Greg Davies (I)

Greg Davies review

Davies's litany of grossly inappropriate stories - from his youth, his teaching career, or as a man who should know better - prove ferociously funny for their endlessly shameful transgressions.

Greg Davies review

Supremely silly stand-up shouts the unsayable. In an exuberant new show, Davies scrutinises his own ridiculousness and goes from outre stories about his mum to a musical tribute to his dad.

Greg Davies review

A strong return for Davies and a reassertion of what a powerful live comic he is, but there's a bit too much filler for my liking.

Greg Davies interview

Greg Davies on why he's piling on the pressure in Man Down -- and why he's still in touch with Taylor Lautner.

Man Down, the Greg Davies vehicle, is ultimately funnier, more surreal, more grown-up that Bounty Hunters. It's suddenly struck me that the title (and the titles, which feature Davies as a puppet, having his strings suddenly cut) is double-edged: it's a rejoinder to being told to "man up". Scatological, and scattergun in parts, he's aided by a tremendous cast: filthy, but often filthily funny.

Preview - Man Down

Sacked from his latest job, living in an old people's home, humiliating himself in front of his girlfriend's father - things didn't go well for Dan last week.

It is hard to believe that Greg Davies's buffoon of a character Dan is about to become a father, but at least it means there will be a whole new raft of slapstick ways he can mess things up. In his desperation to provide for his family, Dan reluctantly ponders a move back to teaching as he tries to convince Jeany Spark's Emma that he has the perfect family setup. And Jo (Roisin Conaty, who is never understated but always hilarious) turns her hand to freeganism.

Taskmaster: series 5, episode 8 review

It's the grand final!

Man Down (C4), the sitcom starring and written by Greg Davies, is steeped in the history of TV comedy.

The trouble is, it tries to pay homage to every genre -- and the result is a slapdash jumble that can't decide where to earn its laughs.

Greg plays a useless slob of an ex-teacher called Dan, a 50-year-old who lives like a drunken student. It's a tribute to The Young Ones: in the first series, Rik Mayall played his dad.

But some of the jokes belong in Terry And June. Surveying the residents of his mother's retirement home, Dan sighed: 'They all moan about Marks & Spencer, but they won't buy their blouses anywhere else.'

Sometimes, Greg tries to ape Tony Hancock in his writing. One line, about having 'callouses the size of marrowfat peas', was a deliberate echo of Hancock's classic complaint: 'I've got toes like globe artichokes!'

Man Down needs to decide what sort of sitcom it really is. In fact, it needs to grow up a bit.

There is no trouble in Man Down (Channel 4), which is on series four already and still packing in the gags and the grotesques. Like Bounty Hunters, this sitcom is built around the comic persona of its creator-star, sarcastic ex-teacher Greg Davies. Only this man is kept down not merely by his own nincompoopery, but by the collective efforts of a support cast.

This episode features a cameo from Trevor Nelson; the woman in the cafe using a fry-up to educate Dan on the horrors of childbirth (harrowing yet unerringly accurate); and Mr Crumbs, a dungarees-clad giant who lives in lost property storage. As Jo says to a horrified Brian, by way of introduction: "He's one of my best friends! He once held his breath for an hour!" All these characters, however incidental, are fully realised and often gifted with the best (read: filthiest) lines.