut from such adventurous cloth. A tour with a difference, it begins with Whitehall's basically harmless but low-rent stand-up, before he is "embedded" in the local community with slightly more amusing consequences (he keeps a creditably straight face while posing as an Australian rugby guru in Wales). He's a vaguely charming Jack of all trades but ultimately doesn't excel at any, save the acting.

Wish I'd been at the recent NME Awards because it sounds like Jack Whitehall did a fine job as host. Introducing the Kaiser Chiefs' singer he said: "Here to present the award is Ricky Wilson, a man who can predict riots seven years in advance. Here he is clad exclusively in Foot Locker." This is his comedy roadshow, beginning in Cardiff.

We're big fans of Jack Whitehall here at Digital Spy and we're dying to see whether he can shine in his first big solo TV outing. It's a bit of a strange premise, to be honest, blending together character-based comedy with elements of chatshows and travel documentaries as Jack sets off on a comedy tour of the UK. The first episode sees him joining a male choir and coaching a rugby team in Wales, before having a sit down with Miss Gavin & Stacey herself, Ruth Jones.

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Radio Times review

Mildly plummy, rapier-witted Jack Whitehall spends a week in a different British city, staying with a host family of strangers, and documenting his experiences. Along the way he visits Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Glasgow, Bristol and Essex, but the result is less a travelogue and more a vehicle for his polished TV persona (although his confidence was jarred when he met his host family in Glasgow and realised he'd snogged the daughter a few years previously while on a beach holiday).

At the end of each week, he presents what is essentially a madcap variety show at a local venue. He performs stand-up, which both celebrates and gently ribs each location, and reveals some of the candid-camera stunts he has carried out - in one city he convinced passers-by he was a doctor who had delivered a human baby from a pregnant cow!