Naked japes are barefaced cheek

10 April 2012

Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller are in serious danger of becoming the nearly men of comedy. The strapping Armstrong didn't quite make it with the sitcom Beast and the likeable Miller seems trapped in supporting-player hell.

While this show was on, he was simultaneously camping it up in Steve Coogan's new programme. Together A & M have had four Channel Four series, not that you'd know it from the sparseness of the crowd.

Maybe they are just too polite to make an impression. They are certainly too middle class and actorly to have Fast Show credibility. This set briskly revisits their TV highlights, but only underlines that they've yet to create characters that really stick.

Armstrong comes closest with his shambling alcoholic excopper Jack Force, who can't crack a case without cracking open a drink. Their rock twosome Strijka is a tidy parody of hairy Euro Rock, where the bands speak in fractured English then sing in perfect American. But both spoofs, though immaculately acted, lack the ring of originality.

Ultimately their one memorable TV moment is Nude Practice, in which their doctors conceal their manhood with surgical tools. As a live climax this was an intriguing challenge. Hiding behind marrows they shamelessly admitted that the sketch was bad, but admitting it did not make it ironically brilliant.

And there was worse to come. Was that tape on their waists helping to conceal their modesty? The barefaced cheek of Armstrong and Miller is that they don't even deliver barefaced cheek.

Armstrong And Miller

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in