Merton Losing The Midas Touch?

Hands up all those who feel Paul Merton is losing the plot on 'Have I Got News For You'? Personally, I've always felt audiences have been more than generous in their appreciation of Merton's often average comedy on the show, but on the basis of this week's performance (HIGNFY 17/12/07), this may not be for much longer. His gags often fell flat, his 'quirky' observational humour failing to deliver the kind of orgasmic responses to which he has become accustomed.

Comments on this gladly appreciated. I find Merton a difficult man to criticise, as he appears (on the surface at least) to have an army of passionate and unwavering supporters. But, despite my fears of being hunted down by the Merton-mob, I will say this: it's time someone else had a turn.

Nigella Express

This is one of the most bizarre programmes you'll watch all year. Saucy kitchen tart Nigella Lawson finally appears to have cracked under the combined strain of being married to Charles Saatchi, supplying London's yummy-mummies with a constant stream of 'comfort food' and trying to make dumplings seem sexy to a disinterested monday night audience. At one point during last night's show, she walked into her 'pantry' (clearly a set in some disused warehouse in the east end) and announed that she liked going in there merely to "stroke the shelves". Doctor!

The premise of the show is the Nigella pretends to be a busy working mother whilst finding ingenious ways to prepare meals on the fly. The most cringe-inducing scenes are the ones in which actors masquerade as friends/family members in an attempt to make her on-screen persona look in the least bit normal. Someone please tell the BBC that we all know it's a set, we all know Nigella's domestic affairs are handled by a team of servants and we all know that this food is stuff we will never, ever get round to making (and even if we wanted to couldn't possibly source the ridiculously exotic ingredients).

Someone really needs to put a stop to this kind of dross. It's patronising, it's pointless and worst of all it's completely and utterly compulsive.

Saxondale

Steve Coogan does anti-heroes like no-one else can. Alan Partridge is his most famous creation but I'd argue that with Tommy Saxondale, he's more than matched him. Saxondale is a middle-aged ex-roadie running a pest control business. The perfect job, as it allows him to take out his innate anger issues on the pigeons, rodents, moths and bats he is variously employed to exterminate.

Now at the end of its second series, and richly meriting a third, Coogan's latest creation has been steadily gathering speed. Rather than choose to unleash the series in a cloud of hype, the BBC have sensibly allowed it to mature quietly, allowing the dross that's clogging up BBC3 to mop up most of the marketing budget ('Grown-ups' anyone?). It still amazes me that many people still haven't even heard of the programme, let alone seen it, but this only serves to greatly increase my enjoyment of it.

There's a large number of people who refuse to let Steve Coogan grow out of Alan Partridge. But anyone that knows his work knows that he is one of the most dexterous comedians of our time - characters like Duncan Thicket, Paul Calf, Tony Ferrino and Ernest Moss are testament to that. And in the character of Tommy Saxondale he's expertly captured the zeitgeist of the frustrated 70s rock child - the true 'grumpy old man'. Saxondale is no fool - he's witty, clever and at times even charming. But what he can't do, as with all of Coogan's greatest creations, is go with the flow. And I love him for it.