Simon Amstell

A family affair: How to make a UK Curb Your Enthuusiasm

Can you make a British Curb Your Enthusiasm? Simon Amstell tells James Rampton how he and co-writer Dan Swimer may have pulled it off.

If you know Simon Amstell, it's probably from his fine work as the host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He was brilliant at it - fizzing with cruel jibes at the expense of guests. Then he decided to do something else. That something else turns out to be this, a sitcom in which Amstell's character has to cope with his Essex family's disappointment when he gives up his popular TV show. Yes, we're in self-referential territory here. "You can't act, can you?" splutters his indignant mother, played by Rebecca Front. "Anyway, you've got a skill already - taking the p*** out of pop stars." Front is on great form playing what could be a stock character, the oppressive Jewish mother, and there are flashes of something special in the petty domestic exchanges. It takes a while to get on the show's wavelength but, on the evidence here, it looks like being well worth it.

Simon Amstell's odd, self-referential sitcom begins with him telling his family he's thinking about leaving Never Mind the Buzzcocks, before settling into close, uneasy observational humour. Rebecca Front as his mum and Jamal Hadjkura as his nephew are excellent; Amstell, though, takes a while to settle into his stride. But once the set-up is established, it grows in confidence, and next week's episode suggests it's an oddity worth sticking with.

There are some great lines in this new comedy, even if the main character is wrapped up in such a thick cocoon of self-referential irony that it is impossible to tell whether he is meant to be endearing, or an obnoxious twit, or both.

The award-winning Simon Amstell, who co-wrote the script as well as playing the lead, is pretty much himself: an acerbic TV presenter in search of something more meaningful, such as love, or Buddhism, or a new haircut. This causes shrieks of outrage among the female relations who gather in his grandparents' ornament-cluttered suburban semi with nothing more exciting to do than watch him being rude to pop stars on television (as the real Amstell used to do on Never Mind the Buzzcocks). Simon can be both knowingly funny, and amusingly clueless: when his grandfather says he has cancer, Simon gabbles "What should I do? Should I hug you?" and "That was my concerned voice. Did you like it?"

This ambiguity makes him difficult to warm to as a comic creation, and he may need to become more coherent to make the six-part series really sing. In the meantime, there are typically well-pitched performances from The Thick of It's Rebecca Front, who plays Simon's dotty mother, Tanya, and James Smith, who takes on the role of her odious suitor Clive - complete with smarmy anecdotes and an inexcusably high waistband.

When Simon Amstell stepped down as host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, it was a black day for the noble art of taking the mickey out of pop stars - and guests. What, we all wondered, would he do next?

This is it - a sitcom in which Simon plays a character named Simon who is about to break the news to his family that he has decided to give up his TV job of taking the mickey out of pop stars.

Except nobody says mickey, of course: they're allowed to use much, much stronger language on BBC2 than I ever could in a family newspaper.

If this format sounds like it's in serious danger of disappearing up its own backside, don't forget that two of the greatest sitcoms ever made, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, also featured Jewish comedians - Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David - playing versions of themselves. And it didn't exactly do them any harm.

Rebecca Front plays his mum, Linda Bassett his grandma and Geoffrey Hutchings is his grandad. And the fly in the ointment of this happy family is mum's new boyfriend Clive (James Smith) - an easy target for Amstell's barbed humour.

How closely this set-up mirror's Simon's own family is something we can only guess at as we admire his grandma's comfortable living room which is all G Plan furniture and ironic splashes of kitsch.

It's not as caustic as Buzzcocks but it's a grower.

Amstell's in the House

Simon Amstell's mum might be cross to see that he hasn't eaten his greens. Instead, he's left them in a neat pile at the side of his plate and, as I walk in to meet him, he greets me saying: "Hello! Would you like some spinach? Or a mushroom?"

Meet my Grandma's House co-writer, Simon Amstell

Former Popworld and Buzzcocks presenter's new sitcom stars a fictionalised Simon Amstell. But it's nothing like Curb Your Enthusiasm, no way, says co-creator Dan Swimer.

A quick chat with Simon Amstell

Former Never Mind the Buzzcocks presenter Simon Amstell takes a swipe at himself - and his north London Jewish family.

Simon Amstell interview

Presenter and comic Simon Amstell writes and stars as a version of himself in his sitcom Grandma's House...