Neil Morrissey

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Restoration comedy is a right royal mess.

The Crown Jewels review

Al Murray is aimless comedy's saving grace.

John Bishop joins next series of DNA Journeys

John Bishop is joining the cast of series four of DNA Journeys. Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Dunbar, Neil Morrisey, Alex Brooker, Johnny Vegas and Oti and Motsi Mabuse will also take part in the new series airing later this year.

Neil Morrissey would consider Men Behaving Badly return

Neil Morrissey has revealed he would consider reprising his role in Men Behaving Badly with the right script.

Neil Morrissey wants to revisit 'misogynist loser'

Neil Morrissey continued his campaign to revive Men Behaving Badly as he joined the Good Morning Britain sofa - despite calling his character a "misogynist loser".

Neil Morrissey on MBB reunion: 'It's a pipe dream'

Neil Morrissey doesn't expect a full reunion of Men Behaving Badly to happen any time soon, though he'd love to team up with Martin Clunes, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash if the situation arose.

The basic conceit of one-off comedy drama A Gert Lush Christmas was Meet the Parents as Howard's Dan introduced his girlfriend Lisa (Hannah Britland) to his oddball Bristolian family. They included his inappropriate mother Sue (Sophie Thompson), his foul-mouthed father Dave (Neil Morrissey), his drug-taking Uncle Tony (Greg Davies) and his excitable sister Julie (played by Russell's real life sister Kerry). The first twenty or so minutes of A Gert Lush Christmas pulled out almost every awkward family cliché including the womenfolk talking about marriage way too fast and later Dan and Lisa listening to his parents have sex. However, primarily due to the quality of the cast, these scenes were quite well presented and I found myself laughing several times. Where the piece fell down for me was the inevitable moment when Dan's family briefly caused he and Lisa's separation when Uncle Tony spiked his nephew's drink which somehow made him kiss one of his ex-girlfriends. The scenes in which Dan tried to win Lisa back were very weak indeed as was their eventual reconciliation which was framed around a child's magic trick. I do feel a lot of the blame for what went wrong aboutA Gert Lush Christmas can be attributed to Russell Howard's one-note performance as well as he and Williams' poorly paced script. It's quite evident that Howard can't act to save his life and throughout the hour I just felt I was watching the host of Good News visiting his eccentric family. Howard never once made Dan sympathetic and as a result I found myself feeling sorry for his rather sweet-natured if off-beat family. Although there were plus points, namely the turns given by Sophie Thompson and Kerry Howard, ultimately A Gert Lush Christmas fell flat for me which was a shame as it was one of this year's festive highlights that I was looking forward to the most.

Once upon a time in the West Country... in this festive one-off, gangly stand-up Russell Howard attempts to cut the acting mustard as put-upon everyguy Dan Colman, escorting his new girlfriend back home for Christmas to meet his wacky Bristolian family. With a stacked supporting cast - including Neil Morrissey as his fitness freak dad and Greg Davies as a party-hearty uncle - it's a carefully calibrated extension of the successful Howard brand, and even features his real-life sibling Kerry as Dan's glam younger sis, Julie.