Television: Comic Strip Presents... | Phil Spencer: Secret Agent | Spy

In the early days of Channel 4 – before Big Brother, before property shows – one of its flagship programmes was the comic strip presents... These cheeky, silly spoofs of the Famous Five or a Hollywood-ised take on the miners’ strike (with Jennifer Saunders playing Meryl Streep as ‘Mrs Scargill’) are fondly remembered, perhaps mostly because they’ve been so rarely repeated.

A lot has changed since then: the once ‘alternative’ comedy stars are now the comedy establishment, Hugh Laurie’s an American superstar, Ben Elton sold out, Dawn and Lenny have split up. But now the Tories are back in power again and Hollywood is making the Margaret Thatcher story, with – of course – Meryl Streep.

So as the Comic Strip have been revived, it makes a certain sense that the result is a decade-mashing melange which tells a warped version of Tony Blair’s PM years, taking place in an anachronistic Britain which looks like the 1950s, ripping off The 39 Steps, Sunset Boulevard, The Godfather and, understandably, the Comic Strip themselves. Or rather, Peter Richardson, for though never reaching the same heights as his former colleagues, the director pretty much was the Comic Strip. He’s brought back some of the old crew, including Rik Mayall, Robbie Coltrane, Nigel Planer and John Sessions.

For some, the intentionally over the top nonsense of Blair going on the run from ‘Inspector Hutton of Scotland Yard’ after faking evidence for the Iraq War – complete with lines like “It felt like the whole world was against me, apart from Barbara Windsor of course” – will not be enough to excuse the spoof from its nastier accusations: Blair’s shown murdering John Smith and Robin Cook, while Thatcher (played by Saunders, naturally) is a monstrous Norma Desmond luring him to bed.

Yes, this isn’t exactly sophisticated satire, but it is surprisingly funny in places, with Stephen Mangan capturing Blair’s wide-eyed insouciance. While it references the 50s visually, it actually evokes nostalgia for the 80s, when having a childish pop at the people in power felt dangerous – like it could genuinely change things. And the darkest comic line is a real one: “Hey, in the end, only God and history can judge me,” says Tony.

Some would argue that Phil Spencer, along with his chum Kirstie Allsopp, Sarah Beeny and other property porn cheerleaders, have also escaped justice for having encouraged an unsustainable housing market last decade. Despite his own firm going bust a couple of years ago, Spencer’s continued to opine on the real estate business in a series of increasingly desperate programmes for Channel 4, all variations on the same theme, the latest being Phil spencer: secret agent.

It’s hard to decide whether Spencer is better or worse without sidekick Allsopp – there isn’t the annoying flirting as they wait in a suburban garden to see if a house-hunting couple like a property, but on his own he has an unfortunate tendency to smirk and say things like, “Today, I’m nursing a semi.” Watching the wealthy Spencer sneer at the worn carpets, scabby doors and peeling wallpaper of the first home featured in his new series, belonging to a not-too-well-off-looking family with three boisterous little boys, is pretty distasteful too. These, he says, are why the For Sale sign is still up after eight months.

The ‘secret agent’ gimmick is pointless: all it means is that the people who have agreed to be filmed haven’t been told who it is that will turn up to tell them off for not being buyer-ready – so what? But more importantly, this – presumably the most effective of the series, as it’s been put first – doesn’t even back up the basic premise that by following Spencer’s advice, apparently unsellable houses can be turned into highly sought-after ones. After much chivvying, the family tidy up and redecorate, shelling out £2,500, before Spencer announces that the real reason it’s not selling is their peculiar garden layout which revolves around a parking space, which presumably they already realised. And there’s not much they can do about that, it turns out, other than plant some half-hearted bushes to hide it a little. The house does sell, eventually, but only because they drop the price, so can it really be said that their ‘secret agent’ helped much? The only advice you can really take away is not to buy a house with a weird garden.

Darren Boyd is slightly more effective undercover in spy, a new Sky1 sitcom whose premise seems lifted from the American series Chuck: they’re both about hapless, put-upon guys who work in computer stores and are accidentally recruited by the secret services, thenceforth having to maintain their geeky cover while juggling espionage adventures. Chuck, though, is a glossy action show and Spy is, unfortunately, just the usual underachieving British sitcom which somehow manages to take a talented enough cast and a promising enough premise and yet not deliver any real laughs at all.

Boyd’s longsuffering Tim looks slightly irritated throughout, though it doesn’t stop several women (including the wasted Rebekah Staton) falling for him, while it’s interesting that instead of the usual cute, supportive kid, his nine-year-old son is a horrible little monster out to undermine his dad at any opportunity – interesting, but not actually funny. Still, the show has Robert Lindsay, liberated at last from the shackles of being the one to play the longsuffering dad in My Family, now as a demented, grizzled spy boss and clearly enjoying himself hugely. At least someone is.