Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

Act 4… pic.twitter.com/5CgVF7p15F

— Matt Berry (@porksmith) July 6, 2021

new As Yet Untitled on dave last night. feels like it's been over 2 years since the last one. featured both the irish robot wars presenters

(also slightly weird in the it was filmed in the roundhouse in london, an old, enormous railway building. covid regs, i guess)

episode 3 of This Way Up made me think they should bring back Mind Your Language.

(splash screen at the end of that was interesting too, HM treasury and DCMS bigging up themselves and their media restart scheme, complete with union flag...)

new Ghosts tonight

Thanks for the reminder! Thought it was next week.

Ghosts maintaining its quality. Slightly upset that I recently recommended it to a friend, who reported back to me describing it as 'bilge'.

I watched the first 5 minutes of an episode on the plane and it was like kryptonite to me despite liking a lot of the actors

I watched the first episode (series one) lst night and 'gentle fun' would be the kindest thing i could say about it, maybe it gets better...

Gentle fun not to be sniffed at imo... It's good comfort telly with some good jokes and a great ensemble. The quality stays about the same probably, but I quickly became very fond of it.

Back to Life starts a second series on Tuesday. which i barely remember anything about other than i enjoyed it at the time.

That's good news.

i like the lead actress but it felt sorta also-ran to me

I don't think I made it past the second episode. It was too depressing.

it's hard to search for but there are a few (other) positive mentions here. and i was surprised to see it back tbh.

(I'm also holding out for a second series of don't forget the driver. call me a hopeless optimist...)

in other news, mash report on Thursday too. strange situation with that but, again, i enjoyed it.

"Back to Life is a British dark comedy-drama co-written...

OK, I'm outta here.

(I'm also holding out for a second series of don't forget the driver. call me a hopeless optimist...)

this.

Finished 'Pls Like' S2 today (it's quick and easy, and i like Liam).
had no idea there was a S3.

First series of Back to Life was great. I mean, person X returns to hometown after years away is a complete cliché but Daisy Haggard is a gem and seem to recall there were a couple of real gut punches amongst all the laughs.

Back To Life S2 is pretty masterful to be fair, twee soundtrack aside.

man walks into crime scene, blood everywhere, tense music. you're meant to think he's the detective who's caught this murder but then he plonks down a caddy full of cleaning equipment because he's actually a crime scene cleaner. surprise!

only that's not a surprise to anyone because it's called The Cleaner and the announcer has just announced it.

(9:30pm on bbc1 on a friday so i'm not holding up too much hope for it. greg davies and helena bonham carter)

oh, and Mash Report is back on Dave and is an hour long, which is probably a mistake.

yeah the new mash is noticeably lower budget and has weird unfunny placeholder bits where they just show headlines on screen

I normally enjoy Davies' work, but Ep 1 of the Cleaner was rotten.

i liked all the curry night chat, but after he got locked into that toilet it was all downhill.

Yes, it was promising up until any characters after the first two turned up. Not sure what the point of Paul Chowdhry in schoolboy getup was at all.

The Scotts isn't bad.

i agree that the Cleaner was a total miss with a remarkable cast.
Will try the Scotts. Can you say more about why I should though?

It's like Two Doors Down filmed as TOWIE instead of a sitcom, by the guys behind Burnistoun.

lol, i don't understand a word of what you just said

Two Doors Down is a BBC sitcom set on a Scottish housing estate featuring three neighbours. It's quite gentle paced with plotlines including moving a bed and buying a hot tub.

TOWIE or The Only Way Is Essex was probably the first serious British scripted reality show and is like a very low rent Kardashians. Inexplicably, people from it have become celebrities in their own right

Burnistoun was a BBC Scotland sketch comedy, somewhere between Chewin' The Fat and Limmy.

Okay gotcha now

taskmaster starts again on Thursday and Guz is on 'as yet untitled' with Alan Davies (both are contestants) and Morgana was on last week. oh, and Diseree was on a couple of weeks ago.

is all taskmaster going to be the bleeped version this time?

Apparently aired by mistake.

Not sure this series is going to be a classic if I'm honest.

Both series of Taskmaster New Zealand are officially on YouTube now and despite only being familiar with one contestant the second series is up there as an all time great and David Correos with a shout at being the best ever contestant, especially the rap diss track task.

I didn't watch it last night but I'm not particularly fond of any of the line-up, except maybe Guz, and Alan Davies I can't stand.

Guz surprised me slightly (in a good way). VCM is going to be ornery all series, i think, which can go either way.

I always find her much less witty than she thinks she is.

Morgana has real potential to be great, but appeared to be trying to co-host the first ep and had clearly prepared most of her 'spontaneity'.

Alan Davies' tired old man schtick has got old already, as has VCM's "I'm better than this" complaining. You're not.

Desiree filling the "useless at anything physical" role that POC comedians invariably do in this show e.g. Paul Chowdhry.

Guz will be great if he can build the wide eyed FUN he clearly feels into being good at any of the tasks.

The Goes Wrong Show is back!

Is it daft? Yes! Do I love it anyway? Yes!

Rerunning the beginning last night was inspired.

Really loved the first ep of the new Taskmaster. Stoked 4 the madness.

Ghosts s03 was really excellent. Would be happy if there was another series.

found the Goes Wrong Show painful to watch. i will give it another go.

(think the one i saw was the Christmas show. and probably not last Christmas)

Ghosts s03 was really excellent. Would be happy if there was another series.

― thing that i used to think was cool but now i just don't have time for (stevie)

I think they'd need to mess with the formula slightly to avoid staleness, eg Alison loses her ability to see the ghosts (and Mike gains it?).

I've watched 3 eps of The Cleaner and it's really painful. The first one had some kind of promise but it's turned into him doing a permanent David Brent impression. oh well.

I also watched all of Back to Life in case it got less depressing. It didn't, but I was sort of impressed at how bleak it made me feel, it sustained that throughout while also being well-written and funny (not in a laugh-out-loud way). I'll also always have affection for "teen in the 90s" references done properly.

I'm eternally grateful they didn't do constant flashbacks to the "event" or include some massive twist. It was far more affecting being what it was. The parents' escapades got a little tedious.

i enjoyed 'Almas Not Normal' a lot.
given up with The Cleaner, just got bored of it.
Ghosts S3 made me and mk2 properly laugh out loud several times.

I also watched all of Back to Life in case it got less depressing. It didn't, but I was sort of impressed at how bleak it made me feel, it sustained that throughout while also being well-written and funny (not in a laugh-out-loud way).

really enjoyed the balancing act of humour and darkness in this (without being dark humour), I felt the acting and writing was great,

then watched the final episode and the whole thing didnt really come together in any way. it had a sort of happy but not enjoyable ending ala the Graduate.

also for wringing 2 series out of a misunderstanding leading to the harmful repercussions of a prison sentence, the deux ex machina of the police station scene was a bit jarring.

Adrian Edmonson was properly terrifying though....

ghosts s3 didn't seem to get going before it was over, somehow.

first couple of Almas were ok (the sandwich shop...), but the last one, focussing on the sex work less so. maybe it's just a blip.

lots to like in B2L

I also watched all of Back to Life in case it got less depressing. It didn't, but I was sort of impressed at how bleak it made me feel, it sustained that throughout while also being well-written and funny (not in a laugh-out-loud way). I'll also always have affection for "teen in the 90s" references done properly.

I've really loved both series. It's subtly indebted to the sublime Home Time, IMO.

For the last few posts I have been getting Back to Life mixed up with After Life. I've worked it out now, though.