Every now and then a show so bad comes along it literally takes your breath away. Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire is one such show. Which is a shame because, on paper, it looks like a winner. It’s a co-production between US channel Comedy Central (although a UK Comedy Central does now exist) and the BBC and it has Matt Lucas in it, who is always worth a watch. It also sets out to lampoon a genre so ripe for mickey-taking it’s going off. So why is it so awful?

For all our First Looks, go here.

The first scene sets the tone for the whole thing. Krod Mandoon (Sean Maguire) is an inept freedom fighter in a medieval-style land, heading up an equally inept band of merry men and women. There’s a foxy pagan warrioress who extracts information and key items like keys to prisons by using her womanly wiles, there’s an extraordinarily irritating magician called Zezelryck who speaks in hip hop language, and there’s a big oaf with a funny nose. Krod and his gang have to get some keys to a prison to free his boss, to help kickstart the revolution.

As they fall over, cast spells that don’t work and seemingly botch the raid on the pub, the jokes come thick and fast. And they’re all dreadful, unfunny, I-can-see-you-from-a-mile-off jokes. The are the kind of gender and sexual orientation steroetype jokes that give comedy a bad name.

Matt Lucas is in there, and he’s fine, camping it up beautifully as the evil but matter-of-fact sociopath Chancellor Dongalor, but it’s not enough.

Sean Maguire gets his (quite impressive it has to be said) torso out at the drop of the hat, and the awful jokes just keep on coming.

I saw this previewed in an article in SFX magazine a while back, and I have to say it looked promising. The whole Lord Of The Rings-style genre could do with a good poking, but from this? It’s like being poked with a feather. Flaming Sword Of Fire? Feel free to swap the word ‘fire’ with the word ‘shite’.