>I saw 'Alistair McGowan's Big Impression' last night and I was, I must admit, very impressed by the uncanny way he resembled one celebrity in particular.
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>That celebrity being Mike Yarwood.
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>Like Mike's show from the 70s/80s I spent most of last night trying to guess who Alistair was impersonating, because the voices certainly didn't give it away. What an amazing talent Alastair has to NOT SOUND LIKE ANYONE AT ALL.
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It was a tad old school, but somehow I still preferred it to Bremner. At least he didn't spend the whole half-hour trying to show how clever/political/satirical he was. And his Matthew Kelly and Alan Titchmarsh weren't bad.

>Even heavily relying on the BBC make-up department failed to give any clues as to who he was sending up.

Fair enough, but most impressionists on TV tend to pin their hopes on make-up and costume departments.

And as for the 'jokes', well, if I found any I'd be able to comment on them. All lame, underachieving, well-trodden stuff even Barry Cryer would turn his nose up at.

Now, I do agree with you on this. Didn't spot the writers but it didn't bode well for the rest of the series.
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Tended to be impression first and (no) joke second. Pish.

But the Craig Cash/Caroline Ahern impression was pretty good. Not funny, mind.

Yes he is crap

I think boyfraser is being a bit harsh on McGowan .I think his Parkinsons pretty spot on,as is his Craig Cash among others.Ronni Ancona is an excellent co-star as well.However, the material is pedestrian and over reverant.Alistair McGowan is probably a lovely bloke, without a malicious bone in his lanky body.Unfortunately not the best trait to have as a mimic. Maybe Spitting Image was allowed to be more cruel because the impressionists hid behind rubber monsters.Anyway, the most misjudged section of the show are the music parodies at the end.Yes, we all know comedians would really rather be on Top of the Pops ,but do we have to endure yet another lot all doing it (Smack the Pony take a bow)You have to be able to sing well in the first place if your going to rip the piss out of great rock vocalists,(Costello,Liam G)or at least get the bleedin Barren Knights to write you some amusing lyrics.Poor.Still Ill take a thousand McGowans than Les Dennis and Dustin Gees lame effort in the early eighties on the Beeb.They use to just dress up in a crap approximation of the popstar in question and sing a truncated version of the hit completely straight , with no change to the lyrics or tune,
as if that was enough.Gee massacred Space Oddity dressed as Ziggy Stardust for Chrissakes!And Dennis was afflicted with St Vitus dance as he `mockneyed ` his way through the Madness classic My Girl as Suggs.

Sorry but he's crap.

The same jokes, not very funny at all, the same sketches, the same, same, same, same.

He might think he can crack original jokes with origianl sketches - but he can't.

Night night Mr McGowan - your 15 minutes are up.

Hmm..there seems to be a lot of backlash over him..dunno why..i think he's really good...though admittedly his Vialli impresion was more like Zola...anyway...the Posh and Becks sketches are good but the Royal Family ones are the best!!

But he looks scary.

He was brilliant in Preston Front as spock!

Alye

surely his Eddie Izzard bit was funny?
I thought so anyway.
the royle family ones are naff,
I cant work out whose supposed to be who even with the makeup.
so which member of the royal family is the dad supposed to be?