Chris Ramsey

Radio Times review

If you sat down in front of BBC2's new sitcom Hebburn (Thursdays) wanting to be annoyed by another portrayal of common people as naïve oddballs, it didn't completely let you down. Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon was Sarah, the new wife of Jack (Chris Ramsey), who'd left the north-east to become a journalist but was now back to introduce his bride. His family cheerily struggled to cope with Sarah being posh, Jewish (Jack's mum threw their bacon in the bin and turned baps into bagels with an apple corer) and southern (her parents live in York).

Basically it was an extended version of the scene in The Royle Family where Anthony brings home Emma the vegetarian, and Nanna asks, "Can she have wafer-thin ham?" But what the Hebburn lot also share with the Royles is feeling warm and real. Jason Cook's script was particularly thoughtful when drawing Jack's parents, and was backed by a double casting coup: the faultless Gina McKee in a rare comic role as the hysterically proud mum, and Jim Moir/Vic Reeves, as good here as he was in Eric & Ernie as a dad who took five minutes to emerge from the kitchen when the son he adores came home. He looked happiest when Jack cracked a bad joke that could have been one of his.

Cook hasn't smashed any paradigms - Hebburn's first episode built predictably, if skilfully, to a standard sitcom finale - but he's writing about his own home town, with love. The people and relationships weren't common, but universal.

The jury is out on Hebburn, the new sitcom set in the eponymous Tyne and Wear town. The set-up sees recently graduated Jack (Chris Ramsey) returning home to introduce his middle-class, Jewish bride to his unreconstructed, working-class Geordie family.

There are some good lines and the cast is excellent, but Hebburn just seems to be trying too hard, abandoning slow build of character for the more impactful, but far less interesting, 'loveable low life northerners behaving badly' school of comedy.

Hebburn, BBC Two, review

Thanks to a simple premise and some well-judged performances (especially from Chris Ramsey as Jack) Hebburn is a highly likeable comedy. Perhaps not highly laughable in this first episode, but it looks like a grower.

Another month, another family-based sitcom, but at least this one has a whiff of authenticity having been written by Geordie stand-up Jason Cook, based on his own experiences growing up in the North East. The six-part series tells the story of the Pearsons, a working-class family from Hebburn, who "aren't common, you know". Jack (Chris Ramsey), the Pearsons' only son, has returned home from Manchester, and is hoping to break the news to his parents that he has married a middle-class Jewish girl called Sarah (Kimberley Nixon). Mum Pauline (Gina McKee) and dad Joe (Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves) aren't sure how to react, and begin using an apple core to hollow out bread buns to make "bagels". Vicki (Lisa McGrillis), Jack's sister, isn't afraid to speak her mind, but it's her brother's rough-around-the-edges ex-girlfriend Denise (Victoria Elliott) who looks set to be the most memorable character. The humour can feel a little leaden, but the awkwardness arising from class differences and the uncertainty about what it means to have a Jewish girl around the place is amusing: "I'm fine working on a Saturday," Pauline quips, "but I'm not sure Joe could deal with being circumvented."

Despite a few moments when the comic timing isn't quite there as the cast beds in, standup Jason Cook's new sitcom, a kind of Tyne and Wear Royle Family, looks like a winner. The setup is that Jack (Chris Ramsey), now living in glitzy Manchester, visits his working-class folk with a middle-class, Jewish bride, Sarah (Kimberley Nixon), in tow. Trouble is, nobody else knows they're hitched. You know you're in safe hands from the moment mum Pauline (Gina McKee), wanting Sarah to feel at home, makes "bagels" by taking an apple corer to some bread rolls.

Chris Ramsey interview

Chris Ramsey talks about what can we expect from the new family-based sitcom.

Hebburn is a fairly warm-hearted new sitcom written by stand-up comic Jason Cook. Set in the unremarkable town of Hebburn, South Tyneside, where Cook grew up, it revolves around a close-knit working-class family headed by Vic Reeves (billed under real name Jim Moir) and Gina McKee. He's affable and blokey, she's overbearingly well-meaning in the way sitcom mums almost always are.

Rounding out the brood are comedian Chris Ramsey - who looks like Stan Laurel moonlighting as a member of One Direction - as the prodigal son awkwardly introducing his "girlfriend" (Fresh Meat's Kimberley Nixon) to the family. But unbeknownst to them, the pair secretly wed in Vegas. Oh no! Apparently.

There's also a daffy gran prone to inappropriate outbursts, and a tart-with-a-heart sister. So no, it won't win any awards for originality (if indeed such awards existed). And that's Hebburn's problem: although it's packed with gags, they're mostly rather obvious and unremarkable. Cook - who also appears in a supporting role - can't resist all the usual cheap tracksuits and fake-tan jibes, and even throws a cheesy pub singer in for good measure. Tinged with pathos and black comedy, it's amiable enough, and nicely performed - especially by McKee, reminding us that she's capable of delivering much more than the frosty types she's usually cast as. But it isn't remotely distinctive or original.

Chris Ramsey - review

Chris Ramsey feels lucky, and thinks we should, too.

Interview: Steffen Peddie

Steffen Peddie can't believe his luck. A year ago he travelled down to Manchester with comedy pals Jason Cook and Chris Ramsey to perform a TV pilot at the Salford Sitcom Showcase. From over 80 scripts submitted, only six were staged at the BBC event last October. And from those, just two were given the green light for a full series: Citizen Khan, the controversial Asian sitcom currently airing on BBC One, and Hebburn.

The original, full-length comedy marathon at the Edinburgh festival fringe lasted eight hours, so this 60-minute version is very much a boiled-down affair. Introduced by Chris Ramsey and Jameela Jamil, we're promised the highlights from the 40-plus comedians who took part performing stand-up and sketches. There's an array of talent to choose from, including Adam Riches, Ellie Taylor and Celia Pacquola, plus a couple of old timers - Jimmy Cricket and Phil Kay - as well as newer blood, such as Adam Hess, winner of the 2011 Chortle Student Comedy award.