Jimmy Chisholm

News Hacks - review

News Hacks is a hugely welcome addition to the comedy scene: biting, brilliant and about time too for a resuscitation of satire in Scotland.

This broad, shouty, defiantly old-fashioned sitcom set in a Glencoe pub has its detractors, but there's a certain pleasure in seeing an archetypal ne'er-do-well, kilted malingerer Jimmy (Jimmy Chisholm), hurtle so confidently toward disaster. To the dismay of landlady Jules (the formidable Sharon Rooney), Jimmy is hailed as a hero after saving a young hiker from an unlikely accident. But even as the endorsement deals roll in, the incorrigible boozehound has already sown the seeds of his downfall.

One programme that I'm done with after the first episode is newish sitcom Mountain Goats which made its debut this week. Mountain Goats started life as a pilot episode entitled Miller's Mountain and after sampling that solo instalment I didn't feel it would see the light of day again. BBC One don't appear to have that much faith in the show as they've put it in the 10:35pm death slot in which most subpar sitcoms usually find themselves. Despite Mountain Goats not being as offensive as previous comedies that have occupied that slot, such as The Wright Way or Father Figure, there was still little merit to the show. The programme focus on a ragtag group of mountain rescue operatives led by the feckless Jimmy Miller (Jimmy Chisholm) who appears to have little authority over his fellow volunteers. Among the group is the young mummy's boy Conor (Kevin Mains), the rather slow Bill (David Ireland) and the cheerful Bernie (Kathryn Howden). The main problem I have with Mountain Goats is that the majority of the characters are so one-dimensional that it's hard to either care or believe in them. Although Jimmy is cut with the same cloth as a Captain Mainwaring or a Basil Fawlty at least those two characters had at least one quality you could sympathise with. Not so Jimmy who spends the entire episode being rude to everyone he meets and bizarrely alienating his new landlady by singing a Wham! song out loud. I have to hold my hands up and say that there were about two or three jokes during the half hour that at least raised a smile but that's about it. Meanwhile the cast struggle with their poorly written roles which is particularly evident when the brilliant Sharon Rooney has little to do as feisty landlady Jules. In fact the only member of the cast who seemed to be making the best of a bad situation was Doon Mackichan as Conor's mother. It still annoys me that BBC One still can't produce a decent sitcom these days as the channel was once the play to go to for a good laugh. Instead I sat them almost embarrassed by what I saw up on the screen which amounted to a very old-fashioned sitcom whose jokes were about as dated as its situation.

Unlike last week's Over To Bill, at least Miller's Mountain contained a stereotypical sitcom protagonist in Scottish mountain rescue leader Jimmy Miller (Jimmy Chisholm). Miller's constant boasting about his previous achievements and his sense of superiority put me in mind of such comedy buffoons as Captain Mainwaring and Arkwright. But that's where the comparisons to the likes of Dad's Army ends as Miller's Mountain was missing the vital ingredient in a sitcom, namely funny jokes.

From the time that Jimmy asked barmaid Jules (Sharon Rooney) for the usual and she punched him in the face I knew we were in trouble. But it turned out that this was one of the brighter spots for an episode that I was less and less interested in as it went on. The final gag, involving Jimmy in his underwear, was just atrocious and on the whole I found Donald McLeary's script incredible unfunny. The one exception was the wonderful Sharon Rooney, who can do no wrong in my eyes, as at least she was trying to make her scenes as successful as possible.

Just like with Over To Bill, I'd be very surprised if Miller's Mountain were to return as it didn't really go down well with either audiences or critics. However, if by some miracle Miller's Mountain did run to a full series I would hope that Sharon Rooney would have enough good sense no to reprise her role in this incredibly crude and old-fashioned sitcom.

Rude, crude and very likable pilot sitcom from BBC Scotland, concerning a hapless team of mountain rescue volunteers, navigating the likes of "genocide gully". The reference point here might be Father Ted, with its oddball parochialism and unhinged cast of characters, including "poundshop Noel Edmonds" Jimmy Miller (Jimmy Chisholm), Bill, who helps find corpses ("I'm no stranger to a frostbitten leg in a Waitrose bag"), and a pub, The Busted Femur, whose interior suggests "a morgue had sex with an old folks' home". More please!