Luke Knowles

Chat with Emun Elliott

I recently got the chance to chat to Emun Elliot one of the three stars of Comedy Central UK's new comedy Threesome...

I wasn't expecting riveting edge-of-the-seat stuff, which is just as well as right from the slightly old fashioned title sequence I knew this wasn't going to reel me in.

The whole thing felt very old fashioned and slightly overacted, mainly by Head who seemed to have attended the Waking the Dead school of shouting as he brooded through each scene waiting for just the right time to bellow. Jenny Agutter was boring, and I didn't care for Warren Clarke, leaving it to Dean Lennox Kelly to emerge as the best of the cast but he didn't get much screen time till the final 15 minuets.

Unlike New Tricks, I didn't find this very funny and the fishing village location (shot in Northern Ireland) wasn't very interesting, either. I hope now that the threesome have found each other it'll pick up - the lengthy extract of the next episode seemed like it may be a bit better so I'll give it a second go, but the main problem is that the main characters aren't very likeable and need more personality and charisma.

I detest E4's excuse for a teen drama, Skins, so I went into The Inbetweeners with some trepidation. Since Shameless (still arguably the best teen drama on TV), Channel 4 has tried (and failed) to replicate its success with Skins and Almost Famous and I assumed this was just another of their attempts to scrape that barrel.

I'm happy to report I was wrong. This was a teen comedy with bathroom humour you'd expect but also the intelligence you perhaps wouldn't. It reminded me a bit of Malcolm in the Middle with the main character starting a new school, teased for being a 'briefcase mong' but desperate for acceptance. It was really funny with the characters completely believable and likeable. These were the teens I've seen and perhaps been and, unlike Skins, it painted a pretty solid picture of sixth form life.

The job of any episode is to make the viewer want to watch the next and this succeeded completely. If you were initially put off because you thought it was another immature teen comedy that would soon be forgotten, you might want to give this one a try. I can see this being a highlight of the week if the standard keeps up.

With Gavin & Stacey scooping the big prizes, I do worry that BBC3's other brilliant comedy Pulling is getting a little overlooked. It never fails to make me laugh and, although the storylines are completely mad, they somehow work brilliantly.

I'd love to see this for a third series but I wonder if the barrage of people who switch off after their weekly dose of Gav and Stacey have blown the chances of this Sharon Horgan masterpiece getting another outing.

I guess I shouldn't beat around the bush anymore so here goes... I... I... quite enjoyed Friday's My Family.

Like many, I watched the first series but lost interest quickly and have only dipped in and out ever since. So it was a little odd that I decided to give this first episode of the seventh series a go. Whether you like it or not, it is an achievement nowadays for anything, drama or comedy, to make it to its seventh series. I turned it on with low expectations and was surprised how it seemed to have grown up a bit. I can't abide the dopiness of Abby and Roger but they didn't get much screen time in this opener and the humour seemed surprisingly near the mark for a 'safe' series.

One of the lines so says my sister whose legs have two different postcodes would perhaps be more at home in Pulling but I was surprised how mature this first one was. This episode actually made me laugh in places and that's all I really want from a comedy. I doubt it'll continue to, but I'll give the second one a go just to see.

Interview with Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones

"We might do a special later in the year but there are no plans to do any more series... we've no idea how this series will go down for starters. People might hate it! It would be a shame if people got fed up of it... I don't know... we'll see. A special is likely though."