Lucy Beaumont

Comedian Jon Richardson and his wife Lucy are doing their darndest to squeeze entertainment out of domestic life with their three-year-old daughter in the Yorkshire market town of Hebden Bridge.

Their mock reality-show Meet The Richardsons (Dave) started last month, pretending to be a fly-on-the-lounge-wall show where Jon and Lucy sat on their sofa and bickered about their marriage.

If they'd stuck with that concept, it might have worked better: the couple are obviously close but one can't say a word without rubbing the other up the wrong way.

Lucy spent several minutes criticising her husband for the way he says 'hello'.

And millions of wives will sympathise with her frustration that Jon can go into rhapsodies about a flash of football skill in a Sky Sports game, but fails to notice when she's spent an hour doing her face and make-up before a night out: 'You just say: "Come on then, let's go."'

But the show falls apart when it descends to scripted hijinks. Jon got stuck on the stairs moving a sofa and had to phone for help ... even though the camera crew was in the house. Are they professionally bound never to intervene, like wildlife photographers?

Jason Donovan made a cameo appearance as a guest at a celebrity Halloween party, sending himself up rotten when Lucy mistook him for Bros.

He was great in Dial M For Middlesbrough last year, too. Top chap.

Jon Richardson extends his misanthropic persona to a Curb-ish mockumentary, satirising his married domestic life with fellow comedian Lucy Beaumont. There are good gags about Richardson's eccentricities, but the cringeworthy comeuppances are underpowered.

Preview: Meet The Richardsons, Dave

No need to curb your enthusiasm here, there is plenty to be enthusiastic about.

Meet The Richardsons review

If you were looking for a British answer to Larry David, you could do worse than set-in-his-ways curmudgeon Jon Richardson.

Meet The Richardsons review

Two married comedians do scripted reality. Sounds like a treat. Who better to send up the sort of bilge they broadcast on ITV Be than two nimble wits?

A marriage made in comedy heaven

Desiree Ibekwe meets the team behind Dave's semi-scripted peek into the lives of married comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont.

Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont interview

With hints of Curb Your Enthusiasm, real-life married couple and successful comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont have opened up the doors to their home, their family and their friends in Meet The Richardsons, a new six-part scripted comedy based on their life.

Leicester Comedy Festival launches 2020 programme

Headline acts for 2020 include Jo Brand, Stewart Lee, Milton Jones, Shappi Khorsandi, Fascinating Aida, Paul Sinha, Josie Long, Jason Byrne, Tony Slattery, Angela Barnes, Griff Rhys Jones, Andy Parsons, John Shuttleworth, Dane Baptiste, Rhod Gilbert, Mark Steel, Flo & Joan, Arthur Smith and Reg D Hunter.