The Great Outdoors

Doing for rambling what Rev did for inner-city religion, The Great Outdoors debuted on BBC4 last autumn and now BBC2 is repeating the three episodes. Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil's charming sitcom meets a group of walkers led by Mark Heap just as they're joined by pushy new member Ruth Jones, who tries to make the gang go her way. Often literally. Also rambling are Katherine Parkinson, Steve Edge and Stephen "Skoose from Whites" Wight.

Ruth Jones and Mark Heap (whose CV stretches from Spaced to Lark Rise To Candleford) head up the cast of this superior, three-part sitcom previously screened on BBC4 last summer about a walking club.

The word walking club is a clue in itself to the kind of misfits youll find there you would only ever join one if you didnt have people to walk with. Its an irresistible combination of gorgeous scenery, very funny writing and a power struggle between walk leader Bob and newcomer Christine.

Rambling in the best possible sense.

The Great Outdoors rambles onto BBC2

Kevin Cecil, co-creator of The Great Outdoors, writes about the show getting a BBC Two repeat.

Radio Times review

A lovely little three-parter, hiding on BBC4 but getting a repeat on BBC2 in the new year.

What could be more relaxing than a ramble in the gorgeous, grassy Chilterns? Many things, if you're a member of the walking group led by Bob, a fussy fighter of tiny battles.

Played by Mark Heap in incredibly Mark Heapy fashion, Bob was a textbook example of a sitcom character who craves control but is surrounded by uncontrollable kooks. The characters never became cartoons despite a welter of carefully constructed funny lines.

Like most comedy writers, I've tried to get a sitcom on television. And, like most comedy writers, I've failed (although older viewers can find a show I co-wrote, The Junkies, on YouTube). Naturally, this makes me bitter about those who've succeeded where I haven't.

So I was very much looking forward to hating BBC4's new comedy The Great Outdoors, written by Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley (Black Books, Hyperdrive).

But much to my distress, The Great Outdoors is brilliant. Not only is it the best comedy on TV right now - not difficult as we're in a midsummer trough of trash as usual - but it has the makings of a classic.

The almost actionless adventures of a walking club might not sound thrilling. But The Great Outdoors' genius is to unfold the lives of the members over several episodes, rather than lumber them with weak dialogue and willy jokes.

This week I was moved by the plight of Bob the walk leader (played by Mark Heap, the only man to star in both Brass Eye and Lark Rise To Candleford) and the stirrings of his affection for Christine (Ruth Jones).

Heap and Jones are great but the entire cast work together and every scene - every line - combines to make this something rather special.

Rats. Now I'll have to find something new to hate.

The final instalment of Ruth Jones' promising comedy sees the rivalry between characters Bob and Christine come to a head in a hike along the south coast. It's a clash that's been building throughout this specially commissioned series and one that will be full of the tragi-comic material that's made the show a joy to watch over the last few weeks.

Bob, the central character in Kevin Cecil's comedy The Great Outdoors, also uses his hobby to compensate for a less than enlivening day-job but has chosen a pastime in which the greatest danger is getting a nasty blister. Bob is determined to make his group into the biggest rambling club in the Chilterns, his ambitions hampered only by the fact that he's so awful he keeps driving the new members away. Some of them falter in the face of Bob's terrible jokes. Others fall by the wayside because they don't care for the fact that he dictates the conversational topics mile by mile ("OK, mile one topic... Dinner with a Beatle. Living or dead, which wife and what's the menu!"). He has one unquestioning lieutenant, Tom, and one insurrectionary one in the form of his daughter.

Bob was funny but not entirely convincing, because his lines sometimes represented him as witlessly ghastly and at other moments gave him the tart wit of a far more knowing character. "In Barnstaple, we were always prepared for the worst," said new arrival Christine, who invariably cites her previous rambling club as the perfect model of how things should be done. "You had the worst," replied Bob, "because you were in Barnstaple," which seemed to be a joke with sharper reflexes than we'd come to expect from him. A little later - also quite funnily - he was excitedly exploring a loophole in a gastro-pub's special offer ("I have discovered the secret of infinite puddings!") although this is a joke that will only really work if we think of him as an utter fool. The discrepancy may not matter in the long run because Cecil's writing can spring deceptively quiet gags on you - such as Tom's guileless explanation of his current situation: "I've been out of work before but I really want to make a go of it this time." Worth tagging along for the next mile or so, I'd say.

This three-part comedy follows the hikes, heartaches, friendships and rivalries of a misfit rambling club. Last night's opener saw newcomer Christine, played by the always-excellent Ruth Jones, joining them from north Devon. She arrived equipped for every eventuality, including a stash of emergency flares, a cagoule with breathable vents and a jumbo box of cereal bars.

Her outspoken manner and constant rejoinders that "this wasn't how they did things in Barnstaple" soon rubbed group leader Bob (Green Wing's Mark Heap) up the wrong way. "She's like Ranulph Fiennes on HRT," he muttered bitterly to right-hand man Tom.

Meanwhile, Bob's daughter Hazel was battling the unwanted attentions of toothy teenager Victor and Tom was revelling in his newfound unemployment. "I've been out of work before, but I really want to make a go of it this time," he told Christine.

Bob's long-term ambition is to create the biggest rambling club in the Chilterns. Unfortunately, his rubbish jokes and tendency to dictate the conversational topics mile by mile ("OK, mile one topic: dinner with a Beatle... living or dead, which wife and what's the menu?") mean new members keep falling by the wayside.

The laugh-out loud moments may have been few and far between, but we reckon this gentle adventure is definitely worth keeping up with for the next mile or two.

Mark Heap interview

Actor Mark Heap, 53, has appeared in comedy shows including Green Wing and also Chris Morris's Jam and Brass Eye. He stars as a neurotic rambling club leader in new BBC4 sitcom The Great Outdoors.

The Great Outdoors review

While not the best debut episode of a new BBC sitcom, The Great Outdoors benefits from some genuinely funny moments and the brilliant Mark Heap.