A win for Labour Nouveau

The New Statesman's Alan B'stard was a classic sitcom character who reflected his avaricious Eighties era. Opportunistic and amoral, he loved women and power almost as much as he loved himself.

Rik Mayall's exuberant revival finds his dapper-suited schemer unchanged except that the Tory turncoat is now a libidinous Labourite.

Creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran penned the script, but with that set-up in place the gags write themselves. Blunkett, Mandelson, Prescott et al are all efficiently lampooned. There is a decent topical stab at Cherie's hairdressing bill, although a Berlusconi barb needs to be updated with a Prodi poke.

The gossamer-thin plot involves kidnapping Blair and Gordon Brown being shamed in a sex scandal, leaving the way for B'stard to ascend the greasy pole of 'Labour Nouveau'. A cartoon sidebar about flogging dodgy WMDs and coaxing Condoleezza Rice into invading Norway completes the picture.

If the satire is toothless, the star's crotch-fixated, grandstanding performance has so much bite it leaves the supporting cast looking like spare parts.

He wrings every possible laugh out of an easy conceit and revels in going offscript at the drop of a prop. Not quite first-class Mayall, but he gets my vote.

The New Statesman: The Blair B'Stard Project