IAN HYLAND
on last night’s telly
Home, C4: ★★★★★
When the Get Beebxit Done mob gets its way and the BBC is made to fund itself, we can only hope the corporation doesn’t stop taking risks with its programme-making.
There can be value in sticking with a new show even if its ratings haven’t set the world on fire – especially when it comes to comedy. Take Rufus Jones’s asylum-seeker sitcom Home, for example.
Channel 4 could have quietly retired it following last year’s debut series, which attracted a lot of praise but not a massive amount of viewers.
Back it came last night though, and I’m happy to report that this second series looks like being every bit as hilarious and emotional as the first. Creating a sitcom from a situation that you wouldn’t necessarily think of as comic is no easy job. Home manages it though.
That is thanks to
Jones’s equal opportunity approach to writing – he takes the opportunity to laugh at all sides equally – and the excellent performances from the likes of Youssef Kerkour, who plays Syrian asylum seeker Sami.
However, last night’s biggest laugh came from a policeman who’d been called to Sami’s temporary accommodation, which was a posh country hotel. Frustrated that he was being kept in limbo by the immigration service, Sami had locked himself in the sauna with the pool guard in protest.
“He’s taken a hostage?” Peter (Jones) asked the startled officer.
“We’re not using that language, sir,” replied the policeman. “As we’re trying to respect the energy flow of the spa.”
‘‘ The second series looks like being every bit as hilarious and emotional as the first with some excellent performances