Whites

Whites to begin on ABC1

New British comedy Whites follows the trials and tribulations of head chef Roland White (actor and comedian Alan Davies) and his long-suffering sous chef Bib (Darren Boyd) at a country house hotel.

Whites: The Last Dance

So here we are, Episode Six, the end of the series and the end of a long and eventful journey for all those involved in the making of Whites. We really hope you've enjoyed the series and it's conclusion in this final episode.

Five episodes in and this sitcom is starting to get interesting. Roland White - no relation, presumably, to Raymond Blanc - struggles on as head chef in a country house hotel, battling his own delusions and his worryingly insane new employee. Alan Davies in the lead role is remarkably likeable, and the characters are all given room to breathe. Isy Suttie, the stand-up comic and musician best known for her role as Dobby, the object of Mark's affection in Channel 4's Peep Show, gets a good part as the impenetrably stupid waitress Kiki.

Matt King and Oli Lansley's slightly offbeat country kitchen sitcom is up there with Rev as one of the best comedy debuts of the year. Among the main cast - led by Alan Davies's chef Roland - Michelin-starred delights come from Isy Suttie's dippy waitress and Stephen Wight's turn as the menacingly ambitious (and weird) trainee chef Skoose. Tonight, Roland breaks the heart of his long-suffering sous chef Bib when he names Skoose as his sous for a TV cooking segment, and Australian comic Mark Little (AKA Joe Mangel from Neighbours) guests.

Whites: Opportunity and Betrayal

Episode Five was a very exciting episode for many reasons.

To summarise my thoughts now we're four episodes into its run: this is a really good sitcom that deserves wider attention. It's witty and has a reality to it, albeit with comical twists. The characters feel like actual people, so you therefore find yourself becoming invested in them dramatically. Alan Davies is good as Roland White, but it's Darren Boyd I'm really enjoying, as harassed sous chef Bib. The last few episodes have involved climaxes that poke fun at disabilities (a woman with one arm, Parkinson's Disease), which is a little alarming, but I can't say they weren't very funny.

Whites review

What I like about Whites is that I believe it. It feels like a real kitchen and that the characters really are who they say they are - even though they are all very familiar faces.

Another helping of this amiable kitchen comedy serves up subtle laughs from fairly predictable ingredients. Tonight's plot sees a visit from the health-and-safety inspector, Heather Critch (Julia Deakin), whose fearsome reputation forces Roland White (Alan Davies) to abandon his usual plan of bribery. His efforts to clean up the kitchen, however, are undermined by waitress Kiki (Isy Suttie) making a hash of her role as fire-safety officer.

Whites: The Food

The food and the kitchen side of Whites was always incredibly important to Matt and I.