Look Around You: Series 2 Review

The often irresistably silly pseudo-science show is back, expanded to 30-minute episodes, cameo-packed and still pretty much spot-on in its spoofing of over-earnest educational television programmes from a bygone age. Creators Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper ensure that there’s plenty to amuse the eyes (offensively beige suits, a ‘visit’ from Prince Charles), but your ears will have just as much fun. The Music episode, for instance, has the inspired format of a contest to find the music “we’ll be listening to in the year 2000”, culminating in The Rapping Song, an experimental voyage into hip-hop that is brilliantly bad. Some ideas don’t gel — the character Leonard Hatred is a touch of Chris Morris-esque darkness that falls flat, while the last episode feels atypically lazy due to gag recycling — but the perky hosts and confident writing go a long way to plugging the gaps.