It’s too funny for words
YOU may have noticed – although you probably haven’t, you’ve got far more important things to occupy you – that I very rarely write about sitcoms.There are two main reasons for this.
The first is that I tend not to find many sitcoms I actually want to write about.
And on those rare occasions when I do discover one that makes me laugh out loud (not that there’s really any other way to laugh, unless you want to give yourself a hernia), I find it surprisingly hard to describe that programme’s appeal in actual words.
Yes, quite – those things I’m supposed to be reasonably proficient at stringing together. More often than not, I end up making this allegedly hilarious show sound quite dreadful. Comedy’s funny like that.
Reason number two is that I’m a bit of a coward.
When it comes to sitcoms, people can get horribly strident in their views, far more than if it’s dramas or documentaries we’re discussing. So if I speak favourably of a sitcom which others then decide is as funny as a funeral, there’s a higher than average likelihood they’ll get in touch to let me know what they think of my TV tips, and that this missive of theirs will also contain quite graphic suggestions as to where they’d like me to put them.
So it’s with more than a little wariness that I tell you how much I’m enjoying HEREWE GO,a new-ish domestic sitcom which continues tonight on BBC1 (8.30pm). Obviously the title is terrible (don’t ask me what was wrong with Pandemonium, its name when they piloted it last year – maybe the BBC’s Titles Department operates a maximumfour-syllables-per-word policy) but the comedy content is definitely a cut above the rest. Or so I personally happen to believe.
In this week’s episode, dad Paul (Jim Howick) decides to set up his own fitness channel on YouTube with son Sam (Jude Collie) – with less than wholly successful consequences. Meanwhile, mum Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) tries to butter up an old school chum who’ll be interviewing daughter Amy (Freya Parks) for a job – with less than wholly successful... well, you get the idea.
See, I told you I was terrible at this sort of thing.
Elsewhere, in this week’s episode of RICHARD HAMMOND’S CRAZY CONTRAPTIONS (C4, 8pm), Richard would like each team to build him a machine that lets him boil the kettle while he’s in the loo.
A totally unnecessary exercise, of course. But that’s the whole point of the show.
To solve a proper real-world problem forever cropping up when you’re thus indisposed, how about one that answers the blasted doorbell?