Gimme Mack’s Stu comeback
A TWO-MINUTE whizz through several “previously” storylines is a reminder there was a pilot of this comedy, which we’ve forgotten.
It won’t take long to catch up.
It essentially follows the hapless happenings of Stuart, played by Not Going Out comedian Lee Mack.
Stu is a wedding DJ who has a much younger partner April, played by The Windsors’ Ellie White.
He has to look out for his jailbird brother Charlie (Neil Fitzmaurice) and his promiscuous, drug-taking Dad Willie (Clive Russell).
Then there’s the ex-wife Kate (Samantha Spiro), who lives across the cul-de-sac with their teenage daughter Madonna (Sarah Hoare) and Kate’s obnoxious husband Ted (Patrick Baladi) who thinks he’s better than Stuart because he sells fish to sushi restaurants.
Last we saw, April gave birth to their baby. Now it’s four months later and “Mummy Bear” has gone to have some time out in a spa because it’s not going well.
She leaves “Baby Bear” with “Daddy Bear”, meaning Stuart hasn’t slept in days.
The episodes play out in real time, which adds to the absurdity of how many things can go wrong for Stuart in just half an hour.
A perennial loser, he is faced with a make-or-break day date with April to try to win her back. He even wears the dream catcher she gave him round his neck, just like he promised. Well, most of the time.
The problem is, there are constant interruptions and a problem with houmous.
A brilliant cast keeps this just on the right side of daft.