Fresh Meat review

When I first watched Fresh Meat I had no idea what to expect from the show or that over four years on it would still be going strong. However somehow Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's university-based comedy drama has gone from strength to strength and they've been given the rare opportunity to end the series in the way they want to.

9 questions for the cast of Fresh Meat

JP, Vod, Howard, Oregon, Kingsley and Josie are back for one final series. But is this really the end of the Channel 4 comedy?

Fresh Meat cast interview

Towards the end of last year, I caught up with the cast of Fresh Meat; Zawe Ashton (Vod), Charlotte Ritchie (Oregon), Joe Thomas (Kingsley), Kimberley Nixon (Josie) and Jack Whitehall (JP), ahead of the fourth (and sadly) final series.

Kimberley Nixon on the ending of Fresh Meat

'Ending Fresh Meat was like leaving uni, giving birth and getting married all at the same time.'

Penned by Jon Ronson, this opening episode of Playhouse Presents is a quirky silent comedy about, well, dog throwing. Tim Key puts his outsider comic skills to good use as Jonah, a dog walker who observes Matthew Perry's "Charismatic Man" tossing his hound into the air and receiving a rapturous response from a gathering crowd. Jonah, after the same adoration, starts doing the same with his canine Floppy, but things, inevitably, don't quite go to plan. Kimberley Nixon also stars.

Radio Times review

Bustling Denise is off to a training weekend, leaving husband Joe and granny Dot home alone. The pair are under strict instructions not to set foot in the sanctified "Good Room" but, of course, the temptation proves overwhelming. Soon the pair are enjoying the delights of this forbidden place, but the arrival of Dot's persistent and embarrassingly inappropriate suitor Arthur (played by the wonderful John Woodvine) brings only destruction. As for expectant parents Jack and Sarah (Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon), they are suffering the petty humiliations of an antenatal class.

Hebburn and its ramshackle cast of cheerful Geordies are sweet and have a certain charm. But the humour is so low-key it's barely audible.

Chirpy Geordie comedian Chris Ramsey returns as chirpy Geordie journalist Jack - he's pretty much playing his stand-up self - in this old-school family sitcom where love means insulting your nearest and dearest. Jack's not quite such a lad this time around. He's been promoted to editor of the local newspaper and has a baby on the way to boot. He's got numbskulls at work to deal with and girlfriend Sarah (Fresh Meat's Kimberley Nixon) is putting the pressure on to find a place of their own. It's enough to put the dampener on any lad's chirpiness...

It's good to be back in the Tyneside town of Hebburn again, with the chaotic, rambling and well-meaning Geordie family nestled in its warm heart. Young married couple Jack and Sarah (Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon) are still unwilling lodgers with Jack's parents Pauline and Joe (Gina McKee and Jim 'Vic Reeves' Moir). But Sarah's nesting instinct is overpowering now that she's pregnant, hormonal and desperate for a home of her own.

Jack is editing the hopeless local newspaper ("Dog Burns Down Factory") and Jack's mother, the magnificently passive/aggressive Dot (Pat Dunn) is still hurling barbs at Pauline. There are some great satellite characters - deluded wannabe popstar Gervaise and brassy care home worker Denise - and though the laughs might not be hearty, you'll smile a lot.

The BBC currently seems unwilling to countenance comedy with any sharp edges - this returning domestic sitcom is fine as far as it goes, but remains very much in the tradition of gentle family shows like Gavin & Stacey. The series opens at Betty's funeral - it's a convenient way of bringing the wider family together in one place so that scenes can be set and minor beefs amplified.

Kimberley Nixon's Sarah is pregnant and stressed, Pauline (Gina McKee) is somewhat put-upon and Joe (Jim 'Vic Reeves' Moir) is still recovering slowly from his stroke. The performances are very likeable and Jason Cook's writing occasionally hints at some turbulence beneath the surface. But generally, this is affirmative and big-hearted, but also predictable and passive to a fault.