Boomers

June Whitfield interview

Critics have called her programmes 'suburban' and 'middle class'. As she joins the cast of new BBC sitcom Boomers, actress June Whitfield asks, what's wrong with that?

Radio Times review

The Boomers muster for an anniversary dinner at a pretentious restaurant, but there's an immediate cloud over proceedings when long-suffering Carol (Paula Wilcox) announces she's bored with Trevor (James Smith), her husband of 40 years.

What follows is half an hour of creaking comedy that's occasionally crude and often quite unpleasant, particularly when Maureen's ageing, wheelchair-using mum (the mighty June Whitfield, rising majestically above the quality of the material) joins the party. Cue limp gags about the bodily functions of the elderly.

Most of the jokes fall to the floor, though there is a ribald, funny quip about a well-known pizza chain.

TV review: Boomers

Review of new BBC One sitcom.

Boomers: It's entertaining enough, but feels tired

The effort that has gone into Boomers is obvious, and yet a trendy single-camera set-up and a soundtrack of (probably expensively licensed) rock and Motown can't make the script's age-based stereotypes feel any fresher.

Alison Steadman & Philip Jackson shine in this sitcom

After watching the first episode of Boomers, I really feel as if Richard Pinto's sitcom could be a success.

TV review: Boomers tries too hard for nostalgia

Boomers is gentle and pleasant but not much else.

Boomers TV review

A spirited cast, including Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer struggle in a sitcom about newly retired baby boomers.

Boomers, a comedy-by-numbers thing set in Norfolk and apparently phoned in by a pig's bladder on a stick, is about comfortably-off fiftysomething baby-boomers going through non-crises. It features Nigel Planer, Alison Steadman and Russ Abbot, and diminishes all of them.

Radio Times review

This sitcom from Richard Pinto (Citizen Khan) will be clasped to the bosom of anyone who loves New Tricks, as Boomers centres on a group of old-timers, friends from years back, who find themselves out of kilter with the modern world.

The humour is broad and painted with the widest brush strokes and there are echoes of Victor Meldrew's curmudgeonly head-butting against the idiocies of political correctness and life in general. The cast includes some solid comedy names, including Russ Abbot as the dourest member of the group and Nigel Planer as the wide boy with the newly acquired young Eastern European wife (feel free to let out a weary groan).

The women (Alison Steadman, Paula Wilcox, Stephanie Beacham) always win out in any given situation as their hopeless blokes go to the pub. In the opening episode, everyone gathers at a funeral.

Imagine a world where Russ Abbot is shacked up with Stephanie Beacham, but threatened by the appearance of Nigel Planer, who has a thirtysomething Lithuanian wife. Welcome to the first episode of this frisky 60-plus sitcom, which is ushered in with a funeral. Even though the cast don't get any hilarious one-liners to show off yet, there's also the charming promise of Alison Steadman as Joyce, the ringleader for the newly retired and easily-bored posse, as well as June Whitfield, who's set to appear later in the series.