Rory Connolly

Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Count Arthur Strong - writer and director Graham Linehan has set the bar high with some TV comedy gems. So it's fingers crossed this new sitcom, charting the ups and downs of family life in Dublin, won't trip him up. As daughter Ciara ([p[Amy Stephenson]) invites her boyfriend to the Walsh house for the first time, her meddling mam (Philippa Dunnen, channelling Mrs Brown), practical joker dad (Niall Gaffney) and oddball brother (Rory Connolly, channelling Father Dougal) offer a unique welcome. There are just three episodes, so not much time for the characters to bed in, but if the Linehan spark ignites, it will be back for a full series.

Radio Times review

What's that, you say, a sitcom about an Irish family with an overbearing matriarch? Well, forget Mrs Brown's Boys, because writer Graham Linehan and Dublin comedy troupe Diet of Worms's take on the tropes of Irish family life is far more restrained.

We're introduced to the Walshes - "eejit" Dad (Niall Gaffney), smothering Mammy (Philippa Dunne), feckless son Rory (Rory Connolly) - as they prepare to invite desperate-to-flee-the-nest daughter Ciara's (Amy Stephenson) new, unassuming boyfriend Graham into their madhouse.

It's a traditional family sitcom full of comic misunderstandings, some wonderful moments of silliness and there's an affectionate charm in the playing, with Shane Langan particularly good as Graham - he has the look of a young Linehan about him.

The Walshes interview

An interview with Diet of Worms. "It was very polite of Graham Linehan to humour us..."

Diet of Worms set for ITV series with The Walshes

Diet of Worms, , an Irish comedy troupe, is to have its web series about a family living in Ireland in the late 1980s turned into a television programme for ITV. Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, is helping the comedy quintet to develop the series, entitled The Walshes, and has directed the pilot episode.