DVD review: Upstart Crow

You could feel the shockwaves reverberating around the British comedy world for days afterwards: Ben Elton had written a good sitcom.

Last in the series of Richard Pinto's amiably silly sitcom about sixtysomethings - and in June Whitfield's case, ninetysomethings - resolutely failing to behave like old folks. Tonight, Joan (Whitfield) appears to have landed herself a 70-year-old toy boy, Roy. Joyce and Maureen are convinced that he's after her money but it turns out to be more complex than that. Good to see Paula Wilcox back on screen, so underused since Man About The House.

Bobby Ball & Paula Wilcox delighted to be back

TV legends Bobby Ball and Paula Wilcox are relishing being back in the Sky One family drama Mount Pleasant.

The new series of Mount Pleasant starts tonight and, although it's new, it'll give you a weird sense of deja vu. You'll constantly be thinking you've seen it before, and asking where the nagging sense of familiarity comes from. It's probably because all of the cast have appeared in other soaps. There's Sally Lindsay, also known as Shelley from Coronation Street. There's Samantha Womack who played Ronnie in EastEnders and also her old co-star Nigel Harman, who was Dennis Rickman, plus Paula Wilcox from Emmerdale and several other recognisable faces.

Perhaps Mount Pleasant is where the soap actors go whenever work dries up. Being in its fifth series it certainly sounds like a nice, steady source of employment for them.

The show is set in a quiet Manchester cul-de-sac and describes itself as "dramedy", which isn't a camel but a melding of drama and comedy.

In this episode, the main characters, Lisa and Dan, are having marriage problems, which are exacerbated by the arrival of some new neighbours.

Bobby Ball and Paula Wilcox interview

I speak to comedy legends Bobby Ball and Paula Wilcox who play Barry and Pauline. Barry is Lisa's dad and Pauline is Dan's mum. From what they had to say it sounds like it's going to be a brilliant series.

The Boomers are off to a 60s weekender in the final episode. Disaster inevitably strikes: first when a double booking forces them to share rooms, and then when Carol (Paula Wilcox) bumps into an old flame at the bar. Joyce (Alison Steadman) steals the show with plenty of one-liners, including one about a man who nailed his penis to a block of "two-be-four", but generally the ensemble cast's attempts to prove they're not really that old raise a load of wry smiles.

Radio Times review

The Boomers muster for an anniversary dinner at a pretentious restaurant, but there's an immediate cloud over proceedings when long-suffering Carol (Paula Wilcox) announces she's bored with Trevor (James Smith), her husband of 40 years.

What follows is half an hour of creaking comedy that's occasionally crude and often quite unpleasant, particularly when Maureen's ageing, wheelchair-using mum (the mighty June Whitfield, rising majestically above the quality of the material) joins the party. Cue limp gags about the bodily functions of the elderly.

Most of the jokes fall to the floor, though there is a ribald, funny quip about a well-known pizza chain.

Radio Times review

This sitcom from Richard Pinto (Citizen Khan) will be clasped to the bosom of anyone who loves New Tricks, as Boomers centres on a group of old-timers, friends from years back, who find themselves out of kilter with the modern world.

The humour is broad and painted with the widest brush strokes and there are echoes of Victor Meldrew's curmudgeonly head-butting against the idiocies of political correctness and life in general. The cast includes some solid comedy names, including Russ Abbot as the dourest member of the group and Nigel Planer as the wide boy with the newly acquired young Eastern European wife (feel free to let out a weary groan).

The women (Alison Steadman, Paula Wilcox, Stephanie Beacham) always win out in any given situation as their hopeless blokes go to the pub. In the opening episode, everyone gathers at a funeral.