Steve Pemberton

Psychoville 2: Reece & Steve interview

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton - co-creators, writers and performers behind dark comedy classic Psychoville - talk about Series 2...

Heavyweight swinger Donald goes AWOL on the nudist beach, his wife Jacqueline causes a water-skiing accident, Gavin's partner Troy surfaces with dramatic news, and Madge launches her new bar, the Batley Arms Thus ends another ribald season at the Solana Resort. The show may have lost three key Geoffreys - Perkins (its original producer) and Hutchings (who played Mel) have both died, while mummy's boy Geoff (Johnny Vegas) was dropped last year - but the sun still shines on Benidorm. Around seven million viewers tune in every week for Derren Litten's award-winning, lovingly spun sitcom, which remains refreshingly unabashed at mining all things crass, crude and obvious. A superlative cast makes even the bum notes sing. And Steve Pemberton shows he doesn't need the togs and teeth of his Psychoville and League of Gentlemen grotesques to create a great character. Trunks, lobster tan and a patina of sweat and he's ready to go.

The second episode of this saucy seaside comedy delivers more innuendo-laden material. Tonight, layabout husband Mick (Steve Pemberton) finds himself squabbling with uptight newcomer Pauline (Selina Griffiths), but their fights seem to end up with them in accidental sexual positions, much to the fury of Mick's wife Janice (Siobhan Finneran). That's about as sophisticated as it gets. The series boasts a raft of talented actors, including Tony Maudsley and Tim Healy, but relies for titters on jokes about gastric upset and the double meaning of "balls", which are about as funny as sunstroke.

With brassy characters, outlandish storylines and a sun-drenched setting, it's easy to see why Derren Litten's comedy drama has become so popular. It's back for a fourth series, although it's starting to lose its sparkle. New holidaymakers include portly hairdresser Kenneth (Tony Maudsley) and party girls Sam and Natalie (Shelley Longworth and Kathryn Drysdale). Meanwhile Solana stalwarts the Garveys (Steve Pemberton and Siobhan Finneran) return to track down a beleaguered Madge (Shelia Reid).

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In tonight's double bill from 2008, vinegary gran Madge (Sheila Reid) meets her match in hard nut Sylvia - Wendy Richard in her first role after EastEnders. Their High Noon face-off around the pool in cowgirl hats and mobility scooters is a comedy classic. Meanwhile, the overweight swingers have managed to break a second bed at the Solana Resort, despite not "really going at it" and Jacqueline (saucy Janine Duvitski) keeping "one leg on the vanity unit". Benidorm benefits from a terrific ensemble, but tonight's second episode belongs to Siobhan Finneran - on another planet from her wicked soap-dropping O'Brien in Downton Abbey. As put-upon mum Janice, she's astonished by the advances of a randy Jack the lad, then stuns everyone by serenading oafish hubby Mick (Steve Pemberton) with Dead Ringer for Love at the karaoke. Like a post-watershed Corrie meets Carry On Abroad, Benidorm's hilarious sun-drenched bawdry is the perfect antidote to January blues.

Derren Litten's Costa comedy is, as you'd hope, growing old gracelessly. At its heart is still the crabby marriage of Mick (Steve Pemberton) and Janice (Siobhan Finneran) as they take their umpteenth break in the Spanish sun, although these days Janice's mean-spirited mum is married to local mobility-scooter king, Mel, and hanging out at his lavish villa in a Jacuzzi. Mel was played by Geoffrey Hutchings, who died earlier this year, but this one-off finds a touching way to deal with his passing. As farcical storylines collide, a sad tale bubbles away off-screen.

Having always been immune to those Halloween episodes so beloved of US sitcoms - they always turn out to be rubbish, even if it's Family Guy - I approached Psychoville's Halloween Special with a certain air of trepidation. But this turned out to be a psycho marriage made in heaven.

Upholding the proud horror tradition of the portmanteau spine-chiller - separate tales only loosely interlocked at the edges - this Psychoville special played as both a sophisticated trailer for the much-anticipated second series and as a pumpkin-packin' thriller in its own right, perfectly timed to give every childish tap on the door an extra edge of menace.

Featuring the juicily demented star characters from the first run of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's macabre comedy, including the bonkers midwife and the mother and son who are way too close for comfort, the show oozed black humour like treacle with a set-up that delighted in ripping the mickey out of Most Haunted while putting the willies up you with the image of Dale Winton hosting such spooky shenanigans.

Electric shocks and dead babies abounded in a classy treat that had plenty of tricks up its sleeve, not least getting the balance between horror and comedy pretty much spot on. It confirmed Psychoville as a worthy successor to The League Of Gentlemen and you can't say fairer than that.

It's Halloween tonight. And that means you'll be hoping to go to bed spooked and on edge, creepily conscious of every door-creak and curtain-rustle. On that front it'll be hard to beat this special instalment of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's sick comedy horror show. As always, it stirs up a witches' brew of gross characters and hilariously horrible plot details that make it unlike anything else on TV - except the darker urges of The League of Gentlemen given free rein. To give you the flavour of it, early on, a child exploring a dilapidated psychiatric hospital stumbles on an old tobacco tin and discovers, inside, a severed human tongue... Fans of the first series (a second is on the way) will be shivering with pleasure; newcomers can expect unusually vivid nightmares.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton return with a portmanteau offering. Framing the stories, we watch as a location manager on a Most Haunted-style show inspects the dilapidation of Ravenhill Psychiatric Hospital. This is spooky enough in itself, but not nearly so nasty as dark tales starring the likes of Mr Jelly, Joy and David. In context, the script has to work harder than usual to provide light relief. Which it does. Lomax offers a lady customer a fiver for some soft toys: "And that's only because I'm curious about your Bagpuss."