Boomers

Radio Times review

If you enjoyed BBC Four's series about retired folk in Dorset, Close to the Edge, here's the sitcom equivalent. The idea is that three 60-something couples (including Alison Steadman as uptight Joyce) are striding into retirement, keeping creaking marriages afloat and leaning on old friendships - the working title was "Grey Mates".

We rejoin them at the Calais Eurotunnel terminal, returning from a trip to a Christmas market. There are surly asides about Germans, gingerbread and saucy Santa toys, while Alan (Philip Jackson) wrestles with a voice-recognition phone line: "Didn't understand me, wouldn't let me finish," he sighs. "It's the computerised ticket line version of Joyce."

The Boomers are off to a 60s weekender in the final episode. Disaster inevitably strikes: first when a double booking forces them to share rooms, and then when Carol (Paula Wilcox) bumps into an old flame at the bar. Joyce (Alison Steadman) steals the show with plenty of one-liners, including one about a man who nailed his penis to a block of "two-be-four", but generally the ensemble cast's attempts to prove they're not really that old raise a load of wry smiles.

Radio Times review

People who have reached their 60s are like teenagers, apparently. No kids to look after, no job to get up for and no responsibilities - they can do whatever they like, enjoy themselves... go mad. For Joyce and the gang that means a weekend at a ghastly holiday camp where the Searchers are playing and everyone turns in by ten o'clock. Not exactly a drug-fuelled rave. But at least Carol is having fun because she has bumped into an old friend (played by George Layton).

Boomers has had a mixed reception, with some older viewers identifying with the gentle humour while others are insulted by what they perceive as ageist stereotyping and creaky gags.

Radio Times review

If, like Maureen, you're preparing to pack your elderly mother off to a residential home, you may get a little comfort from this. "You hear lots of stories about neglect - residents lying in soiled bedding, abuse and so on - but you mustn't think you are sentencing your mother to spending her last years in a living hell" - pause - "because you almost certainly aren't."

At times Boomers gets horribly close to the uncomfortable truth. But it's one that's dressed up in well-mannered, well-meaning concern. Meanwhile Maureen's sister is getting frisky with the menfolk so John is persuaded to speak up against what they feel is sexual harassment.

Alison Steadman interview

Alison Steadman, 68, on stage fright, her first boyfriend, and the 'dark days' of her latter years.

Joyce is set to retire but unfortunately Alan insists on throwing the party at home rather than a hotel, leaving Joyce to worry about the catering, the carpets and the correct scheduling of her "surprise tribute video". A well-crafted comedy that delivers good lines - an exasperated Joyce on new neighbour Sara's sprogs: "I've never seen more badly behaved, obnoxious children in my entire life, and I've been to France!" - yet still hasn't quite caught fire.

Radio Times review

It's Joyce's retirement party, but she's not happy, largely because she doesn't want to retire and, besides, she wanted a do at a nice country house hotel where someone else would do the work. All she's getting from her lumpen husband Alan (the splendid Philip Jackson) is cava (no champagne), a patio heater and heavy-duty plastic sheeting.

As the curmudgeons gather for the festivities they are joined by a ghastly new neighbour and her spoiled, home-educated, precious kids. The humour is broad as it is obvious - for instance, gags about cocktail sausages and Norwich, which is supposed to be intrinsically funny- but Boomers and its stalwart cast of top-of-their-game actors sail through it all without even touching the sides.

Radio Times review

It's Thurnemouth Day, when the Norfolk seaside home of our 60-somethings celebrates its history. That means stolid Trevor (James Smith) donning a Nelson outfit to cut a ribbon and busybody Joyce (Alison Steadman) marshalling her choral society. "I think her goal is to take over every society in Thurnemouth," groans husband Alan. "And then invade Poland."

There are some easy-to-see-coming jokes and creaky bits of comedy based on awkwardness - wry smiles rather than laughs-out-loud - but when the likes of Smith and Philip Jackson as Alan get to underplay things, there's also the sense of a group of people who know themselves and each other almost too well, which could get interesting.

Richard Pinto's sixtysomething sitcom continues, with the gang heading to a gastropub for Carol and Trevor's 40th wedding anniversary. Naturally, things don't go smoothly, as Carol considers a big life change. A comedy with some good lines (hangdog Alan reflects on meeting up with the same bunch of people yet again: "These people are friends, we shouldn't have to see them") but which somehow lacks warmth. Worth persevering with, even if this episode doesn't, as Ab Fab did so splendidly, make enough of June Whitfield's comic timing.