Craig Parkinson

Year of the Rabbit is a strange but funny beast

It's tempting to just write down all the best one-liners and jokes so you know how good they are, but it would be impossible to do justice to the actors' deadpan delivery. Never has extreme physical violence and brutal murder been so hilarious.

It's the final episode of this post-watershed comedy about four male friends who meet once a week for a night out in Stockport. The humour has tended towards the obvious, although the lead characters are a likeable enough bunch. Tonight, Glyn (Craig Parkinson) messes up the lads' plans to go to an important football match between Manchester United and their home town Stockport County. Meanwhile, Daz (Stephen Walters) decides to propose to Colleen (Naomi Bentley), and enlists the help of her kooky housemate Bev (Isy Suttie, Dobby in Peep Show) to help to spring the surprise.

Instead of one evening going pear-shaped, our Stockport lads have a whole weekend away to mess up in this larky comedy drama. Triggered by Kath's desire to escape her job, the chaos begins when she and Hodge decide to head off for a glamping trip. But with Beggsy playing gooseberry in his mam's house as she gets lovey-dovey, the pair might soon have a cuckoo in their romantic camper van. Phil Cornwell and Keith Allen guest star alongside regulars Craig Parkinson and Stephen Walters.

A properly funny, likeable comedy from the creators of BBC1's Worst Week Of My Life. It does nothing new at all but gets on with it unpretentiously, lightening your mood rather than widening any horizons.
Lee Boardman, Stephen Walters, William Ash and Craig Parkinson are all warmly believable as a gang of four mates who meet up for a pint or seven every week and are constantly beset by their own incompetence and misadventure. Sit back and let these pathetic man-children amuse you.

A show that seems to have been pitched as Cold Feet for Oasis fans, Great Night Out is a comedy-drama that fails to deliver on both of those promises. For sure, there are some good people in it (Craig Parkinson in particular). Even the premise (four mid-30s lads from Stockport meet weekly to mull over their dilemmas) is not an unappealing one, but the unfunny stag night-style plot japes that surround them makes it all feel bogus. This week, Hodge votes with his feet, so to speak, when Kath suggests they "make a baby".

Tonight it's nervous Glyn (Craig Parkinson) at the centre of the action in this genial Stockport lads comedy drama. It's his birthday and he's having a fancy-dress bash at the local pub - but the night's success hangs on a certain nurse turning up and even that might not work unless he can get his coulrophobia under control. That's fear of clowns to you and me. We're with him on that one.