Dennis Kelly

Pulling gets American remake

Cult British comedy series Pulling is heading to NBC. The network is developing an U.S. version of the 2006 BBC Three series, with the original series' creators Sharon Horgan who also starred, and Dennis Kelly executive producing. The project hails from Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment, Horgan's Merman and 20th TV.

The Circuit review

Sharon 'Catastrophe' Horgan and Dennis Kelly have some dark fun with the quintessential middle-class institution.

The "new neighbours on the block" premise is given new life in this ambitious, surreal comedy pilot from Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly - writing together for the first time since Pulling. Gabe and Nat are invited for dinner by Helena and Sasha, who turn out to be bigger weirdos than they could have imagined. As the pair become involved with their neighbours' relationship, what the programme-makers describe as a "descent into hell and goulash" occurs.

Binging: Pulling

Sharon Horgan's much-missed sitcom is very funny, but, perhaps more importantly, it broke all sorts of television taboos. Here's Hannah Dunleavy on why you should put it on your to-watch list. Immediately.

A love letter to BBC Three's 'Pulling', ten years on

On the surface, Pulling sounds a bit like many of the sitcoms of the noughties - three 30-ish single women in the big city, trying to find their way in work, life and love. But where Sex and the City had cosmpolitans and weddings, Pulling had cat murder and funeral crashing.

Back to 2006 for the first episode of Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly's sitcom about three filthy wastrels from Penge. Donna (Horgan), drifting towards marriage with rancid manchild Karl (Cavan Clerkin), realises on her hen night that she's got a lot of aimless partying still to do with her pals (Tanya Franks and Rebekah Staton). The extent to which female characters get all the funny lines by revealing their rotten souls would still feel groundbreaking today. And this opener is flab-free: one killer scene after another.

In deeply dispiriting but strangely not surprising news, BBC3 has axed Pulling, a decision that will persuade no one that Danny 'Phoo Action' Cohen isn't a moron. I suppose that without Pulling around, Coming Of Age won't look quite as atrocious but is that really reason enough to axe one of the finest comedies on TV? I suppose if there ever was a third series of Gavin and Stacey, Cohen would pass on that too because every recommission means one less space for a new project. You can only hope that one of Janice Hadlow's first decisions as controller of BBC2 would be to offer a home to Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly's marvellous comedy. Good knows it doesn't have anything remotely funny of its own at the moment. Unless you count Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful People. Which I don't.

Pulling stars Sharon Horgan as Donna, a bride-to-be who gets cold feet, cancels her wedding and moves in with two single girlfriends, Karen and Louise.

Do not be put off by the set-up, which evokes dark memories of the Denise Van Outen monstrosity Babes In the Wood, nor by the feeble title and its similarity to the lame Friends rip-off Coupling. Pulling is the sharpest, freshest and boldest comedy of the year, immaculately written and beautifully performed by a uniformly excellent cast.

Like many of the best comedies, Pulling is actually a study in desperation and despair. However the writers - Horgan and Dennis Kelly - clearly have deep affection for the characters they heap misery and misfortune upon.

Jilted fiance Karl's nervous breakdown was simultaneously one of the funniest and the saddest scenes I've ever seen, almost matched by alcoholic primary school teacher Louise's tear drenched reading of Hug to an audience of five-year-olds. "They cry all the time" was Louise's response at being automatically suspended.

Pulling avoids the stock comic characters that usually populate the sitcom single scene and finds its comedy in surprising and unexpected places. Most importantly, its portrayal of relationships and the dynamics within them, is uncomfortably recognisable. It is amazing what a shot of truth can achieve in a comedy.