Morwenna Banks

Two Jacobite soldiers from 1745, a clan chief and his bard, have been found alive and well in a cave. A visiting English academic (of no great status but hopes of it) leaps at the chance to integrate them into modern Scottish society. Carl Gorham (of Stressed Eric cultish fame) is the author and this is very funny, especially if you (as I do) like Scotsmen plus a bustling conjunction of the real with the surreal. There's a marvellous cast too, David Haig, Gordon Kennedy (who also directs), Jack Docherty, Moray Hunter, Morwenna Banks and Rebecca Front.

Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 14th September 2011

Stanley Park clearly aspires to the E4 mould of teenage comedy like The Inbetweeners and Misfits. Though Morwenna Banks plays a mum, as in Skins, these are not the angst-ridden, articulate youths of that show, but more gormless, ordinary adolescents who snog people at the swing park and argue about Twitter.

It's hard to sum up the premise and the plot didn't seem to have much scope, as confident, doll-faced Debbie who believes that she's sex on legs got off with the virginal twit that her more gothic friend liked. The characters seem to have more going on than could be fitted in here, perhaps because they originate from a stage play. There were some funny lines though: when the boy's parents walked in on him and Debbie, who had been snacking on crisps during underwhelming kitchen sex, his mum wailed: "I've just had that table varnished... wait, are those my chargrilled chicken crinkles?" "I couldn't help myself, they were more-ish," shrugged the vamp.

Having had her own fine sitcom, Pulling, pulled by BBC3 for being too old for the channel's demographic, poor Sharon Horgan has had insult added to injury by being cast as the past-it, lonely auntie. Ouch.

Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman, 12th June 2010

Ruddy hell! It's not Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul. It's just Harry and Paul now. How confusing. Were you confused by the original title? Me neither. Maybe it was just too long for the Sky EPG.

Anyway, they're back: Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, former young Turks of comedy, are once again on primetime BBC1, shoring up old comedy and helping to showcase new talent.

But as always, the question is, are they funny?

Surprisingly, yes. Okay, some of the sketches fall quiet flat. There are far too many returning characters that have stretched a once-good joke too far. And the absence of comedy goddess Morwenna Banks is sorely felt.

But we did sit there laughing for a good portion of the show. The multi-lingual football manager was a fun opener. The 'cool old guys' were pretty entertaining. Okay, the Dragons' Den impressions were poor and where was Caaan!!!, but the general accuracy of the sketch was good. And, praise the Lord, the talented Laura Solon is still there with her Polish coffee shop attendant.

Maybe a little too traditional and too much like the first series at times, and given the rapid fall off in quality of the first series, it might not be a good idea to make it a permanent fixture in your diaries. But still far more hits and misses than is normal for a BBC1 comedy show. Anyone doubting that should have stuck around for The Armstrong and Miller Show afterwards...

The Medium Is Not Enough, 8th September 2008