Conleth Hill

Hang Ups DVD review

What a surprise when an American concept gets reworked into a British series and actually works.

Hang Ups episode 1 review

With a strong core cast, an impressive roster of guest stars and an interesting style unlike anything else on British television, Hang Ups is an enjoyable watch.

Hang Ups episode 1 review

Stephen Mangan's semi-improvised Channel 4 comedy Hang Ups is a circus of silliness and human pain...

Dave Allen At Peace review

Acting talents aside, you won't learn much about such an important figure in British and Irish comedy from watching this indifferent drama.

Kay's wonderfully gentle, Fiat-set comedy continues its second run, with John and Kayleigh not on their way to the office but rather to their annual work do. Most of the episode is spent following their journey home from the party alongside foul-mouthed Elsie (Game of Thrones's Conleth Hill). As usual, though, it's the pair's will-they, won't-they relationship - this time soundtracked by Forever FM's romantic nighttime offerings - that keep this comic vehicle on track.

John (Peter Kay) is in designated-driver mode tonight as he ferries Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) to the annual work do - he as a hefty Harry Potter, she a diminutive Hagrid - and back. it is the return leg that really shines because the pair are joined by Elsie from the deli counter (played by the superb Conketh Hill), a brash, waspish transgender woman dressed as an enormous Smurf, blogs a lift home, to John's annoyance. She is wonderful. "They broke the mound when they made Elsie," slurs Kayleigh. "Broke the mound?" says John. "They shut the factory."

There was a point during the third of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's Inside No. 9 playlets when I thought Mind might be able to use this episode to teach insights into mental illness. The question was who was ill: Pemberton's tramp Migg who inveigled himself into Tom's flat or Tom, for letting him in? Soon Shearsmith's Tom was as psychologically homeless as Migg had been physically and rejecting all the kindness of a camp teacher colleague (the excellent Conleth Hill) who came bearing Body Shop vouchers. Would his girlfriend Gerri (Gemma Atherton return?

It was a distressing comedy to watch and, thanks to the body-in-the-bath ending, set back public awareness of mental health by at least half an hour. Its only redeeming qualities were the acting, the scripting, the satisfactions of one-act resolutions and the laughter it generated.

Inside No. 9 Episode 3: 'Tom and Gerri' review

With sterling support from Gemma Arterton and Conleth Hill as the most important people in Tom's life, this is a tightly scripted half hour that has much in common with a stage play.