That Mitchell And Webb Look

What is That Mitchell and Webb Look? I suspect it is the look of incredulity that passed over my face when I heard they'd got another series. Extremely clever and well performed by two very personable comics, it could still be a lot funnier.

In That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC2) David and Robert discuss the hit-and-miss nature of all sketch shows, including theirs. "If we didn't perversely include about 50% deliberately unamusing material, people would have to think of something else to say, wouldn't they," says David.

"Like we're too self-referential," says Robert.

"Ah, clever."

"And people call us smug," Robert adds, smugly.

Ah, doubly clever, and smug, and knowing. Quite funny, too. It is the only funny sketch of the lot - and there are 12 of them, I reckon, if you count the mini-movie spoofs as one. So when you say about 50%, David, what you really mean is about 92%.

If you lasted through to the end of Krod Mandoon you would have reached That Mitchell and Webb Look, which, three series in, is doing something rare among sketch shows: improving. The first two series were patchy - I might have said "hit-and-miss" but last night's episode featured a sketch lampooning reviewers who say that. Well, anyway: its hit-rate's up. The main characteristic of the show's humour is nerdish pedantry. If something improbable happens in a sketch, the characters won't follow comic convention and go with the flow; instead, they'll draw attention to it.

In one sketch, a man, played by David Mitchell, was having visions of the television chef Gary Rhodes - played by Robert Webb with a foot-high quiff. "Is that what Gary Rhodes looks like?" said Mitchell's character uncertainly. "No," beamed the vision, "but this is the best version of me that your imagination could piece together."

Another thing they do well: the good old-fashioned "subverting expectations" gag. One sketch was about a pair of sleazy snooker pundits reflecting on their time in the game.

"It's been me life," began one. "I've been obsessed with it, me whole life."

Pause. "That and snooker..."

That Mitchell And Webb Look 3.2 Review

Hit-and-miss. Just kidding! Well, it wasn't as good as last week's opener, but there weren't too many sketches that didn't make me giggle or smile, if only a few that had a genuinely brilliant idea behind them.

Thursday night is the new Friday night, judging by the amount of comedy on TV this evening. last week's opener take a pop at their critics here with a sketch about the irksome nature of writing "hit-and-miss" shows. "We've done two hit-and-miss series now, can't we go for some-thing different?" asks Webb. "If we didn't perversely include 50% of deliberately unamusing material, people would have to think of something else to say," replies Mitchell. There are quite a few hits tonight, particularly Please Remain Indoors, a post-apocalyptic quiz show.

The duo know their critics well: 'If we didn't perversely include 50 per cent deliberately unamusing material,' says David Mitchell in a self-referential script meeting in last week's opener, 'they'd have to think of something else to say.' Well, that's us told, then. Happily there are more hits than misses in this instalment.