Man Down

Greg Davies's madcap sitcom scales new heights of brilliance as Dan (Davies) joins Brian's Running Club and falls under the spell of the running coach Dominic (a hilarious turn by Ramon Tikaram). A mystical guru with an unfeasibly large posterior (or "a big magic arse" as Dan puts it), Dominic takes Dan under his wing to dispense life advice, much to Brian's irritation. Elsewhere, the demented Jo finds herself homeless, and ends up camping on the side of the road, where she goes on a "modern forage".

Man Down is definitely an acquired taste, but then so was The Young Ones, and while this won't have the same cultural impact, it is packed with similarly irreverent laughs.

Clueless Jo and Pringle tube-man lookalike Brian leave Dan kicking his clumpy heels for a weekend. He's so mind-numbingly bored he finds himself angling for an invite to his niece's birthday party, to which ex-girlfriend Naomi just happens to be invited. Obstacles in the form of a colossally impractical cake, an ultra-defensive community support officer and a Renault Scenic stand between him and the promise of free jelly. A gradually improving sitcom, with Rik Mayall stealing the show yet again as Dan's malevolent dad.

Look out for the special makeover tent tonight as Dan's friend Jo sets off on yet another hare-brained career.

If Jo represents the mad end of the spectrum, Dan, who's somewhere in the middle, would really like to be more like his other friend Brian, a super-straight accountant who seems doomed to spend all his spare time driving Dan around and generally coming to his rescue.

This week Dan is trying to prove to his ex-girlfriend Naomi that he's trustworthy enough to attend his small niece's birthday party - an idea which his lovely twinkly mother (Gwyneth Powell, who was Mrs McCluskey in Grange Hill) finds utterly hilarious.

She may well be right.

But amidst all the juvenile slapstick, Greg Davies has somehow created a bunch of characters we're becoming incredibly fond of - no mean feat.

However ridiculous it gets, Greg Davies's sitcom keeps a foothold in reality. I love the way Dan's mother laughs to herself at the very idea they might let Dan (Davies's blundering clot of a hero) come anywhere near his niece's birthday party. "Oh no dear, we want it to be a safe party!" she chuckles, much to his chagrin. Naturally, when Dan sets out to prove his trustworthiness, it backfires beautifully. Look out for good work from Dan's friends this week, too: off-with-the-fairies Jo and brilliantly square Brian. The scene where Brian sponges his car to the strains of 80s slowdance classic Move Closer is a bonus.

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Audio: Being older helped Greg Davies stay in comedy

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Dan is still vainly trying to save his relationship with Naomi. He's engaging the services of "Mad Nobby" to fix his car seat and has planned a get-back-together meal of fried mince, as well as a dedicated programme of nostalgia where he lists their past good times. It goes as well as you can imagine, particularly as he manages to end up in a skin-tight salsa dancing outfit beforehand. Lovely to see Rik Mayall's mischievous face back on telly; as Dan's dad he tips his single scene into excellence with little more than his eyebrows.

Teacher man Dan (Greg Davies) may be down on the romantic front but he's not yet out for the count.

As the sitcom pratfalls continue, Dan fixates on winning back his ex - by collecting proof that she was wrong to dump him.

Meanwhile, the world around him continues to make as little sense as he does: an invitation from his dad (Rik Mayall) to play a game of swingball blasts open a whole new ball of confusion.

Greg Davies's tragi-comic creation is turning out to be more complex than he looked at first. He's not merely a hapless buffoon, he's also prone to levels of denial and wishful thinking that are almost endearing. But not to his ex-girlfriend. Dan tries to win Naomi back this week by turning up at her door and reminding her that although she complains they never had any fun, there was that time when he did a dance involving a helicopter impression with part of his body...Can she deny that was fun? No, she can't. His other plan to win her back involves getting his car door fixed (at ultra-cheap garage "Mad Nobby's") and buying some mince to cook her. The results are childishly, stupidly funny.

Strictly fans will find an extra treat tonight as Dan and his friend Jo perform a salsa to entertain some hospital patients.

It's all part of Dan's desperate scheme to try and convince his former girlfriend Naomi that he's a fun person with a fully rounded social life. Not much chance of that, as tonight he is also relying on the seductive power of mince to win her round. And what woman can resist mince?

Thanks to Greg Davies' towering energetic idiocy, Man Down offers reliable silliness - and it's the ideal vehicle for Davies to exploit his background in both teaching and stand-up. But he doesn't save all the best gags for himself and the support from Roisin Conaty and Mike Wozniak as his best mates Jo and Brian are outstanding.

The casting of Rik Mayall as Dan's father is inspired, and the kids who have the misfortune to be Dan's drama students are game, recognising he is a bigger kid than any of them.