Seeing double

IF you don’t enjoy a laugh, steer clear of C4 tonight because it’s packed full of new comedy. The fun begins at 9pm with a fresh run of 8 Out of 10 Cats, and continues at 10pm when Alan Carr returns with more Chatty Man frolics. Sandwiched between the two is six-part series VIP, of which big things are expected.

Okay, so comedy shows built around impressionists are hardly a modern invention.

Mike Yarwood was the king of the genre in the 1970s, blazing the trail for the likes of Rory Bremner, Phil Cool, John Culshaw and Debra Stephenson.

Newcomer VIP features spot-on impersonations of the likes of Natalie Cassidy, Fearne Cotton, Adele, Bear Grylls, Frankie Boyle, Barack Obama, Russell Brand and many, many more, by Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott.

The latter was plucked from obscurity after agent John Noel spotted him going through his repertoire in a hugely popular You Tube clip. He’s fronting his own sitcom, The Mimic, shortly.

“We’re poking fun at celebrity culture, basically, in a way that I think is appropriate for the time that we’re in, and how ridiculous celebrity has become,” says Robinson, who had her own series, The Morgana Show, last year.

“It’s such a massive facade, and this is just a warts-and-all look at it, basically.

It’s definitely got a tone to it, a flavour. It’s not just, ‘Hi, look at me, I’m being this person’. It’s got more of a voice to it than that.”

Robinson says VIP won’t be just another impressions show. “I just think that’s quite boring. Nuanced performances are much more interesting – if there’s another layer to it and another reason as to why you’re doing it, it makes for a more well-rounded show,” she says.

“It’s about time there was a show like this. Celebrity has got so ridiculous.

What are we watching on the telly, and why are we so obsessed with these people?

It’s like a religion now.”

Clearly the show isn’t meant to offend, however, because Robinson knows Fearne Cotton well.

“I did her on The Morgana Show,” she reveals.

“We had mutual friends, so I ended up meeting her, which was really weird. I was really scared as to what she’d think, but she loved it, and her parents loved it; it was ace.”

TO Dad’s Army fans everywhere, John Le Mesurier will always be Sergeant Arthur Wilson, the charming but vague bank clerk whose laidback ways and aristocratic air continually got up the nose of his boss, Captain Mainwaring.

But what was the man affectionately known as Le Mez by friends really like?

Sadly, we can’t ask him – Le Mesurier passed away in 1983 aged 71. His last words form the latter half of the title of tonight’s documentary, It’s All Been Rather Lovely.

The makers have the likes of Michael Palin, Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender, Jimmy Perry and his third wife, Joan Le Mesurier, to discuss what he was like to work and live with.

There’s also a look at his work alongside some of Britain’s comedy greats.

CLEMENCY BURTON-HILL is a skilled violinist with a good number of other strings to her bow, including actress, novelist and journalist.

As such, she is the perfect choice to front BBC Young Musician 2012.

In tonight’s programme, she introduces highlights from the final of the strings category of the contest, recorded at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Judges include conductor Gareth Jones, Welsh National Opera cellist Rosie Biss and Lesley Hatfield, leader of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Hoping to hit the right notes with them are cellists Laura Van De Heijden and Joel Sandelson, and violinists Julia Hwang, Juliette Roos and Cristian Grajner-Desa. Each is competing for a place in the overall semi-final.