Victoria Pile

How we made: Green Wing

'Filming in a hospital was hell. We shot scenes in the recovery area, surrounded by patients coming round from their operations'

I was slightly hopeful going into The Delivery Man primarily as director Victoria Pile created Green Wing whilst writers Robert Harley and James Henry also worked on the classic Channel 4 sitcom. Unfortunately, The Delivery Man has none of the surreal wit or classic characters of Green Wing and instead feels like it's been lifted from the 1970s. The central premise of The Delivery Man sees another Green Wing veteran in Darren Boyd play Matthew, a newly qualified midwife attempting to navigate his way through a female-dominated environment. I think I would've had more time for The Delivery Man if Matthew had proved his female colleagues wrong by proving himself to be a valuable member of the team and changing their expectations of him. But instead he was presented as a bumbling fool who was constantly lying to his patients, their families and the rest of the hospital staff whilst struggling with the simplest of tasks. Whilst watching The Delivery Man I kept wondering what would've happened if their was a sitcom about a bumbling woman entering a male-dominated environment and doing a really bad job. I personally think there would be a general outcry but nobody appeared to bat an eyelid when that was the central joke of the piece. A potential romance between Matthew and fellow midwife Lisa (Aisling Bea) already has little interest whilst the supporting characters all feel a little one-dimensional. This is a shame when the cast includes such heavyweights as Alex MacQueen and Fay Ripley, the latter of whom at least tried her best as well-meaning senior midwife Caitlin. The biggest problem though was that The Delivery Man didn't provoke a sufficient amount of laughter from yours truly. In fact the only real laugh I had was during a joke about Claire's Accessories whilst a scene involving a birthing pool also raised a brief titter. Ultimately I was disappointed with a programme that felt like it had been severely watered down by ITV who seem to favour the sort of broad humour which The Delivery Man had in droves.

Possibly UK television's first sitcom set in an obstetrics and gynaecology ward, this comes from Green Wing creator Victoria Pile. Darren Boyd stars as Matthew, the sole male midwife at a busy maternity ward. Despite his presence ruffling a few traditionalist feathers, Matthew's chipper demeanour remains unchiselled. A situation certainly fit to deliver, though when an "overweight woman isn't pregnant after all" clunker lands within minutes, enthusiasm may well be curbed. On the plus side, Alex Macqueen impresses as icy obstetrician Luke.

Chris Morris's scathing satire Brass Eye, Jessica Hynes and Simon Pegg's brilliantly offbeat Spaced, Victoria Pile's gloriously surreal Green Wing - Channel 4, it's fair to say, has reeled out a number of memorable comedies since it launched in 1982. Part of C4's Funny Fortnight, this lively two-hour programme counts down its top 30, as voted for by readers of the station's website. "Rude, radical, and irreverent, over the last 30 years Channel 4 comedy has taken us on one hell of a ride," intones the narrator, with no shortage of hyperbole. Though the tone, of course, is self-congratulatory, there's still plenty to enjoy here, not least the terrific archived footage, which reminds you why these show's have such an enduring appeal. Interspersed with these clips are hilarious insights from an impressive array of talking heads: among them, Tamsin Greig, Sally Phillips, Al Murray, Charlie Higson, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, who says about Spaced: "When I think about all the things I've done, that was the most intense, the most fun, the thing I'm most proud of." One caveat: how did a show as derivative as Star Stories make it on to the list?

Radio Times review

Joseph Millson's role in Campus catered for a particular audience. As English professor Matt Beer in Victoria Pile's comedy, he started out a womanising layabout and ended up... well, a more sensitive layabout. Millson speaks enthusiastically of a rehearsal and improvisation process that enabled the close-knit cast to have more creative input than normal on a TV project.

Sadly, a second series was not to be - "which is very confusing because it was commissioned - it was written, I believe - and then at the 11th hour dropped by Channel 4.

"I've got my own theory, I don't care if I get sued for it - I think it's because the very wonderful series called Fresh Meat was slated at a similar time, and they probably didn't want two university comedies. Although I think they would have complemented each other brilliantly."

Interview: Victoria Pile (Writer and Creator)

An exclusive interview with Victoria Pile about Campus.

Commerce, Art, Humour, Humanity: all abstracts which Campus assiduously avoids in its mission to become the year's most surprising televisual misfire. Surprising, because this series set around the infantile faculty of a red-brick uni is the baby of Victoria Pile, the creator of the joyous hospital sitcom Green Wing. More surprising, still, because it pretty much replicates its predecessor's entire comedic set-up, from the general mood of institutional chaos to the surreal inter-scene interludes and the central, love-hate flirtation between a scatty neurotic and a smug wannabe lothario.

So where did it go wrong? Probably when Pile became possessed by the spirit of a 16-year-old Frankie Boyle acolyte. For where in Green Wing the sardonicism was lightly sprinkled, this slimes you with an industrial-sized vat of bile. In last week's opener, jokes, in no memorable order, involved: disabled people with "mongy" faces, the word vagina, foreigners talking funny, the word vagina, desperate fat women, women wearing no pants, and the word vagina. That many of these emanated, under the cloak of irony, from as blatant a David Brent rip-off as Andy Nyman's Vice Chancellor only added insult to injury. Might it improve? For many viewers, I suspect, that question is entirely academic.

The first of 2009's batch of Comedy Showcase pilots to get the green-light for a full series, this has been extended to an hour with a lot of the old gags kept in and new ones added.

Produced and directed by Victoria Pile, Campus is basically Green Wing set in a university - minus almost all of that series' charm.

While Green Wing started with likeable characters from which the zaniness developed naturally, here the equation seems to have been turned on its head with zany as the start and end point.

Leading the cast is Andy Nyman as Vice-Chancellor Jonty - a racist, sexist, magical ­combination of David Brent, Sue Sylvester and Dr Evil with hair that resembles an exotic pastry.

Lisa Jackson plays maths geek Imogen Moffat and Joseph Millson is self-appointed English lecturer/sex-god Matt Beer.

It is the work of eight writers and a condition of employment seems to have been that they each had to use the word "vagina" at least once. It's funny, but Needs To Not Try So Hard.

Well, this could be either fantastic or awful. We're rather big fans of Green Wing over here at Tube Talk, so Campus certainly has a good pedigree - it's by the same writer, Victoria Pile. The comedy all takes place at Kirke University, with Andy Nyman playing the college's vice-chancellor Jonty de Wolfe. One thing's for certain - it's going to be very, very weird. It'll probably be a love it or hate it thing, but if Green Wing's anything to go by, it might be worth giving it a couple of episodes to see if it clicks.

Interview: Andy Nyman ('Campus')

Channel 4's new surreal comedy series Campus has plenty to live up to as many are already tipping the university-based sitcom to be the next Green Wing. Helmed by Victoria Pile (Smack The Pony, Green Wing), the show is a definite relation to the madcap hospital series. We caught up with the programme's leading man, Ghost Stories co-creator Andy Nyman, to find out more about the show.