The Revolution Will Be Televised

Radio Times review

Heydon accosts Theresa May at the Police Federation Conference in Bournemouth, while Jolyon befuddles celebrities in Cannes with questions about torture and radical Islam.

Ironically, the funniest clip sees Jolyon swallowing a taste of his own medicine: posing as a right-wing US journalist, he is taken to task by the nonplussed employee of a legal cannabis nursery in Colorado.

If you read this website on a regular basis then you know we're big supporters of the save BBC Three campaign. Despite that, occasionally the channel produces a programme that tarnishes their name and The Revolution Will be Televised is one such show. Whilst I don't blame the channel for bringing back the satirical comedy, especially as it won a BAFTA last year, Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein offer nothing new during this third outing. Old ground is retread courtesy of Dennis Pennis-lite character Zam Zmith whilst plenty of the puns concerning Wonga and Nandos' suspect business policies were just woeful. Meanwhile the duo's jaunt to America means that their coalition MP characters were given the chance to mingle with Sarah Palin and Bill Clinton. This trip to the States also allowed for their character of reporter Dale Maily to quiz several Americans about their use of firearms. These segments took up quite a lot of the show and I thought that the show really sought cheap soundbites rather than anything substantial. I personally feel that the main issue with The Revolution Will be Televised is that both Prowse and Rubinstein come across as self-satisfying toffs who feel jubilant when they get a famous face on their programme. This is best exemplified when they approach Gordon Brown at a book signing with their version of his tome having a different cover from the original. I felt that this segment had nothing to say and instead felt like an opportunity for the boys to pat themselves on the back for getting a former Prime Minister on their show. For a show that won the Comedy Programme BAFTA, the other issue with The Revolution Will be Televised is that it's not funny at all. All the gags are obvious and clichéd there is nothing clever on show here and I for one feel that if the programme hadn't won an award then it wouldn't have been rewarded with a third series. Suffice to say that I won't be watching the rest of this run and I recommend that all of you do the same.

This new series sees the team take to the US seeking some fresh satirical meat. Dale Maily salutes the NRA's quest to put guns in youthful hands, political poltroon James seeks a special relationship with Sarah Palin, while his coalition cohort cosies up to Bill Clinton. Back home, there's an addition to the Saatchi gallery in London and a look at Nando's chickening out of tax obligations. To paraphrase Stewart Lee, you might not laugh much but you'll agree the hell out of it.

TV preview: The Revolution Will Be Televised, BBC3

So what do you do when you've mercilessly mocked Britain's most famous politicians and their security teams have probably got pictures of you as their smartphone screensavers? Pretty obvious really. You do what Sacha Baron Cohen did when Ali G's pranks made him too recognisable over here and head to the USA.

Heydon Prowse: Save BBC Three

BBC Three allowed Heydon Prowse to take his satirical collective Don't Panic from the internet to national TV - and win a Bafta in the process. He argues that the loss of the channel to cost-cutting would be a disaster for the youth of the UK.

Radio Times review

Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein bow out with a last clutch of stunts, many of them harder-edged than before. Fake right-wing hack Dale Maily romps around the Notting Hill Carnival, in a segment that initially appears to be a rather uncomfortable experiment to see how people respond to a racist. But the magic of the event soon gets hold of him.

Backbenchers James and Barnaby take their abusive coalition relationship to a teachers' union protest, before going a step further by somehow being allowed to address a closed meeting. One scene will draw complaints, but it makes a basic point well: in Kensington, the Israeli embassy is expanding, which is bad news for the local shops that will have to be bulldozed.

The usual stunts - putting up insulting signs and delivering insulting props at corporate or political HQs - are above average this week, with a highlight being the brightly coloured donation boxes installed in the main parties' offices, so businessmen can leave money in exchange for a peerage. There's also an excellent re-edit of Ed Miliband's conference speech, turning into the dullest cover version of One Vision by Queen ever.

But increasingly the stars of this show are James and Barnaby, the low-ranking coalition goons played by pranksters Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse. This week they tackle Scottish independence, discussing the issue with kilted football fans approaching an England v Scotland match. Can they survive?

As with all political satire, gags are funnier if your targets are total arseholes. And with subjects for this concluding episode including tax-dodging corporations, health ministers and Nick Clegg, there are plenty of laughs. As ever, it's the ballsier stuff that stands out. The bit where tabloid hack Dale Maily (basically a younger, more racist Alan Partridge) hangs out at the Notting Hill carnival asking black people when they're going to start fighting boasts the sort of cojones we've not seen since Brass Eye.

Other pranks fall flat. Posting 'wanted' posters of Blair and Bush inside The Hague feels like the work of bored students, while the 'hipster safari' skit is an attempt to hop on a bandwagon that rolled off over the horizon two years ago. Luckily, the rest is sharp and smart enough to make sure the series closes with a reasonable amount of agenda-questioning wallop.