Robert Mills

The first episode of Watson & Oliver was, on the whole, pretty poor. It began well - I was especially fond of the opening sketch in which Lorna Watson draws eyebrows on her face in response to Ingrid Oliver's feelings, which became more and more ridiculous as the conversation went on. The duo are good physical performers.

However, I didn't enjoy the second half of the episode nearly as much.

The problem seems to be the writing. Some of the sketches seemed lack any purpose, like the friendly conversation between a prisoner and a warden. It totally stumped me, and I think judging by the audience reaction the studio didn't realise understand it either (mostly light tittering and nothing more).

Concerning the writing, I think that the most interesting aspect of Watson & Oliver is that while Watson and Oliver are the main writers, there is a larger bunch of writers providing "additional material". In the opening episode, for example, Kevin Cecil, Ali Crockatt, David Scott, Alex Lowe and Robert Mills all contributed. In other words, apart from the two stars, all the writers are men writing for female roles. Perhaps if Watson and Oliver wrote all their material there'd be a fluidity to the show and it might, well, be a bit better.

Still, it's probably best to see what comes up in future episodes...

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 27th February 2012