Hannah Gordon

Radio Times review

Series nine of what must be Radio 4's longest-currently-running sitcom begins with Clare (the superb Sally Phillips) arriving late for a meeting with her fellow social workers at Sparrowhawk Family Centre. Which is rather odd, as she's supposed to be on honeymoon at the time.

She's remaining tight-lipped as to why she left her long-suffering partner Brian (Alex Lowe) at the airport while he enjoyed a nibbling-fish foot spa. But as he decided to continue on the holiday - it is full board and non-refundable, so it's a shame to waste it - we get to hear his side of the story when numbs the minds of his fellow holiday-makers and locals with the details.

It provides a complementary storyline to the travails of the social workers back home, and includes a hilarious turn from Nina Conti as a shrill holiday rep intent only on relaying information about a series of increasingly bizarre day trips.

Meanwhile, Clare is having to contend with an elderly Mrs Magoo character on the Sparrowhawk Estate, who is convinced that she will die that day - as her visual sight has diminished so her second sight has improved, apparently. Hannah Gordon is virtually unrecognisable as the batty old dear.

If you haven't listened before - and if not, where have you been for the past ten years? - Clare in the Community walks a fine line between silly, scatological humour and nuanced satire of government do-gooders who know all the current jargon but nothing of people's everyday concerns.

David Crawford, Radio Times, 8th January 2014

On Tuesday BBC1 played its autumn comedy ace My Wife Next Door, starring John Alderton and Hannah Gordon. The first episode didn't connect as cleanly as one had been led to expect. Alderton and Gordon play two young divorcees who accidentally take up residence next door to each other. Shades of 'Private Lives'. Shades too, unfortunately, of the brand of dumb-bunny domestic sitcom usually featuring Ian Carmichael being wonderful about the kids while Wendy Craig learns to boil water.

Clive James, The Observer, 24th September 1972