Hebburn

Last night's viewing: Hebburn, BBC2

It's not the easiest thing for a comedy to establish itself in the viewer's affections in just one episode, but Hebburn does it. It has a great cast, but more importantly than that it has sufficient sharpness of characterisation for them to show how good they can be right from the off.

TV review: Hebburn

BBC Two's new sitcom Hebburn features chavvy slappers, incontinent pensioners and a scene of copious vomiting. It's like Little Britain never went away... Ot at least that's the fate the show COULD have had, were it not for the immense affection that seeps through every scene.

Hebburn: a British sitcom that avoids Jewish cliches

The one Jewish character in last night's show was the only one who seemed to display no stereotypical traits.

The jury is out on Hebburn, the new sitcom set in the eponymous Tyne and Wear town. The set-up sees recently graduated Jack (Chris Ramsey) returning home to introduce his middle-class, Jewish bride to his unreconstructed, working-class Geordie family.

There are some good lines and the cast is excellent, but Hebburn just seems to be trying too hard, abandoning slow build of character for the more impactful, but far less interesting, 'loveable low life northerners behaving badly' school of comedy.

'Show cast Hebburn in a bad light' says councillor

Hebburn councillor John McCabe has blasted how new sitcom Hebburn has portrayed the town to the nation.

Review: What a Hebburn lass thought of Hebburn

It certainly had heart and humour, but I think the novelty of it being filmed in my hometown might leave me a little biased.

Hebburn: Episode 1 review

We've seen the first few episodes of Hebburn and are pleased to say the quality of humour is constant throughout. Without a doubt it's one of the finest new British sitcoms of 2012.

Hebburn: Episode 1 review

With such a well crafted script, excellent one-liners and subplots, I really do urge you to seek out Hebburn on iPlayer. Ya winnit regret it, pet!

Write about what you know is the first advice you get at Creative Writing class and here comedian Jason Cook has followed it to the letter - he's penned a sitcom set in his North East hometown. Hebburn (the sitcom, not the town) is bawdy and sweet by turn, with Gina McKee and Jim Moir as parents taken aback when son Jack, who's fled for the bright lights of Manchester, returns with a big surprise on his arm.

Jason Cook has written this likeable sitcom inspired by his own upbringing in the north east of England. It is set in the real-life town of the title and pitches somewhere between The Royle Family and Rab C Nesbitt. We're talking bawdy but warm: salt-of-the-earth eccentrics, caricatures of family life and a good dose of smut.

Our young hero Jack escaped Hebburn to work as a journalist in Manchester; when he returns it is to introduce his family to Sarah, a PhD student he married in Las Vegas. "Hebburn's where dreams come to die," he warns Sarah as they arrive. Even where the comedy feels broad (when Jack's mum learns that Sarah is Jewish she panics and cuts holes in buns with an apple corer to make bagels) it comes off, thanks to a strong cast that includes Gina McKee and an understated Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves.