Where did it go wrong for Harry?

His fall from grace has been spectacular even in the fickle world of television. One minute Harry Enfield was the saviour of popular comedy: with his iconic figures - Stavros, Loadsamoney and Tim Nice-But-Dim - he enjoyed a decade of lucrative BBC contracts, fame and popular acclaim.

But now, after 2000's disastrous sketch series on Sky One, his return to the BBC, Celeb - a sitcom about a fading rock star - has been savaged by the critics and ignored by viewers. Just 4.8 million watched the first episode and hardly any more tuned in for the second.

"It was so bad, I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes," says one senior comedy producer. "A rotten piece of commissioning, badly acted", "unoriginal and dated", "woefully under par", say the critics. So what has gone wrong?

"Simple," says one BBC insider. "Harry surrounded by good producers, directors and writers is brilliant, Harry surrounded by people who won't answer back is not. In the past few years he has moved from cooperative ventures - Saturday Live, Harry Enfield and Chums - to ones where he is the centre of attention, and these programmes been found wanting."

She points to another possible reason for Enfield's apparent demise as a comedy talent. "Look at what he's really good at," she says. "Four-minute sketches with well-drawn characters - Tory Boy, Kevin the Teenager, Wayne Slob. They were all written, directed and produced by other people who knew they were at least his equals, if not his betters.

"But every single one of the people who worked with him during his BBC heyday has left his orbit, and Celeb is such a Harry Enfield vehicle that you wonder, does anyone feel they can stop him and say, 'This simply isn't funny'?"

It's not that the BBC (which, while not paying Enfield a Sky-high salary, is certainly paying him a huge fee for Celeb) doesn't know of Enfield's shortcomings as an actor. He was in the original cast of Men Behaving Badly when it was on ITV; when the BBC bought it, he was replaced by Neil Morrissey and it went on to become one of the corporation's most successful sitcoms.

Within the industry Enfield is reportedly not popular with colleagues, particularly senior executives. "He's difficult and famously falls out with people," says one top producer.

But surely that goes with the territory? "Oh yes. But I think Harry's just a pain in the arse. He wants total control of everything he works on."

One junior member of his Sky team takes a softer view. "He's a nice guy and I really enjoyed working for him," she says. "But, boy, is he sensitive - we all knew our most important job on set was to tell Harry how wonderful and talented he was."