Michael Aitkens

Fear, Stress & Anger: Peter Davison and Georgia Tennant's lost sitcom

Lost Listings is where we rediscover forgotten shows and talk to the people who made them. In this edition: Peter Davison, Georgia Tennant, Michael Aitkens and Daisy Aitkens look back on their short-lived 2007 comedy.

Michael Aitkens - Waiting for God interview

From screen to stage with creator Michael Aitkens.

Waiting for God review

The main comedy though is firmly in the dialogue, very slick, very quick and very funny. Aitkens has now achieved an age to appreciate the problems and perhaps put a more personal slant on the writing.

Mindful of its tacky image, Carlton doubtless thought that throwing money at a show with a posh bird like Joanna Lumley and the word "class" in the title would guarantee ratings and quality. It didn't, and all they've succeeded in producing is a thoroughly plebeian series about a toff, totally lacking the genuine class that Thames achieved with the low-life cast of Minder.

Which brings me to Michael Aitkens and his latest comedy series, Honey For Tea (BBC1, Sunday). [...] This is, without the slightest doubt, the worst sitcom the BBC has produced in a decade, stunning even the studio audience (who are let in free, and are, therefore, always grateful) into occasional silence.

Moving to the other extreme of the sitcom life cycle, retirement home series Waiting For God (BBC1) stakes a claim for involuntary euthanasia that grows more compelling by the week. The once inventive and sharply-scripted show now shuffles along like a geriatric without a zimmer, having abandoned wit in favour of slapstick, and characterisation in place of caricature.