Family Tree

Exclusive: Chris O'Dowd stars in deleted scene

Fresh from the final episode of The IT Crowd last week, you may well be wondering where you can get your fill of Chris O'Dowd. Well fear not, because his great HBO and BBC show Family Tree is out on DVD now!

Review: Family Tree

All-in-all, Family Tree is an easy watch and a fairly satisfying experience.

It's been a rum little monkey, Family Tree (BBC Two), full of bad jokes and oddball characters.

But, as Chris O'Dowd's Tom Chadwick dithered over his future in a 'there must be a series two'-type cliffhanger, there was a surprising melancholy to waving farewell to this curious bunch at the airport.

The satire on the whole Who Do You Think You Are? TV franchise was a tad overcooked - surprisingly so, given the pedigree of writer/director Christopher Guest - but there was just enough wit scattered among the branches of Tom's extended clan to make up for the feeling that no family could contain this many nutters.

'Do you find that being around books makes you more clever?' Tom asked potential squeeze Ally. 'No, it makes me feel like all the ideas have been written already,' she replied. They were made for each other.

And Fred Willard's Al Chadwick had a camp hoot with a stream of bad gay jokes. 'How do you fit four gay men on one bar stool?... turn it upside down!' So wrong.

Final episode of the show that has received decidedly lukewarm reviews this side of the Atlantic, accused of everything from being confused and clunky to having too few "jokes". That's a shame: this sweet, playful series could surely do with a return visit, especially given the final two minutes between Tom and Ally. Before that, though, there are Jewish cowboys to discover, while Bea goes into total meltdown after accidentally mislaying puppet companion Monk at Venice Beach ("My hand ... it's clenching up!").

Was great-great-grandmother Rebecca really a Native American? "I've always felt Indian," muses Tom. "I can feel vibrations from the Earth. I mean, I live above the Underground, so it could be that." Tom, Bea and Pete head to somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert, where they meet reservation guide-cum-tribal shaman Chief Running Bull who, on request, bequeaths them with deeply significant Native names. Step forward, the newly dubbed "Tall Man", "Boy With A Hat" and "Monkey Woman".

Tom (Chris O'Dowd) is still in California with his new-found relatives in Christopher Guest's transatlantic mockumentary. The Chadwick clan's investigation into why their ancestor Charles fought for both sides during the American civil war is punctuated by Tom's startled amusement at his extended family's pasted-on quirks, because why bother with actual personalities when you can give your characters a gently eccentric passion for historical re-enactments (or conspiracy theories, or owls) instead?

Third part of Christopher Guest's quietly bonkers comedy. This week, Tom discovers that his grandfather, William, competed in the so-called "austerity Games" in 1948 (a genuine event, though "vintage" footage of the egg-and-spoon race probably shouldn't be trusted). Meanwhile, Bea struggles for the right kind of gig, and it turns out it isn't children's birthday parties. While Family Tree might not be quite the right showcase for Nina Conti's particular gifts, she - and naughty little Monkey - are always great fun.

This is a hit-and-miss sort of sitcom at the best of times; this week it becomes predictable in the wrong way. When we hear that our hero Tom's great-aunt left her home to a female friend, we wonder if they were actually more than friends, but Tom's dozy friend Pete takes ages to twig. Also, one minor character is a gym owner whose West Indian patois is hard to understand: isn't that the kind of joke the series mocks in its 1970s sitcom pastiches? Anyway, Chris O'Dowd is still good as Tom and has a nice monologue about being single.

With star Chris O'Dowd and This is Spinal Tap creator Christopher Guest attached, there has understandably been quite a bit of hype and expectation surrounding this new comedy series. Thankfully, three episodes in and that hype is looking increasingly justified.

It's difficult not to draw comparisons to the creator's previous comedy ventures: while some of the gags are groaningly predictable (as when cocky Pete is pitted against a small child in the boxing ring - what could possibly happen?), the very best jokes in the series are the deadpan, subtle 'did I just hear that' variety that made ...Spinal Tap so funny. Tom's ventriloquist sister Bea (Nina Conti) is particularly hilarious, her id-outlet monkey hand puppet sharp, rude and wonderfully weird. Their appearance this week as wedding entertainment is predictably disastrous.

Meanwhile, this episode takes Tom's bittersweet - and rather hopeless - search for his family history into the world of sport after he makes another discovery. Hopefully those discoveries will keep on coming as this is getting better by the week.

There's another lovingly detailed pastiche of a 1970s sitcom right at the start of tonight's episode. Tom (Chris O'Dowd) visits his father to show him the photo of their ancestor, but first has to distract him from watching DVDs of his beloved Move Along Please!, a police station comedy that's a sort of Carry On version of The Thin Blue Line ("Well you said you wanted us to make a big bust this week, Sergeant!").

It's one of many lovely touches in a comedy that looks like being a grower. The slightly dopey Tom has embarked on a genealogical quest that takes him to a theatre in Hove, where the over-reverent historian ("I look on the theatre as like a temple...") is beautifully played by Hugh Sachs from Benidorm.

It turns out Tom's great-grandfather was an actor - and he played opposite Laurence Olivier, no less.