I enjoy this show but it's very average. It's just him trying to make conservatives look as bad as possible and it's not always funny. The first season has some weird transvestite character that seems to have no reason to be there but it ends up being the funniest character. Having Charles Gray in two episodes really helped, they should have kept him in the show.

I own the complete New Statesman box set and think it is absolutely brilliant. Alan B'Stard is riotous and his ability to find a profit in any venture is often hilarious. I do have one question though, and wonder could anyone answer it.While browsing this excellent site I saw the complete list of episodes for the New Statesman. The episode "Alan B'Stard closes down the BBC" is not on my "complete New Statesman" box set. Was this not an official episode? Why is it not included? I unfortunately was too young to appreciate this show when it first aired so have no idea if it was just a charity special or anything like that. I have always assumed that the episode "Who shot Alan B'Stard" was a one-off, though without giving too much away there is no way they couldn't include that episode on the boxset without raising too many questions.So, overall the show is brilliant, and if anyone can tell me what happened to this lost episode I'd appreciate it. Thanks for reading this.PS I didn't really know where else to put this question, so put it in here with my praise.

Virtually everything Rik Mayall stars in is funny and this great series is no exception. Depicting a money-grabbing, corrupt and debauched MP in Thatcher's Britain, it sees Mayall at his peak. The scheming and wordplay are brilliant, whilst the stories rush along at a swift pace with plenty of laughs. I like the fact that the series pokes fun not just at the Tories (the typical cries from the left that they're all toffs and buffoons etc), it also attacks Labour (opportunistic, double-dealing and stupid) whilst savaging the Liberals now and then as well!!! Now that's the kind of approach I like to see! Alan B'Stard is of course one of comedy's great characters. In just 4 series and a special, he managed to hide nuclear waste near a school, get assassinated and survive, be sentenced to death and escape his hanging because the ropes (which he had sold them) didn't work, find himself trapped in a gulag, have numerous affairs, kill a few people, make loads of dodgy cash and get a telling off from the Iron Lady herself!!! Plus loads more! The New Statesman is a fantastic show, with outrageous humour and slapstick, twinned with a sinister undertone. Cynics will love it. Lets hope the new stage show, with B'Stard now one of Tony's Cronies in the discredited Labour party, is as good as the original.

Rik Mayall always makes me laugh i don't think hes ever done a single duff sitcom or comedy routine. Its one of the rare ocassions hes not working along side Ade Edmundson but he still manages to do well. Its a shame theres no reruns of this but then i'm buying them on DVD. I guess we'll have to wait until The tories come back into power before we'll see this rerun. Someone should maybe try the same thing with the labour party.TC Raymond, Benny hill and the carry on films are old hat and out of date. You'll have to accept that and move along. In my opinion they were boring and i'm glad we've left that era. You don't seem to like alot of comedy do you? Oh well your choice I guess.