TV review

Furious polemic is out, and passive-aggressive sarcasm is in now Rachel Parris has taken over from Nish Kumar as the host of Late Night Mash.

No one does those rants quite like Kumar, enraging certain people of a gammony persuasion along the way – which may have been why the show was booted off the BBC. But the change of tone in the second series of Dave’s topical format offers a welcome respite from the partisan yelling that passes for political discourse.

Parris can be withering, but the insults come wrapped in a butter-wouldn’t-melt civility, like Leicesterian Julia Andrews. That was best demonstrated with the sardonic list of very specific vibes she gets off Nadine Dorries. And it gives her a winning banter with resident righty Geoff Norcott, scoring points off each other but keeping things cordial.

On Parris becoming that rarest of things, the female host of a topical comedy show, the Mash writers couldn’t help but draw parallels with Liz Truss as ‘a blonde woman grabbing the reins and taking absolutely no responsibility for the problems she caused under the old administration’. Or, more bitingly, keeping a British Asian out of the prime job.

That last line was delivered by Joel Dommett, who stole every scene he was in, from being a Tolkien nerd to a weatherman who can’t convey the scale of the climate catastrophe to the vacuous anchors (Steve N Allen and Ellie Taylor back deadpanning behind the newsdesk).

Dommett got the best laughs by breaking character, either as the meteorologist or, later, reading fake tweets sight unseen. If his appearance heralds a move towards a bigger guest each week, Saturday Night Live-style, it would surely be welcome.

Mash has always been good at giving newer comics a leg-up, too, and last night it was the turn of Helen Bauer as way-too-intense wellness guru Melinda Major. However, the grating and irritating character was, well, grating and irritating.

However, surely the most preposterous skit was having a stuttering parody of a Prime Minister telling the nation to tackle energy price rises spiralling into the thousands of pounds by buying a new kettle.

Oh, hang on…

That the upper echelons of government are so incompetent, self-serving and just plain thick to a level beyond mockery remains a problem for any topical show. How do you get more laughs when just pointing out what happened is already grimly funny, were it not so serious?

Parris only has to list the dodgy stuff Boris Johnson has done in the 10 months since the show was last on air alone to paint a bleak picture of pathetic corruption. And her later monologue cannot escape the brutal reality of the energy crisis. However, this seriousness is countered with some sharp lines, such as describing Truss as a cosplay Margaret Thatcher, but ‘without her one redeeming feature of not being alive’.

It’s unlikely to be the Mash team's last word on the subject.

• Late Night Mash is on Dave at 10pm on Thursdays, then on catch-up via UKTV Play.

Review date: 2 Sep 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett