Tim Renkow

Transcript: this disabled comedian is a Jerk

This is a full transcript of "This disabled comedian is a Jerk" as first broadcast on 15 March 2019 and presented by Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty.

Fleabag isn't the only boundary-pushing BBC comedy

Fleabag's brilliant season-two premiere rightly got everyone talking, but it was followed by something equally as bold.

Jerk review

It's fairly dark comedy but also extremely likeable, and Renkow makes for a great lead as though it can't be denied that his character can be a bit of jerk (and he clearly wouldn't want anyone to think differently), his perspective on existence is nearly always enormously funny.

Tim Renkow: the shameless star of sitcom Jerk

Tim Renkow talks about the joys of making people feel awkward, how to spot a pity laugh - and why he had to give bad etiquette lessons to Sopranos shrink Lorraine Bracco.

In episode one, he [Tim] lands a job at a greetings card company and - suspecting he only has it because he ticks the correct victimhood boxes - he behaves appallingly, as though he were a superhero whose special power is that he is completely unsackable.

Renkow is likeable, the set-up is distinctive, and there are more than enough funny moments to keep you watching. Even so, I wish it had pushed its satirical takedown of our victimhood culture - what the US black conservative activist Candace Owens calls the 'oppression Olympics' - a bit more mercilessly. As it is, you do feel at times as though it's not a show designed to be watched on its merits, but rather as a state-approved lesson in how to empathise with the marginalised.

Review: Jerk, BBC Three

BBC Three has come up with a pocket-sized gem in Jerk. Following a one-off pilot in 2016, this is only a four-part series but there's a surprisingly pleasing arc to it as we go from squirming at the main character Tim's behaviour to cheering him on at the end. As they say, we laugh and we learn.

TV comedy Jerk review

Tim Renkow has created a Larry David for a new generation.

I talk to Tim Renkow

BBC Three's latest sitcom Jerk is co-written by and stars US comedian Tim Renkow as Tim, a man who's wrongly judged and a bit of an asshole.

Tim Renkow interview

'You people are fun'

Lost Voice Guy's win a watershed moment for disability?

On Sunday evening, Britain's Got Talent drew to a close and this year's winner was crowned. Nothing unusual there. But Lost Voice Guy's victory wasn't just notable because he was the first comedian to win in the show's history - but also because he has cerebral palsy. Furthermore, the runner-up, another comedian named Robert White, has Asperger syndrome.