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Saturday nights on television at this time of year are a desolate place. Once the swarm of dance and talent shows have scarpered, lottery game shows roam freely in the primetime slots, and comedy repeats scatter themselves across the schedules unheeded. In a move to remedy this then, Lee Mack’s All Star Cast makes its first tentative appearance this week as a variety show that involves the home and studio audience. Whilst part of me cowers at the phrase ‘variety show,’ I’m reassured by the presence of Lee Mack, master of quick-fire stand-up, sketch and sitcom, who is surely capable of taming such an idea.
It’s difficult to know initially how seriously these shows plan to take themselves. The answer here, I suspect, is ‘not very.’ The one thing that strikes me first off is the size of the studio. Fair enough, it’s a new series, but this audience is small. I feel like I’m watching an over-enthusiastic school assembly as the dandy headmaster enters via a set of sparkly stairs flanked by gospel singers. Speaking of which, is the ‘house band’ a mischievous smirk at a certain abandoned chat show? I hope so.
Mack’s jokes are sharp and set things off smoothly. It’s probably cheating to book chatshow hosts Fern Britton and Frank Skinner as interviewees – and Mack is quite obviously not an interviewer – but it appears that they’re there to egg on the public’s contribution rather than actually talk about themselves. Not that the public need any encouragement; they can always be relied upon to be a little bit nuts. A lookalikes round finds three audience members who think they look like a celebrity: “How would you make me look good naked?” Mack asks the Gok Wan clone. “A bodybag?” the guy suggests. “You cheeky little s**t!” Mack responds, demonstrating the only reason why this show is on post-watershed. Mack is so good at keeping the gags both funny and relatively clean that sticking this show on after 9pm feels a little unjustified. Maybe the producers just don’t want so many people to see the audience matching Mack’s comic talent.
A couple of minutes later, and the audience at home make their contribution in the form of webcam videos; my eyes are bombarded with footage of a singing navel, a guy who drinks some milk, and a woman who sings like she’s swallowed a chipmunk. Next year’s BGT finalists, I predict. As enlightening as this experience was (I’m not going to stretch to ‘entertaining’), more time should have been allotted to comedian Stewart Francis, who was given the microphone for a criminally short time. I was also expecting Mack’s brief sketch – which starred Tess Daly, for some reason, and James Blunt – to be funnier than it was.
And yes, one thing that this show allowed me to do was admit – controversially, I know – that I like James Blunt. No, really. This is a man who laughs in the face of mockery and relentless rhyming slang jokes, and you know what, his songs aren’t that bad. There’s a lot worse out there. Of course I skipped through most of his performance at the end (thank yooou, iPlayer!), but the beginning bit wasn’t horrendous.
It’s a mixed bag, this one; I think All Star Cast has the potential to be a bit more tongue-in-cheek now that it’s set the pace. As long as the audience continues to provide the same bonkers content, the series should be worth watching, but it’s still Mack who’s the best thing about it. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Lee Mack's All Star Cast continues on Saturday at 9.50pm on BBC One, with Shane Richie, Ulrika Jonsson and Milton Jones.
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