Phil Mealey

Writers Craig Cash and Phil Mealey had a hit with the comedy drama Sunshine last year. But this 2003 sitcom is finer and more satisfying: the jokes are earthier and less obvious, and the pathos is subtle rather than being sentimentally spooned on. It all takes place in a Manchester pub.

Sunshine was a three-part BBC series from the pen of Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, starring Steve Coogan. Never quite sure what it wanted to be, the show was diverting enough, but had a tendency at times to be overly mawkish and sickeningly sweet.

This lovely little drama from Craig Cash and Phil Mealey comes to an end as Bing (a rather excellent Steve Coogan - which is a relief after last week's criticisms of his live show) attempts to beat his gambling addiction once and for all and win back his wife. He has a lot of hurdles to overcome, and then there are his dad's problems waiting to come to light - will they send Bing spiralling back into the grip of addiction? There'll be tears and laughter before bedtime, mark my words...

If some people see life as a comedy, while others insist it is a tragedy, then the writing team of Craig Cash and Phil Mealey must fall into the first camp. They just can't help themselves from seeing the funny side of the most dire situations. They would probably get the giggles at a funeral.

And while that's better than going through life being a total misery, that could explain why this series about the very unfunny problem of gambling addiction is looking a bit unsteady on its pins as it lurches drunkenly from the sweet to the sour.

Having said that, if you don't get a little seasick from the shifting tone there's plenty to enjoy here - especially in the cockle-warming friendship between little Joe and his grandad George. And also, of course, in Steve Coogan's central performance as eternal loser Bing Crosby.

The Stage Review

That Sunshine succeeds so effectively as both comedy and drama is down to a witty and original script by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey combined with a very impressive performance from Coogan, who manages to strike just the right note between amiable and infuriating, amusing and appalling.

Indeed, Sunshine is so well done that it is almost too painful to watch, and it's going to require something of an act of will from me to return for a further helping of Bob's wilful self-destruction. The jokes and great lines certainly come thick and fast, but the underlying mood is one of despair with just a hint of impending doom.

Blog Review

Writers Craig Cash and Phil Mealey are perfectly aware of the situation they've created and they're perfectly aware of the audience's expectations of that situation. They know what they're up to, those two. They're having a ball, with a script littered with double-takes and surprises.

It never got the recognition accorded to The Royle Family or The Office but Early Doors was every bit the equal of those two benchmark comedies. Written by Phil Mealey and Craig Cash (Cash also co-wrote The Royle Family), the bittersweet tale of a pub landlord and his ragged regulars mixed laughter and tears into an addictively warm-hearted brew.

This is the latest series from Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, who wrote BBC2's quietly brilliant Early Doors. Cash also co-wrote (and played Dave in) The Royle Family, so there's pedigree here. You'd expect wry Mancunian wit and warm character comedy - and that's exactly what you get.

The story centres on Steve Coogan as Bing, a lovable but hopeless chancer given to joking his way out of trouble. He leads not so much a hand-to-mouth existence as hand-to-bookies, and so spends much of the time in the doghouse with girlfriend Bernadette (beautifully played by Lisa Millett). There's quality support from Bernard Hill as Bing's dad, whose idea of babysitting is to wake his grandson up for an evening of tall stories about how he gave Hitler a Chinese burn. And Cash and Mealey turn up as bin-men. It's gently amusing, with a loving attention to detail, but don't expect belly laughs - it's classed as a comedy drama.

Sunshine is wonderful stuff. This particular type of sunshine, written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey (the team behind Early Doors and The Royle Family: Queen of Sheba), tells the story of three generations of a family from the 1970s. Steve Coogan plays a likeable young man who married his childhood sweetheart; he is funny, cheerful and optimistic, someone capable - according to Grandad (Bernard Hill) - of charming the nuts off a squirrel. Sadly he is also a compulsive gambler who squanders what little money the family has and risks losing everything that matters to him. Sunshine doesn't have the fly-on-the-wall naturalism of The Royle Family, but it does share its warmth and its humanity.

Steve Coogan takes the lead in a gentle but affecting comedy-drama about addiction. Scripted expertly by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, it's the story of Bob 'Bing' Crosby, a man who loves a flutter.

As you'd expect from Cash, the setting is resolutely northern and ordinary, and the focus is on Bing's family - the young son who narrates the action, the long-suffering childhood sweetheart, the dad with a part to play in how Bing turned out.

Compared with the usual stuff of prime-time slots, Sunshine requires emotional investmnet. In the course of three episodes, this should be richly rewarded.