Vicious

The grand bow-out of ITV's Vicious arrived in a "special" that wasn't at all. Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen and Frances de la Tour are all close to beatification in the British acting world and it says much about their talent that they have almost made this slipshod monotonal excretion watchable.

Almost. That's a qualification up there with saying McKellen might be "almost pregnant". Such a shame for him, for them all. Two elderly gays in a flat, camping it up with exaggerated moues and eyebrow-raising, and so very 1970s, but it might have worked with decent writing, or an any-way decent script. This one has apparently been written throughout by low-functioning and homophobic bacteria. They do try, the dear boys, but they're merely putting greasepaint on a pig.

Returning for one last hurrah, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi reprise their roles as sniping septuagenarians Freddie and Stuart in a special that traces a year in the couple's lives. Sadly, while there are plenty of gags in the Great British Joke Book that bear revisiting,Vicious yet again too often ignores these in favour of gratuitous swearing and one-liners that should have been left in the 1970s. Alternatively, postmodern campery of the very highest order.

Preview - Vicious: A Year

ITV doesn't produce many sitcoms, but when they do they tend to pull in the viewers. Most TV critics may not be fans of Vicious, Benidorm or the revived Birds of a Feather, but the public like them.

Vicious review

ITV's Vicious came to an end but not even Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi could send it off on a high.

Season 2 of Vicious debuts on USA's PBS tonight

The second season of ITV's acclaimed British sitcom Vicious is returning to PBS tonight, August 23, 2015, at 10:30 p.m. ET. The six-part series will round out PBS' must-see Sunday night programming.

Review: Vicious, Series 2, Episode 6

This season of Vicious comes to a conclusion with Freddie and Stuart's wedding. Surely nothing can go wrong? Think again.

The last in the series, and it's the big day for Freddie and Stuart as they prepare for their wedding - but of course things couldn't possibly go to plan. Violet's errant husband Jasper is in town but makes for a unpleasant wedding guest, while Penelope and Freddie's brother Mason are sent out to fetch an ostentatious wedding cake. It ends in disaster. Several times. It's lazy, mirthless stuff, but seems to feature the kindest studio audience known to man. They even find something to applaud on occasion. Bless them.

McKellen and Jacobi celebrate US gay marriage ruling

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are two gay individuals among many who will be attending the Gay Pride March which is to take place on Sunday.

Stuart and Freddie's nuptials loom. By default, the best man duties fall to Ash (Iwan Rheon), their gormless neighbour who bears an uncanny resemblance to Game Of Thrones sadist-in-chief Ramsay Bolton. Can Ash pull off a decent stag? (Probably best not to let him arrange the wedding.) While the critical reaction to ITV's broad sitcom has been cattier than any of the sniping between acid queens Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, the second season has seen a subtle improvement in quality without abandoning the constant venom.