I'm Mandy fly me

I never found "Little Britain" hilariously funny, so I guess that I shouldn't me surprised that David Walliams & Matt Lucas' new show "come fly with me" leaves me cold.

The concept is good, a "mockumentory" about the airline industry, based on the various programmes made about airports, airlines and the various other industries that depend on flight. Lucas & Walliams play various "colour full characters" both male and female, old and young and of various ethnic backgrounds. Some are funny, like the really thick teenager (Lucas) who dreams of being a pilot but can't understand how to serve on the counter in a fast food restaurant. Some make you smile, like the 1st class flight attendant who doesn't think that a couple are "worthy" to be in 1st class. The majority however range from not funny to insensitive. I don't see that making fun of a boy in a wheelchair or excessive drug taking by customs officers is "funny". That was the two worst examples and there were plenty more.  Some sketches clearly tried to shock but that is a poor substitute for a joke that makes you laugh.

As the journalist David Hepworth wrote on Twitter "Re: Come Fly With Me: at what point did they convince themselves it was going to be funny? When they banked the cheque?"


Fortunately the BBC scheduled "Not going out" straight afterwards and that was funny with jokes and everything.