Jamie Demetriou already has his place in the comedy pantheon of greats with three series of the Bafta-winning Stath Lets Flats under his belt. He now gets his own sketch show special on Netflix which confirms what we could have already guessed – that there is even more Demetriou greatness out there.

The format is fairly simple. At the start we see Demetriou in the womb – though fully grown – and the subsequent sketches are like life lessons, showing what the world might have in store for him. Maybe things end so badly he might like to stay put in the womb.

First up is a sketch featuring the star and Ellie White as archetypal teen lovers hunkered down in bed over their phones where they should be hunkered down over each other. Even mum is tweeting about how little sex her son is having. Angered by being shamed on socials they try to remedy this only to discover that he is "soft" and she is "dry" - they illustrate the predicament with a Flight of the Conchords-style ballad before some "Turkish soap" comes to their rescue.

This sets the tone for the rest of the hour, with Demetriou excelling at the comedy of awkwardness. In a stag party skit he plays the world's most awful party organiser, underlining the horror of toxic masculinity where he feels obliged to talk about downing pints and shitting most of the time. It's a great performance, the kind of comedy you want to watch through your fingers as things get worse and worse for the others gathered, who include comedy duo The Pin, Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, and stand-up Sunil Patel.

There are moments when this one-off recalls Stath, particularly a sketch about office life when the gangly star – part-giraffe, part-John Cleese – repeatedly walks through a door and catches his bag on the handle. It is both brilliant slapstick and a comment on the repetitive banality of office life that is up there with David Brent. 

At times A Whole Lifetime has an echo of Little Britain if Lucas and Walliams had not been so warped. There is even a royal wedding send-up with Demetriou playing a royal reporter with echoes of David Walliams' unctious hack Peter Andre (not the singer). Demetriou perfectly nails the lunacy of people who gather in the mall with fake interviews with royalists (at least two played by Katy Wix) who can't even articulate why they are there.

Family life is skewered with Demetriou as a father who cannot live up to parental ideals and instead tries to strangle the other guests at a barbecue. Another sketch mixes the weird with a recognisable format. Kiss Villa is his version of Love Island, with a selection of hunks and grotesques taking part in a reality TV contest with a twist. It's a format that is so easy to spoof Demetriou has to work hard to find a new angle, but rest assured he does. 

As we reach middle and old age things take a turn for the bleak. Demetriou plays an older husband in beige serenading his beige wife in their beige kitchen. Elsewhere a strangely touching sketch neatly critiques our obsession with technology when an isolated old man begs to be a part of his family as they giggle around a smartphone screen, only to be told that being bored is way better than looking at how many likes "Luton Larry" has notched up. 

And finally, of course we reach death, which in this case comes quickly and brutally and concludes with a body in a bag in a skip. It is enough to make you wish you weren't born.

There are a few dips as there are in all sketch shows. but the hit rate is incredibly high. Even the slightly overlong routines have something going for them, whether it is Demetriou's trademark quirky use of language or physical humour. There is a strong supporting cast too. As well as the names already mentioned, others appearing include Sian Clifford, Jon Pointing, Mark Silcox, Jonny Sweet, Phoebe Walsh and Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou, NetflixPicture: Netflix