Jessica Gunning

The Outlaws review

Star-studded Stephen Merchant series is Walken in a cringe comedy wonderland.

Back, episode 6 review: deserves a second series

Even if you like your comedy dark, Back (Channel 4) can still leave you reeling. Starring Peep Show's David Mitchell and Robert Webb, the six-part series has explored childhood trauma, jealousy, small-town anxiety and, above all, self-loathing. Fortunately, it is also very, very funny.

The first run of Inside No. 9's collection of short stories was met with much acclaim especially for the dialogue-free A Quiet Night In. This week's episode, La Couchette, didn't really have the same special edge to it but did at least have its moments.

Set in carriage number nine of a sleeper train going through Paris, the story introduced us to a number of characters who were all forced into a small space together. They included a doctor who was about to give a speech to the WHO (Shearsmith), a flatulent German (Pemberton), an Australian backpacker (Jessica Gunning), a posh stowaway (Jack Whitehall) and a couple on the way to their daughter's wedding (Mark Benton and Julie Hesmondhalgh). The twist in the tale here was that, about half way through the piece, the passengers realised that one of their number was dead.

Pemberton and Shearsmith's script then took a darker turn as the characters decided whether to risk stopping the train or inform the authorities once they'd reached their destination.

I've personally always been a fan of Shearsmith and Pemberton's work and I thought La Couchette definitely had some merit. I felt that every character was well-realised and that there was some genuine moments of fine observational humour especially in regards Benton and Hesmondhalgh's characters. The story also contained an ending I didn't see coming and it left me with the icy feeling I often get after watching a Pemberton and Shearsmith piece. On the other hand I wasn't a fan of the toilet humour employed by Pemberton's character and I thought that Jack Whitehall added little to the episode overall.

Radio Times review

I've been rubbing my hands in glee at the return of this superb anthology series written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith - my modern comedy heroes. I also like to picture Julie Hesmondhalgh secretly dancing a jig that she let Corrie's Hayley die, thus freeing herself up for some cracking roles: Henry's forbearing sister Cleo in Cucumber and now a chance to play in a comedy of manners, bunked up in a confined space with this bunch.

As before, the shtick each week is to tell a new short-story set inside a location numbered nine. Here it's a couchette on a TGV hurtling across Europe. Mark Benton plays her amiable hubby, while Jessica Gunning (from Pride and That Day We Sang) plays an Aussie backpacker, who hasn't had a scrub round in days but still gets it on with a toff freeloader (Jack Whitehall).

Shearsmith and Pemberton give a mini-masterclass as an uptight, sleep-deprived prof and a German stoked up on Bier und Bratwurst. Only they could get such mileage out of flatulence in 2015. It's hilarious, sharply observed - and of course there's more than a sting in the tail.

Those masters of the dark arts, the former League Of Gentlemen co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, return with a second instalment of their deliciously macabre shorts, the first series of which won best comedy performance at the Royal Television Society awards last week.
Like a Tales Of The Unexpected for the 21st century, each perfectly formed 30 minutes offers a masterclass in storytelling: witty, imaginative, inventive and suspenseful - with a clever twist at the end for good measure.
The six tales are linked by the number nine and in the opening episode, La Couchette, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, Jessica Gunning and Jack Whitehall join Pemberton and Shearsmith on board the sleeper train from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. They're a motley collection trying to get a quiet night's sleep as the train makes its way across France, but as the sleeping compartment fills up, the chances of that begin to look highly unlikely...
The setting for future episodes include a séance in the grand Victorian villa, a modern-day family get-together, a 17th-century village witch trial and a volunteer call centre, with Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Paul Kaye and Tom Riley among the cast. Special mention must go to Sheridan Smith, however, for her performance in next week's offering, The 12 Days Of Christine, a powerful, moving story of one woman's rocky journey through life. It is an absolute gem, one of the best things I have seen on television this year.

Doon Mackichan stars as the proprietor of a down-market hair salon in the promising new comedy Quick Cuts. It's not the most original idea in the world for a sitcom, but it is a robust one, with the turnover of customers giving you all kinds of opportunity for comic interludes that are a break from the ensemble dynamic ("Do you ever worry that you might be the anti-Christ," asked one pensive punter).

And it has a very good cast, including Lucinda Dryzek as Becks, the resident airhead and Jessica Gunning as a staff member trying to break a long sexual drought. It's described as semi-improvised in the Radio Times. I do hope that one of the improvised moments was when Mackichan sheared a clean swathe through the hair of her errant boyfriend, Trevor - a genuinely unexpected sight-gag. But if so, Paul Reynolds deserves some kind of medal for staying in character.

This new sitcom comes from the same writing team that gave us The Worst Week Of My Life, but despite a cast which includes Ricky Tomlinson as the local pub landlord, Great Night Out offers more gentle and much more obvious laughs.

Set in Stockport, it's a male bonding comedy about four ­life-long friends and Stockport County supporters played by William Ash, Lee Boardman, Craig Parkinson and Stephen Walters.

Their not-so-great night out this week finds them in Manchester's posh Midland Hotel attempting to celebrate the fifth wedding ­anniversary of their unofficial leader, Hodge.

The cast, which also includes Susie Blake and Isy Suttie in peripheral roles as well as Jessica Gunning as the Friend From Hell, should provide plenty of material for more misadventures each week. But when the biggest laughs of the episode go not to any of the leads but to a character billed only as Train Attendant, then ­something's gone a bit wrong somewhere.

Great Night Out is a comedy drama about four thirtysomething mates from Stockport, whose principal interests are football, banter, women and the pub. That is also about as deep as their characterisation goes, leaving the quartet looking for all the world like stereotypes in search of a lager advert to occupy.

Episode 1 ambles along inoffensively enough, neatly interweaving a trio of plots concerning salsa classes, an anniversary celebration and a runaway groom on a London-bound train, but despite several winning performances I never really engaged or identified with any of the main characters.

This was a problem further compounded by two scene-stealing cameos from Jessica Gunning and Alex Lowe, as an obnoxiously insensitive party crasher and an endearingly bizarre Lancashire salsa teacher respectively. The characters charged with actually carrying the series looked very dull by comparison.

Great Night Out has so far provided nothing more than an okay night in, but things may improve as the series settles into its run. A few more laughs certainly wouldn't go amiss.

Julia Davis is certainly no stranger to black comedy, having already appeared in twisted shows like Human Remains and Nighty Night, but it's a little surprising to see Spaced's Jessica Hynes (nee Stephenson) partnering her to write and star in a black-hearted tale of suburban revenge...

Lizzie (Davis) and Sarah (Hynes) are two fiftysomething housewives living in suburbia, both married to loathsome husbands who treat them with callous disregard and sneering contempt. Lizzie's husband John (David Cann) is having an obvious affair with their corpulent, lazy housekeeper Branita (Jessica Gunning); Sarah's husband Michael (Mark Heap) has taken to having meaningless, functional sex with her while he hides her face behind a pillow. Both introverted women are cowed into submission and have allowed themselves to accept their lot in life, as unloved slaves whose only escape from tedium and bullying is an amateur dramatics society. However, after a day of particularly unforgiveable treatment by their other halves, Lizzie and Sarah find themselves pushed to breaking point and, having come into possession of a handgun, decide to enact their revenge...

Lizzie And Sarah is of a particular style and content that many people just won't find particularly funny, that much is certain. Indeed, the BBC were allegedly so dumbfounded by this pilot's depressing tone that they scheduled it for a Saturday night graveyard slot of 11.55pm, so the chance of a full series doesn't look likely. If one is even necessary, as the story appeared to reach enough of a conclusion that I can't imagine what else Lizzie And Sarah would have to say. It was effectively 15-minutes of matrimonial bullying that segwayed into a domestic revenge scenario that lacked imagination because it was basically comprised of shooting their psychological aggressors dead with a gun they'd stolen from a thief.

The titular characters themselves were interchangeable; having no meaningful differences in temperament, accent, lifestyle, or taste in men. Their horrid husbands were likewise peas in a particularly odious pod. A subplot involving a memorial for a girl ran over by her own father's (Kevin Eldon) car, which inspired a musical memorial performed by two teenage classmates (Davis and Hynes), who gyrated to the Sugababes' Hey Sexy for the approval of a talent scout in the crowd, just felt misplaced and could have been cut entirely.

As a fan of Davis, Hynes and black comedy in general (which nobody does quite like us British), Lizzie And Sarah certainly had decent moments of chilling humour, uncomfortable bad taste, and jokes so near the knuckle they drew blood. However, a feeble storyline, near-identical characterisation for the leads, and unimaginative vengeance (just shoot the browbeaters), dealt enough blows to make this pilot feel like a wasted opportunity. I'd like to believe Davis and Hynes knew there'd be little hope of a full series, so opted to complete their story here, because I don't see any reason or need for more.