Johnny Vegas

BBC Sitcom Season: review of the pilots

Some of comedy's hottest names have been busy working on new sitcom pilots for BBC iPlayer, airing in September, with the hope of these creative projects later being picked up for a television series.

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BBC Landmark Sitcom Season: the pilots review

In my last post I looked at three of the sitcom revivals that the BBC have produced but alongside these pieces, this new season also includes five new sitcom pilots. Over the next two weeks, all five of these shows will air and in this article I will pass judgement on them all.

Johnny Vegas stars as grumpy dad Neil in this sitcom pilot about family life and class warfare. Neil and his wife have struggled to afford a battered old holiday home in the Lake District, but are nonetheless delighted with it, even if their cranky kids won't settle down for the motorway journey. They're told to behave or they won't get their "onion rings at Tebay!" But there is no bliss to be found on this trip. Hoping for hot tubs and wi-fi, the kids are disappointed to find the house looks more like Father Ted's caravan, and Neil can't settle into country life, refusing to eat fresh eggs if they've come "from a chicken's backside"; he prefers them in a box from the supermarket.

His grumbles increase when his handsome, wealthy new neighbours make him feel rather oafish. This posh couple met in a luxurious resort, whereas he met his wife at North Staffs General where he ran the WH Smith concession. Emilia Fox plays the snooty wife next door and smokes and sneers with icy brilliance, and Vegas is his funny, burly self, but there are no huge laughs here.

Home From Home preview

The latest pilot in the BBC's Landmark Sitcom series, Home From Home is a warm, gentle affair, much down to the likeability of Johnny Vegas as a hapless beta-male, trying his best for his family.

TV review: Home From Home, BBC2

If the Landmark Sitcom Season was planning to promote edgy modern comedy the wait is still on. Home From Home might not be as old hat as Are You Being Served?[/ but there is nothing very new about it.

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