Week 2 of 2 at TV Centre for Look D was almost as funny as week 1, and that’s still damn funny. The massive queues outside made us think that more than one thing was being recorded on that evening and we were not wrong. Look what we could have seen instead:

The more glittery people waiting in the bar area went through the doors to see this particular prospective TV gold but we managed to resist for some reason. The Congo audience had approximately 40% less clothing than the M&W lot, how daring on a cold dark March night. But anyway… on with the show!

Lucy Porter was doing the warm up this week which meant a thoroughly entertaining time as she always keeps people interested during the “fuck-ups” and she even brought some charity shop tat along as random prizes for the inevitable 16 year old boys interesting individuals she finds at these things. She correctly pointed out that husband Jamie wasn’t with me this time and everyone learnt that he was at home with a bad cold, poor thing. We’ve met before and even before that time. Such infamy.

This week’s highlights included a load of sketches that were tried out at the Drill Hall last November (A Prayer And A Pint seemed to go down very well), some more Christmasyness for no good reason at all (damn that old Christmas Special axing, maybe it has left mental scars),  the screen debut of a very cute baby, and a bit of a theme involving making the show more poignant in order to show the end credits uninterrupted by squishing them to trail the next programme.

Fact! The one character who has appeared in every series has a brief cameo in a photograph.

Fact! A man plays a woman with her face obscured but when her arse is shown it is a lady’s posterior.

Fact! “UP YOURS!” is a great new catchphrase but you have to do the actions.

Fact! There have been two separate unconnected KKK moments filmed. Sinister.

I met some nice ladies in the green room who had won guest list tickets in a charity raffle, managed to get to the cheesy balls this week, had nice chats with some of the writers as usual and added another famous parent to my (non-existent) I-Spy checklist.

We wandered past the They Drink It In The Congo green room on the way out and were almost tempted. Almost.

Random extra fact: Saw a poster for Fat Pig from when Rob was starring in it at the tube station which made no sense unless I had travelled in an extra dimension to get home.

If you like TV and radio funny man James Bachman (and you will unless you clicked here hoping to find ‘hilarious’ kittens or naughty ladies) you should like his showreel:

James Bachman’s Showreel (HQ) from James Bachman on Vimeo.

From that most un-espionagey of all the spies aka Digital Spy:

Webb returns for ‘Let’s Dance’ final

Comedian Robert Webb will return for the final of this year’s Let’s Dance For Sport Relief.

The Peep Show star won the first series of the BBC One talent show last year, when he recreated the dance routine to ‘What A Feeling’ from the film Flashdance.

Webb will be on the judging panel next week alongside comedians Jon Culshaw and Jack Dee.

Rufus Hound, Katy Brand, Kate Garraway & Richard Arnold, Debra Stephenson and the two best acts from this week’s heat will compete in the final on March 13.

Let’s Dance For Sport Relief airs on Saturday at 7.15pm on BBC One.

So… Look 4 or Look D if you want to be all lettery instead of numbery. D is good for me. The year where the BBC Tickets Randomizer broke but everything turned out alright for some people in the end and the year where we were incredibly grateful that writing an internet based fan thing has meant we can get on the production guest list and not have to miss out on writing about seeing funny television being made in front of our eyes. Last Friday was recording one of two at Studio One and it featured all the usual elements you would come to expect by now: Mitchell, Webb, James Bachman and Sarah Hadland as the main actors, a fun lively warm up comedian interacting with the crowd (Adrian Poynton who did last year’s sessions), a smidgen of material from the previous radio series (more on that later), some good bits from the try-out night and a few nice “fuck-ups” (to quote Mitchell & Webb themselves).

We knew that The Quiz Programme was returning as we’d had chats about what was going on with that and thankfully the new instalments are very funny with additional poignancy and sad moments building on what was done last year. A lesser sketch show could have milked the idea and just repeated what worked before but all six sketches had variety and the essential laughs. Good stuff! The other ‘live’ sketches done that night were an adaptation of the Business Drinking Game from S4E5 of the radio show (with Abi Burdess and Mark Evans and lots of props) and one from the Drill Hall tryout on 26th November involving the concept of being a “people person.” Both good.

I won’t list all the VT sketches as that’s a bit too spoilery and it’s nice to have some surprises when it’s transmitted but I can tell you that Hail Caesar! from the last radio series has been filmed, the funniest new series of sketches was set in an office (not the same office as the one filmed live) with interesting dimensions that was so much funnier than words could describe, and there is one other returning sketch from Look 3 which is not ruined by its reappearance. They also filmed a little sketch at the end of the night which features the audience so I may see my sleepy Friday Evening face on the telly.

We discovered what happens when the studio staff tell production guests to wait in their seats while everyone else goes home (it involves wine and Twiglets), got rather lost in the infinite loop layout of the basement of TV Centre and bumped into David’s parents again (previously sat next to them at one of the radio recordings) and they were as lovely as usual. All in all a great time was had but then that is rather obvious for this sort of thing. More at the same time next week which is now technically this week…

The Observer’s My Body & Soul column features David this week so I found an appropriate photograph and pasted the mini interview below:

My body & soul: David Mitchell

The comedian and actor, 35, on vanity, how often men think about sex, and why therapy is not like dentristy

Laura Potter The Observer, Sunday 14 February 2010

Are you healthy? I have relatively good health despite, rather than because of, my habits. I probably have quite a bad diet and I probably drink too much, but you can be reasonably unhealthy for the first 35 years of life and still count yourself unlucky if you die.

Any notable accidents? I think when I was one and a bit I took a corner too fast on my walker and smashed my head on a skirting board. I still have a very slight mark between my eyebrows from that, but I’ve been quite timid and careful since.

Do you worry about your weight? No. I had a very bad back a couple of years ago, and lots of people advised different things, but the one thing everyone agreed on was walking. By walking for an hour every day, and still eating my horrific diet, I was able to get a bit thinner. I was slightly ashamed of being pleased about the weight loss, because the reason was my back, not vanity; nevertheless, that vanity is in me, otherwise I wouldn’t be pleased.

What is your attitude to smoking? I’ve been an on and off social smoker for ages and never got hooked, so I reserve the right to have one on a fun night.

And drugs? When I was at university I would occasionally have some cannabis, but I don’t think I ever determined what being stoned felt like, because I never had any when I was sober. Your dedicated pothead wouldn’t sully his palate with lager.

Have you ever had therapy? No. Some people can be massively helped by therapy, but I don’t agree that everyone should get some – it’s not like dentistry.

How do you feel about cosmetic surgery? I think it’s stupid and it almost always looks shit. It’s a trend entirely based on vanity, and vanity is not an admirable trait at all.

Is sex important to you? Yes, but I would hesitate to say it’s more important than average. People say men think about sex every six seconds; I can’t believe that – it takes longer than six seconds to think about it properly once.

NHS or private? NHS. I don’t have an ethical problem with private healthcare, though. Considering I’m self-employed I should probably have some sort of health insurance sorted out, but at the same time I should’ve learnt how to drive a car.

The Bubble is a comedy news quiz hosted by David Mitchell, Fridays on BBC2 at 10pm

Well… Rob and Abigail won their episode of Mr & Mrs, hurrah! There are probably some clips on the official site but nothing has surfaced on YouTube yet so you’ll have to make do with my rubbish screencaps instead:

An “ooh” moment.

Mr & Mrs after the event.

Spot the (pingpong) ball.

David’s latest not-a-comedy-sketch-show-or-sitcom project The Bubble starts next Friday at 10 on BBC2…

The Bubble is a new comedy news-quiz for BBC Two which plays on the fact that some news stories are so hard to believe you’d think they’d been made up. In this show some of them have. Each week three celebrity contestants are locked away in a media-free zone for four days. When they’re brought out, they’re shown a series of media stories. All they have to do is identify the true ones from the fakes. Show one guests are: Frank Skinner, Reginald D Hunter and Victoria Coren.

The Radio Times website has loads of photographs of David, because they can.

It’s that time again…

Tickets for That Mitchell and Webb Look 4 at BBC TV Centre are up on the usual site… taking place on 26th February and 5th March. Unfortunately it is being organised like the last Sound series tickets allocation i.e. an unhinged lucky dip draw system done by evil robots.

Apply for your one date per household right now to avoid disappointment… or not, as the case may be.

ITV Light Entertainment Alert!

Rob and Abigail are on All Star Mr & Mrs on Saturday. Yes, really.

Clips and nice little film on their site. Awww…

The British Comedy Guide website had some reader awards and guess what? The people we like proved to be very very popular…

Peep Show, That Mitchell & Webb Look, That Mitchell & Webb Sound, Sorry I’ve Got No Head and Bleak Expectations all ‘received’ virtual gongs. More specific info can be found at their very good site, along with episode guides and pretty things.