Stephen Mangan

Radio Times review

The dramedy about how the sanity of two sensible Brits wilts in the Hollywood sun returns for a third series. Episodes' performances - including Matt LeBlanc playing himself as a monstrous man-child - are always a joy, even if the writing sometimes feels as if it relies too much on them, and not enough on actual, er, funny lines.

In this series opener, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig work wonders with scenes that might have looked a bit thin on paper. Their characters Sean and Beverly are back together (after the bed-hopping LeBlanc ruined things for a while) and back in love.

Meanwhile, fired network boss Merc is yelling at Matt through his bedroom window, hoping to reclaim his wife from Matt's clutches - too late. But the episode mainly centres on Carol, who has been promised Merc's job. Can she keep that a secret?

Interview: Matt LeBlanc's porn prank on Tamsin Greig

We found that out during a recent press Q&A with Matt and his Episodes co-stars Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan - who play the roles of writers and married couple Beverly and Sean Lincoln - when Matt was asked if he'd played any pranks on them.

Tamsin Grieg had a really bizarre scene to act out in the latest series of BBC Two comedy Episodes.

When her character Beverly Lincoln and husband Sean (Stephen Mangan) visit a Los Angeles sex therapist, Bev's told to imagine what a certain part of her body might speak to Sean like....

"Yes my vagina gets to talk!" laughed Tamsin, when she recently spoke to What's On TV about the third series of Episodes. "The Sex Therapist says to Bev: 'If your vagina could talk, what would it say to Sean?' And Bev replies: 'If my vagina could talk we'd be having a whole different set of problems...'

"When Beverley finally turns to Sean and talks to him as her vagina, it's in a deep Yoda-like voice from Star Wars. It was difficult to keep a serious face.

"When I first read the script, I thought: "That's not how my vagina talks! My vagina would never say that!" The depths of depravity that you can reach really are self-inspired.'

LeBlanc, Greig & Mangan on giggling during Episodes

Keeping a straight face appears to be the biggest challenge facing Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan as they shoot their hit TV comedy Episodes.

Stephen Mangan: 'Episodes could go on and on'

Stephen Mangan has said that Episodes could go "on and on" as the writing gets richer with every series.

Mark Heap & Robert Webb take over Jeeves and Wooster

Green Wing and Peep Show stars will replace Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen in Perfect Nonsense from April.

Episodes series three: Stephen Mangan Q&A

During a break before his evening performance in Jeeves and Wooster on the London stage recently, British actor and funnyman Stephen spoke to AccessHollywood.com about what fans can expect when Season 3 of Episodes kicks off tonight at 10:30 PM ET/PT on the American Showtime network.

The spirits are high but the japes are deliciously low-down and dirty as Rob Brydon twinkles with seasonal cheer for this Christmas helping of tall tales. Did Stephen Mangan's Bedlington Terrier get its name by wagging its tail at the gravestone of a man called John Samuels? Lee Mack tries to dig up the truth, alongside Barry Cryer and Miles Jupp, while Mangan's partners in guile are David Mitchell and Miranda Hart.

"This is my cape," proclaims David Mitchell - words we've always wanted to hear him say. "I used to put it on to pretend I was Doctor Who and head into my Tardis, or as my parents called it, the airing cupboard."

Ahh, it's all too believeable, the kind of absurd but just-plausible-enough claim this series loves to tease us with. Equally tricky: does Miranda Hart begin every Christmas Day with a cigar in bed? Did Stephen Mangan name his puppy after a gravestone?

As usual, the panellists' festive fibs are great excuses for repartee, cross-examination and stories with more embroidery than a Downton dressing gown. But it's beautifully, stupidly funny, not least because everybody looks like they're having such a blast, so we do too.

Final chapters from a series that has been less Jackanory for adults, more finding your TV tuned to audio description mode during a genial Tales Of The Unexpected reboot. Before the big book is placed back into the bookcase, there's time for Hugh Dennis to tell the tale of Jack, a superhero juggling his day job at a care home with the marginally more exciting world of cat rescue. Then, Stephen Mangan reads the story of a former activist rediscovering his idealistic edge when confronted with a chicken-chomping despot.