Dead Ringers

Us ex-pats here in Europe are lucky enough(sometimes) to get fantastic British comedy on BBC Prime. Unfortunately whilst Mr Culshaw is in this show, he does not actually quench my/our thirst for impressionistic comedy.

The writing of the show = childish + low-level (Suitable for Children's BBC?). Mr Culshaw, you will never be of the caliber of a Bremner, because of the fact the average person above 8 years old can hear your underlying voice/impression as being the same person.(Just like Mr Novelty of the 70s - Yarwood). I remember Culshaw on my local radio, Viking Radio, he was bad then and bad now. Learn to alter your underlying voice in your impressions, then you can go further, maybe.

Use some of the budget to pay for good script writers (Matthews/Linehan would be cool- but not their 'thing'). Congrats for the BBC commission, I'm surprised as well as other people are.

Best Impressions; David Brent, Tom Baker, Ann Robinson.

Impressions 50% of Males Could Do Given 1 Hour Training; Sewell, Ozbourne, Gluteus Maximus(my gag you can take for the show Jon), David Dickinson, Johnny Vaughn.

TERRIBLE Impressions; Schwarzenegger, Blair, Bush + any not listed under 'Best Impressions'.

Well done for effort though. Surely, the only way is up!

This is a brilliant show. A mate of mine introduced me to this program and when seeing it for the first time was mesmerised by the uncanniness of the voices. They haven't quite got the looks exactly but it takes a back seat to the voice artistry of the performers, especially the Doctor Who impressions where if you closed your eyes you'd sware it was really Tom Baker. The sketches themselves are hilarious as well as being topical with quite a bit of political satire thrown into the mix like most sketch comedies have. I'm glad now that the ABC has picked up this little gem even though I can't speak for other Australians. Overall it gets 10 out of 10 off me.

Jonathan Ross said at the British comedy awards that Dead ringers does a great impression of Alistair McGowan's shows. How wrong he is. He's probably never seen Dead ringers. Dead Ringers offers an up-to-date of the past week look at the news, TV, media and other things. They do polticans, got more impressionists, do more adult jokes, do Candid camera style jokes so Jonathan Ross is dead wrong.

The show started on Radio 4, perhaps that's why young people go away from it but it's a great show. It's very funny, and takes a very sharp swipe at certain stories.

The impressions are fantastic. Espically to Jon Culshaw who does both Bush and Blair very well and made some very funny trademarks about them. (Blair: "Sweaty palms, Hard man hand gesture, Vote-for-me smile" and Bush: "My fellow UmaThurmans, it has been a sadificantly day"). Though it does more politians, it does do movie stars, TV stars music stars and anyone else. One problem is some of the people they do. I mean, I didn't know who Dr. Simon Schama or Brian Sewell were until this show. I didn't even know Newsnight review existed but still laughed at the Tom Paulin impression. But ignore all that, they basically do them really funny and strangely.

So it's a great show, do watch if you want the world to be given a satical swipe!

Beginning life on Radio 4, this show first came to my attention because John Culshaw used to be a regular on the Chris Moyles radio show back when I used to think he was worth listening to. At first glance it didn't really appeal to me because I was expecting something a lot more like Bremner, Bird & Fortune, by which I mean I was hoping it would be cleverer, sharper and not necessarily the sort of funny that makes you laugh but occasionally the uneasy feeling that the latter show can give you. However a few more viewings and I settled down into acceptance that Dead Ringers is not in the same arena as BB&F and that this is not necessarily a problem.

DR tends not to be as sharp because it isn't really a satirical show (although it can be), it is more of a straight comedy show (although not totally to the degree of, say, Alistair McGowan). This mix of populist and political works quite well and produces some very good scenes with a good hit/miss ratio. It isn't always the smartest game in town but it makes for it by being roundly entertaining. It rarely has a point to make but rather just takes aims at public figures with general mockery. Hence we get things like Andrew Marr with his fantastically out-of-control arms or the simply dumb George Bush; it is rarely insightful but it works.

The performers are all pretty talented and, although the visuals aren't always great, the voices are normally spot on. Culshaw relies a bit too heavily on the old stalwarts of Dr Who and Obi-Wan, but generally he is very good although I do get the impression that the general comic approach of the material is down to his influence. Ravens is usually the one that looks least like any of the people she is impersonating but she does get the voices really on target to compensate; with fewer females in target positions, she tends to take more of a support role at times but she is generally good. Cornwell isn't a great impressionist but he is very close and he has good delivery, Connelly is equally as good and Perry is good in most, if not all, of his roles.

Overall this isn't a clever show or the satirical impressions that I've grown used to with BB&F but instead Dead Ringers is more generally amusing. Mocking and poking fun rather than being sharp and incisive puts it below BB&F in my book (despite actually being funnier) but for the majority of viewers this will do the job. A bit broad for my tastes but generally funny and entertaining.

I love Dead Ringers. It is easily the best BBC Radio 4 sketch programme and I think that this is the medium it excels in. The television series though...well, it's alright. There are some bits that are extremely funny (particularly the 'Gladiator' spin-offs) but personally I don't think it should ever have gone to TV. Though the voices are accurate, the appearances are not - and, most importantly, there was no way of being able to show the Dr. Who "tell me, my friend, do you stock spare parts for a tardis" phone-calls (an absolute classic.) I much prefer hearing the voices of the chosen victims and picturing them in my mind than seeing an inaccurately portrayed celebrity on the TV (though Tony Blair is still very good!)