‘Mount Pleasant’ – Episode 2.1

This week, on Twitter, I described Mount Pleasant as “my favourite show of 2011” and it really was: brilliantly down-to-earth and real, as well as absolutely hilarious! Apparently the show’s creator wrote it in order to prove it’s not always ‘grim up North’ and she invariably succeeds.

LOVEABLE YET FLAWED CHARACTERS

All of the characters are rounded and relatable to the audience. Every one of them is loveable yet not without their flaws.
The first series was very successful, having bucked the trend which comedies normally follow of shedding viewers as the series progresses. Mount Pleasant instead gained viewers throughout its run, something almost unheard of but recently achieved by Jack Whitehall’s Bad Education.
Just like Lemon La Vida Loca, Mount Pleasant needn’t be scrutinised: just enjoyed for the fabulous blend of comedy and drama it provides.

PRICELESSLY TARTY REEVES

One of the continued highlights of Mount Pleasant is seeing Sian Reeves deliver a pricelessly tarty performance. I wasn’t a fan of Sian before this show (I didn’t care much for her in the Northern Lights franchise or Emmerdale) but she excels in here. Hilarious.

PROMISING PLOTS

Judging from this first episode, I can see that this second series shows much promise. Now that the flighty Denise has given birth to baby Joshua, the plot between her and the child’s father, Fergus, will undoubtedly intensify – and it was already intense!
I really hope Pauline’s storyline continues, too, as it has somewhat intrigued me. She appears to be in financial trouble and I am guessing her daughter-in-law Lisa and son Dan are going to be dragged into it somehow…

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‘Just Around The Corner’ – Pilot

Harry Hill, Vic & Bob and Just Around The Corner – a sitcom pilot about life set in the future – made up Thursday night’s Funny Fortnight line-up. It really was a bizarre one, especially the latter! Bizarre, that is, that it was even commissioned!

NO CLARIFICATION

There was no character or setting clarification at all! James Bolam, James Fleet and Sanjeev Bhaskar were just three of the cast members and I can only presume they agreed to star in Just Around the Corner because it looked good on paper. It certainly look good on-screen.

‘SHOEHORNED IN’

The wry predictions being presented as future fact, such as Tony Blair being assassinated and the Shard falling down, seemed simply shoehorned in. I presume the aim was to have audiences laughing in sheer bemusement, just like I didn’t when James Fleet’s character justified two gangs dressed akin to the KKK fighting because “it’s Tuesday”. Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t think it was amusing.

‘UTTERLY POINTLESS’

I really don’t think this will – or rather hope it doesn’t – get a series. It started and ended suddenly, with no rhyme or reason. What happened in between was utterly pointless and, quite frankly, a waste of time. How could Guy Jenkins and Andy Hamilton go from Drop the Dead Donkey to Outnumbered…to this?

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‘Waterloo Road’ – Episode 8.1

The immensely popular BBC school drama series Waterloo Road returned to our screens last night, this time having relocated to Scotland – both in the show and in reality.

JUMPING SHIP

I must admit that I haven’t watched Waterloo Road since 2009. Up until then I was a devout fan – and still have the first two series on DVD – but found a lot of the fourth series to be extremely far-fetched and difficult to believe, hence why the final episode of the series was the last I watched. However, I have decided to forgive the team and give what used to be a gripping drama another chance.

I must admit, I’m impressed.

ALL CHANGE

Obviously, in three years teachers and pupils have come and gone from the school, resulting in me only recognising Janeece (Chelsee Healey), Tom Clarkson (Jason Done) and Grantly Budgeon (the brilliant Phillip Martin Brown). Therefore, for me watching this episode was like watching a whole new programme. Gone are the days of Messrs Rimmer and Treneman and Miss Redpath – this is the eighth series!

From what I understand, at the end of the last series, Headteacher Michael Byrne received the news that the school was closing down in Rochdale but was lured by Lorraine Donnegan to the new school in Scotland. This paved the way for lots of new – mainly Scottish – characters, and they seem quite intriguing.

DREW AND JADE

Immediately, the Drew and Jade storyline interested me. One of a couple on the run, living in squalor, Jade was desperate to attend Waterloo Road and gain some qualifications, with her jealous – and clearly disturbed – boyfriend Drew only following suit in order to monitor her. I thought Paige Meade and in particular Max Fowler performed their scenes brilliantly, I emotionally invested in their characters. I mean, granted, there was quite a bit of dramatic licence where Drew was concerned especially. For instance, he would never have been allowed into the school without first enrolling – he could have been anyone: he wasn’t even in uniform! Likewise, there is no way all staff would have just stood by and let him run into the open kitchen in an enraged state, where they knew full well there was a cleaver lying on the table for him to pick up and wield…just like he did.

Max Fowler was also responsible for my favourite scene of the whole episode, though. I thought he and Alec Newman (playing Headteacher Michael) were fantastic in the scene in which their characters had a confrontation in the Head’s office towards the end of the episode. It was tense and dramatic, as mentally unstable Drew threatened Michael with the cleaver he had stolen from the kitchen, and Michael tried to calm him down. The whole scene was perfectly and masterfully directed, filmed and performed.

STRONG CAST

It was also great to see Phillip Martin Brown – along with Jason Done the only actor to play the same character since the show began in 2006 – reprise his role as disgruntled English teacher Grantly Budgeon. Grantly is pretty much a permanent fixture in Waterloo Road now and is still his old pessimistic, whining, fabulous self. The scene which saw him and new English teacher Christine Mulgrew (ex-EastEnder Laurie Brett) return to the schoolhouse completely drunk proved Brown to be an excellent comic actor, too (something hinted at previously when he hilariously break danced for his pupils).

Plus, I’m over the moon to see that Daniela Denby-Ashe has joined the cast as investor Lorraine Donnegan – it’s good to see her in something other than repeats of My Family. Then there’s Grantly’s fiancée, Maggie Croft, played by the brilliant Melanie Hill – best known as Aveline in sitcom Bread from the fifth series onwards. Having hailed from Sunderland, like myself, I’m a particular fan.

It’ll be great to see alcoholic English teacher Christine Mulgrew (Laurie Brett) and her son’s (Shane O’Meara) relationship progress – they could provide quite a bit of drama!

I enjoyed Waterloo Road. It didn’t grip me like the first couple of series did though, so it’s fair to say that the script quality has deteriorated somewhat. I didn’t think about switching off, however, and I was entertained. Plus, the next episode looks even better, so it must be great!

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‘Vic & Bob’s Lucky Sexy Winners’ – Pilot

After the BBC’s ludicrous axing of Shooting Stars, it’s no wonder its creators Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer grabbed the opportunity to hop back to Channel 4…and basically recreate it under another name. Not that that’s any criticism, however – it was great!

‘IT’S HIGH TIME WE SAW IT COME BACK IN SOME FORM OR ANOTHER’

The similarities were obvious: Walter Hottle Bottle making a return, a quite basic set, opening dance routine and Dan Skinner – although this time not in his guise as Angelos Epithemiou (which was wise – he’s moved on, it would be silly to make him return to his roots). However, like I said – these likenesses are no bad thing. I think nearly all Shooting Stars fans would agree that it’s high time we saw it come back in some form or another.

‘ABSURD YET INGENIOUS QUESTIONS’

Admittedly, the banter with team captains Ulrika(kakaka) Jonsson and Jack Dee and score keeper Angelos is a miss as it made up a lot of the humour on Shooting Stars but its absence wasn’t the end of the world: we still have the absurd yet ingenious questions, exactly what we’d expect from Vic and Bob. If you need any proof of how absolutely nonsensical and random the duo can be, look no further than Bob asking actor Thomas Turgoose to introduce himself:

“State your name, your occupation and the percentage of your day you spend in Morrison’s waiting for the hot chickens to be reduced in price”

Now, I love writing comedy but know for a fact that – if I’d had the wit to create this joke in the first place – I would have stopped it at “Morrison’s” and still sit back and think, ‘That’s a great gag’. Not Vic and Bob, though! Oh no – they think beyond the obvious and have the ability to turn a simple joke like the one I would have written to the quoted one. I really have a lot to learn!

AND FINALLY…

My only qualm would be that the ‘End Game’ was missing, therefore making Eddie Izzard’s win at the end, and then the subsequent presentation of his prize a little bit shoehorned in. It just didn’t feel right without a final game to round off the show.

Nevertheless, I still maintain that Lucky Sexy Winners (what a great title) is a good replacement for Shooting Stars and fans will agree too, I’m sure. It still doesn’t excuse the fact that the BBC axed it, though.

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‘I’m Spazticus’ – Episode 1.4

After four nights of causing controversy and offence but undoubtedly entertaining, I’m Spazticus finished its run tonight and it was much like it has been for the past three: peppered with humour, but mainly heaped with damp squibs.

‘VICTIM DISCOMFORT’

The ‘victim discomfort’ was particularly funny tonight, both in the ‘Police Parade’ and the ‘Blind Date’ sketches. In the former, a woman had to bend down in a police parade in order to ‘blend in’ with the other participants – three dwarves. To top it all, she was all but forced to deliver the line, “Why do you put your pornography so high on the shelf?” That was actually really funny. Elsewhere, a blind man went to a restaurant and told his waiter – Sean – that he was expecting a blind date to turn up. If the date was attractive, Tim (the blind man) told Sean, he should recommend the Chef’s Special, otherwise he must recommend the pork. Put it this way: there’s no way Sean could have recommended the Chef’s Special.

DÉJÀ VU!

That’s all that I found funny about I’m Spazticus tonight, unfortunately. I think the problem with this series has been that a lot of the sketches became repetitive and predictable – ‘Dwarf Punch Sandwich’ and ‘Talking Guide Dog’ spring to mind. There really was a sense that once you’d seen them once, you’d seen them a hundred times. There was simply next-to-no variation between one instalment and then the other, it’s a case it déjà vu a lot of the time.

Whether I’m Spazticus will get a second outing on Channel 4, I have no idea. Personally, I wouldn’t be bothered either way. If it returned, I’d watch it but if it didn’t, I wouldn’t mourn it. Still, it’s got people talking!

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‘Channel 4 Comedy Presents: Them From That Thing’ – Episode 1.2

The way I tend to write reviews is to watch the programme live, along with everyone else, so I have no previews and I make notes throughout, whether they be positive or negative. When watching tonight’s Them From That Thing, I only wrote two notes: there was very little to say of it.

Note One
The ‘Burning Arm’ sketch was almost funny – Blake Harrison was certainly, and scarily, convincing! The subsequent hospital scene in which a bandaged-up patient one of Harrison’s character’s colleagues (Morgana Robinson) believed to be him asked her to ‘pull him off’, only for it to be revealed that it wasn’t Harrison under the bandages, but only once Robinson had…finished. I might not have explained it well but it made me smile almost as much as it did the man in bandages.

Note Two
Morgana Robinson still looks like Fearne Cotton.

So that’s it – it wasn’t much to write about, as I’m sure you can tell. A fairly unimpressive mini-series which I’m sure will be instantly forgotten – understandably. There is literally nothing else to say.

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‘Bad Education’ – Episode 1.2

Jack Whitehall’s new sitcom Bad Education rolled into its second episode last night on BBC Three. I had mixed views last week – I didn’t know whether I liked it or not but I have now decided – having watched the first episode a second time and this one last night – that I do.

THE GREAT GOMEZ

Michelle Gomez is a brilliant actress and her character of Miss Pickwell is still a treat to watch. I went to see The Wedding Video yesterday and I thought she was the best actress in that film, having played her character, the wedding planner, to its full potential, just as she does in Bad Education. She excelled in the opening scene of last night’s episode, which saw Alfie (Whitehall) writing “Pickwells Got A Wang” on the wall of a cubicle in the female toilets with the aid of pupil Joe, before Pickwell herself came along, uttered something and then added an apostrophe to the graffiti before walking of. Brilliant.
This scene solidified really well the strong relationship between Alfie and Joe, which was introduced in the first episode. It became clear here that these two are more than just teacher and pupil: they’re very good friends.

‘FRASER’S JUST…FRASER’

Mathew Horne’s growing on me, too, as Headmaster Fraser. This week, that David Brent/Smithy personality which I mentioned previously thankfully wasn’t so prevalent and instead Fraser was just…Fraser. He was an individual character, with next-to-no obvious similarities to any other from any other sitcom.

A COCK-UP

Every sitcom has its iconic scene – “Don’t mention the war” from Fawlty Towers, ‘Falling through the bar’ on Only Fools and Horses, “Don’t tell him, Pike” from Dad’s Army, the list goes on. It may be early days but I think that Bad Education‘s defining scene could be Alfie’s Sex Ed lesson. Monitored by angered and concerned parents, one of whom was streaming it live to Mumsnet, as well as Headmaster Fraser and a couple of foreign-exchange students (all of whom kept making the situation worse), Alfie blundered through this session which ended in him receiving death threats and portraying himself as a paedophile. It was hilarious, packed full of excellent, consecutive one-liners and really must be caught on iPlayer if you missed it!

Just like Gates on Sky Living, Bad Education is improving…except this is much better than Gates!

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‘The Rob Brydon Show’ – Episode 3.2

Rob’s guests this week included Carry On and EastEnders legend Barbara Windsor, experimental chef Heston Blumenthal and band The Overtones.

‘BONUS’

Once again, The Rob Brydon Show entertained me, but didn’t blow me away. The host’s interaction with the audience is always one of the highlights, however, and this week he spoke to Pete, who is the Chairman of the British Tarantula Society. The chat could have been quite forgettable if it wasn’t for Pete recalling his honeymoon when he saw a tarantula on the bathroom floor: “Just as I walked into the room, there was a nice big tarantula sitting on the floor. Bonus.” Rob, quick as a flash, did exactly as we all expected him to do and said, “Well I knew you were pleased to see it, but not that happy!” That is why Rob excels with audience participation.

I HAVE A DREAM THAT ONE DAY ACTORS WILL BE PUNCTUAL…

Barbara Windsor was much better than I expected, too. Hearing her use such words as “wank” and “blow job” was hilarious – I didn’t see that coming…if you’ll pardon the pun.
On a more serious note, it really was refreshing to hear Barbara speak of always being polite and patient for fans, willing to take time out to sign autographs and pose for photographs, as well as being punctual for jobs. I want to get into the business of acting or scriptwriting and have had it instilled in me right from the moment that I expressed an interest from a very young age that this is the way to behave. In fact, that’s true not just in show business but in all walks of life.

‘ANGER, FRUSTRATION AND OUTRAGE’

Plus, Rob’s barbecuing lecture to Heston was fantastic, as he desperately tried to ‘get one up’ on the chef by trying to prove he knew more about barbecues than him. It was full of the anger, frustration and outrage Rob often displays on Would I Lie To You, particularly when talking to Lee Mack.

So, I haven’t any real qualms about The Rob Brydon Show this week – I never do, to be honest. It’s a nice little show, and I think I speak on the behalf of everyone when I say that I don’t miss the stand-up section.

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‘I’m Spazticus’ – Episode 1.3

Love it or loathe it, I’m Spazticus has people talking. Those who love it, I’m finding, do so simply because they find it funny – it has nothing to do with the disability aspect for them, I think. However, those who loathe it are tending to find it offensive and unfunny. I don’t love it, I wouldn’t even say I particularly like it, but I no longer loathe it either.

MAX & TANYA

There were two sketches in particular last night which I found very funny. Firstly, there was the opening one which saw Max, the dwarf, back in his role as a guard standing outside a public toilet, preventing people from going in. It wasn’t the sketch itself which I liked, there was just something funny about him standing there and declaring to a woman he was refusing access, “It’s a bit of a humdinger.” No? Is it just me that found that funny? Oh well.

My favourite sketch of the episode and indeed the series as a whole, without a shadow of a doubt, was a trailer for a Channel 4 documentary following a dwarf called Tanya Lee Jones who was looking for love. We saw clips of her telling bemused men about her pole dancing and, best of all, “I don’t shave down there ‘cos that makes me look legal.” However, the punchline and the one thing from I’m Spazticus which has genuinely made me laugh out loud was the title, revealed at the end of the trailer: Midget Jones’s Diary. Just inspired.

FUNNY?

I suppose once we’ve got over whether I’m Spazticus is offensive or not (I’ve decided that it’s not), the next question is, is it funny? Well…no. Apart from a couple of sketches in each episode, I haven’t found much to laugh at in this show. True, there are some skits which don’t have strong premises, and there are others which do…but aren’t executed well, therefore leaving their potential unfortunately unfulfilled.

WRONG DIRECTION

I can’t help thinking that I’m Spazticus might work better as a sketch show rather than a ‘hidden-camera’ one. After all, it is the sketches which I think mainly work best: the ‘Fenton!’ one which I mentioned in my last review and the spoof of the Class sketch from The Frost Report were great and don’t use hidden-cameras.

If I’m Spazticus continues after tonight’s final episode – which I doubt it will – it should really concentrate more on scripted sketches than improvised hidden-camera pranks.

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‘Channel 4 Comedy Presents: Them From That Thing’ – Episode 1.1

Packed full with some of comedy’s biggest recent stars (Facejacker‘s Kayvan Novak, Miranda and Parents’ Sally Phillips, Very Important People‘s Morgana Robinson and The Inbetweeners‘ Blake Harrison), I sat down last night desperately trying not to believe the opinions I’d already heard about Them From That Thing. I thought it would be hilarious – it starred all of these brilliant comedy performers and was written by the great Charlie Brooker! However, what should have been the highlight of Channel 4’s Funny Fortnight turned out to be the worst so far.

‘DISAPPOINTINGLY UNFUNNY’

The first sketch saw an MP reading a statement for the press with his wife by his side, announcing that he was planning to spend less time with his family. Now, I assume the point of this was to turn on its head the idea of MPs announcing they are leaving politics in order to spend more time with their families. However, as well as being very similar to Little Britain‘s Sir Norman Fry MP sketch, it just didn’t work.

In fact, that seemed to be true for many of the sketches: good premises, poorly executed. They were all just disappointingly unfunny. The ‘Aspect Ratio’ sketch – starring Harrison and Robinson as parents who are concerned about their son who has apparently been born “at the wrong aspect ratio”, as he is stretched wide too much (obviously, it works better visually than descriptively) – started promisingly. ‘Could this really be, after twenty five minutes, the first funny sketch?’ I thought. Well…no, it couldn’t. It didn’t fulfil its potential at all. The only real good thing about Them From That Thing, to me, was that it showcased how versatile Sally Phillips is as an actress. Sometimes I didn’t even recognise her, both in appearance and voice!

I can only presume that everyone involved thought, ‘Sod a good quality script, so long as we have this lot on board and Simon Callow making an appearance, that’ll see us through’. Unfortunately, though, it didn’t. I just couldn’t believe that such rubbish could come from such talent as the aforementioned foursome and Brooker! I wonder what’ll happen tonight?

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