Kimberley Nixon

Despite a few moments when the comic timing isn't quite there as the cast beds in, standup Jason Cook's new sitcom, a kind of Tyne and Wear Royle Family, looks like a winner. The setup is that Jack (Chris Ramsey), now living in glitzy Manchester, visits his working-class folk with a middle-class, Jewish bride, Sarah (Kimberley Nixon), in tow. Trouble is, nobody else knows they're hitched. You know you're in safe hands from the moment mum Pauline (Gina McKee), wanting Sarah to feel at home, makes "bagels" by taking an apple corer to some bread rolls.

Video: Gina McKee and Kimberley Nixon on Hebburn

Gina McKee and Kimberley Nixon tell us about having fun on the Tyne with their new BBC comedy, Hebburn.

They also talk about working with comedians Jason Cook and Vic Reeves.

Hebburn is a fairly warm-hearted new sitcom written by stand-up comic Jason Cook. Set in the unremarkable town of Hebburn, South Tyneside, where Cook grew up, it revolves around a close-knit working-class family headed by Vic Reeves (billed under real name Jim Moir) and Gina McKee. He's affable and blokey, she's overbearingly well-meaning in the way sitcom mums almost always are.

Rounding out the brood are comedian Chris Ramsey - who looks like Stan Laurel moonlighting as a member of One Direction - as the prodigal son awkwardly introducing his "girlfriend" (Fresh Meat's Kimberley Nixon) to the family. But unbeknownst to them, the pair secretly wed in Vegas. Oh no! Apparently.

There's also a daffy gran prone to inappropriate outbursts, and a tart-with-a-heart sister. So no, it won't win any awards for originality (if indeed such awards existed). And that's Hebburn's problem: although it's packed with gags, they're mostly rather obvious and unremarkable. Cook - who also appears in a supporting role - can't resist all the usual cheap tracksuits and fake-tan jibes, and even throws a cheesy pub singer in for good measure. Tinged with pathos and black comedy, it's amiable enough, and nicely performed - especially by McKee, reminding us that she's capable of delivering much more than the frosty types she's usually cast as. But it isn't remotely distinctive or original.

Kimberley Nixon - Josie makes some dreadful decisions

"By the time you're 18, 19, you know yourself and you shouldn't go against your gut feeling, which is a temptation in the first year of university"

Gina McKee, Jan Ravens and Phil Nice join Hebburn cast

Gina McKee, Jan Ravens and Phil Nice have been lined up to star alongside Jim Moir, Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon in new six-part BBC Two comedy series, Hebburn.

The freshest comedy of the year, this university students sitcom goes out on a high with more boozing, sex and foul language. Tonight Josie (Kimberley Nixon) gets drunk on "schmocoa" - that's schnapps and cocoa - and goes clubbing in a bid to forget her boyfriend woes, while JP (Jack Whitehall) is annoyed that his big club night will clash with his father's funeral. This has proved itself a worthy successor to The Inbetweeners - its depiction of university archetypes is spot-on and the performances excellent. The good news is that a second series has already been ordered. Schmocoas all round!

Radio Times review

Fresh Meat definitely feels more comedy drama than sitcom in this episode: less frenetic, more ambling, but with big belly-laughs later on. The freshers are still finding their feet in the shifting sands of university life. The character who sums this up best is sweet, foolish Josie: Kimberley Nixon's facial expressions change, often several times a second, between confidence, uncertainty and panic, as she tries, usually too hard, to make friends and influence people.

It's an amazing performance, adding layers of comedy to the bare bones in the script, but it's still upstaged by Jack Whitehall as would-be womaniser JP, who makes hay with a brilliantly tasteless sex-related storyline.

Meanwhile, Oregon's flirtation with her tutor reaches new levels as he pays her to clean his fridge and grumbles about his wife, neatly nicknamed "the selfish Jean".

It's not a treat you get every day, the joy of stumbling on a loveable, bankably funny sitcom. So make the most of this, because after the assured start in episode one, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's unromantic comedy set in a student house gets into its stride tonight.

Jack Whitehall is still the standout, playing sordid toff JP, fresh from Stowe and full of phrases like "The guy's a ledge", "No problemo" and "Heinous". His assurance is a little dented tonight when he bumps into two old school chums he's desperate to impress.

Meanwhile, the awkwardness mounts between star-crossed non-lovers Kingsley (Joe Thomas) and Josie (Kimberley Nixon) as the housemates decide to have a party - and it turns into a "brodeo".

Fears that oddball Vod (Zawe Ashton) may be a bloodthirsty murderer get the second episode of this student comedy from the creators of Peep Show off to a promising start - especially as the victim appears to be Russell Brand. Things become more predictable when Josie (Kimberley Nixon) suggests the housemates throw a party in the hope it might push her and Kingsley (Joe Thomas) together - hopes dashed when her boyfriend turns up unexpectedly. But that's minor trouble compared with the fallout when absentee housemate Paul discovers that JP (Jack Whitehall) has turned his room into a gym.

Peep Show and The ­Inbetweeners fans, listen up. Fresh Meat stars Joe Thomas and was written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, so deserves your attention.

It's a great sitcom about freshers in a university house-share - a sit so ripe with possibilities you might wonder why it hasn't been strip-mined for com before.

Actually it has; of course there was the classic The Young Ones, and some of you might have seen a short-lived BBC3 comedy a couple of years ago with much the same premise called Off The Hook, starring another Inbetweener, James Buckley.

But Fresh Meat is much more assured and has wonderfully subtle ­characters.

Joe Thomas is the token normal one as Kingsley, and Kimberley Nixon plays nice, sweet Josie, his female ­counterpart.

More intriguing are Vod (Zawe Ashton) who's like a younger, female, sexually ­ambiguous version of Peep Show's Super Hans and Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie) who tries too hard to be tough and play down her swottiness - and fails at both.

There's also Greg McHugh as Howard (think a young, Scottish Nick Frost).

But it's stand-up and panel-show regular Jack Whitehall who steals the show as cocky public schoolboy JP.

We first meet him in the men's toilet waving a wrap of cocaine at a total stranger. We've never seen Jack acting before but he turns out to be surprisingly good at it. Unless - of course - this is what he's like in real life.