Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

It would appear the British public like nothing better on their Friday and Saturday nights than to stay in and have a good chuckle. The comedy sketch show is certainly a popular trend for this, coming ten a penny nowadays from any duo with the kudos to pull it off. But in Harry & Paul, we have two old timers, who came before a lot of the more modern ones with Enfield's Harry Enfield and Chums and Whitehouse's The Fast Show. But as the years have passed, the boundaries have been crossed more and more and gloriously non PC humour is now the trend. It has now emerged that the Phillipino government is in uproar over a skit involving a Phillipino maid and is, amongst other things, starting a petition to have the show makers apologize. It's also emerged that Enfield wanted to play a paedophile priest and a Muslim hoodie but was refused, so like many comedy performers nowadays, he's willing to be outrageous to get the attention.

There's nothing in this that's made me really laugh out loud, but it's amiable and distracting enough, and not afraid to cross the line when the skit requires it. ***

I guess you could say that Harry Enfield was the last survivor of the Alternative Comedy movement of the 80s, in which he started on Saturday Live with characters like Stavros and Loadsamoney. At that time he was very much a lesser light, but in the 90s he got his own show and, with the help of Kathy Burke and Paul Whitehouse, it blossomed into one of the best of its era.

But by the Noughties they seem largely to have run out of ideas. A lot of the items in this show - and I mean a *lot* - seem to have begun with a funny voice rather than a real comedy idea, and to rely on that voice and glossy production values to get by without any actual jokes.

There were some good bits in the earlier series - the antique shop, U2, the American tourists (from Badiddlyboing Odoidaho), and particularly the coffee shop sketch, an excruciating but strangely touching examination of how ageing downgrades your sexual status. But later on not only is it not funny, but quite a lot of the items are just mean-spirited. Parking Pataweyo - besides being borderline racist - is just appalling in its pettiness and entitlement. 'Doesn't he know who they are?' Just park properly ffs!

Eventually the BBC axed the show - Enfield's way of framing it was that it cost too much to make. But frankly, it had long since had its time.

Echo most of the negative reviews posted here. Like them, I am a fan of Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse, so this new series is a real mess. There is potential, Enfield/Whitehouse are cynically aware (I Saw You Coming) but the sketches are sloppily written, poorly developed and lack punchlines. I quite like the Polski girls because it's clear the customer fancies them and they treat him politely but with obvious disinterest so that he always leaves the cafe confused. I liked the Abramovich send-up but after a while versions of the same sketch pall.

But it's a show which could have done with more creative input and editing. I flicked through one of Harry Enfield's old books and he would leave out poorly received sketches after unfavourable reactions from the studio audience. One can only surmise that the sketches not included must be worse than the very hit-miss ones included. The Nelson Mandela sketches are appalling.

But I kept checking my watch during the last episode, almost willing it to end and be put out of my misery.

The sad fact may be after his disappointing SKY show, Harry and his comedy partner Whitehouse have simply run out of gas and ideas. Comedy dates quickly and perhaps time has caught up with this once great duo. Previous characters would gradually leave a mark on the nation's consciousness (Stavros, Loadsamoney, Mr Don't, Tim Nice But Dim, the Slobs) but none in the present show will be remembered with any great fondness.

What happened to these two former heavyweight champs of Brit comedy? I used to think in the early 90s that Paul Whitehouse couldn't be unfunny if he tried and I really liked the Fast Show, Hary Enfield and Chums, etc.

Maybe time really has caught up with them and they can't do it anymore, just like boxers who go on too long.

It's sad because I was really looking forward to this 'comeback'. You get the feeling that Whitehouse was at a loose end after his comedy partner ran into his legal troubles and that Enfield has lost whatever he had (which was always less than Whitehouse in his heyday)

The only half decent sketch is the posh scaffolders... the rest are pathetic. I would rather these two never did anything again if this is all they've got. Quit while you are ahead guys!

I sat and watched this with a member of my family who has cancer, and was sickened by the Beatles sketch regarding Prostate Cancer. It made us feel very uncomfortable, and angry, my relative was upset that his state of health could be laughed at, and they are still very ill. I just don't get the joke. I used to like Whitehouse and Enfield, but I switch over to another station whenever I see them. Ghastly humour.

I do hope that they learn that some things are just not suitable for comedy. I guess the joke was about sticking fingers up people's bottoms, yes, real class that one. I guess that in future they might make more jokes about terminal illnesses after all there are a lot of them, a wealth of material! Simply revolting.