The Old Guys
- TV sitcom
- BBC One
- 2009 - 2010
- 12 episodes (2 series)
Old guys Tom and Roy live together and lust over sexy neighbour Sally. Stars Roger Lloyd Pack, Clive Swift, Jane Asher, Katherine Parkinson, Justin Edwards and Vincent Ebrahim
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 6 - Courtesan
Further details
Roy hasn't had a physical relationship with a woman for as long as he can remember. Egged on by Tom, he visits Katia, a Belorussian prostitute in Soho. Emboldened by his friend's actions, Tom decides to start seeing Katia as well.
Meanwhile, Amber is attending a church group as she has taken a fancy to Phil, the local vicar. She persuades her dad, Tom, to come with her to a meeting and, despite his natural cynicism, he begins to take an interest in Christianity. His new-found religious beliefs are naturally at odds with his new-found interest in Katia.
Tom and Roy's friendship is threatened when Roy discovers that Tom is also seeing Katia. Can they both turn their back on the most affordably priced love of their lives, or will their desire for Katia drive them apart?
Notes
This episode was originally scheduled as episode four.
Broadcast details
- Date
- Saturday 7th March 2009
- Time
- 9:20pm
- Channel
- BBC One
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
| Roger Lloyd Pack | Tom |
| Clive Swift | Roy |
| Jane Asher | Sally |
| Katherine Parkinson | Amber |
| Patrick Baladi | Reverend Phil |
| Amanda Mullen | Katia (Courtesan) |
| Natalie Bennett | Airline Check-in |
| Sam Bain | Writer |
| Jesse Armstrong | Writer |
| Robert Popper | Script Development |
| John Finnemore | Writer (Additional Material) |
| Dewi Humphreys | Director |
| Jack Docherty | Producer |
| Alan Tyler | Executive Producer |
| Sam Bain | Executive Producer |
| Jesse Armstrong | Executive Producer |
| Gareth Edwards | Associate Producer |
| Chris Wadsworth | Editor |
| Laura Wilson | Editor |
| Iain McDonald | Production Designer |
| Ivor Cutler | Composer |
Press
The Weekend's Television: The Old Guys
When I looked back at my notes I found that they made me laugh. What it is a little harder to say was whether the lines made me laugh because they're inherently funny, or because six weeks has given me time to get used to Roger Lloyd Pack's character, so I can now relish just how typical of him those lines are. That's one of the tricks a good sitcom has to pull off, after all, to get the audience to the stage where they feel affectionately knowing about a character's follies.
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 9th March 2009It's not hard to find fault with The Old Guys: the female characters don't quite work; the scrapes that odd-couple pensioners Tom and Roy get into feel laboured; and often it's just not funny enough. But sometimes it very much is, and Roger Lloyd Pack's performance as Tom shows signs of becoming a bit special. Tom's self-image as a hip old cat with a colourful past (much of it, we suspect, imaginary) plays well against Clive Swift as the strait-laced Roy.
The Old Guys look like they're starting to gel - just in time for a second series, perhaps?
David Butcher, Radio Times, 7th March 2009Final episode of the sitcom from writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. It's sharply written as you'd expect from the writers of the unassailable Peep Show, and Swift and Lloyd-Pack make an engaging double act that deserve a second series. And Jane Asher is in it, so what's not to like?
Mark Wright, The Stage, 6th March 2009The final episode of this so-so sitcom features its main characters, two single elderly men, competing for the affections of a Belarusian prostitute in Soho - a plotline that's a long way from Galton and Simpson, to say the least. But then, this is the Noughties, and writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong were also behind the enjoyably risqué Peep Show.
Pete Naughton, The Telegraph, 6th March 2009