Shaun Pye
- Actor, writer, producer and script editor
Press clippings
There She Goes creator explains family cameo in special episode
Shaun Pye tells the story behind that emotional final scene.
David Craig, Radio Times, 22nd June 2023There She Goes review
A searingly honest, beautiful tribute to parents of disabled children.
Gerard Gilbert, i Newspaper, 21st June 2023There She Goes review
Jessica Hynes remains unforgettable in this paean to tough love.
Anita Singh, The Telegraph, 21st June 2023James Norton as a disabled jazz drummer? How Jerk's black humour is revolutionising comedy
The deliciously dark comedy about a man with cerebral palsy is back - and now, celebs are lining up to star in it ... and to make you squirm like never before.
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 14th March 2023Review: Jerk, BBC Three
We won't give too much more away, but let's just add that Renkow and co-writer Shaun Pye go to places you wouldn't expect a sitcom to go to.
Beyond The Joke, 14th March 2023There She Goes returning for hour-long special on BBC Two
There She Goes is returning to BBC Two for an extended special. David Tennant, Jessica Hynes, Edan Hayhurst and Miley Locke are all returning for the hour-long episode, focused on Rosie's increasingly wild behaviour as she struggles to comprehend puberty.
British Comedy Guide, 16th January 2023Jerk to return for Series 3
Jerk, the BBC Three sitcom starring Tim Renkow, is to return for a six-part third series.
British Comedy Guide, 11th May 2022Last week saw the return of another, quite different disability-centred show: Jerk, the four-part, UK-based BBC black comedy in which Tim (US comedian Tim Renkow, who has cerebral palsy) relishes exploiting his disability.
Co-created with Shaun Pye (whose other disability comedy, There She Goes, stars David Tennant and Jessica Hynes) and Stu Richards, the second series opened with the return of the previously deported Tim, clanking his walker through UK customs, jeering: "It's so easy to get into this country." After reuniting with his uncaring care worker, Ruth (Sharon Rooney), and uncool friend Idris (Rob Madin), Tim goes to college and starts identifying as able-bodied, to the scorn of Ruth: "If you really are able-bodied, you have no excuse for that smell."
If anything, Jerk has sharpened up from the first series, conjuring wickedly unsentimental commentaries on disability and public hypocrisy worthy of Larry David: Tim frightening children; Tim being "exorcised" by an evangelical preacher. As Tim's mum, Lorraine Bracco (yes, that Lorraine Bracco from Goodfellas and The Sopranos) once again steals scenes with throwaway caustic asides: "Don't be getting anyone pregnant, OK, because they'll come out like you." Far from being "message-comedy", Jerk smashes and subverts disability taboos just for the sheer hell of it.
Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 8th August 2021TV Review: Jerk, BBC Three/BBC One
I don't think I'd want to be friends with the main character Tim in Jerk.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 5th August 2021Jerk, BBC One, review
It's hard not to admire Tim Renkow's commitment to being as dark as possible as Tim, a man with cerebral palsy who also happens to be a cynical narcissist.
Ed Power, i Newspaper, 2nd August 2021