What a pair

DAVID MITCHELL and Robert Webb aren’t the only comic pair who’ve been making audiences laugh in recent year. The stars of The Armstrong And Miller Show have been pretty busy too.

Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller made a splash on C4 in the late Nineties, and after a successful run on BBC1, they’re back with a new series.

They’ll introduce a wealth of fresh characters, including Pru and Miranda, two fat ladies who can neither cook nor run their vegetarian restaurant, a politically- incorrect sat nav and Mr Foley, the retired Essex gangster and now self-appointed guardian of public decency.

They have successful solo careers running in tandem with their double act comedy shows. Armstrong has established himself as a character actor, thanks to TV series such as Beast, Life Begins and the Woody Allen movies Match Point and Scoop.

He also portrayed David Cameron in More 4’s drama, The Trial of Tony Blair, and played Sir Clive Sinclair in BBC4’s recent comedy drama, Micro Men.

However, it’s his dependable hand on topical quiz Have I Got News For You that has gained him a wider reputation – he’s been in the presenter’s chair more than ten times so far.

His old friend, Ben Miller, has been just as busy. Not only did he provide the voice for the hugely popular ITV Digital monkey (which made a comeback in a series of teabag adverts), he also featured in two series of the comedy The Worst Week of My Life, and was among the cast of fantasy drama Primeval.

Like his comedy colleague, he has also dabbled in movies, co-starring with Rowan Atkinson in comedy thriller Johnny English, and in Julia Stiles’ romantic comedy, The Prince and Me.

The duo met at Cambridge University in the early Nineties. Miller was studying for a physics degree but got on so well with Armstrong that he started to question his future career.

Comedy might be his forte, but Miller has also proved to be a dab hand at drama, as roles in Marple: The Body in the Library and Malice Aforethought have proved over the past few years.

“I like to do completely different things, go from one thing to another, which is possibly why no one knows who I am,” he says.

“I do get sent quite a few straight things. I tend not to do them though, because I don’t always find them as good as the comedy things I get sent. I just like to do the best things that are around.”

TOPICAL quiz Have I Got News for You (BBC1, 9pm) returns for a brand new run and even after 38 series, is still going strong.

Since Angus Deayton was sacked in 2002 after allegations about his private life, the show has been hosted by various guest presenters. Doc Martin himself, Martin Clunes, assumes the presenting duties for the series opener.

As always, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton return as team captains to joke about the news stories that have been hitting the headlines in recent weeks.

SYNTH Britannia is a one-off documentary examining the musical backdrop of the Eighties when synthpop was all the rage and Depeche Mode, Ultravox and Soft Cell dominated the charts.

The film also explores how the genre influenced the future of electronic music, thanks to bands like Pet Shop Boys and New Order and features interviews with Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.

Fans of synthpop might want to stay tuned afterwards as Synth at the BBC features hits by Roxy Music, New Order and many other acts.