Series 2, Episode 1 - Just The Two Of Us
Maddy attempts to put some romance back into her marriage. But that's easier said than done with four children, and all-too-perfect neighbours to compete with!
Broadcast details
- Date
- Wednesday 17th March 2010
- Time
- 7:30pm
- Channel
- BBC One
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
Press
Only in an atmosphere in which originality is viewed as marginal or suspect could a series like Life of Riley (BBC1) be produced. It may seem unfair to pick out this harmless sitcom as an illustration of the failings of British comedy drama, but perhaps not quite as unfair as the decision to recommission another series.
Life of Riley is not the worst sitcom (a title for which competition is too fierce to contemplate), and it even featured one clever line - when his daughter asked him what he was doing drinking coffee at an Ikea-like warehouse, Neil Dudgeon (as Jim Riley) replied: 'Just wanted to see what our bookshelves look like when they're assembled.' The problem is that none of the cast, led by Caroline Quentin, is able to say the lines as if they mean them, because the lines - with that single exception - neither refer to a known reality nor create a new one. Instead, the dialogue is rooted in sitcomland, that dislocated place where everything is said for effect and nothing has any effect. Life of Riley is the anti-Glee, tired, predictable and pointless.
Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 21st March 2010
