Shelley Conn

Good Omens Series 2 review

It became evidently clear following the release of Series 1 that Good Omens was one for the fans and their support gave the show life.

Good Omens Series 2 review

A comfy slice of supernatural romance, comedy, and intrigue.

Good Omens Series 2: new characters and cast photos revealed, release date teased

Good Omens returns in summer 2023 and will introduce new characters, some with familiar faces.

Jon Hamm returns as Archangel Gabriel in Good Omens 2

Jon Hamm will be returning as the Archangel Gabriel in the Prime Video series Good Omens 2, currently in production in Scotland. Gabriel will be aided and abetted by the Angels Michael, played by returning cast member Doon Mackichan, and Uriel, played by the previously announced Gloria Obianyo. They will be joined by new angels, Saraqael, played by Liz Carr, and Muriel, played by Quelin Sepulveda. Another key character from Hell this season will be played by Shelley Conn.

Love Sarah, review

A comedy so desperate to seem progressive that it ends up a Brexiteer.

Sara's very loud, very angry French ex turns up uninvited and colonises the living room where she melodramatically writhes around on the floor. It's a madly over-the-top, heavily accented turn from the estimable Raquel Cassidy (Jack Dee's long-suffering wife in Lead Balloon).

Meanwhile, Sara (Sue Perkins, also the writer) tries to pluck up the courage to ask out the lovely Eve (Shelley Conn). It's fun and sweet-natured and there's great support from Nicola Walker and Dominic Coleman as Sara's friends, dim Justine and precious Jamie.

It's the midpoint of this endearing sex comedy, and romantically inhibited vet Sara (Sue Perkins) still hasn't nerved herself to ask beautiful dog-owner Eve (Shelley Conn) out - and Eve's labrador has finally run out of ailments for her to treat. Even worse, Sara's French ex, Sabine (Raquel Cassidy) has turned up, and is making extremely Gallic scenes (filmed by director Natalie Bailey in moody monochrome). Don't miss Perkins's rendering of the words "susceptibilité puerile!"

Sue Perkins has almost qualified for that most exclusive of private members' clubs, The Uncriticisables, with her turns on those state-of-nation cookery shows that I don't watch. Heading Out, though, is the sort of thing that could get her ­suspended or - any more of that lesbian netball - banned.

Nothing against lesbian netball, you understand, but the silly scene down at the community centre during the middle of a game which turned into a, ahem, musical interlude looked like it belonged in a comedy from 1973 (vintage year, by the way). Come to think of it, the concept of a 40-year-old woman who cannot bring herself to tell her parents she's gay seems out of date as well. But then, what do I know?

Possibly I was hoping for a sitcom that was a bit more edgy, a bit more American. But we are who we are: we're British and we do silly, the comedy of embarrassment. Perkins' Sara is like ­Miranda in sensible shoes, or more sensible shoes. That said, some of the embarrassment gags were quite funny. "I'm waiting for the colour of my face to dip from Sir Alex Ferguson to just a normal raspberry," said our heroine, who's a vet, although not a very good one - the type who'll forget that she's carrying a dead cat in her bag, indeed takes it to her birthday party. "Why is there a dead cat in your bag?" she was asked. "Oh, I like to swing it round rooms to see how big they are."

Actually, I liked that one too. Heading Out has got absolutely everyone in it - comedy dependables from The Thick Of It, Green Wing and Drop The Dead Donkey of fond memory, plus lovely Shelley Conn out of Mistresses - and maybe I'll stick with it. One shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Radio Times review

The central character of Heading Out was Sara, a 40-year-old vet, afraid of commitment and very afraid of telling her parents she is gay. Except it wasn't Sara up there, it was Sue Perkins. The wry rhythms, the crafted wit tempered by stuttering diffidence, the coy friendliness twinkling through that protective fringe: Sue Perkins.

So you might say, well, that doesn't work. We don't believe it's Sara. Unlike Grandma's House or Seinfeld or Ellen, the star isn't playing someone with their own name. Perkins isn't meant to be herself, but she inescapably is because we know her too well, in a way most actors cannily never allow.

The solution, in theory: cast someone else. But this wasn't an option, partly because Sara was totally Perkins in script as well as performance, but also because such a thin alter ego let our affection transfer easily. You like Sue Perkins? (Yes.) Then you'll like her playing a woman who looks and sounds the same.

Lose her presence and you'd lose the show's considerable charm, since the supporting cast were mostly struggling as caricatured oddballs: Dominic Coleman as a neat freak, Joanna Scanlan as a bellowy, hockey-sticks life coach hired by Sara's friends to help her come out fully, Mark Heap very Mark Heapy in a bit part as an officious pet-crematorium manager.

Nothing felt real, particularly the digression when Sara played netball and the opposition performed a fearsome dance routine before the game. "It seems to be some sort of inner-city, asthmatic Haka," said Sara, exactly as Perkins would in a documentary or panel show.

The Sara/Sue thing can't sustain Heading Out for long. Sara needs to stand on her own, even if it's through Perkins revealing parts of her own character that the fans haven't seen before, and the dialogue needs to sound a lot less like the carefully written words of a presenter. So it was pleasing to see a glint of this in episode one, when Sara met a potential love interest (Shelley Conn) in the park and ineptly chatted her up.

Viewers nervous about this being a "lesbian sitcom" were probably waiting for one of them to announce that they were gay, but nobody needed to because the writing and acting were nuanced and true. Sara and Sue were both out of their comfort zone - and rising to the challenge.