David Stubbs (I)

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Press clippings Page 7

The last in what has been a fine series, audacious in transferring The Inbetweeners' themes of male inadequacy and humiliation into a first world war setting. Tonight, the soldiers return to Rittle-On-Sea on leave, providing a welcome relief for the boys, whose man-love is almost a match for the women. George, however, finds himself regretting the advice he gives to a private who wants to become a conscientious objector, displaying no conscience at all when his tenuous "engagement" to Winky comes under threat.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 26th September 2013

Jason Byrne created and stars in this sitcom as house husband Tom Whyte, whose attempts to be a domestic god result in chaos and grief, not helped by his rambunctious sons. A joke about a malfunctioning bathroom door evokes reminders of Outnumbered, which this isn't; it's more like a superficial sequence of calamities. However, an incident concerning some baked beans is well conceived, while Father Ted's Pauline McLynn, with her old-school vegetable-boiling methods, adds solid support.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 18th September 2013

Chickens may be vulnerable to the suggestion that it's merely The Inbetweeners transferred to the first world war, but that scarcely matters as it continues to deliver the laughs. The set-up of humiliated young men and the gulf between themselves and the unimpressed opposite sex works just fine here. Tonight, a girl appears out of the blue asking to be Cecil's girlfriend, to his natural suspicion. Meanwhile, a toilet paper/poetry related incident sees Bert ejected from the cottage, only for him to land in a rather more luxurious abode.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 5th September 2013

A boon for those feeling starved of James Corden on our screens, as he and the gang return with a new series of the sports challenge show, with Red and Blue teams pitted against one another in the usual series of challenges. These include everything from a game of one-on-one football in zorb suits to a matchmaking game involving improbable celebrities including Steven Gerrard and Kim Cattrall, culminating in a speed quiz/assault course combo. Guests include Jamie Redknapp, Freddie Flintoff, Jimmy Carr and Jack Whitehall.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 23rd August 2013

Originally a Channel 4 pilot, the playfully anachronistic Chickens stars Inbetweeners Joe Thomas and Simon Bird, alongside Jonny Sweet. They play George, Cecil and Bert, left behind in Rittle-On-Sea in 1914 as the rest of the men head off to the great war. Living together in a cottage daubed with scornful graffiti by the townswomen, the trio - a conscientious objector, a flat-footed reject and a bounder - make comedic hay of their moral and sexual shame in this highly promising opener.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 22nd August 2013

It's back to basics for Coogan as he and a skeleton crew tour a series of medium-sized venues in Australia and New Zealand, showcasing Paul and Pauline Calf, Tony Ferrino and Alan Partridge. It was Coogan's idea, but he occasionally betrays Partridgian tetchiness at the privations he must undergo: "soul-sucking" venues, lousy hotels and problems with seating arrangements. He's game, though, and you feel he's very much pushing at an open door with the Aussie audiences. Continues Wednesday.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 6th August 2013

A You've Been Framed! for the 21st century, stuffed with viral hits culled from YouTube of dancing dogs, collapsing shelves in warehouses and a screaming man holding a condom out of a car window and the like. No man-made comedy can match all this, of course, but so that the viewer doesn't feel short-changed, Walsh fills out the show with some passable sketch material and standup, musing on such mildly risque and diverse topics as one-night stand embarrassment and bulk toilet roll purchase.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 16th July 2013

This week, in Sky's showcase for emerging talent, Isy Suttie, AKA Peep Show's Dobby, co-writes and stars in a short, surreal "musical", Miss Wright, about a cafe worker besotted with a railway station employee. The songs don't help. Better is Aphrodite Fry, scripted by seasoned playwright Sarah Solemani of Him & Her, about a Brighton artist disappointed by an extremely short sexual encounter with a local businessman, who hatches a plot to mete out the same treatment to his colleague: to "come and go", so to speak.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 4th April 2013

Two more shorts for what is effectively a showcase for comic talent old and new, playing interconnected characters all living in Clapham. Johnny Vegas co-writes and stars in the first as Rupert, bereaved proprietor of the Kinky Ink tattoo parlour, whose dad has left him in hock to effete local villain Paul Kaye. It doesn't rise above the sadness of its predicament, however. More successful is Fergus & Crispin, played by Toms Sourton and Palmer, a pair of plummily clueless entrepreneurs. Victorian bingo, anyone?

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 18th February 2013

There's been room for a while in the schedules for a show that reflects the relentless mickey-taking that bonds groups of young males, and this is it. Set in Stockport, amid the world of pub outings, iffy jobs and the faintest hint of recession, it's cheery, cosy stuff, driven by a frantic banjo soundtrack and the assurance of Ricky Tomlinson as the pub landlord. Tonight, our four lads plan a night out, but it's Hodge who literally draws the short straw after a drink-spiking caper goes wrong, forcing him to stand in as chauffeur to a local hardman's drunken girlfriend.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 17th January 2013

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