Henry Normal

Henry Normal explains why his new project is no joke

Forget sitcoms and skits. It's product placement and new technology that will save British comedy, says producer Henry Normal.

Ian Burrell, The Independent, 8th July 2010

Lizzie and Sarah was a Stygian comedy about the lives of sexless middle-aged women written and performed by Julia Davis and Jessica Hynes. Its broadcast reminded me of the line that the late great editor of the Sunday Express, John Junor, used on his writers: "Laddie, your piece is excellent - and if I were to publish it I would not change a word." BBC Two did not spike Lizzie and Sarah but it did put it out at 11.45pm on Saturday night. It was certainly strong stuff. (Sample line: "Oh, John loves big boobs. He always says I was two soggy old socks pre-children and with all the breast feeding and wotnot he just tells people I had a double mastectomy.") But Davis and Hynes, who cleverly also played two vacuous teenage girls whom their husbands do deign to lust over, were superb. The build up to a Thelma & Louise climax was fuelled by a high-octane anger. Henry Normal of Baby Cow who made the pilot tells me that he has not lost hope of its becoming a series. He'll be lucky. By Friday the BBC had not even confirmed it would be on iPlayer. If you missed it - and you probably did - you can, however, download it on iTunes.

Andrew Billen, The Times, 22nd March 2010

Perhaps the best sitcom of the year was Gavin and Stacey. As Henry Normal pointed out - there are loads of scenes when everyone's laughing but nobody's the butt of the joke - a refreshing approach. The sequence where the entire family got fantastically over-excited over Gavin's dad's (three-second) appearance on the news was probably the best portrayal of family life on TV since the early days of The Royle Family. We'll put aside memories of that horribly disappointing Christmas special, though, and hope for the best when the recently announced third series rolls around.

Off The Telly, 2nd January 2009