Impressionist Rory Bremner has criticised the lack of characters in modern-day politics.

The TV star said Parliament had been filled with "managerial bureaucrats", which was damaging politics as well as causing problems for impressionists like him.

The Edinburgh-born comic said "the coalition has been markedly devoid of characters".

"Each minor reshuffle has succeeded in replacing the few remaining recognisable personalities (William Hague, Ken Clarke) with the likes of Ed Davey, Stephen Crabb and Phil Hammond, whose colourful life has included the establishment of an electrode manufacturing plant in Maidenhead and a spell as consultant to the government of Malawi," he said.

He said that "rousing and passionate speakers" had been replaced with "safe, managerial bureaucrats who make speak-your-weight machines sound like Martin Luther King".

"The speeches are so forgettable, politicians sometimes forget them while they're delivering them," he added.

Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Russell Brand were "figures who demonstrate that in the kingdom of the bland, the one idea is king", he added.

"When the public loses interest in politicians, it's easy for politicians to lose interest in the public. The gap grows wider, the disengagement greater. But programmes that send up politicians, lampoon them, parody them, are a healthy and vital part of the political process," he said.