Mark Addy

Radio Times review

Is there any life left in Trollied? After all, when loads of original cast members leave a show, it usually ends up being the kiss of death. Look what happened to ER, New Tricks and - of course - the greatest ensemble drama of all time: Monarch of the Glen.

But despite the fact that the likes of Jane Horrocks and Mark Addy are now long gone, there's still some fun to be had in this series opener, mainly thanks to the introduction of Sarah Parish as the owner of a budget supermarket called Lauda (hmmm, wonder what the inspiration for that could be?), which looks set to be a rival for the mighty Valco.

Sky1's big attempt at a mainstream sitcom is now in its fourth series. This is partly down to solid writing, but it's mainly because Trollied has an ensemble large enough to absorb cast changes. Jane Horrocks and Mark Addy have gone, and in their place come Stephen Tompkinson and Miriam Margoyles. It's hard to fight the sensation that Trollied is basically Waterloo Road with a deli counter, but it's likely to deliver regardless.

Laughs were provided by Sky One's Trollied, which returns for its third series. The joy of Trollied is that it has so many characters that the majority of the scenes only last a couple of minutes.

The main plot of this series seems to be the introduction of Richard France (Chris Geere), a strategist who is aiming to modernise Valco using the Warrington branch as his tester store. Obviously Richard's bold ideas, including his clothing choices, will inevitably clash with the more traditional views of manager Gavin (Jason Watkins) and his assistant manager Julie (Jane Horrocks).

Elsewhere, we are treated more to the tedious love story between butcher Kieran (Nick Blood) and checkout girl Katie (Chanel Creswell). It seems that the now divorced Kieran is in a depressive state while Katie has finally realised that he's the perfect man for her. Luckily this romantic story isn't dwelt upon too long and we get plenty from our favourite comic characters including head butcher Andy (Mark Addy) and senior citizen deli assistant Margaret (Rita May).

It is these established characters that get the best gags including the now romantically linked Colin (Carl Rice) and Lisa (Beverly Rudd) whose sexual exploits provide some of the funniest moments in the episode.

I'm still not quite sure what to make of weird fishmonger Ray (Adeel Akhtar) and his new apprentice Dave (Danny Kirrane) as I didn't find their characters to be fully-formed.

Ultimately not much has changed in the world of Trollied and I think I like it that way. The jokes are still as funny as ever while the performances from Watkins and Horrocks are great especially when we saw how proud Gavin and Julie were of their summertime display.

Though I don't think this will quite reach the heights of Season 2, due to the fact that Stephanie Beacham has now left the show, Trollied continues to be a funny sketch-like sitcom with plenty of well-rounded characters.

The supermarket comedy returns with a formidable new cast member: Dynasty and more recently Corrie star Stephanie Beacham.

As no-nonsense new manager Lorraine, she flounces around the store, eyes flashing, while her staff tremble. Most nervy of all is deputy manager Julie (a wonderfully twitchy Jane Horrocks), who is heartbroken that her beloved Gavin is leaving to be area manager, still blissfully unaware of her ardour.

Meanwhile, the cantankerous head butcher (Mark Addy) splashes on some cheap perfume, sashays into the new boss's office and turns on the charm. Alas, not all goes to plan...

The supermarket sitcom returns for a second series - a reasonably worthy recipient of Sky's huge investment in comedy and drama. Trollied remains at its best when it concentrates on the observational rather than the smutty, and most interest lies in the ups and downs of the highly strung deputy store manager Julie (Jane Horrocks). In the opener, Gavin (Jason Watkins) is leaving and Julie wants to give him a send-off to remember, but there's also the arrival of the new store manager to contend with and hard-boiled Lorraine Chain (Stephanie Beacham) has plans to revamp the Warrington branch of Valco leaving butcher Andy (Mark Addy) worried.

Trollied, the little comedy that taught us just how enthralling life in a budget supermarket can be, returns for its second series this week with a new boss - Dynasty ice queen Stephanie Beacham.

Episode one sees the Valco gang trying to adjust to life under their new boss - something that Julie (Jane Horrocks) in particular struggles with as she pines over her lost-love Gavin (Jason Watkins). The ladies' conflict comes to a head in the second instalment at 9.30pm when they differ over the store's new below-basic range. Trollied is far from a two-woman show though - Mark Addy, Nick Blood, Beverly Rudd and the rest of the crew are back as well, waiting for you to check them out.

In Anne-Marie O'Connor's perfectly understated supermarket sitcom, the staff are becoming more real with each episode.

And one very good reason to make the weekly trip to Valco is to see what Margaret is up to.

Played by Rita May, she's a wonderful character - because it's so rare for qualities like "nice" and "content with their lot" to be the starting point for comedy.

I love hearing about Margaret's little jokes with "her Alan" (which, of course, are never even slightly funny) and this week she's all a fluster because she's going to be Skyping her daughter online, who lives in Canada.

Meanwhile, at the meat counter, Kieran gets jealous when he spots another man checking-out his favourite checkout girl.

And Andy (Mark Addy) declares war on Masterchef, before revealing a surprising passion for Ian Botham.

It'll make you see those "Beefy" posters in a brand new light.

It's hard to know what to make of Trollied, the keen-to-please comedy set in a northern supermarket. It's likeable and has good performances (Jane Horrocks, Mark Addy and Jason Watkins), but it needs more definition - too often it appears like a series of mini sketches linked by the fact that they are all set in a supermarket. In this episode, the amusingly insecure Julie (Horrocks) is left in charge at Valco when Gavin (Watkins) is away on business. Andy (Addy), meanwhile, sees a fellow butcher in the shop and thinks his job is at stake.

Trollied is the first of several new comedy shows being made by Sky this season.

The show is set in a supermarket, looking at the lives of a north-western branch of Valco ("Serves you right"). The characters include Julie (Jane Horrocks), the current deputy manager who currently is holding the job temporarily, or as she puts it "interimming" (and not "into rimming"); butcher Andy (Mark Addy), a man who can tell a type of sausage by simply resting it on his shoulder; and Margaret (Rita May), a pensioner who appears to be away with the fairies.

The series began with a double bill, which probably helped as it gave viewers who weren't sure about the show the chance to see how it would develop.

Before the series began some questions had already been thrown up by the critics. For starters, how come no-one had set a sitcom in a supermarket before, as it seems an ideal location - an environment from which the staff cannot escape from, with various layers of hierarchy, including managers, checkout staff and stockers. I think I know why such a setting has never done before - cost. Supermarkets are large buildings, and normally there is no way a supermarket would let a TV crew in there for fear of disturbing the business, so you have to build a huge set.

Luckily, when it comes to creating big-scale TV shows, Sky has experience. They're responsible for bringing Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels into real-life. Compared to creating a world resting on the backs of four elephants standing on the shell of a giant turtle, a supermarket should be simplicity itself. Mind you, it is easy to do when your channel is owned by the world's second largest media company (after Disney), a group which owns two of the most popular animated sitcoms in the world (The Simpsons and Family Guy), some of the biggest scale dramas currently on TV at the moment (House), and owns more newspapers than you can shake a hacked telephone at.

Trollied also has other problems when it comes to critical reception. Namely, as it is a workplace sitcom it will be compared to The Office and therefore everyone will look down on it. But why stop there? It is also a retail sitcom, so you could compare it to Open All Hours or Are Your Being Served? for that matter. Just because there are similar sitcoms to it does not mean that it will be rubbish.

In terms of laughs, there were a few - enough to give it promise - but whether or not it can sustain that I don't know.

There are some things you know really shouldn't make you laugh but somehow completely crack you up. So it was with an exchange on Trollied in which interim supermarket boss Julie (Jane Horrocks) informed the deli counter that she was, ahem, interimming. I'll run that past you one more time: she said she was 'interimming'. Suffice to say the butcher boys - Mark Addy and Nick Blood, having a ball - chewed that one up and spat it out for all it was worth.

Away from the unreconstituted filth, not all of Trollied hit the same spot. Horrocks was aiming for pathos as the socially inept Jane but it was a little too easy to see why everyone wanted to see the back of her. Jason Watkins, beloved of Psychoville and Being Human fans, seemed oddly muted as her boss.

It's the minor characters that make Trollied worth tailgating, with a psychotic shoplifter, a man with a habit of shooting a can of aerosol cream into his mouth by way of a perk, the pick of the bunch. More of him, and more airtime for the fledgling romance twixt butcher boy Kieran and his till-trapped admirer, and Trollied could yet beat the bargain bin.