Paul Barnhill

Radio Times review

Having blundered their way through a first series, the madcap team of scientists at Clayton Grange are back to conduct even more disastrous experiments in this farcical comedy from Neil Warhurst and fellow writer and actor Paul Barnhill.

In this episode, the brainiacs endanger the very fabric of democracy (all in the name of science, of course) as they offer a local MP a tour of their not so secret laboratory, and Jameson decides whether to trade the rainy hills of Dorking for the sun-drenched coast of California, much to the dismay of chief bumbler and team leader Saunders.

In spite of its steely scientific sheen there is something strangely warming about this Surrey-set sitcom, and there's plenty of heart to keep us coming back for more.

Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst's comedy set in a retail park returns for a six-week run. The last series was something of a hotchpotch of broad silliness, streaks of worrying blackness (child abduction played for laughs in one episode really didn't work) and rather more frequent shafts of, if not brilliance, then at least something to keep you up until 11pm to listen to it.

While a plot line concerning Pink Thursday, where a 20 per cent discount is on offer for customers willing to come out for the first time at the till, has little going for it in the cold light of day, after a couple of drinks and a curry it could well be hilarious.

Edge Falls, your out of town retail Mecca, the comic brain child of Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst, returns. Mark Benton plays Mick, hapless head of security. Frances Barber plays the ingenious promotions manager Sonya, raising a giant pink inflatable love heart over the shops to bring in the pink pound. And all the staff has to be gay friendly too, but only to friendly gays (nothing ostentatious). We're gay for the day, says Sonya, before she spots what she thinks is a bit of hanky panky in the carpark. The spoof commercials are a treat, though.

The BBC describes Edge Falls - written by Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst, and starring Mark Benton and Sarah Lancashire - as a five-part comedy. But the line between that and tragedy has rarely seemed so thin.