Julia Deakin

The second in the series of Comedy Showcase pilots, Coma Girl isn't the strongest of shows - and I can't see it getting a full series.

The girl in question, Lucy (Anna Crilly, who starred in last week's Comedy Lab pilot Anna & Katy), is trapped in a coma full of surreal moments - like seemingly being at a party and a pier, which made very little sense.

The main goings on was with the people who were coming to see her, especially three school friends: Siobhan (Sarah Solemani), a TV presenter who has recently got fired from her job, Pip (Katherine Parkinson), a bohemian woman, and Sarah (Katy Wix from Anna & Katy), a mother of three. There is also Lucy's mother Mrs. Kay (Julia Deakin) who is constantly taking photos in the hope of building up evidence so she can sue someone on her daughter's behalf.

For me the show was slow going. There was the odd good moment (Pip giving the comatose Lucy a copy of last week's Heat magazine to read), but I think the problem is that this show would probably work better as a comedy drama rather than a sitcom. The idea of a comedy about someone in a coma isn't a new idea (see the radio sitcom Vent) so it can work, but it wasn't presented too well in this format.

There's another issue I have with the show...the theme tune. If you have a show about a woman in a coma, surely "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths would be the ideal tune to play?

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 12th September 2011

With king of grouches Victor Meldrew still indelibly etched on British psyches, it's nigh on impossible to imagine Richard Wilson playing anything other than a discontented grump. Here he stars as Frank Ross, an ex-Latin teacher turned frustrated cabbie. In addition to his career nose-dive, Frank is forced to spend more time than he'd like with his cab controller ex-wife Barbara (Julia Deakin) along with the man she left him for- the owner of the cab firm that employs them both. On top of this, he also has his hopeless son Sean (Ralf Little) to contend with. Will Frank ever escape the gloom of his cab and return to the classics? A Russian oligarch, a box of human remains and a broken coffee machine all provide plenty of laughs - Wilson fans won't be disappointed.

Caroline Martin, Radio Times, 11th December 2010

Another helping of this amiable kitchen comedy serves up subtle laughs from fairly predictable ingredients. Tonight's plot sees a visit from the health-and-safety inspector, Heather Critch (Julia Deakin), whose fearsome reputation forces Roland White (Alan Davies) to abandon his usual plan of bribery. His efforts to clean up the kitchen, however, are undermined by waitress Kiki (Isy Suttie) making a hash of her role as fire-safety officer.

Vicki Power, The Telegraph, 19th October 2010