Nigel Planer

TV review: Cockroaches, ITV2

It won't be the end of the world if you miss Cockroaches, but future episodes promise appearances from Alexander Armstrong and Nigel Planer and it certainly feels worth sticking with.

Boomers TV review

A spirited cast, including Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer struggle in a sitcom about newly retired baby boomers.

Boomers, a comedy-by-numbers thing set in Norfolk and apparently phoned in by a pig's bladder on a stick, is about comfortably-off fiftysomething baby-boomers going through non-crises. It features Nigel Planer, Alison Steadman and Russ Abbot, and diminishes all of them.

Radio Times review

This sitcom from Richard Pinto (Citizen Khan) will be clasped to the bosom of anyone who loves New Tricks, as Boomers centres on a group of old-timers, friends from years back, who find themselves out of kilter with the modern world.

The humour is broad and painted with the widest brush strokes and there are echoes of Victor Meldrew's curmudgeonly head-butting against the idiocies of political correctness and life in general. The cast includes some solid comedy names, including Russ Abbot as the dourest member of the group and Nigel Planer as the wide boy with the newly acquired young Eastern European wife (feel free to let out a weary groan).

The women (Alison Steadman, Paula Wilcox, Stephanie Beacham) always win out in any given situation as their hopeless blokes go to the pub. In the opening episode, everyone gathers at a funeral.

Imagine a world where Russ Abbot is shacked up with Stephanie Beacham, but threatened by the appearance of Nigel Planer, who has a thirtysomething Lithuanian wife. Welcome to the first episode of this frisky 60-plus sitcom, which is ushered in with a funeral. Even though the cast don't get any hilarious one-liners to show off yet, there's also the charming promise of Alison Steadman as Joyce, the ringleader for the newly retired and easily-bored posse, as well as June Whitfield, who's set to appear later in the series.

Radio Times review

Although at heart it's a sitcom, the longer, dramatic storylines in Episodes mean you may not want to read on if you haven't seen the series opener...

In the biggest news, network exec Carol is set to get a new boss, having been passed over (humiliatingly) for the top job she was promised. Naturally, her colleagues are preparing their resumes, convinced the new broom will sweep them all out, but when he turns up he proves to be madder than they imagined: "I don't care if we fail," he tells Carol. "If we go down in flames at least there were flames."

Meanwhile, Matt tells his lawyer (another brief, brilliant cameo by Nigel Planer) that the drink-driving charge is nonsense. "I was so not drunk. Believe me: I've driven drunk and I know the difference."

Episodes (BBC Two) is a Transatlantic affair about a husband-and-wife writing team (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who decamp to Los Angeles and adapt their History Boys-esque Brit hit into a dumbed-down US sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc. How very meta. How very postmodern. How very mediocre.

The cartoonish American characters supplied the lion's share of laughs. Ageing playboy LeBlanc sent himself up gamely: vain, self-destructive, increasingly doughy but still silver foxy, with enough flashes of Joey Tribbiani to keep Friends fans happy. Daisy Haggard and Kathleen Rose Perkins were funny as face-pulling, nice-but-dim network executives Myra and Carol, with a tendency to trip over their own high heels in their scramble up the career ladder.

There were some sharp lines. Matt's battle for custody of his children was undermined by his arrest for drunk-driving. "You're the worst client I've ever had," barked his lawyer (our own Nigel Planer, putting on a ropy American accent). "I'd happily trade you for two Mel Gibsons and a Tiger Woods." Carol was infatuated with her square-jawed boss but insisted: "Obviously I would never go there." Beverly (Greig) raised a sceptical eyebrow: "Pur-lease. You keep an apartment there."

Newly reconciled Beverly and Sean (Mangan) were on the rocks again after she admitted having a one-night stand. It's this central pair that are the problem. They convince as writing partners but not as a couple. Mangan, who is normally excellent (see Green Wing, Dirk Gently) comes over like a whiny student. Greig's character is the moral centre of the show but this makes her a bit blank and boring. Their chemistry is strangely sexless. A snogging scene was faintly uncomfortable, of the sort that makes a teenager go, "Ugh, Muuum, Daaad, that's disgusting!" if their parents kiss.

Somehow Episodes has made it to a third series without leaving much of an impression. A fourth has even been commissioned. Presumably it survives owing to the star power of LeBlanc. It makes the odd sharp observation about Hollywood and the fickle nature of celebrity but feels undercooked. It's so busy smugly admiring its own cleverness that it forgot to add enough jokes.

In many ways the antithesis of BBC2's traditional "highbrow" output, The Young Ones' anarchic approach to comedy was an instant cult hit with younger audiences. It set the tone for the age of "alternative" comedy that still dominates today. The premise - four students who live in a bedsit - was traditional, but its structure, which included fragmented and often surreal storylines, random asides, the trashing of the set and sudden cuts to hamsters singing in a fridge, was energetic, punky and pioneering. Written (mostly) by Ben Elton and starring Adrian Edmondson (Vyvyan), Rik Mayall (Rick), Nigel Planer (Neil) and Christopher Ryan (Mick) - it also featured Alexei Sayle as landlord Mr Balowski.

Since light entertainment programmes were allocated bigger budgets than sitcoms, it was decided every episode would also feature a band. These bands - which included Dexy's Midnight Runners, and Madness - would perform songs which had no relevance to the plot.

Memorable scenes include Footlights versus Scumbag College in University Challenge; Vyvyan's head being cut off and then rolling along a train track still speaking; as well as the last shot of them all toppling over a cliff in a stolen double-decker bus.

Nigel Planer: My family values

The actor, currently in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, talks about being the arty one in a family of scientists.

Another episode in The Many Faces of... strand on BBC Two, narrated by Sally Philips, focused on a comic actor famed for his laugh, his acting skill, and his rather wrinkled looks.

Broadcast to mark the 100th birthday of Sid James, which is in a few weeks, this documentary it has to be said didn't start well. This was nothing to do with James or the programme's production, but more to do with the fact that in the third cut-away you discovered that one of the talking heads featured in this programme was Chris Moyles.

But this aside, the other contributors, including Nigel Planer (busy week for him then) were good. There were also some rare outings of comedies now rarely seen such as Citizen James, which was basically Hancock's Half Hour without Tony Hancock, and looked like a decent show in its own right. There was also his straighter acting, which included appearances in a Quatermass film.

The Carry On films were the main area of covered, but for me the most interesting bit was the coverage of ITV sitcom Bless This House. I was unaware of how popular it was. It was one of the most watched comedies of its day, although this was helped by the fact that the show on the BBC at the same time was Panorama. This just goes to prove that what you really need to make a good sitcom is the right timing - not just good comic timing, but good scheduling too boot.