White Gold

When the CB radio craze claims Fitzpatrick (AKA "Widowmaker"), his less-than-good buddies, Vincent and Lavender, plan a prank that only exposes Fitzpatrick's domestic discontent. Not that Vincent is too concerned, with the unlovable lothario going full peacock in the wake of a nomination for Essex entrepreneur of the year and continued success at evading HMRC. Unluckily for him, drawing attention to yourself only makes you a bigger target.

Review: White Gold is badly lacking in shine

Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick sells himself short as double glazing salesman in dismal comedy according to our TV columnist.

White Gold: banter, larks and Thatcher's Britain

Inbetweeners alumni reunite for a laddish 80s comedy that is a bewildering throwback to an era best forgotten.

White Gold Episode 2 review

Nobody comes out of this better, or nicer, or having learned something... Not even the viewers, we suspect. Unless these events begin to accrue into something larger, unless there's some kind of kickback for the way Vincent acts - which there may just be.

The double-glazing comedy continues with Vincent unhappy at not having a company car following an encounter with some advertising salesmen. Our boy quits his job, a prelude to numbskull Fitzpatrick taking over as "temporary showroom manager". Fitfully amusing, but the few female characters are underwritten, and the antics of on-the-make "fairground workers in shiny suits" as they're dubbed in one encounter, grate unless you're nostalgic for Thatcherism.

White Gold, the latest retro-drama wheeze from the Beeb's busy kitsch-decor department, was funnier than Count Arthur Strong, but so is duodenal bleeding. The only question is... why? Ed Westwick made a smarmily confident Essex fist of Vince, leader of the rancid pack, but where is the surprise, where any comic subversion of stereotype, in the fact that early-80s double-glazing salesmen were squirmily cheating turdlets whom you couldn't trust as far as you could spit a rat? Didn't we, um, know that, queasily?

Oddly enough, I was far more appreciative of the accidental facts vouchsafed along the way - how plastic, being cheaper than timber, helped hold up Thatcher's right-to-buy council houses in those years, and how rotten finance left many paying more for the windows than the very house. The fact that I found these random moments more elucidating than the whole show means I'll be ready for Gardeners' Question Time soon. And only the gods are laughing.

Interview: Joe Thomas

Although Thomas shares Lavender's pleasant nature and ready laugh, he's a little more thoughtful than the roles he's played.

The script was mannered and dirty-mouthed, though the lines came so fast that there were bound to be some laughs. But Ed Westwick's character Vincent Swan, a toerag who parks his flash motor on double yellow lines with a disabled badge, is too slimy to be a likeable rogue.

This territory was covered far more cleverly during the Thatcher years by Harry Enfield, and David Jason, of course, in Only Fools And Horses. This isn't a complete failure, but it's crude and blunt instead of polished and sharp.

White Gold - a sweary banterfest

The new BBC Two sitcom stars two of The Inbetweeners and Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass, aka Ed Westwick, as double glazing salesmen - and they're all brilliant.