Everyone Quite Likes Justin

Stand-up comedian Justin Moorhouse has worked as a DJ on a local station and it really shows in this spot-on observational sitcom. It's like Alan Partridge with a sprinkling of self-awareness and the youthful cast are blessed with the presence of Anne Reid as Justin's borderline spiteful nan.

Following on from a successful pilot last year, Justin Moorhouse returns in this sitcom playing an alternative version of himself, as a Manchester radio DJ recovering from a messy divorce.

This was a rather enjoyable half-hour, which began and closed with Justin talking to his mother (Anne Reid), who was horrified about Justin bringing him ginger nuts rather than Duchy Originals, and who has an attraction towards men with moustaches, including Bob Carolgees and Adolf Hitler.

The main plot of the first episode was Justin having to attend a gathering of parents at a restaurant with his ex-wife Tanya (Sally Lindsay) to try and get their son into a Catholic school, while at the same time going on a date with new love interest Lisa (Katherine Kelly) in the same restaurant.

The main lynchpin of comedy in this episode was the headmaster of the Catholic school, an Irish priest who was very traditional in his views. For example, he's against divorce, so Justin and Tanya have to pretend to be married. Now, the other week I came across an article on The Guardian's website from a man complaining that comedians are lazy when making jokes about religion. In terms of this show - while it is a bit lazy for making the Catholic priest Irish - there was no mention of paedophilia at all, and only one mention of homophobia.

Also, speaking as someone who went to Catholic school, I know that most Catholic priests are decent, well meaning people. R.E. teachers, on the other hand, are despicable monsters who still give me nightmares, and speaking from my own experiences are not exactly fair and balanced when covering certain topics. (The day when the pro-life campaigners came to our class and presented a slide show featuring graphic pictures of aborted foetuses springs to mind). This has nothing really to do with reviewing this show; it's just something I've always wanted to get off my chest.

Anyway, getting back to the main point, I think that Everyone Quite Likes Justin is worthwhile and entertaining sitcom which fully deserves the series that it has been given. Let's see what Moorhouse has to offer us as the series progresses.

Everybody Quite Likes Justin, the sitcom featuring comedian Justin Moorhouse, has returned to Radio 4. The original pilot, about a DJ whose life is falling apart, took too long ensuring that the audience knew what was going on, but this episode was great: quicker, livelier and a proper gag-fest, with most of the lines poking fun at Justin. He was accused of using "a soft voice" when he talked to a girl he liked. "What soft voice?" he said, in a soft voice. "People will think she's your carer!" was the retort, which made me, and the audience, really laugh.

Radio review: Everyone Quite Likes Justin

There's a satisfyingly high gag hit-rate for this new comedy about a radio presenter.

Anne Reid, Paul Copley and Justin Moorhouse star in this new four-part sitcom by Moorhouse and Jim Poyser. Justin Moorhouse, naturally, plays Justin the successful, famous and outwardly upbeat Manchester DJ whose real life reflects a greyer reality. His mother is cranky, old and in a home. His wife has left him, taking their eight-year-old son and setting the lawyers on him. So he's back on the market. And so is his house. That's why he's living in his father-in-law's spare bedroom in Bury. The studio audience laughs loud, long and often.

Everyone Quite Likes Justin starred Justin Moorhouse as Justin, a DJ still living in his ex-father-in-law's spare room 18 months after he said it would only be for a couple of nights. Justin walks around with no pants on, likes pizza and is given to sardonic Northern reflection. In comparison to Angelos Epithemiou he is, however, Plato.

Unfortunately, much of the show felt set up, with Moorhouse monologuing and the rest of the cast a little stilted. Personally, I'd just let them crash straight in, rather than having to explain all the time.

Another promising sitcom on Radio 4 this week was Everyone Quite Likes Justin which, in Larry David style, pitched the Manchester comedian-turned-radio-DJ Justin Moorehouse as a Manchester radio DJ who's a bit of a comedian. Comparing women to football teams ("slim hope of getting into the playoffs - Sheffield United or Ipswich") and with tirades against custard creams, it wasn't exactly groundbreaking but any show that calls Prince Charles a "half-Greek inbred elitist throwback" who makes "a blinding ginger oat cake" gets my attention.

Justin is a local radio DJ who no-one listens to out of choice. He's in his 30s, lives with his father-in-law (an avid toy train collector) and is in the middle of being divorced by a vitriolic wife. Justin's life is not much fun, until he gets a date with a hot young estate agent. This is the cue for line after line of quick-fire comic retorts and character comedy. Some are exquisite - going to a Lloyd Webber musical is reckoned to be worse than having sex with the blind old tramp who lives in the phone box - but others are unimaginatively sexist. Not bad for a pilot, though. One to watch out for.