What to watch
Back CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
The ratings may have been a little underwhelming, but in contrast to David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s tonally uncertain and muddled Ambassadors, Back has been a triumph.
Simon Blackwell’s often brutal, witheringly funny script has granted the leading men roles that riff on their Peep Show personas of Mark and Jez without ever becoming beholden to them. Prodigal foster son Andrew’s (Webb) victory over biological offspring Stephen (Mitchell) is apparently complete, as the former struts around his flourishing gastropub, bragging about his chef ’s clafoutis while the latter moulders in a caravan. “He’s stolen my life and he’s living it better than me,” Stephen fumes.
Their father’s memorial party – and the associated speeches – offer Stephen one final shot at redemption: when a clutch of other returning foster children eclipse Andrew’s efforts to ingratiate himself, Stephen has a revelation that sends him on a demented trip of vengeance to fill the gaps in his rival’s life story. Finding profound bathos in often gasp-inducing misanthropy and reuniting the best British double act around (pace Vic and Bob), Back undoubtedly merits a return. Gabriel Tate