Joking Apart
- TV sitcom
- BBC Two
- 1991 - 1995
- 13 episodes (2 series)
Stand-up comedian Mark is left by his wife. He must attempt to win Becky back, get revenge on her new man Trevor, and deal with her well-meaning but simple friends, Tracy and Robert. Stars Robert Bathurst, Fiona Gillies, Tracie Bennett, Paul Raffield and Paul Mark Elliott
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 1
Broadcast details
- Date
- Thursday 7th January 1993
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
| Robert Bathurst | Mark Taylor |
| Fiona Gillies | Becky Johnson |
| Tracie Bennett | Tracy Glazebrook |
| Paul Raffield | Robert Glazebrook |
| Rhoda Lewis | Lady At Funeral |
| James Greene | Vicar |
| Frank Lee | Taxi Driver |
| Steven Moffat | Writer |
| Bob Spiers | Director |
| John Kilby | Director |
| Andre Ptaszyński | Producer |
| Chris Wadsworth | Editor |
| John Anderson | Production Designer |
| Kenny Craddock | Composer |
| Colin Gibson | Composer |
Press
I don't want to get prematurely excited, but BBC2's Joking Apart is distinctly promising as 'a new adult comedy series'.
In other words, this is middle-class sitcom with sex and mild swear-words. Gosh! It took the trenchant Drop the Dead Donkey to show what really happened after office parties (you wake up with your face in a curry at a railway station).
Steven Moffat's Joking Apart hardly aspires to the standard of the divine DTDD, but as an analysis of modern divorce it's quite funny and acute so far. Robert Bathurst and Fiona Gillies are much too pretty and clean to be entirely true to life, but maybe separation will roughen them up.
Maureen Paton, The Daily Express, 8th January 1993I've virtually given up looking for a good new British sitcom; they're all too bland, heavy-handed and frankly unfunny. Joking Apart has its problems but possesses a certain dark, mordant wit. But the show has a huge casting problem. Robert Bathurst, as Mark, is a conventionally handsome actor, but not one who can successfully convey the frustration of being a creative writer.
David Gritten, The Telegraph, 8th January 1993