Horne & Corden

Mathew Horne: 'Critics went too far'

Mathew Horne has admitted that he was "hurt" by the backlash he received in the press earlier this year.

Horne and Corden sketch show 'put on hold'

BBC Three's Horne and Corden sketch show has been put on hold but is not being permanently axed, a spokeswoman has said.

Mathew Horne talks about criticism

Mat says: "By our own admission, we were getting a bit overexposed. But all the same, the bad press we were getting was agony. There was nothing we could do but watch it unfold."

Bafflingly, this has made the move to BBC2, so in case you didn't see the first run of the sketch show that earned the ever-present Mathew Horne and James Corden such a mauling, here's a second chance. It's hard to know what's more bleak about it - how witlessly crude it is, the air of nastiness that comes with characters like gay reporter Tim Woodall (in a war zone! In tiny shorts!) or, crucially, the lack of anything even resembling humour - unless the repeated sight of a jiggling belly is your thing.

The golden boys of Gavin and Stacey, Mathew Horne and James Corden, were rewarded with their own sketch show on BBC Three, which attracted a record audience of 817,000 for the first episode. After that, it was downhill all the way. Directed by Kathy Burke, the show was roundly slated for being amateurish, crude and aggressively unfunny. Viewing figures collapsed, with only 434,000 bothering with the final episode. In one sketch, two teachers give a joint lesson to a class on how to draw penises; in another, James Corden keeps shouting "I'm going to come!" while having sex. Elsewhere, he pulls up his shirt and rolls his stomach in front of a burger bar as a form of consumer complaint. The acting is accomplished enough, but that's as far it goes. Viewers on terrestrial television can now find out what they haven't been missing.

Stop whining about the BBC's expenses, Brand and Ross, licence fee or whatever. Focus all your anger at this. Watch it for as long as you can bear and then ask yourself: How? How did this ever make it onto television? Then ask yourself: Why? Why did someone recommission this? Then, when you've finished slowly weeping at the hideous nature of humanity, feted for ever to injure itself, whether through global warming, war or terrible camp news reporter jokes, write a letter to the BBC.

James Corden Interview

One minute, the creator of Gavin & Stacey could do no wrong ... the next, one of our best comic talents was the butt of every critic's wrath. He talks to The Observer about success, fame and the fallout from a critical backlash.

Horne & Corden is not something to celebrate

It shows the depths that comedy on BBC3 has plumbed when the corporation crows about the car crash that was Horne & Corden.

Horne & Corden: is the BBC playing a ratings game?

The news that the BBC is looking to renew sketch show Horne & Corden has been met with many raised eyebrows. While the opening show brought in record numbers for a first episode of a comedy series (817,000), it lost almost half the viewers over the six episode run. Coupled with a poor critical response, this did not look like a show that was ready to return. So how has the BBC come to decisions like this one?

Horne & Corden BBC3's most successful comedy launch

Horne And Corden, the sketch show written by and starring Mat Horne and James Corden, was the most successful first series of a comedy on BBC Three. The series, which finished its run of six episodes last week, not only broke all previous records amongst the channel's target audience of 16-34s, but also amongst all audiences.