The Trouble With Maggie Cole, ITV review

The lovely locations in Devon and Cornwall played their part.

The penultimate slice of this patchy comedy-drama about a quartet of men in their mid-thirties who meet for a weekly booze-up in Stockport. Hodge (Lee Boardman) and his wife Kath (Rebekah Staton) head off for a romantic weekend away that turns out to be anything but. On-off girlfriend Colleen's frisky new ways throw neurotic Daz (Stephen Walters) into a crisis but divorcé Beggsy (Will Ash) fares rather better in the romance stakes as he finally begins to enjoy the spoils of single life. Keith Allen guest stars.

A properly funny, likeable comedy from the creators of BBC1's Worst Week Of My Life. It does nothing new at all but gets on with it unpretentiously, lightening your mood rather than widening any horizons.
Lee Boardman, Stephen Walters, William Ash and Craig Parkinson are all warmly believable as a gang of four mates who meet up for a pint or seven every week and are constantly beset by their own incompetence and misadventure. Sit back and let these pathetic man-children amuse you.

Four episodes in, and the Stockport-set comedy is still struggling to catch fire - but there are enough flickering signs of life to merit a look. Hodge (Lee Boardman) gets the jitters when his wife Kath (Rebekah Staton) suggests starting a family, not helped when his plumbing results in disaster at Daz's (Stephen Walters) house. Meanwhile, Beggsy (Will Ash) isn't happy about being used as bait for Colleen's (Naomi Bentley) peculiar flatmate Bev (Isy Suttie); and an old schoolmate (Paul Nicholls) of Glyn's attempts to renew their acquaintance.

The first lads' night out was a bit hit-and-miss in the pacing department but this comedy drama hits its stride tonight, with the chaps tapping their compassionate side when Daz gets into another spot of bother with girlfriend Colleen. Before you know it, they're all in deep water when their efforts to jolly up their mate turns round and bites them in the proverbial. Lee Boardman, William Ash, Craig Parkinson and Stephen Walters star.

This is more like it. After a shaky, tenuous, trying-a-bit-too-hard start last week, the Stockport comedy about a bunch of hapless lads hits its stride tonight. Suddenly, the likeable, daft ensemble comes into its own. There's a real collective chemistry between the four male leads: when they wind each other up or get competitive about tiny things, we can believe they've been mates since for ever. The reaction tonight when Hodge (Lee Boardman - milking every comic drop from his lines) turns up for a night's drinking in a loud yellow cardigan foisted on him by his wife feels spot on. And there are proper, splutteringly funny moments as the evening degenerates via alcohol, a string of sausages and Glyn's new boss Mad Tony. Once again Hodge's well-meaning but hopeless instincts land him in his wife's bad books. She's got a whole library.

ITV has a great reputation of making drama, but not such a great reputation for comedy. Great Night Out seems to fall somewhere in between; not bad, but not great either.

The series follows four friends from Stockport: self-appointed leader Hodge (Lee Boardman), divorcee Beggsy (William Ash), nervous Glyn (Craig Parkinson), and pessimistic Daz (Stephen Walters). The quartet each spend a big night out, often with their wives, girlfriends and love interest, while getting impractical advice from their local pub landlord Warren (Ricky Tomlinson).

In this opening episode, Hodge has cocked-up his anniversary party, which is being held at a big hotel in Manchester (the entrance into which results in a chorus of boos from the Stockport Four). As Hodge parks his car he thinks he knocks over someone, but it turns out that the person is a drunk wanting to go to London. He, Beggsy and Daz get him on the train, only to find out he is a groom who has ditched his wife at the altar. The two rush to get him off the train, but (perhaps all too predictably), they don't get him off the train in time and they find themselves going to London. Meanwhile, Glyn "stalks" his childhood sweetheart to her salsa class, with help from Warren.

As I mention, some of the plot elements do seem to be somewhat predictable, as are some of the characters. For example, there is the instant dislike of the Australian man now married to Beggsy's ex, who has also taken his daughter down under. However, there are some nice visual gags, such a roadside seller of fridges called "Sellfridges", and other odd moments such as accusations that Fireman Sam might be gay.

These moments are fleeting, however, in a show that will probably not receive the kindest of obituaries...

This new sitcom comes from the same writing team that gave us The Worst Week Of My Life, but despite a cast which includes Ricky Tomlinson as the local pub landlord, Great Night Out offers more gentle and much more obvious laughs.

Set in Stockport, it's a male bonding comedy about four ­life-long friends and Stockport County supporters played by William Ash, Lee Boardman, Craig Parkinson and Stephen Walters.

Their not-so-great night out this week finds them in Manchester's posh Midland Hotel attempting to celebrate the fifth wedding ­anniversary of their unofficial leader, Hodge.

The cast, which also includes Susie Blake and Isy Suttie in peripheral roles as well as Jessica Gunning as the Friend From Hell, should provide plenty of material for more misadventures each week. But when the biggest laughs of the episode go not to any of the leads but to a character billed only as Train Attendant, then ­something's gone a bit wrong somewhere.

The predictable parts of Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni's laddish new comedy drama about four thirtysomething friends from Stockport (football, drinking, women trouble) are buoyed by a lively script with some good one-liners. The gang comprises would-be alpha male Hodge (Lee Boardman), nerdy underdog Glyn (Craig Parkinson), chirpy divorcee Beggsy (William Ash) and pessimistic Daz (Stephen Walters). In tonight's opening episode Hodge narrowly avoids wife Kath's (Rebekah Staton) fury after botching their wedding anniversary plans.

As we're now well aware, Julie will readily grasp any chance to lord it over her colleagues, so the arrival of Valco's area manager ("we go way back") appears to be the perfect opportunity to act all superior. The trouble is that Colin Falcon turns out to be a disreputable so-and-so.

He's played by Lee Boardman (horrid Jez Quigley in Corrie). Here, Boardman's character chances his arm with Katie on the checkout and puts Julie in a very difficult situation.