Don’t dismiss this family sitcom. It’s an instant classic
The trailer for Here We Go (BBC One, Friday) has been running on the BBC for a while now, and it gave every indication of being a proper turkey. It featured an ordinary family posing for a self-timer photo in front of a suburban semi, and then – wouldn’t you know it! – the camera fell over. To the sounds of a million sides not splitting and the spectre of My Family hovering in to view.
Well, someone in marketing’s head should roll, because Here We Go is an instant, stone-cold comedy classic. Based on a lockdown pilot called Pandemonium, in its six half-hours it manages to achieve something extraordinary while working only with the most ordinary of tools – an everyday family, made up of six recognisable characters, for whom normal things just go slightly more wrong, in a funnier way, than they do for you, me and our families.
It’s a classic sitcom set-up, if you accept that the defining sitcoms of the modern age are The Simpsons and The Office. Here We Go owes plenty to both, but is also worthy of the comparison. The premise is that the teenage son, Sam, is making a documentary about his family for his media studies coursework. What we’re watching is that wonky footage spliced together by an amateur, but that means lots of long takes for the cast to improvise and play, as well as a series of time jumps that allow director Will Sinclair and creator Tom Basden to provide context. It works exceptionally well – the show is a masterpiece of subtle technique as we learn about the frustrations and resentments of mum Rachel (Katherine Parkinson), dad Paul (Jim Howick), daughter Amy (Freya Parks) and even, eventually, Sam himself (Jude Collie). Throw in a man-child, lovelorn brotherin-law (played by Basden himself) and an ever-present mother-in-law (Alison Steadman) and it offers a remarkably complete portrait of a modern British, just-about-managing family.
Except that they’re relentlessly funny. Writer Basden wrote a similarly brilliant comedy for Channel 4 called Gap Year a few years back that no one seemed to watch, so thank goodness he’s been given another go. Of course, one person’s belly laugh is another’s shoulder shrug, but I chuckled from beginning to end.
As so often in great comedy, the humour gets you through the door but the characters are what keep you there. Across the board, Here We Go is wonderfully cast, with Parkinson and Howick superb, Steadman reliably Steadman-ish and Parks excellent as the surly teenager Amy. Check out the scene at the crazy golf; marvel at the episode about the inflatable pool; go a bit gooey when you realise that Sam may have found himself a girlfriend. And get ready to welcome a new favourite family onto your screens. Benji Wilson
‘Stop being glib.” “Well, it’s one antidote to melodrama.” Having poured her heart out to Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) and been rewarded with facile deflection, Mariana Lawton’s (Lydia Leonard) frustrations were understandable – after all, their on/off affair had endured for 20 years against considerable odds. It also applied to the script: this second series of Gentleman Jack (BBC One, Sunday) has felt a little less weighty and intense than the first, heartache and humanity too often buried under the sort of arch frivolity at which, in its defence, it excels.
Much of this fourth episode however, was devoted to the serious stuff of love and disappointment, and deftly avoided melodrama at every turn. Having tried and failed to woo the married Mariana back in the last series, Anne now found the roles were reversed and had to draw on all her willpower to resist Mariana’s insistent overtures during her stay at Lawton Hall. Resentments, doubts, regrets, betrayals all surfaced, along with that barely buried mutual attraction.
The morning after Anne’s defences had crumbled, her remorse was only deepened by their taking of communion together, a surrogate wedding she had already conducted with Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle). Ann, meanwhile, had gently rebuffed a potential suitor in the gauche but kind James Ingham (Tom Morley); Anne’s reunion with her was less frenetic and more tender – a different sort of love, but no less valid. The remainder of the series seems likely to be overshadowed by guilt: if Anne doesn’t give herself away, perhaps Mariana will.
Amid the customary flashes of wry wit (it was fascinating and telling that Mariana was permitted a brief glance to camera in response to some alarmingly banal correspondence from Ann, “the insipid little heiress”), there was much to enjoy in this episode. “Isn’t life sordid and banal?” lamented Mariana. Sordid, occasionally. But banal? Not where Anne Lister is concerned. Gabriel Tate
Here We Go ★★★★★ Gentleman Jack ★★★★