Such Brave Girls review

Properly brutal and properly funny.

Paul Bazely & Janine Duvitski interview

Last seen in the final episode of Series 4, Troy is back in Benidorm and once again played by Paul Basely. Also back, following the very sad death of Kenny Ireland who played her on-screen husband Donald, is Janine Duvitski as Benidorm's most prolific swinger, Jacqueline Stewart.

Radio Times review

Benidorm is ailing. I speak as one who loved the earlier series but, as the eighth opens, it can barely crank out an ounce of credibility in the storylines, let alone a decent laugh. The Garveys are gone and with them any clout Steve Pemberton, Sheila Reid and Siobhan Finneran brought to the show (although Reid will be back for a guest spot).

A new family, the Dawsons (headed by a shrill Julie Graham), make little impact, while Joyce (Sherrie Hewson) seriously considers hiring the deeply unsavoury Marcus (Robin Askwith).

On a positive note, Jacqueline gives her late hubby Donald a touching send-off, aided by hairdresser Troy (Paul Bazely, returning after four years away).

Four further adventures of nice Nick (Paul Bazely), who inherited a house only to find it occupied by charming but dodgy Hazelbeach (Jamie Foreman). Since then, in this lively comedy by Caroline and David Stafford, they've managed to live under the same roof. But the first of their latest series starts with lightning striking that very roof, water pouring in and the dreaded James, Nick's girlfriend's former husband, sneaking in too. You don't have to believe that every atom of the story could be true. But Nick's misadventures with roof men sound only too familiar.

Popular though it may be, Benidorm, the sitcom starring Sheila Reid, can be distasteful. In tonight's penultimate episode of the third series, dishonesty pervades the Spanish seaside resort: Gavin (Hugh Sachs) learns that Troy (Paul Bazely) is apparently cheating on him, while the elaborate stories of the Oracle (Johnny Vegas) land him in a spot of bother with the local police. Elsewhere, Diana (Una Stubbs) arrives to help her recently conned son Martin (Nicholas Burns) get back on his feet.

Ronnie Hazelbeach is a nice sort, but pretty dodgy. The exposition at the start of this new series gets you into the picture quite smartly. He (played by Jamie Foreman) shares a house with nice but really gullible Nick (Paul Bazely). Enter a third man, James (Neil Stuke), who's not nice at all and has come from the arms of Nick's true love. She's thrown him out and he's got nowhere to go. Will they let him move into their house of menopause? David and Caroline Stafford's comedy is full of such sundry quips and insights into the male mind.