Gates

Sky Living comedy Gates gets the American treatment

Show that starred Joanna Page, Tom Ellis and Sue Johnston in the UK is to be re-imagined on NBC across the pond.

Gates - Episode 1.5 review

After what I would politely describe as hit/miss episodes, did this last one offer any improvement and leave us on an at least partial high? No. Not in the slightest.

Sky Living comedy 'Gates' to get US remake

NBC is to remake Sky Living comedy Gates.

Joanna Page interview

Actress Joanna Page, 34, talks to Metro about the unlikely revival of Gavin & Stacey, her new show Gates and her campaign to raise money for the PDSA.

Andrew Collins interview

An interview with writer Andrew Collins. Note: this link opens up an interactive magazine page.

New school-based sitcom Gates (Sky Living) is the creation of five people. I know that can work with slick American shows, but this isn't one of them. It feels like comedy by committee, where compromises have been reached, and middle paths found. The result is it has almost zero personality. It's not awful, it's just a bit bland. Not joyous, not anarchic, not funny.

Gates - Episode 1.2 review

The absurdity was mainly - and thankfully - cut out of this second episode. I think in the first one, the writers were being a bit experimental, trying to decide whether Gates is here to depict real-life or surreality.

This week there's a fight in the playground. Miss Hunter wearily frog-marches the offenders back to her classroom for a lecture while their children look on wide-eyed. Meanwhile, another mum - the over-enthusiastic Aussie - has organised an afterschool "salsa-cise" as part of the head's unpopular fitness drive. Alas, salsa-cise soon turns into a boxing match...

This school gates-set sitcom boasts a top-notch cast, including Sue Johnston as the jaded Miss Hunter, Joanna Page as a harassed mum and the dashing Tom Ellis as a dad who can't understand why an unhappy housewife keeps batting her eyelashes his way.

Sarah (Catherine Shepherd) pass-aggs Helen (Jo Page) into next week when the latter turns up late to collect Chloe from school. The parents are all talking about their feud by the time the bell rings, so Mark (Tom Ellis) goes to sort things out, but the women have their own, more direct form of negotiation. Some sharp writing and brilliant performances make this another solid comedy go-er for Sky, with the uneasy politics of parenthood guaranteeing broad appeal.

Gates is concerned with the mums and dads, the helicopter parents who clutter up playgrounds with their overprotective faffing, interrupting games and setting back the development of the sportsmen and women of tomorrow.

It's got fewer out-and-out funny lines than Bad Education but there are some nice visual gags and it will probably end up being more truthful. Catherine Shepherd steals the show as the arty, flirty, barking yummy-mummy.