The Revolution Will Be Televised

Radio Times review

Sometimes this show feels rather like an endless list of depressing facts about a corrupt world, with the bad guys too numerous and malign to be dented by light pranking. With the best ideas naturally blown in the first few episodes, tonight there are quite a few will-this-do stunts, such as plastering a tax-avoidance slogan on Cadbury's HQ, then running away.

As always, Revolution is best when Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse interact at length with unwitting stooges, preferably in ridiculous circumstances. Their attempt to launch a privatised lifeguard service on Brighton beach does not go down well. And we still need more of BBCOMGWTF, the apparently vapid red-carpet interview segment that suddenly asks questions like: "Is Tony Blair a war criminal?"

Comedy revolution: political pranksters at large

They waltz into politicians' houses, party conferences and embassies highlighting the hypocrisies of the rich and powerful. And they've never been arrested - yet. Joshi Herrmann joins the BAFTA-winning Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein on their latest stunt: to try to flog the Houses of Parliament to the highest bidder

The second series plays out much like the first as posh boys Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubenstein try to act cleverer than those around them. The problem with The Revolution Will be Televised is that the idea of comedy characters interacting with politicians and newsworthy folk has been done better elsewhere. For example the opening sketch, in which a mock newsreader joins the EDL on one of their marches, put me in mind of something that you'd see done better on The Daily Show. The joke was basically that the EDL members basically believed every outrageous statement that was given to them, but I have feeling that the crew probably filmed for an entire day to get about four minutes' worth of footage. Meanwhile, the skit in which a celebrity interviewer gives big questions to famous faces was a direct rip-off of Dennis Pennis, though I'm guessing the central duo are hoping that their audience aren't old enough to remember him. Of course the biggest moment in this first episode was when the duo's mock politicians came face to face with David Cameron, who instantly brushed them off as the pair of juvenile jokers that they were. The fact that they probably thought that they'd achieved some sort of satirical masterstroke after interacting with the prime minister tells you all need to know about what's wrong with the show.

In my opinion the duo comes across as awfully pleased with themselves most of the time and you get the impression they think they're funnier than they actually are. Maybe it's just my age, but I feel that satirical comedy should be a lot cleverer than it is here and ultimately I didn't find any of Heydon and Jolyon's big stunts particularly funny.

Long may Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse run riot incognito. Tonight Ed Miliband, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage fall victim to the politically driven pranksters. Posing as a workman, Prowse also waltzes into the Afghan and Saudi Arabian embassies to install "a glass ceiling" to "protect women from their aspirations".

Not all of the stunts come off: Katie Price is already too much of a joke and Johnson sidesteps a certificate for being The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz. Still, when this viewer wasn't giggling, she was boggle-eyed at their gumption. Best of all is when they sell ice creams to bankers and charge their outraged customers extra for "insurance". The name painted on their cart: PP Ice creams. Geddit?

PPI. Extreme sexism in Saudi Arabia. The spread of betting shops in impoverished towns. The opening minutes of alone of The Revolution Will Be Televised call out all sorts of modern hypocrisies, without drawing breath or offering any solutions. But satire needn't be constructive, provided it's accurate and funny. And if the targets err on the soft side tonight (Katie Price's IQ, Boris Johnson's showbiz inclinations), the laughs keep coming.

Über-banal red-carpet show BBCOMGWTF is spot-on when it wrongfoots its deserving quarries ('Israel or Palestine?' Jerry Bruckheimer, pleased: 'Israel!') and the subtitles telling the truth behind the political soundbites are just so. Scattergun by its very nature - a bit longer spent on fewer issues might have been preferable - but the righteous anger is bracing in what has become a somewhat cowed BBC, post-Savile. To the barricades!

The Revolution Will Be Televised: seires 2 review

In attempting to make examples of those in Great Britain who exploit, lie and belittle their opponents for political and financial gain - the Beeb have taken a very definite political stance.

The Revolution Will Be Televised - TV review

Jolyon and Heydon even play a prank on David Cameron - what chutzpah!

They could scarcely have timed it better.

In the week when ex-BBC executive Mark Byford popped up to plug a book and defend his £949,000 pay-off as 'not greedy', Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse went chugging outside the BBC to raise money for BBC In Need. The Bafta-winning duo behind The Revolution Will Be Televised (BBC Three) were bang on the money.

You could criticise the second series of this mischievously scabrous satire as taking aim at exactly the same targets as the first - self-serving politicians, fat-cat money-brokers, corporations exploiting tax loopholes. But when those targets are so blatantly in need of a kicking, it's good to see someone stepping up to the mark.

The pair's stock-in-trade is penetrating the inner rings of power in cunning disguise. Their secret weapon is that they're entirely plausible as children of privilege. These chaps don't have chips on their shoulders, they've got herbed frites, and it's the sense that they are rejecting their own sense of entitlement that gives this revolution some added bite.

TV review: The Revolution Will Be Televised - Series 2

BBC Three's The Revolution Will Be Televised is precisely what the licence fee is for.

Class traitors Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse return for a second series of pranks, stunts and hard stats about the sort of injustices that make Russell Brand's blood boil. Making merriment out of tax avoidance or PR firms that shill for tyrants isn't easy, but Rubinstein and Prowse have two ways to achieve it: flat-out silliness and a colossal amount of nerve. The series two opener sees Rubinstein combine both as he somehow accosts David Cameron at a fundraiser, demanding that he autograph his 1986 Bullingdon Club annual.