Product Description

David Mitchell and Robert Webb star in the complete third series of their Sony Award-winning comedy show - as heard on BBC Radio 4. "One of the best, most imaginative and intermittently eye-wettingly hilarious new comedy sketch programmes in years ...wonderful, innovative comedy" - "The Times". "Fresh, funny, inventive, daring" - "The Daily Telegraph". The first two series of "That Mitchell and Webb Sound" gained an army of fans, huge critical acclaim (Series Two won a Sony Silver Award) and led to a massively successful television series, "That Mitchell and Webb Look". Here, the duo return to their radio roots, and this third fantastic series finds them in their finest ever sketch-show form.Meet the Stone Age flint-chippers who reckon bronze is just a fad; a very unpleasant man who wants to take you out for a little date; another thrilling adventure with Sir Digby Chicken Caesar; and the world's most mis-matched rally-driving couple - 'Your voice makes me want to drive into a tree'. Whether sniping at 'citizen journalism', predictable radio plays or reality TV, here are lots of silly and clever sketches, with laugh-out-loud humour and painfully funny dialogue. As heard on BBC Radio 4, this complete third radio series also features Olivia Colman and James Bachman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32132 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-02
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

They get better and better
Not as good as the second series? I have to disagree. These two are at the top of their game and their material just gets better and better.

Yes, it's clever stuff and some of the more recent comedy successes have been very broad, but that doesn't mean it's not very funny.

Like Ant and Dec, I can never remember which is which, but I think David Webb was recently quoted as saying that a university education makes you a better comedian. I'm not sure I agree (Tommy Cooper? Peter Kay? Morecambe and Wise? Dave Allen? Mel Brooks?) but going to Cambridge doesn't seem to have held these two back! They're right on the button.

Their best work
Resisting the need to descend into catchphrase-based comedy, Mitchell and Webb deliver more intelligent comedy. The best sketches are David Mitchell's middle class intelligentsia rants against phone-ins and celebrity magazines. The genius of the pairing, which runs through all they do, is the play-off between the uptight Mitchell and cool, loafing persona of Webb. Somehow this is conveyed even better without the distraction of the screen. Top marks.

Hit and miss...
I'm a huge fan of Mitchell and Webb, and listened to the entire series when it was on Radio 4. These CDs have been listened to over and over, until I almost know some of the sketches by heart.

And the final impression I get is extremely mixed. On the one hand, there are sketches that are original, clever, or just bizarre enough to be entertaining. This accounts for a lot of them, and my personal favourites include Big Celebrity Fame Zeppelin, Spurs Fan and an excellent one involving Lindsay Davenport and a large multinational corporation. For these alone, it is worth buying.

However, there comes along, every now and then, a sketch that just seems to be thoroughly lacking in any humour. The problem with this is that Mitchell and Webb's humour seems to stem from taking one joke, and extending it into a sketch. This is all very good, as long as the material to flesh out the joke is good enough, and the initial joke itself is also good enough to form the foundation of a sketch. The problem comes when there isn't, at which point it seems to degenerate into a joke being taken far too far. The laughter can sometimes seem patronising, and will often appear in places where you can't find a joke, which then makes it seem like they are laughing at you, and your idiocy.

Overall, there are some very poor sketches, and some truly magnificent ones. I would give this three stars for that, except that the good sketches more than make up for the ones that don't quite seem to work. I would definitely recommend this, but not all of it.

Maybe wait for a 'Best of Mitchell and Webb' CD?