Daisy Beaumont

Radio Times review

Art for money's sake drives the farce forward in the penultimate episode of the upper-crust comedy. The choleric Lord Hannibal Didcot, played with a deep and convincing signature growl by John Sessions, thinks the canvas of a roly-poly popsie he bought from Clarence is a fake, and he wants his money back. His rumbles fall on deaf ears, since Clarence is busy posing with the Empress for a visiting American artist, Vanessa Polk (Daisy Beaumont), and Freddie is trying to shift a painting of a horse.

If the regular cast look just slightly bored in their gilded Wodehousian cage, Julian Rhind-Tutt brings proceedings to life. His return as the rakish Galahad, with his lightly devilled schemes and willingness to educate Freddie in the ways of the heart, is as welcome as any visitor to the great house could be.

Amid such sparkling absurdity this offering from Funny Fortnight, Just Around the Corner, lay like a damp squib. It is a comedy from Outnumbered creators Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, about the Pilch family (Jameses Fleet and Bolam as son-and-father-in-law, and Jennie Jacques as Fleet's recalcitrant teenage daughter Kia), who live in what is now the isle of Norwich in a globally warmed and flooded Britain. The script was waterlogged, but much could be forgiven for Daisy Beaumont's shining turn as terrifying regional tyrant Big Delia. When paired with Fleet's peerless dithering, you felt happiness begin to break out once more.

The pilot for Mumbai Calling was broadcast so long ago that the catch-up introduction to the new series was almost an episode in itself. For those who missed it, or have scant recall of what happened, the pilot saw Wembley-born Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) sent off to Mumbai to manage a call centre, along with troubleshooting assessor Terri Johnson, who turned out to be a woman (Daisy Beaumont). An attractive woman. You get the idea.

And it's not bad. It's not great either, but there is enough funny material to inspire cautious optimism, and the central characters definitely show potential, which is the most important factor in a sitcom's success. There is no laughter track, always a good thing, and the sheer originality of the setting merits some acknowledgement. I say give it a chance.

Oddly enough, for a television comedy, many of the best scenes occurred as reported action off screen. Such as the episode's funniest moment in which the India-based team inadvertently directed a funeral cortege away from Milton Keynes Crematorium and into Woburn Safari Park, where the corpse was set upon by lions.

I laughed a lot at that bit and also derived much pleasure from Nitin Ganatra's over the top performance as the amiable but ineffectual middle manager Dev. Every good sitcom needs a scene stealer.

Sanjeev Bhaskar stars in this inventive new seven-part comedy series, filmed entirely on location in India. Sanjeev plays Kenny Gupta, packed off to Mumbai to try and rescue a struggling call centre, run by the less than reliable Dev Rajah (EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra). Daisy Beaumont plays a troubleshooter whose arrival only adds to the confusion.