Toast Of London

Toast of London, episode 3, review

The Mad Men star proved to be a good sport in the latest episode of the surreal comedy, says Isabel Mohan.

Toast of London, Channel 4 review

Jon Hamm and Brian Blessed add more delicious layers to Matt Berry's knowing comedy.

Toast of London: series 3, episode 2 review

My favourite part of a Toast of London episode, though, is always the small, irrelevant gags. There's a small joke about pubs constantly asking you how large your glass of wine should be, jokes about reticent house-mates, jokes about pretty much everything other than and including the topic of the episode. There's even a whole arc about home-brewing alcohol.

Toast's love life is in the doldrums. Luckily, Ed's girlfriend, Penvelope, has a friend, Clancy Moped (Sophie Colquhoun), "a weather girl off the television" who sports a Pussy Riot T-shirt. All goes well until Toast and Ed are asked to judge the International Beauty Contest for Women, a secretive event in the age of feminism. Fitfully amusing - especially the bits tonight with Peter Davison - but three series in, it's difficult to shake the idea that Toast's peculiarly heightened world has become too self-contained and self-referential.

Steven Toast reviews Michael Fassbender's Macbeth

Justin Kurzel's new take on Shakespeare's finest gets a resounding two thumbs down from veteran actor Steven Toast. Mind you, he only watched the trailer.

5 reasons why Toast of London is comedy gold

Here's a quick 5-point list detailing why Toast of London is the funniest show out there.

Radio Times review

After being hit on the head, terminal womaniser Steven Toast falls in love - with a man. And not just any man, but Jon Hamm, handsome star of Mad Men, who's making a film about Tommy Cooper in Dorset.

"I've literally never heard of him," Toast tells his giddy agent Jane Plough (pronounced Pluff). But once "the Hamm", as he is referred to throughout, walks through the doors of the decrepit Colonial Club, Toast (Matt Berry) is smitten. Not even he can resist the Hamm's fabled "charm and charisma" ("It's like black magic!").

Toast's puppy-like devotion - he makes Hamm a mix tape of marching tunes and spies on him as he undresses - is both idiotic and funny, and Hamm plays along with an admirable poker face. Watch out for guests Heida Reed (Poldark) and Brian Blessed as Toast's dad.

Extended interview: Matt Berry

I interviewed Matt Berry last month at Channel 4's offices near Victoria to tie in with the new series of Toast of London, which goes out on C4 on Wednesdays at 10.30pm.

Toast of London returned. I quite like it. Lovely little bits. Toast's mad agent, Jane Plough, pronouncing it "Pluff". Great take on Cockernee rhyming slang - "Could have been something to do with the amount of Children in Need I was smoking"; Meryl Streep's alleged fear of bells; but too often unsmiling longueurs intervene. It's no Count Arthur Strong or Citizen Khan, certainly, but it's also no Peep Show.

Matt Berry interview: My organ obsession...

Toast of London star Matt Berry discusses his collection of organs - which include those played by legendary rock stars.