Pour Some Gravy On Me Just some stuff

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve started watching a few new comedy shows, so I thought I’d talk to you about them.  Conveniently, they are all on different nights of the week and so they format of the post has been conveniently set – thanks to the schedulers for making my life easier.

Monday: Home Time (BBC 2/BBC HD)

This is a brand new sitcom written by, and starring, Emma Fryer.  I’ve seen the first two episodes and episode 3 will have been on by the time you read this.  It’s the story of Gaynor (Fryer) who ran away to London at the age of 17 and then suddenly returns to Coventry after 12 years.  It has similarities to those ‘dark’ comedies that are knocking about – nobody is happy and all Gaynor’s friends are freaky and slightly scary.  Somehow though, it doesn’t feel too ‘dark’ and Fryer’s performance is realistically subdued.  The first episode took  a while to get going, but it’s pretty funny and worth a watch.

Tuesday: How Not To Live Your Life (BBC3/BBC HD)

The second series of Dan Clark’s sitcom started a couple of weeks ago and was a welcome return.  The premise is that Don Danbury (Clark) inherits a house from his grandmother and then proceeds to do as little as possible, ably abetted by his nan’s carer Eddie (David Armand), who just keeps turning up at the house for no particular reason.  Series one also featured Don’s lodger, Abby (Sinead Moynihan) and her boorish boyfriend Karl (Finlay Robertson); many of the plots revolved around Don’s inept attempts at wooing Abby.

There has been a cast re-jig for the new series and Abby and Karl have left to be replaced by Samantha (new lodger) and Don’s next door neighbour Mrs Treacher.  It was an excellent bit of casting to replace the gorgeous Moynihan with the even more gorgeous Laura Haddock.  I think that Haddock is more of a natural actor than her predecessor and so should provide a good foil for Don.

I really like this show for the simple reason that it makes me laugh. Old fashioned, I know.  Don is a classic sitcom archetype, the absolute dick who is lovable despite being completely unlovable.  It also features some clever fantasy sequences whenever Don has an awkward moment (quite often) and we get the ‘top 5 things not to say..’ in that situation.

Wednesday: 10 Things I Hate About You (Fiver)

A sitcom spin-off of a film made ten years ago doesn’t sound all that promising, but I read the following tweet from my good friends at Unpopcult:

Sitcom version of “10 Things I Hate About You” starts tonight 9pm on Fiver. US feedback surprisingly positive, might be worth a look.

This isn’t the kind of show that I would normally watch, but if you use the phrase, ‘feedback surprisingly positive’, then I feel almost compelled to give it a go.  It follows the same basic premise as the movie: there are two sisters in high school, the younger one wants to be popular, the older one doesn’t.  There’s some boys involved and that’s about it.  How much more do you want?  OK, the plot of the film was actually based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew, so go read that if you want to know more.

I’ve only seen the first episode so far, but it seemed a quite likeable show. I’m just not entirely sure how funny it is, and that should kind of be a prerequisite for a comedy.  That said, I’ve certainly stuck with worse shows, so I’ll probably give it another chance.

Thursday: Important Things with Demetri Martin (E4)

I’ve heard of this show from the internet, although I can’t remember whether it was supposed to be good or not.  I do remember seeing Martin on a BBC special about 5 years ago and quite liking his quirky, nerdy stand up.  So, I gave the first episode of Interesting Things a go.  It’s a mixture of stand up, sketches and a few other weird little film bits.  It feels very much like a BBC show made by an American network.  I’m not sure exactly how funny it is; the humour is more quirky than laugh-out-loud funny, which is fine, but the over-enthusiastic studio audience spoil things.  That said, it’s different enough to keep me watching for now, and I’m happy to give the second episode a try.

Friday: Peep Show (Channel 4/HD)

We’re now two episodes in to the sixth series of Peep Show, and the news is that it’s still funny.  Hooray.  If you’ve not seen it before, then what on earth are you doing?  Go out and buy series 1-5 on DVD immediately! You can get them all in a box set on Amazon for £15.48, so you really have no excuse.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s the story of Mark (a neurotic nerd) and his lodger and university friend Jeremy (wannabe musician and all round idiot).  Peep Show is shot in an unusual way as the action is often shown from the character’s POV.  We also hear Mark and Jeremy’s thoughts, which sounds bad on paper, but adds a whole new layer of comedy.  It’s good to see a ‘cult’ sitcom make it to six series, but I urge you all to watch as it should get much higher viewing figures than it does.