Stephen Mangan

Episodes shouldn't, perhaps, work. The tale of a husband-wife writing team (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who are persuaded, with a refreshing lack of reluctance, to sell out and take their fictionally Bafta-winning (and very British) comedy to Hollywood, thence to have it "made over" with gleeful disregard for such restrictive critical concerns as, for instance, taste - is surely too close to the experiences of many homegrown authors and film-makers for the memories to be anything other than vile at best. The Greig/Mangan original comedy, for instance, fictionally starred Richard Griffiths as a tweedy teacher in his twilight: transposed, the writers are both starstruck and horrified to find the grinsome Matt LeBlanc, Joey from Friends, in his place.

But it does work - and how. Partly through the subtlety of the writing, by Jeffrey Klarik and his partner David Crane, also of Friends fame: Friends, of course, wasn't written with British audiences in mind, but might as well have been, and its appreciation of "our" sense of humour (and our preconceptions about how the Americans could never quite "do" it) meant it became a crossover dream. As Episodes is now proving: it's been garnering much critical praise over there. Partly, too, thanks to the chemistry between Greig, Mangan and Matt LeBlanc, who's playing a lightly fictionalised version of "Matt LeBlanc" - kindly, vainglorious, deeply shallow to the extent that he has drunkenly invited his crazed stalker into his bed.

And one of the simple delights lies in seeing how far Tamsin Greig has come, from stoic work as Debbie Aldridge in The Archers, to a revelatory gift for comedy as Fran in the sublime Black Books, to - ta-dah! - sunny La-La-Land: Toto, we're not in Ambridge any more. This is just telly that makes you smile. Incidentally, one of the gags involves Matt, arrested on a borderline DUI charge, to be met with a beaming desk-sergeant who proudly boasts that his sister was nurse No 4 or something in one Friends episode. Matt does his winning best to pretend to remember her. (He's still booked.) On Good Morning Britain the other day, Matt popped up, only to have Ben Shephard remind him that he, Ben, had once "played" an interviewer in one Friends episode. Matt did his winning best to pretend to remember him. A trouper.

Q&A: Stephen Mangan

Stephen Mangan, 41, was born in London. He studied law at Cambridge, then went to Rada.

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.

Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan interview

"A fair bit of it is exaggerated so that we can all still go and get a job afterwards," says Matt LeBlanc.

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.