According to Media Guardian, That Mitchell And Webb Look got 2.4 million viewers with a 11% audience share. Extras got 3.5 million with a 16& audience share. ITV (pah!) showed Bad Girls at the same time and that got 4.7 million viewers and a 22% share. What does this all mean? It means that you can prove anything with ‘facts’ and rubbish prison ‘dramas’ that are worshipped by the LGBT community (of which I lost my membership card) do rather well on telly.

The tour may begin on October 19th but there’s the small matter of a warm-up gig at Pleasance Islington…

Mitchell and Webb. 13th Oct, 8pm Ticket Prices: £5
David Mitchell and Robert Webb, two medium-sized figures of the small screen return to the medium in which they were once tiny: the theatre. Join them for an evening of wondering where the camera is and forgetting to speak up, as they weave character, suspense and comedy just by titting around in front of some painted wood. David and Robert conjure a world inhabited by gritty urban anti-heroes, pantomime space villains and alcoholic snooker commentators (all of whom look a bit like Mark and Jeremy from The Peep Show but definitely aren’t) and then they make them talk to each other like they’re in some crazy play with nowhere near enough actors. Like TV but more exclusive, and infinitely more hassle.

Book Tickets Online Now or call 020 7609 1800

Two days until the sketch that made me cry but in a good way…

plus loads of brand new stuff that was never on the radio so there!

The Sunday Mirror’s Kevin O’Sullivan reviewd TMAWL. We join him talking about Extras:

‘It’s very funny. But it’s not “fun” funny. Which is in stark contrast to BBC2′s other new comedy That Mitchell and Webb Look. This gem of a sketch show is as absurdly silly as it is hilarious. I hate to use the dreaded phrase yet again – but Peep Show stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb have the comedy X Factor. These guys can really make you laugh. And they don’t really care how. There’s stumbling drunk turned self-styled super hero Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, a stupid game show called Numberwanger and the criminally mismatched crime-busting duo Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit. I think you probably get the picture. I believe Messrs Mitchell and Webb may be poised to make one hell of a mark. Personally, I reckon this dazzling duo are miles better than those sorely over hyped Little Britain blokes. But what do I know?’

And going even further downmarket, proving that an idiot has no sense of humour we have Bushell on the Box at The Sunday People where he mentioned the show in his ROT ON TV mini-column where he could only manage the following hilarity: ‘Mitchell & Webb – after Peep Show, poop show… ‘ What a genius.

Coming this Thursday… more Numberwang! (with the inevitable twist)

The one who isn’t Joe talks about some perceived similarities in rather odd gameshows over at his blog:

“I‘ve been getting a few messages from people asking if I checked out That Mitchell & Webb Look last night on BBC2. It featured a game show spoof called Numberwang that was similar to a thing we did on the 4th series of The Adam & Joe Show called Quizzlestick. Sometimes people point out this kind of thing and sort of expect you to be outraged that you’ve been ripped off or something. I just don’t know anyone in comedy who would actually do that and Mitchell & Webb are certainly no exception.

I suppose if I’m honest it was a little hurtful that neither they nor anyone working on the show had seen Quizzlestick and so avoided doing something too similar but that’s my problem not theirs. Anyway the Numberwang sketch was actually pretty funny and I liked the rest of show too. Plus they were doing the demented gameshow thing purely as a sketch and Quizzlestick was designed by Joe to be part prank as well and the two contestants believed (though probably not for very long) that the show was real. A lot of the laughs also game from the amazing graphics that a post production company called Jump supplied to Joe’s specifications, so it was really quite a different thing.

So why’s everyone going on about it being similar? I don’t know what the fuck they’re on about. If anything we ripped off Mitchell & Webb who are brilliant by the way. Now let that be an end to it.”

Here are some of the expected nerdy stalkerish facts about Episode One:

Cans/Laughter: The sketches all contain (or feature? Or are accompanied by? Or are enhanced by?…) the laughter of a big group of comedy nerds. It’s not canned laughter. Glad that’s sorted.

Live/recorded: The bits that were done in front of the nerds and made us laugh more as it was really there in front of us like watching the telly box but with bigger people were the Big Talk sketch (was this done at the pilot and re-shot at the regular recordings? I may be imagining that. Imagine That? Hang on…Oh yes, it was) , all of the various Ted and Peter (snooker) sketches (with additional kerfuffles with the tray of beers and the other drink-related stunts) and the Moneypenny/James sketch (Once again, this was done at the pilot as well as on a regular night for some reason). Everything else was on various big screens for us to watch and they captured our titters and put them onto the real telly at the correct times.

TV/Radio?: A lot of episode one is from the radio series. A few words and phrases have been changed and some visual gags have been added. I am not so geeky that I would analyse this in detail. Honestly. I can say which things are brand new and written for this televisual incarnation though. ‘How What Not To Look Like’ with its burkha was a TV joke but the character of Jason appeared on the wireless. The banana dance is also new. Er… So mostly radio stuff then.

This episode had a lot of things from the TV pilot. This makes sense as it featured strong sketches with a proven appeal and leaves the majority of brand newness still to come.

The boffins will return in episode four…

Full episode guide from the press release:
Angel Summoner (David) and BMX Bandit (Rob) – one can summon angels, the other rides a BMX. They’re the least well-matched crime fighting duo in history.

The Anxious Nazis – Hans (David) is a bit worried. He asks Erich (Rob) if the fact that they have skulls on their caps means they might be the baddies…

Lazy Writers Medicine – the most badly researched TV drama ever made. “Nurse, this patient is incredibly poorly. Bring me the medicine in here right now.”

Dreamy Pastures Insurance – if you lose a loved one, here’s a new insurance scheme with a difference. “Within ten days of receipt of your tragic news we’ll put a gorgeous Albanian teenager on the next cabbage boat.”

Sir Digby – this week Ginger gets arrested and Sir Digby makes a new contact…

Plus – Numberwang; Friends of Moneypenny;The Snooker Commentators talk about booze; How What Not to Look Like; Behind The Scenes – How what not to look like; Angel BMX; The honeymoon’s over – Church; The Snooker Commentators talk more about Booze; Nazis Two; Big Talk; Behind The Scenes – the Banana dance part one and two.

This press release thing is not quite right though. The ‘honeymoon’s over-church’ was replaced by the restaurant variation. I need to get out more if I notice things like that.

New feature on the official site: Behind the scenes photographs.

New clips on the BBC2 site including ‘Coverage of people buying a house and living in it’ and ‘Coverage of people who are ill in hospital receiving treatment.’

Various items from various newspapers today:

‘Extras provided a healthy ratings inheritance for Peep Show stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s new BBC2 sketch show, which followed at 9.30pm. That Mitchell and Webb Look was watched by 2.4 million viewers and attracted an 11% share. But bragging rights in a keenly contested 9pm hour last night went to ITV1′s Bad Girls, which was watched by 4.7 million viewers and a 22% share.’ (Media Guardian)

‘… I was going to write about That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC2), too. You know, those two from Peep Show – the lanky one with froggy eyes and the podgy one with the Hitler haircut. But I was sent the wrong tape – so I’ve watched next week’s show, but not last night’s. If you’re not doing anything next Thursday you should watch it. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a man who can move biscuits with his mind. It’s funny.’ (The Guardian)

‘The studio audience seen in Extras howling at anything that moved seemed to have been bussed in for That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC Two). Having developed a following as the neurotic flatmates in the cult Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, David Mitchell and Robert Webb now get to perform their own material, some of it first heard on Radio 4. Parodies of nonsensical game shows and life insurance adverts suggested that they watch a lot of daytime TV. Two Nazis began to worry about their skull insignias (“Hans, are we the baddies?”). A crimebusting BMX biker was upstaged by his angel sidekick and his heavenly hordes.
The vomit and groin jokes were left to last — a sign of quality comedy nowadays — for what seemed like a wino’s vision of a Dick Barton adventure. It was a dud in an amiable programme that threw up characters that would work better given more time than a skit, especially as Mitchell and Webb aren’t flamboyant presences in themselves. I mean, they don’t even cross-dress, but then they do have the marvellous Olivia Colman as terrific support. This was often more about whimsy than punchlines but the audience seemed to be bursting blood vessels. Maybe Gervais has a point after all.’ (The Times)

The usual suspects in the usual comedy forums waffled on about the ‘canned laughter’ and repitition (I must have missed those things) but they are mostly lazy writers…

The Mirror liked the show very much indeed:

THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK
14 September 2006
PICK OF THE DAY – BBC2, 9.30PM
OOH, controversial. Why is this “Pick Of The Day” and not Extras?

Well, on the basis that the only fair way to judge comedy is on the number of times it makes you laugh out loud, this wins hands down. Fans of Peep Show or the Radio 4 series That Mitchell And Webb Sound, will be thrilled that Robert Webb and David Mitchell have been given another TV outlet for their prodigious talents. Sketch shows tend to be patchy affairs, on the basis that if one sketch doesn’t work there’ll be another one along in a minute. But the strike rate for this first episode is a perfect 10. Not a single duffer in the bunch. And while Little Britain and The Fast Show came to rely on a handful of familiar characters and catchphrases, there’s enough variety here to suggest this pair have a lot of mileage in them.

They are hilarious as rival actors in the West End show Holmes And Watson, while other sketches are based on TV formats. There’s the impenetrable maths quiz Numberwang, How Not What To Look Like, an egghead panel show, and a medical drama written with the benefit of no research. That they are consistently hilarious and clever, without ever being offensive or weird just for sake of it, is even more reason to cheer.

That Official BBC site keeps adding nice things for us.

Download the theme tune from Angel Summoner & BMX Bandit…
Play Numberwang if you dare…
Wallpaper your virtual house with, er, special wallpaper.