2DTV

Tony Blair has his hands full with a cabinet of backstabbers and halfwits. Meanwhile his global action against terrorism and hopes for a new world order are stuttering thanks to the less than helpful help of George W and his new best friend, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I managed to miss the entire first series of this show simply because it's Sunday night screening time more often than not clashed with a film I would want to see. However the second series was repeated later in the week and allowed me to see it. At first I thought that the very colourful cartoon-like animation would mean that the gags would be very childish and silly and, in a way, I was sort of right.

The material is not as cerebral as, say, Rory Bremner, but it is actually more funny for it. Around about a third of the time the gags are quite topical and are reasonably sharp swipes at the week's happenings in the news. However for the majority of the time the comedy is quite broad swipes at basic happenings and basic characters. For example the football Wayne Rooney gets attacked for being a rough Scouse, Bush for being dumb, Arnie for being, well, Arnie. Some of it is clever but most of it is designed to be funny even if you hadn't watched the news for 2 months and only knew about current affairs from reading a tabloid. That's not to say it isn't funny - for it is, but it is not quite what I'd call satire simply because it doesn't make me think - only laugh.

The voice work is very good, although some characters are better than others - Bush is my favourite by far. The series has lost out by ITV giving John Culshaw his own show and thus allowing him to leave 2DTV. However the remainder still do a good job.

Overall this is an enjoyable series but I would prefer if it trusted me enough to make me think or to assume that I'll be aware of what is going on in the world. This is funny but it's like satire for those who don't know a great deal about politics.

2DTV. This, and the Champions League were probably the only reasons why I wasted any time watching ITV.

Funny dialogue, a warped sense of humour and the ability of the 2DTV team to knock these episodes out the same day as major events unfolded is the reason why I made the effort to watch it.

Nothing, it seemed was out of bounds: The US, Iraq War, the British Government, the royal family, The Osbournes, Harry Potter, football, soaps, reality TV, celebrities, Al Qaeda, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Basically anything that hit the headlines, made it into the show and to hilarious effect.

Although the episodes tended to be only 15 minutes long (and as such, could be easily lost amongst the dreary reality shows ITV usually churned out at 10pm), there was usually never a moment when the show lost it's pace.

The animation was more functional rather than polished, and some of the voices were sometimes off the mark, but neither of these things really detracted from the script itself. The political bias may put some people off, but it's worth persevering even if it's only to see the celebrity gags.

Certainly one to rent/buy on DVD.

~Note this is only based on the best-of DVD~ I often put aside DVDs for later viewing, and I wasn't in any hurry to watch this particular one anyway - if anything, it was a pity-buying as it had been sitting at the start of the shelf of CeX's 50p section for a month by the time - and I've probably had it for two months since, but I finally got around to watching it. Now, I had mixed feelings going into this - I love Spitting Image with all my heart and while this was another of the very niche selection of satire sketch shows the designs and apparent crudeness really put me off. However, watching it, I can say these are remarkably good. Yes, the show is much cruder than Spitting Image ever was but the sheer absurdity of most of the satires made this feel welcome perfectly. Furthermore the voice talent, as is expected, is brilliant, and even the animation grows on you after a while. If you're more interested in just having a laugh at the 2000s celebrities than having jokes based on current affairs, then this is your show, but the more political-oriented viewers would much prefer Spitting Image. 8/10, highly entertaining.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

This show is on every weekend on TV,and looks set to carry on for much longer.It's quite simply an imaginative and hilarious animated satire of the weeks events around the world,and the sketches themselves are very accurate.Great entertainment.****

When 2DTV came to our screens it was fresh and satirised all the weeks major events as well as a few misc sketch's' as fillers. the voices were great, although that should have been expected since 2DTV used the voices of the great team from dead ringers.

But recently with the four series the writing has gone down hill. while still scathingly in its satire some sketch's seem half thought through and lacking any sense of the situation, with particular reference to the Arnie sketch's. also the lose of the dead ringers team of voices has meant that the near perfect impersonations that the dead ringers team brought are gone and replaced with voices which still sound like the characters yet never as good as the previous teams take on the characters. the parts of both Tony Blair and George W. Bush are 2 great examples of how the new team of voices are not up to the job, Jon Culshaw who used to provide these voices, had them to a t.

yet despite my criticism the show is still great and when on it is the only reason to watch ITV1.

enjoy