Best known for his supporting role in Spaced and of course his voice work as Darth Maul, Peter Serafinowicz gets his own show here. Shown as part of BBC2's comedy night (Thursday), the show is a mix of impressions and sketches. I taped this show for four weeks before starting to watch it and even had had a glass or two of a lovely Spanish red wine before starting to watch this. I mention this because even in this very relaxed and amiable state, this show failed to generate more than two or three laughs across the three episodes I gave it before giving it up as a bad idea.
I love his character and deliver in Spaced and his impressions are uncanny at times but it is the material itself that lets Serafinowicz down because it simply is not very funny. Too often the sketches aim at easy targets so that, even if they hit them bang in the middle, it is still only amusing, never hilarious or even funny. A good example is the shopping channel sections or the 1970's Government films both are amusing but they are so obvious in some regards that they do little more than raise a chuckle. Out of three episodes the only sketch that I actually enjoyed was the one with Darth Vader in a failed office romance and even then it was only OK.
His impressions are great though. Caine, Pacino, De Niro, Nick Cage and a great Alan Alda (who is shoehorned in) all sound great, even if he doesn't always look as convincing as he sounds. Without the material to support his impressions though, he might as well do each of them sounding like he is in a tiled bathroom speaking down a toilet roll. A shame then, because I had hoped for at least something from someone associated with the great Spaced but sadly this impressions and sketch show just falls flat minute after minute and it is telling of the quality that I considered a vague chuckle to be a high point.
