Sketch shows are probably one of the toughest TV genres to get right. Do it well, like Monty Python and The Fast Show, and you’ll go down in the annals of history as a classic, do it badly and… well, you’re certainly not alone. Entering the lions’ den last night were comedy darlings Mathew Horne and James Corden. Oh dear.

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I should point out at the start of this review that I have nothing against James Corden and Mathew Horne, though I know they irk some people, maybe simply because they are rather ubiquitous at the moment. But I like them as performers, and am a real Gavin and Stacey fan (though to be honest, it’s Ness and Uncle Bryn who are my favourites…) so I came to this perfectly happy to like it.

But it’s not good. At all. They’ve tried to put a twist on the usual sketch show set-up by starting the programme with a piece to camera with a live audience – and a couple of sketches are performed there in the studio too – but this is not nearly enough to save the show. Corden joked on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross last week that Horne is his ‘straight man’ but in fact, in many of the sketches that is precisely what he’s reduced to, while Corden gets to play the big character. This is far from an equal partnership, though it has to be said that the sketch in which Horne was the star – as a camp war correspondent from Leeds – was one of the few to raise a smile.

One other major problem with this show is that the sketches often simply went on for far too long. One of the live sketches saw teachers teaching a class of boys ‘cock-drawing’. Now, while the concept is puerile, it is at least an original one (and little boys do seem to love drawing them…) but the punchline came within the first minute, and the rest of sketch was completely unnecessary and just embarrassing.

Kudos must go to James and Mat for having a pop at Ricky Gervais – I’m all for that, and James did a great impression – but that is pretty much the only positive I can find here. Just as was the case with The Catherine Tate Show, talented and engaging performers are being sorely wasted on poor material.