Pete Versus Life

Pete Versus Life review

Rafe Spall is easily the best thing in this new Friday night comedy. You really want to like Pete, but boy is it an uphill battle.

An atrocious new sitcom about a self-centred wally (Rafe Spall) whose misadventures are analysed by a pair of omniscient sport commentators. It's a clumsy attempt at subverting the genre with a unique gimmick à la Peep Show. But whereas the subjective camerawork and inner monologues in Peep Show enhance the comedy, this crude device actively discourages it.

Not that it would be funnier without it. Utterly charmless, it exhibits all the worst aspects of modern British comedy, including irritating sub-The Office performances and characters behaving crassly in awkward situations in lieu of actual jokes. An embarrassing comedy from the comedy of embarrassment

Friday night's debut episode was undeniably funny. It had me laughing out loud - frequently, in fact - though I do rather get the impression that Pete and I are less suited to a many-seasoned future together than a quick-fire summer fling, not least since Pete is not really sticking material, as Jen, the environmentally minded object of his affection, learnt only too well when she invited him round for dinner at her parents'.

"I heard you flush the loo," Jen's cringe-inducingly right-on mother observed. "In this household we only flush after number twos." Pete's response did little to whet his hosts' pre-lunch appetite. Indeed, the fact that they had got to this point (albeit somewhat premature, coming as it did on the second date) was fairly miraculous. Pete met Jen in a bar after she overheard him discussing his love for the environment - a love that he had fabricated five minutes earlier in order to get out of spending a weekend with his friend's insufferable fiancée. Following? No? Never mind. Pete has a pair of sports commentators following his every move. In truth, this may be more of an obstacle to longevity than anything. Amusing though they are (and accurate as their portrayal may be) it is, ultimately, a gimmick - and one that is likely to get less effective with every outing.

Pete Versus Life (Channel 4, also Friday), a new five-part comedy drama, took one clever idea and ran amok with it. If life is like sport, then where are the commentators? And so we had Pete (Rafe Spall), an ordinary - that is to say lazy, selfish and intermittently very stupid - twentysomething. And we also had anchorman Colin (Simon Greenall) along with wise-cracking former footballer Terry (Ian Kirkby), who commented on Pete's ups and downs as if they were part of some huge, slam-dunking sport event.

This format was funniest when the pundits used flashy graphics to illustrate run-of-the-mill facts: a profile sheet on Pete's nemesis, Jake (Daniel Ings), which revealed that he could grow a full beard in three days; or a pie chart showing an irritating character's favourite topics of conversation.

In the first episode, Pete inadvertently impressed a girl when he was lying about his commitment to green causes, and had to tie himself up in knots of dishonesty to keep her interested. He was helped - and hindered - by an assortment of friends, including his flatmate Kurt (Chris Geere), who has a rigidly proprietorial attitude towards his Weetabix. It was all funny enough, though the punditry gimmick was at times pushed to the limit. Surely they're not going to follow Pete and his girlfriend into the bedroom, I thought, cringing. But they did, complete with the inevitable performance chart. Schoolboys across the land rejoiced.

Still, this was a perfectly decent comedy, with the added extra of a satire on sporting hyperbole served up on the side. But at the end of the day it will be interesting to see whether this combination has enough legs to last the full 180 minutes.

Pete Versus Life review

Overall, I was expecting a lot more from Pete Versus Life. This five-part comedy started life as a pilot in last year's Comedy Showcase season, but was intriguingly pulled from the schedule and promoted to series without the pilot even airing. That suggested Channel 4 saw huge potential in Pete Vs Life and thought they didn't need to gauge early audience reaction. It's nice to see a channel having such faith in a programme, but I think critical reaction to Pete Vs Life last year would have had a positive effect on its evolution. I just hope the remaining four episodes make the desired adjustments in time.

The titular Pete is a sports writer, which goes some way to explaining this latest, actually pretty funny, attempt to jazz up the sitcom format. Namely: as Pete (the excellent Rafe Spall) manoeuvres amiably, if a little weakly through life, his experiences are commentated on and summarised for the benefit of the viewer. That and the attendant graphics and stats create plenty of laughs, but there are also characters you can imagine bearing repetition. Not least Kirk, Pete's South African flatmate, and his mate Rob's pretentious girlfriend Anna - who is naming tables at their wedding reception after Oxford colleges.

The gimmick of this new comedy series by Harry Enfield writers Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffries is that Pete (Rafe Spall), a twentysomething aspiring journalist, has his life described by two commentators - one a mad Geordie, the other rather staid - who provide sports-style analysis and statistics as Pete copes with his dysfunctional group of friends. The opener revolves around Pete's attempts to woo an attractive eco-activist. It's very silly and occasionally crude, and whether it will stay funny as the novelty value wears off remains to be seen, but it's promising none the less.

Impressed with the pilot for last year's Comedy Showcase, Channel 4 commissioned a series for this comedy about a sports journalist called Pete (Rafe Spall). It wasn't an entirely bad move. There are pleasantly awkward moments, sharp lines and clever set-ups. Pete has no tact or emotional intelligence. Watching him bungle his life are two middle-aged sport-type commentators. They pause the action to analyse his decisions and amuse us with his vital stats, like how long he can go at it in the sack. It's a playful trick, which helps distract from the parts that don't quite work.

In Pete Versus Life, the winner is Woody Allen

Channel 4's new sportswriter sitcom is decent enough. But its central joke has been done before - and better.

At the end of last year Channel 4 road tested a few comedy pilots, and this one landed a full series. Rafe Spall plays a struggling sports writer whose life invariably leaves him dazed. So far, so good - expect there's a twist: two Sky Sports-style presenters offer a running commentary on his life, complete with analysis, stats and graphics. Interesting idea, which kind of works.