Stars deny show was a flop

Little Britain USA is to return for a second series, despite reports of disappointing viewing figures and claims that Americans didn’t get the jokes.

Matt Lucas told GMTV: ‘We're doing another series for HBO in America next year, which is great... people have responded really well to the show out there.

‘The viewing figures went up every week. And most of the reviews were great.’

And in an interview with the BBC, Walliams added: ‘We're getting a second series. It was very successful on HBO, it got good viewing figures, great reviews, everyone was really pleased. We're delighted, we're very proud of it

‘We got one bad review - and then the British papers, they went, “They've had terrible reviews!” Well, we had one!’

‘I think we put all the really filthy stuff on screen, I think there might be a couple of rude scenes, but that's what you get with Little Britain. It's always been quite edgy humour but you know in Shakespeare there are jokes about bottoms and farts, this is the stuff of life and people like that kind of thing.’

Little Britain USA averaged around 500,000 viewers per episode in America, and the reviews were decidedly mixed – certainly with more than one critic disliking the show.

Showbiz bible Variety said Little Britain USA was ‘mostly just crude, reveling in mock condescension toward American stereotypes’.

The LA Times conceded the show did have some good gags, but generally hated its ‘descent into lowbrow humour’ and ‘adolescent guffawing about fat people and primary sex characteristics’.

The Miami Herald also found it childish, concluding: ‘If you think SpongeBob Squarepants would be funnier if it added a couple of hookers and a cross-dressing junkie, this is the show for you. Everybody else should take a pass.’

The Washington Post said: ‘Some [sketches] are too tasteless even for a celebration of bad taste’ and found Walliams’s gay PM ‘a cheap comedy idea, crudely overdone’.

However the programme did receive praise, too, with the Boston Herald concluding: ‘If you don't like comedy that pushes the boundaries of good taste, you have no business here. But the material is presented with enough comic skill, cultural resonance, and clever mockery to rise above.’

And USA Today said: ‘The only real downside of the programme is that they've made only six episodes.’

Published: 28 Nov 2008