Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping… neither is whoever came up with that awful title for this new sketch show.
Still, maybe the jokes are funny? Well, there could be if there were any, since the opening sketch took us back to the Georgian era, where David Mitchell’s character has had the first ever “water closet” installed, insisting everyone in the house use it for their toilet business, “rather than throwing their shit outside“.
Just swearing a lot without any jokes certainly does not help. Hence, that also scraps the bafflingly-awful “Sweary Aussie drama” sketch.
Oh, and while the billing refers to the 18th Century, WCs/toilets were not introduced to the UK until 1880. But then that is the least of this programme’s problems.
Other misfires included how a drama was being made about how two channels made the same Prince Andrew drama following paedophile Duke of York’s interview with Emily Maitlis, before moving on to basic misdirection in a plumber/porn star sketch, but then it’s made even worse by the cast sat in a room waffling nonsense analysing it. As the late, great Barry Cryer said, “Analysing a joke is like dissecting a frog. Nobody laughs and the frog dies.”
The scene about airport scanners rang true, although while some of the staff were slightly impatient at Manchester, woe betide you if you got through Paris, as I did on the way to Vienna. The surly bloke just grabbed my laptop rather than leave it in the bag like at Manchester, and I hate people touching my stuff, especially when they don’t ask first! Just because I can’t understand what they were saying it not an excuse to be snotty. (Meanwhile, the guy at Vienna airport was an absolute gent, wearing blue gloves for a start before he swabbed my laptop, unlike the French guy, who no doubt had stuffed his fingers up his arse, a moment earlier).
Still, it didn’t add any jokes. When are we meant to laugh?
So, at least this does do what it says on the tin, since Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, but then neither are the rest of the cast, nor whoever commissioned this toss. At least a second series of Ludwig has been commissioned…
Now, can we have a third series of Back, please? I did enjoy that.
Oh, and of the rest of the cast, I recognise Stevie Martin from the adverts mentioning the difficulties of buying white paint (can’t remember what it was actually advertising, though), as she’s cast opposite that awful woman from The Chase‘s Gala Bingo promos, which are even less funny than this, are cringe as hell, and as much fun as a root canal.
The director, David Sant, once played Cartoon Head in BBC3’s Ideal. Didn’t he get a say in pointing out how unfunny this was?
Still, it could be worse. It could be The Paper.
On another plus side, for everyone requesting the appearance of a certain British National Treasure actress…
Vince also called it right:
#mitchellandwebbarenothelping
This should be renamed "Mitchell and Webb are not funny anymore" pic.twitter.com/IRPPKy37Zk— Vince (@BattleGoff) September 5, 2025
Thanks to our friends at Channel 4 for the screener prior to release.
Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping continues next Friday on Channel 4 at 10pm. The entire series is now online on All 4. However, if you’re watching more, it doesn’t get any better.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Running time: 25 minutes per episode
Release date: September 5th 2025
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 1.78:1
Director: David Sant
Producer: Gareth Edwards
Writers: David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Krystal Evans, Stevie Martin, Lara Ricote, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Abigail Burdes, Natasha Hodgson, Mollie Goodfellow, Tatenda Shamiso
Starring:
David Mitchell
Robert Webb
Krystal Evans
Stevie Martin
Lara Ricote
Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Charly Clive
Kath Hughes
Anna Morris
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.