British Comedy Guide
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton

  • English
  • Actor

Press clippings Page 5

It would take more than a waistcoat full of explosives to kill off Psychoville's cast of grotesques.

Series two opens with a funeral for a clown, but as we say RIP to Mr Jolly - the children's entertainer-turned-suicide bomber - a new mystery arises concerning a missing locket belonging to the Ravenhill Mental Hospital's sadistic Nurse Kenchington.

Fans of Psychoville will know better than to expect this plotline to be solved in any conventional sense.

Instead, just gorge on the details as Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith carry on twisting the horror genre into unexpected shapes like so many balloon animals.

So we welcome back serial killer David Sowerbutts, angry clown Mr Jelly, Dawn French's bonkers midwife and toy collector Mr Lomax.

Imelda Staunton's secret agent returns too, chanelling the spirit of Judi Dench in the Bond movies and there's a new character to populate your nightmares: The Silent Singer.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 5th May 2011

Series two of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's comedy horror begins in typically dark fashion. The survivors of the explosion at Ravenhill Psychiatric Hospital reunite at the burial of one of their number, which ends up kicking off a cavalcade of new mysteries. Even better news is that, after appearing in the Halloween special, Imelda Staunton returns as shadowy investigator Grace Andrews - as Staunton proved as vindictive teacher Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter, there are few who do terrifying quite so splendidly.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 5th May 2011

More comic horror of the exceedingly surreal variety from The League of Gentlemen veterans Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Following on from the dastardly denouement of series one, we open tonight with the survivors of the explosion at Ravenhill Psychiatric Hospital reuniting, graveside, to bury one of their number who was killed in the blast. But now it seems they face a new threat in the guise of the mysterious Grace Andrews (Imelda Staunton) and her grovelling henchman, Kelvin (Daniel Ings).

Gerard O'Donovan, The Telegraph, 4th May 2011

Pat and Margaret (Radio 4, 3.15pm) is a radio remake of Victoria Wood's bittersweet comedy about two sisters reunited after 27 years on a live television show. One is a toxic Hollywood star; the other works as a waitress in motorway service station. Sarah Lancashire and Imelda Staunton give knock-out performances here, but it's maybe not one to listen to with your siblings unless you all really get on.

Elisabeth Mahoney, The Guardian, 24th December 2010

More details revealed about Series 2 of Psychoville

Imelda Staunton is amongst the stars due to appear in the new episodes of Psychoville.

British Comedy Guide, 9th August 2010

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