Chris Addison

There is just time highly to recommend Sky Living's Trying Again, a bittersweet comedy starring Chris Addison and Jo Joyner as a young couple trying to salvage their relationship following her affair with her boss.

The script is witty, the comedy is unforced, the characters are likeable and the emotions on display all ring true.

Sky Living is carving out a niche for likable if low-stakes British comedy. Following on from Doll & Em, which wistfully captured the decay of a friendship, comes this Lake District-set effort about a couple trying to keep their faltering relationship afloat. Jo Joyner plays Meg, still trying to repair things with her partner Matt (Chris Addison) after having an affair with her boss. In the first of a double bill, Meg goes job-hunting, while the second has the pair adopting scare tactics in their attempt to sabotage the sale of their rented flat.

Radio Times review

Chris Addison and Jo Joyner leave behind The Thick of It and EastEnders respectively and make a left turn. They come together to star in a romcom about a young-ish couple in Kendal, who are bearing up after her recent affair and attempting to rebuild their relationship.

The premise is meant to make Trying Again edgier and more emotional than comedy dramas like Stella and Mount Pleasant, which it resembles on the surface. This doesn't come through much in these first two episodes, since they're too busy being funny: writer Simon Blackwell fills them with strong gags and neat plotting (the callback pay off at the end of episode one is a killer), while Alun Cochrane, Elizabeth Berrington and Alex MacQueen are all on form as cartoonish, traditional-sitcom supporting characters.

The show's identity problem scarcely matters. In particular, Joyner is a revelation as the funny, energetic foil to Addison's nervous, cowardly weed. A new comedy star is born.

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Jo Joyner interview

Jo Joyner stars alongside The Thick of It's Chris Addison in new comedy drama Trying Again, about a couple trying to reunite after one has an affair.

Jo Joyner & Chris Addison interview

Jo Joyner and Chris Addison talk about playing Meg and Matt.