Pompidou

Well, I think the review before this one was pretty unfair. This is a classic British comedy after the pattern of Monty Python and Mr. Bean, except that it really pushes the boundaries of normal TV. At first watching, it is a little hard to believe what you are seeing, but I think that is a good thing for a medium that is normally so totally absorbed with ratings and making money. It is a worthwhile effort, and despite its strangeness, gave us some good laughs. Relatively poor reviews will probably mean that these six episodes are all we will ever see of this, but I hope the BBC keeps whatever commitment it has to this sort of original programming.

You know a comedy is in trouble when you realise that the dog is the best thing in it.

Matt Lucas flies solo here as a down on his luck and his last few pennies aristocrat Pompidou. He lives in a dilapidated caravan parked in the grounds of his crumbling estate. He has his put upon butler Hove (Alex MacQueen) and Afghan hound Marion who tend to be exasperated by his antics.

Lucas obviously was aiming at silent slapstick and farce like Mr Bean or heaven forbid Jacques Tati. However Lucas does not have the skill for physical comedy, the comedy here is painful and its not even silent as most of the characters speak in gibberish.

I could not last through the entire series. I gave it a try but enough is enough. Kids might like it but I guess even some of them have higher standards.

I'm really struggling to see what went through anyone's mind when this was commissioned, or allowed to air. Maybe the powers-that-be thought that if they didn't get it, then it must be edgy or good, or clever, or all three.

It isn't.

It isn't funny either.

This is why pilots exist. Make one, try it out on an audience, see what they think (although, honestly, it should never have got that far, the editor should have saved the rest of us the pain and wiped all the media before it left the edit suite).

Please, don't bother. I watched this so you don't have to.

4 episodes in and Wow… talk about dross TV.

There is only one good element to this show and that's the puppet dog. The dog is the creation of the people that helped to make another BBC show called 'Mongrels' (epic win). To watch Pompidou just to enjoy the puppet character Marion though would be like; eating crap just to enjoy a piece of sweet corn.

BBC Controller of Comedy Commissioning Shane Allen said: "The concept is wonderfully imaginative, the writing hugely inventive and it's the perfect vehicle for Matt – one of a handful of performers in the whole world who could pull this off."

Well.. it isn't, it isn't, it may well be and he couldn't. The "writers" last "wrote" for Chucklevision BTW.

Danny Cohen should have stopped this sham… was he on holiday?

The fundamental flaw in this show is that we're told 'Pompidou' is supposed to be likable - he isn't. That's fatal. No caring for the protagonist is such a shame as Lucas can do better, indeed has done better. Second character 'Hove' is a thin foil, not a Jeeves. A great comic actor (see 'Julius' from 'The Thick of It'), underused. The whole show feels like Lucas trying to recover from the wilderness after some borderline racism in 'Come Fly With Me'. This isn't the vehicle for that. Maybe it'll sell in international markets like 'Bean', but Lucas is no Atkinson, sadly. Atkinson throws it all behind physical comedy, Lucas apparently doesn't have as much natural comedic instinct to throw behind Pompidou. 3/10 - those three are for the excellent dog puppet. It lit up the screen, and was more likable and developed as a character than either of the humans.