Customer Reviews:
 They get better and better November 5, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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.
 Hit and miss... October 16, 2007
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?
 Lucky they've got friends. September 27, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This series is such a disappointment after the brilliance of the second series and, I'm afraid, very much smacks of complacency. If these two very talented writer/performers have not got time in their busy schedules to compose a sufficiency of even passable material, they should not try to palm us off with the sort of sketches unworthy of the most hopeless fringe review show.
Having said that - there are moments when the talent shines through, but this is often due to the undeniable quality of their cast. Olivia Coleman and James Bachman are two of the best comedy performers on the scene at the moment. Mitchell and Webb should consider themselves truly blessed to be so well supported.
 The bottom of the barrel approaches ... September 25, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
That the final sketch on this 3CD set refers back to Dead Parrots, the Spanish Inquisition and Four Candles says much about the comedy duo's desperate search for good new material. I thought the second radio series was marvellous, and amply demonstrated that there was still room for at least some Oxbridge humour. The TV series that followed also took the better material from the first radio series (which itself saw the duo establishing themselves with their writers).
The third series correctly avoids continuing with the very funny snooker commentators and party arrangers, and even 'Numberwang' has gone. But Mitchell & Webb haven't found a good substitute running gag. "How about a date?" is wonderful for the nuanced performance of Robert Webb, and it's a searing exposee of the seduction technique of many blokes I've known, but its variety is limited. "But I won't do that" is also a great sketch, and suggests a desire to build quite a complex storyline.
In summary, the performances are fine; it's just the material that's sometimes poor. Let's put it down to their trying to do too many other things at about the same time -- i.e. the TV series, films, and chairing Radio 4 quiz programmes. Not even the Pythons could do that.
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