Ricky Champ

Preview: Tracy Ullman's Show series 2

This week sees the return of Tracy Ullman's Show to BBC One, with the first episode airing on Friday 3rd February at 9:30pm. As with the first series, a bevy of TVO regulars are involved: this time around Dan Skinner, Tracy Ann Oberman, Lucy Montgomery and Laurence Rickard are part of the impressive ensemble cast. But is the end result worth a look? TVO editor Paul Holmes took a sneaky peek...

BBC Landmark Sitcom Season: the pilots review

In my last post I looked at three of the sitcom revivals that the BBC have produced but alongside these pieces, this new season also includes five new sitcom pilots. Over the next two weeks, all five of these shows will air and in this article I will pass judgement on them all.

TV preview: We the Jury, BBC2

As one would expect from Acaster there are some gloriously well-chosen lines of dialogue.

Before Crims aired on Thursday, several people had been tweeting about how good it was so my expectations were high. Imagine my disappointment then that this sitcom, set in a young offender's institute, was both clichéd and unfunny.

Crims' story focuses on mild-mannered Luke (Elis James) who finds himself locked up at Sunnybank View after unwittingly acting as the getaway driver for his girlfriend's dim-witted brother Jason (Kadiff Kirwan). I found it very hard to believe that Luke would be convicted alongside Jason and from then on things just got worse.

Nothing had been done to make the characters any different from those seen in previous prison comedies as we had the snitch, the inmate who could smuggle anything into the institution and of course Sunnybank's tough man Marcel (Theo Barklem-Biggs).

The jokes, if you can call them that, were repetitive at best, as Jason kept getting Luke into scrapes that meant he was always being beaten up or embarrassed in front of the guards.

I personally feel that the most annoying element of Crims was the character of Jason and in particular Kirwin's awful performance. Although Jason is meant to be a bit annoying, his manner is so irritating that you fail to believe that this sort of person actually exists.

At times I found myself winding the programme along just so I didn't have to watch another excruciating scene featuring one of the worst comedy characters in recent memory.

The presence of Ricky Champ, from the brilliant Him & Her, as the head guard just reminded me how good BBC Three sitcoms can be.

Whilst not as painful as Some Girls, Crims was still a hard show to sit through and I wonder why the usually reliable BBC Three took a punt on this rather annoying sitcom.

Meet the cast podcast

Russell Tovey, Sarah Solemani, Kerry Howard and Ricky Champ discuss the final series of Him & Her with Boyd Hilton at the Apple Store in London.

Him & Her live chat

We have asked the very lovely Kerry Howard (Laura), Ricky Champ (Paul) and Joe Wilkinson (Dan) to pop into BBC Three central to chat with you about life in Him & Her...

Him and Her was originally given the frankly awful title of Young, Unemployed & Lazy. It's great that they changed it, as it could have fatally altered perceptions of this witty, touching show. Written by Stefan Golaszewski, it's is the story of a twentysomething couple, Steve and Becky (Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani) loafing around a one-bed flat hoping the rest of the world leaves them alone. Set in real time, it has the feel of a series of short plays and, like Golaszewski's other work, balances pathos and dry wit beautifully. There's great support from Ricky Champ, Kerry Howard and Joe Wilkinson, too.