Friday Night Live, review: at last - unfiltered, opinionated comedy is back on our TV screens

That will teach me for speaking too soon. I was just lamenting to my sofa companion that Friday Night Live (Channel 4) was missing a sense of seat-of-the-pants jeopardy when musical comedian Jordan Gray took to the stage. Towards the end of her soaring song about being proudly transgender, Gray said: “The best thing about live TV is that I can do stupid stuff like this.”

She promptly stripped naked and played the closing piano note with something that definitely wasn’t her finger. Even host Ben Elton was momentarily lost for words, before regaining his composure and commenting: “Wow. Now that’s what I call a knob gag.” In that single, presumably impulsive moment, Friday Night Live reminded us why it was such a thrillingly urgent TV proposition.

Channel 4 bigwigs must have already been punching the air and popping prosecco corks (well, there is a cost of living crisis on). Their revival of the alternative comedy showcase could hardly have come at a better time. Airing the day after Liz Truss became the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history was a gift to every act on the bill. Not a single routine passed without a Truss gag. She even appeared on Harry Enfield’s T-shirt. Best not to specify why.

Satirical stalwart Have I Got News For You, scheduled against this show on BBC One, had similar luck. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton’s political quiz was recorded on Thursday evening, six hours after Truss’ resignation. Just spare a thought for Mock The Week, which broadcast its last ever episode on BBC Two this evening but filmed it on Wednesday. The topical panel show bowed out with perhaps the least topical of its 200-plus episodes.

Channel 4 marked its 40th anniversary by blowing the dust off its Eighties entertainment favourite, with Elton squeezing into his sparkly suit to host. Cannily, he ticked off the hoary old catchphrases straight away: “little bit of politics there”, “yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen” and, of course, “Mrs Thatch”. Job done. On with the show.

He bookended proceedings with a pair of his trademark rants. Elton riffed that political satire in 2022 was “trying to hit a moving target” and admitted that the current government had “achieved the impossible - it’s made me miss Mrs Thatch”. A spirited defence of political correctness segued into a riff on cancel culture and social media mobs. You might not have agreed with all he said but it still quickened the blood to see unfiltered, opinionated comedy live on primetime TV again.

The original series kickstarted the careers of Harry Enfield, Jo Brand and Julian Clary. All three returned for this 90-minute special. They’re now in their 60s and cuddly establishment figures, rather than the anarchic loose cannons of yore. Clary was waspishly witty as ever but lacked the old edge. Brand seemed to be on autopilot. Of the trio, only Enfield earned his place.

His Cockney-Greek cult character Stavros (“Good evening, everybody peeps!”) had converted his old kebab shop into an organic café, flogging £5 flat whites to gullible millennials. Wad-waving plasterer Loadsamoney had also moved with the times, going from Thatcherite spoof to Boris backer (albeit for reasons not suitable for a family newspaper).

The show opened with video messages from other members of that game-changing generation: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson and Stephen Fry. Perhaps as it should be, however, the old guard were thoroughly outshone by comedy’s younger generation. British-Pakistani talent Mawaan Rizwan was first to impress with his rap “Are you checking me out or are you just a racist?”. Leo Reich skewered Gen-Z narcissism with panache. Australian surrealist Sam Campbell, who won this summer’s Edinburgh Festival award, demonstrated why with a set of freewheeling brilliance.

The rose-tinted glow of nostalgia means we often forget how hit and miss Friday Night Live was first time around. So it proved again. Ronni Ancona’s impressions of Olivia Colman fell flat. Fonejacker’s prank call was only mildly amusing. Ghosts’ Martha Howe-Douglas performed a Wagatha Christie skit which was hopefully funnier on paper than in reality.

Was this just a one-off exercise in nostalgia? Or could it return full-time to rival the BBC’s Live At The Apollo? There were enough high points here to hint at the latter. A full-time comeback would just need to dial down the duffers, give youth its head and encourage spontaniety, nudity-based or otherwise. Coinciding with a chaotic new cycle wouldn’t hurt either.