Sharon Horgan

'Dead Boss' like 'Mean Girls', say writers

Dead Boss writers Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh have claimed that their new BBC Three show is more like Mean Girls than a "social commentary" on life in jail.

A brand new sitcom from Pulling's Sharon Horgan and stand-up comedienne Holly Walsh. Though it focuses on the (supposedly wrongful) imprisonment of Horgan's character Helen for the murder of her employer, it's a surprisingly light and innocent show (the second episode at 11pm centres around a jail quiz night) with some excellent performances - particularly from Jennifer Saunders as the prison's creepily-pleasant warden.

Returning to BBC3 four years after her critically-acclaimed sitcom Pulling was axed to make way for 17 more series' of Two Pints of Lager, Sharon Horgan recovers her form with Dead Boss, a satisfyingly silly prison-set sitcom co-written with comedian Holly Walsh.

Beginning with a double-bill, it stars Horgan as Helen, a woman wrongly sentenced to 12 years in the chokey for the murder of her boss. Her thwarted efforts to clear her name and survive within this madhouse form the spine of a likeable farce, which, as directed by The League of Gentlemen's Steve Bendelack, has a cartoonish quality vaguely redolent of that other (good) BBC3 sitcom, Ideal.

Merrily tweaking all the usual prison clichés, it's populated by the likes of a leering Top Dog - notorious for once paper-cutting an inmate to death with a copy of TV Quick - and Jennifer Saunders as a faux-mumsy Governess. In fact the cast is uniformly strong, with Geoffrey McGivern proving particularly amusing as Helen's hopeless lawyer.

It's no Porridge, but Dead Boss still succeeds as an enjoyable streak of assured nonsense.

The Dead Boss guide to TV prison

Writers Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh take Hannah Verdier into the telly clinks that inspired their new BBC3 sitcom.

Sharon Horgan in age doc for Channel 4

Sharon Horgan is to front a two-part doc for Channel 4 on the perceptions of older women.

Sharon Horgan unlocks the lighter side of the slammer

Funny woman Sharon Horgan is back on screens in a new self penned comedy about life inside.

A quick chat with Sharon Horgan

Pulling writer and actress Sharon Horgan returns to BBC3 with the cracking new comedy whodunit Dead Boss...

Sharon Horgan interview

Jennifer Saunders has a secret celebrity stalker - funny girl Sharon Horgan.

Sharon Horgan & Holly Walsh interview

The six-part series Dead Boss is scripted by Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh, and they tell TV Choice how they're working with one of their heroines, Jennifer Saunders...