Vicki Pepperdine

Radio Times review

No howling laughs, but Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine's gentle comedy nuzzles up and wins you over like a doe-eyed mutt. As their teenage offspring get closer, do-gooder Naomi (Pepperdine) gets the upper hand with dog trainer Nana V (Scanlan), but a confidence-building day for pups soon puts paid to that.

Meanwhile, Naomi is beset by an unhinged neighbour, Heaven Jones (superb Margi Clarke), and V flannels her lardy ex's nether regions. Everyone is terribly obliging in this show.

One sitcom that we at The Custard TV have been passionate about over the past few years was BBC4 nursing comedy Getting On. So the fact that two of its writers and stars, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan, have reunited for another BBC Four show was cause for excitement among several members of the website team.

Whilst Getting On was all about gentle comedy, similar in a way to BBC4's recent hit Detectorists, Pepperdine and Scanlan's new offering Puppy Love is a lot broader. The fact that one of the first episode's recurring jokes is a dog that likes to eat his own poo tells you just how broad the humour is. But that's not to say that Puppy Love doesn't have as much charm as Getting On, with Pepperdine and Scanlan still having the awkward chemistry that they shared in their previous hospital sitcom.

The main focus of the sitcom is Nana V (Scanlan); a notorious dog trainer who runs her own school and also aids the police in capturing strays. As a carer for her grandson, Nana V eventually comes into contact with the straight-laced Naomi (Pepperdine); a youth worker with an unruly pooch of her own. Naomi eventually signs up for Nana V's class but almost instantly clashes with the uncouth trainer particularly due to their shared affection for widower Alexander (Tobias Menzies). I felt that, as performers, Pepperdine and Scanlan played to their strengths with the former playing a stickler for the rules and the latter portraying a more free-and-easy character.

Their scenes together are definitely where Puppy Love is at its best and this is partly because a lot of the minor characters are underwritten.

Whilst it probably won't top the brilliance of the aforementioned Getting On, Puppy Love is still a promising comedy that provides a sufficient amount of laughs thanks mainly to the efforts of its two leading actresses.

From the geriatric ward to the life of the dog trainer - that's the leap attempted here by Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan, writers and stars of the fine Getting On. This sitcom introduces us to Scanlan's penurious dog trainer, Nana V, and Pepperdine's bureaucrat Mrs Singh, and watches their worlds collide. Tobias Menzies is the recently widowed owner of a misbehaving king charles cross, but with the main jokes deriving from his animal's fondness for eating faeces, this may struggle to match the team's high standards.

Radio Times review

This is a joy. Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine's follow-up to their BBC Four hospital comedy Getting On centres on a dog-training class in the Wirral. Scanlan plays power-tripping dog-handler Nana V with the company slogan "For all your dogging needs". She takes a shine to widower Alexander (Tobias Menzies) whose fluffy king poo is a "muck muncher". Her rival for his attentions is Naomi (Pepperdine), a harassed charity worker with an uncontrollable lab and a wayward teenage daughter.

A gentle comedy with superb character studies and several laugh-out-loud moments.

Puppy Love review

Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine's latest collaboration was ridiculous but sympathetic.

Video: Joanna Scanlan & Vicki Pepperdine on Puppy Love

A new television sitcom is breaking the taboo of working with animals.

Puppy Love, which begins on BBC Four on 13 November, is based around canine obedience classes.

Writers and stars Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine spoke to BBC Breakfast about why they wanted real dog owners and their untrained pets to appear in the programme.

Pepperdine & Scanlan turn to the world of dog training

By following their cult NHS satire Getting On with a canine sitcom that doesn't do cute, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan are proving they roll over for no one.

Radio Times review

St Saviour's Church is under threat as we return to east London and the pastoral care of the Rev Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander), who's now dad to a sweet baby daughter. As he changes nappies, the new Area Dean and Diocesan Secretary (Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine) drop dark hints of closure.

There aren't any belly laughs in Rev., but that doesn't matter as there are plenty of smiles, because it's that rarity, a good-hearted sitcom without guile or meanness. Adam is a genial pragmatist (except when it comes to fixing the church's dangerously faulty wiring), devout, of course, but without any of that off-putting zeal. He wants to improve his community's grim children's playground and launches a fundraising campaign with the local imam (Fonejacker Kayvan Novak).

All of Rev's great characters are back, notably the terrifying Archdeacon (Simon McBurney) and the decrepit Colin (Steve Evets).

Back (at last) for a third series, Tom Hollander's beleaguered cleric Adam Smallbone and wife Alex (Olivia Colman) are now the parents of a baby daughter, but the finances of St Saviour's are still threadbare. Enter two welcome additions - played by Getting On's Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine - an area dean and diocesan secretary intent on shutting down Adam's church. Can an ecumenical church fête, shared by the go-ahead imam of a nearby mosque (and played by Kayvan Novak) save the day?

Series 3 gets off to a quite unforgettable start tonight as we witness the sudden birth of Adam and Alex's baby daughter in the back of a black cab. But what will burn this scene forever into your memory is the unlikely member of the cast who has the honour of acting as midwife.

Fast forward several months and while Adoha and Colin (Ellen Thomas and Steve Evets) are both desperate to be godparents to baby Katie there's a much less welcome arrival in the shape of two church officials.

The new area dean and diocesan secretary (the great double act of Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine) will put the future of St Saviour's in doubt. Adam (Tom Hollander) has to go all out to convince them that his church is thriving, even if it struggles to achieve even a tenth of the turnout of the nearby mosque. So he teams up with the local imam (Fonejacker's Kayvan Novak) to raise funds to pay for a children's playground.

Apart from that terrific opening set piece, Rev isn't a comedy that tends to go in for grand gestures, preferring instead for the humour to bubble up gently from the depth of its wildly assorted characters ranging from Archdeacon Robert (Simon McBurney) at the top all the way down to Mick (Jimmy Akingbola).