TV Review

Published Friday 25 April 2008 at 11:10 by Harry Venning

Did you know that Heather Mills has only got one leg? No, nor me! So a big thank you to cutting-edge comedy Headcases for bringing the news to the nation’s collective attention.

ITV had presented Headcases as quality satire in the tradition of Spitting Image, promising caustic wit combined with state of the art, computer-generated animation. Well, at least they got the second part right.

Headcases looks wonderful, with beautifully observed caricatures inhabiting a gorgeously realised world of depth and shadows. The sumptuousness of CGI may be a little too ornate as a vehicle for satire - after all, you don’t need to wear handmade Italian leather shoes to deliver a kick to the groin - but it is unquestionably a delight to the eye.

Sadly, the visuals are poorly served by a script that barely delivers a satirical tap to the ankles, let alone any broadside boot to the balls. An irredeemably snooty David Cameron trying to understand the mentality of the UK’s “oik” population was the highest level of political sophistication it offered up, whilst the very inclusion of Posh Spice and Heather Mills as targets spoke volumes about the show’s originality of content. That the writers tried, and failed, to extract laughs from Mills’ amputee status was just plain depressing. Not from any devotion to political correctness, but because it revealed such paucity of imagination in the writing. That the sketch she featured in was also totally incomprehensible - something to do with Sylvester Stallone and other elderly action heroes trying to thwart her attempts to clone and then marry former Beatles - only served to annoy me more. After half an hour my jaw had atrophied into a rictus grimace of despondency from which it still hasn’t fully recovered.

So, to sum up - watch Headcases, but with the sound down.

Headcases wasn’t the worst comedy of the week. That honour fell to Comedy Sketchbook. A clip show so lazy that it could barely bother to organise its contents into themes and where quality control was non-existent, Comedy Sketchbook screamed “Schedule filler!” through 50 minutes of regurgitated dross. It is perceived wisdom that even the best sketch shows comprise up to 75% substandard material, and it is from here that Comedy Sketchbook appears to have sourced its content. There were some notable exceptions, but they were submerged in a sea of mediocrity. Angus Deayton slummed it as link man with his usual panache and professionalism, but the whole enterprise was beneath his talents.

I don’t care what anybody says, there is still a gaping Deayton-shaped hole in the format of Have I Got News For You. Of all the ‘guest’ presenters since his departure, the most effective have been those whose persona or presentation style most clearly resemble Deayton’s, such as Alexander Armstrong.

His sixth time at the helm, Jack Dee chaired the inaugural episode of the show’s 35th series with big laughs, witty repartee and barbed banter. It was wonderful, but still not a patch on the glory Deayton days. Go on BBC, invite Angus back. Where would the harm be? After all, everyone forgot about the drugs, prostitution and infidelity scandals ages ago.

DETAILS

Headcases - ITV1, Sunday, April 20, 10pm

Comedy Sketchbook - BBC1, Wednesday, April 16, 10.40pm

Have I Got News For You - BBC1, Friday, April 18, 9pm