Man Down

Radio Times review

I can't think of another sitcom that would include the line "I love you Mum. But you're boring", or a wedding band called 8 Sausage Sunday (played by the Wonder Stuff!). Man Down's rumbustious second series ends tonight in poignant mood and with outbursts of the calibrated madness that makes it great.

Perpetually cheerful Jo suddenly announces that she's getting married to a digger driver from the Heath, a forested area Brian considers full of "backward lunatics". From there the three friends (Dan is to be best man) are caught up in a series of disturbing rituals and mishaps, including a version of Russian roulette that involves slamming hot pies in your own face.

Jo's marrying a lad from the Heath - "a digger-driver, but it's only temporary until his rap career takes off" - in the sweetly melancholy series closer. "You've lost your mind," says Brian. Well, possibly: there's a law among Heath-dwellers, that if the bride is three hours late to her wedding, the groom is allowed to marry someone else. Can Dan get her to the barn on time, notwithstanding an owl attack and a "hot jam" incident? All this, plus a cameo appearance from the Wonder Stuff as local band 8 Sausage Sunday.

Man Down, series 2 review

One of the silliest, most ludicrous new sitcoms from the last few years is finally back on our screens; Greg Davies writes and stars in the highly anticipated second series of Man Down.

Radio Times review

There are sparky, laugh-out-loud moments in tonight's episode but the plotting is, by Man Down standards, low-key. Dan is, as always, hoping to impress fellow teacher Emma, so he makes a great show of taking troubled student Dennis - the kid in his class who always shouts obscenities - under his wing for the weekend. "I had an idyllic childhood," Dan lies, "and I'm not going to allow a broken society to steal Dennis's from him."

This results in a series of attempts to entertain the boy that backfire and lead to a confrontation with football hooligans. Meanwhile, Jo's latest business venture is Execu-Stress: motto "Stress: do one!"

Man Down writer Sian Harries remembers Rik Mayall

Sian Harries says it was never an option to try and replace the late Rik Mayall on the hit show.

The second series of Greg Davies's crude, clever comedy continues to deliver, despite the hole left by Rik Mayall. This week, Davies's world-worn protagonist Dan is horrified to discover that his former school bully has the lead role in a play that he is attending with his students. Cue group therapy and a lesson in resilience from Aunt Nesta (Stephanie Cole). As per, disaster-prone pals Jo (Roisin Conaty) and Brian (Mike Wozniak) get into a variety of scrapes, too.

Radio Times review

It's bananas that Channel 4 have scheduled their sitcom gem directly opposite BBC Two's Episodes. There are few enough new comedies around without the best of them clashing head-on.

This week, Greg Davies and co-writers summon creative new humiliations for Dan, their sublime clot of a hero. These revolve around a trip to the theatre organised by Dan for his pupils, though he realises too late that the play stars Geoff Doogan, his old school bully. "He made my life hell! Why do you think I'm all Pip Schofield?" he cries, pointing to his grey hair.

Elsewhere, there's aunt Nesta's idea of helpful role-play, Jo's misunderstanding of how theatre works and, in an icon-endangering moment, Brian without his moustache.

Radio Times review

Dan has been caught playing Camp Aisle while invigilating the science GCSE exam. This is a game he invented with "Dave from English" that involves mincing up the lanes between desks in an incrementally camp manner - and a gay student has reported the matter to the head teacher, aka Dan's beloved Emma.

So she sends him on a diversity awareness workshop, a process Dan treats with all the tact and delicacy of a rugby prop in a knitting circle. Meanwhile, enjoyably gaga Jo has a new venture combining celebrity make-up styles in a beauty parlour: punters can combine Halle Berry and Lulu in the 'Halle-Lulu' or try the fearsome-looking 'Beyoncelli' (Beyoncé and Liza Minnelli). But why would they?

Greg Davies continues to excel as a teacher driven by cynicism - a role he created for himself with his performances in The Inbetweeners. The second series of his sitcom brings impressive people out of the woodwork (Geraldine James? Really?) and reprises a similar manic energy. Tonight's episode derives dark laughs from the excruciating demands of the school's community week and Dan's farcical attempts to woo his colleague Jo with the assistance of a second world war veteran. It seems unlikely things will end well.