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Whites - In The PressAlan Davies' Whites. Hulu. Now. Should you find yourself in need of a new British comedy fix, hope over to Hulu and check out Whites, starring Alan Davies, Darren Boyd and Katherine Parkinson. Written by Bill Young. Tellyspotting, 25th July 2011 Alan Davies not amused by 'shoddy' treatment by BBC Alan Davies, the star of Jonathan Creek, speaks out after the BBC failed to tell him face-to-face that it was dropping his sitcom. Written by Richard Eden. The Sunday Telegraph, 8th May 2011 Bring Back Whites campaign gathering steam Full disclosure upfront. I have only seen two episodes from the first (and only) season of the BBC situation comedy, Whites, starring Alan Davies as an executive chef at a country house hotel that has "past his sell-by date". That said, I feel qualified to comment on the current "Bring Back Whites" campaign as this is a show that I have been tracking since it went in to production. Written by Bill Young. Tellyspotting, 18th March 2011 I was delighted my post about the online campaign to save the BBC2 sitcom Whites was very much appreciated. Last I checked, it has been re-tweeted 167 times and shared on Facebook 67 times. A special thanks to @britishcomedyguide and Whites stars @alandavies1 and @isysuttie for helping in that endeavour. Written by Dan Owen. Dan's Media Digest, 16th March 2011 Feature: Bring Back Whites... Please Most of you reading this will probably have at some point been a fan of a TV programme that has been cancelled by its host channel prior to it reaching its natural or intended conclusion. Personally I struggle to think of any, well that was the case right up to the point when the BBC decided not to commission a second series of the sitcom Whites. Written by Dave Cookson. Tinned Goods, 12th March 2011 So what can you, the public, do to try and save Whites? Written by Dan Owen. Dan's Media Digest, 8th March 2011 New British comedy Whites follows the trials and tribulations of head chef Roland White (actor and comedian Alan Davies) and his long-suffering sous chef Bib (Darren Boyd) at a country house hotel. Written by David Mark. The West Australian, 4th March 2011 So here we are, Episode Six, the end of the series and the end of a long and eventful journey for all those involved in the making of Whites. We really hope you've enjoyed the series and it's conclusion in this final episode. Written by Oliver Lansley. BBC Comedy Blog, 2nd November 2010 Whites: Opportunity and Betrayal Episode Five was a very exciting episode for many reasons. Written by Oliver Lansley. BBC Comedy Blog, 26th October 2010 Matt King and Oli Lansley's slightly offbeat country kitchen sitcom is up there with Rev as one of the best comedy debuts of the year. Among the main cast - led by Alan Davies's chef Roland - Michelin-starred delights come from Isy Suttie's dippy waitress and Stephen Wight's turn as the menacingly ambitious (and weird) trainee chef Skoose. Tonight, Roland breaks the heart of his long-suffering sous chef Bib when he names Skoose as his sous for a TV cooking segment, and Australian comic Mark Little (AKA Joe Mangel from Neighbours) guests. Five episodes in and this sitcom is starting to get interesting. Roland White - no relation, presumably, to Raymond Blanc - struggles on as head chef in a country house hotel, battling his own delusions and his worryingly insane new employee. Alan Davies in the lead role is remarkably likeable, and the characters are all given room to breathe. Isy Suttie, the stand-up comic and musician best known for her role as Dobby, the object of Mark's affection in Channel 4's Peep Show, gets a good part as the impenetrably stupid waitress Kiki. To summarise my thoughts now we're four episodes into its run: this is a really good sitcom that deserves wider attention. It's witty and has a reality to it, albeit with comical twists. The characters feel like actual people, so you therefore find yourself becoming invested in them dramatically. Alan Davies is good as Roland White, but it's Darren Boyd I'm really enjoying, as harassed sous chef Bib. The last few episodes have involved climaxes that poke fun at disabilities (a woman with one arm, Parkinson's Disease), which is a little alarming, but I can't say they weren't very funny. What I like about Whites is that I believe it. It feels like a real kitchen and that the characters really are who they say they are - even though they are all very familiar faces. Written by James Cary. Sitcom Geek blog, 20th October 2010 The food and the kitchen side of Whites was always incredibly important to Matt and I. Written by Oliver Lansley. BBC Comedy Blog, 19th October 2010 Another helping of this amiable kitchen comedy serves up subtle laughs from fairly predictable ingredients. Tonight's plot sees a visit from the health-and-safety inspector, Heather Critch (Julia Deakin), whose fearsome reputation forces Roland White (Alan Davies) to abandon his usual plan of bribery. His efforts to clean up the kitchen, however, are undermined by waitress Kiki (Isy Suttie) making a hash of her role as fire-safety officer. Nadia Albina, who played Alison in Episode 3 of Whites, talks about appearing in the show. Written by Nadia Albina. BBC Comedy Blog, 12th October 2010 Another terrific episode of this beautifully observed, very funny comedy about not-quite-superchef Roland White (Alan Davies) and his oddball kitchen staff. Tonight an "elite car" gathering at Thaxted Manor brings a whiff of romance Roland's way, with utterly cringe-making results. Yet again, pretty much every member of the cast gets at least one killer line. Like the culinary artists it satirises, Whites is a sitcom that blends ingredients that are sometimes traditional, often subtle, but are increasingly surreal. Tonight's episode finds Roland, sous chef Bib and new arrival Skoose balancing a number of different plates. Bib has a narrow window in his schedule to deliver an offering to the fertility clinic, only to be thwarted by ducks crossing the road. Skoose lets power go to his head. Roland, meanwhile, finds he is headed for disaster when he dates a powerful woman, who has a disability (that he hasn't yet noticed). So here we are at Episode Two. We've survived the transmission of our first ep and been very lucky to get a few nice previews and reviews. Written by Oliver Lansley. BBC Comedy Blog, 5th October 2010 Alan Davies's depressed head chef, Roland White, becomes even more downcast tonight when a celebrity chef, Shay Marshall (Kevin Bishop) turns up at his restaurant and highlights the disparity in their fortunes. Since Marshall is little more than a caricature, however, it's hard to take White's animosity towards him seriously. So numerous and so pronounced are the foibles of the modern celebrity chef that this sitcom manages to satirise most of them without ever making it seem as if it's going after a particular individual. Tonight, Roland (played by Alan Davies; but increasingly using the mannerisms of Richard Ayoade) finds his patience sorely tested when superchef Shay Marshall pays the restaurant a visit. Interestingly, he decides now is the time to greenlight Bib's pretentious new menu. Staff locked in the fridge? Whites has kitchen culture right, says chef Norman Mackenzie - he once found someone in an oven. Written by Laura Barnett. The Guardian, 3rd October 2010 I've never found Alan Davies as hilarious as he finds himself on QI, but I did laugh at his new sitcom Whites, in which he played Roland, the bored genius head chef of a country-house restaurant, lazing about dictating a memoir about his love for offal instead of getting on with some work. Admittedly, it wasn't great that he started with a joke from the back of the fridge ("If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of meat"), but he made up for it with sharper asides as he sparred likably with demanding colleagues, notably front of house manager Caroline (the great Katherine Parkinson from The IT Crowd) who thought Roland ought to do more vegetarian, and frazzled sous chef Bib (Darren Boyd), who thought Roland ought to do more of anything. Whites is another not particularly funny sitcom for BBC Two but is ok in balance, and doesn't pander to swearing chef stereotypes. Written by Steven Cookson. Suite 101, 29th September 2010 Having watched last night's opening episode of Whites, I'd put the BBC's latest offering firmly in the "slow-burner" category. Written by Jane Murphy. Orange Blog, 29th September 2010 |
