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I don’t think I’ve ever written about a TV show before as they’re generally “meh” and there’s so many of them, but I was pretty surprised by this one.

Peter Serafinowicz has been in a lot of productions, including Star Wars: Episode One, Shaun of the Dead, Look Around You, Black Books, and others. He’s a part of the current generation of UK comedians and actors (Simon Pegg, Mark Heap, Kevin Eldon, and so on), so I was looking forward to see how he’d do in his very own sketch show after being the main force behind the Look Around You series.

After watching the first episode, I’m honestly surprised to say that it wasn’t crap! Hell, it was great. I say “surprised” because I’ve seen Peter in panel shows and he doesn’t seem too hot at impromptu comedy; granted, a sketch show is obviously written, but it still somehow marred my initial thoughts on how he’d do in something that isn’t driven by plot or direction.

The show begins with Peter doing what is essentially a spaz-dance with dopey expressions on his face. Not the most informative introduction to a programme I’ve seen, but it kept me watching instead of just fast-forwarding. I’ll probably even watch it again the next episode. Once that’s out the way, it’s straight into the sketches.

I would definitely say most of the sketches were actually damn funny, with only the Sherlock Holmes, Clone Brother, and Piano Fingers being a bit iffy.

Sherlock Holmes
When Sherlock solves a case, he gets incredibly horny and jumps Watson’s bones. Watson’s shocked protests being the strongest points in the two sketches in the episode.

Clone Brother
Big Brother, but with clones of the exact same contestant called Stevie. For anyone that has watched BB7, I think it was, there was a fuck-wit called Mikey who was about as interesting as fucking dog hair that did nothing but stand around looking gormless and occasionally blurt out some incoherent babble. These numerous Stevie clones are, you guessed it, him. I agree with Mikey being a general thick bastard, but this was pretty boring as sketches go.

Piano Fingers
Done in a somewhat classic style such as Casablanca, the sketch’s punchline is that the man plays the woman’s fingers like a piano. Meh. The bit at the end when he stabs all the fingers/keys in frustration was somewhat funny, though.

The other sketches were great, and Peter’s impressions were brilliant. The number of American accents he did in the O! News (piss-take of that shit-fest that is E! News – a fucking dire “news” programme on an equally dire channel called E! Entertainment) was impressive – they all sounded varied and spot-on to my lemony ears. It is lemony they say, isn’t it? Whatever, it’s some kind of citrus fruit.

Cillit Bang. The Kitchen Gun. Probably the best sketch of them all. A Barry Scott impersonation featuring Serafinowicz cleaning a kitchen with a gun for that shiny and new effect. For those that don’t know, Cillit Bang is the retarded name of a cleaning spray detergent bloody thing featuring a loud-mouthed idiot.

The only partial problem I have with the programme, is that it’s called The [name] Show, which is an annoying naming format taken from American shows from decades ago; why this format is still used to this day is baffling. It’s completely stupid.

How about we wrap up with Elephants and Trains? Sure, why not!

Edit: The series has now ended. It, predictably, went downhill from the great first episode. Oh well, can’t say I wasn’t expecting it.

The Peter Serafinowicz Show is was on 9:30pm Thursdays, BBC2.