Press clippings

In The Loop: this is the greatest political comedy of all time

Before Armando Iannucci made Veep, this spinoff of another political comedy series set the bar high for the genre.

Liam Gaughan, Collider, 25th April 2023

Christmas is the perfect time to rewatch Rev

Tom Hollander made us laugh at the hypocrisy of religion, but also showed us human kindness.

Tim Adams, The Guardian, 18th December 2021

Our favourite films: About Time

Is there a more perfect title?

Leigh Lim, Comedy To Watch, 18th March 2021

BBC to broadcast Comic Relief pantomime

BBC Two is to broadcast Cinderella: A Comic Relief Pantomime For Christmas on 24th December. Stars include Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter, with the stars of This Country as The Evil Step Sisters.

British Comedy Guide, 3rd December 2020

Having gentle fun at the expense of A-listers without making them look too foolish, Graham Norton's chatshow shtick is the best around. Tonight, with the summer blockbuster season well upon us, he welcomes Mark Wahlberg, promoting Transformers: The Last Knight, Tom Holland of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis, lately monkeying around in War for the Planet of the Apes. Plus, Alison Moyet performs.

Jonathan Wright, The Guardian, 16th June 2017

Rev is over - but writer is working with Mat Baynton

It looks like Rev, the brilliant BBC2 comedy in which Tom Hollander played inner city vicar Adam Smallbone, is over. But fans will be pleased to learn that its writer James Wood is working on a BBC pilot with Mat Baynton.

Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 20th October 2015

Miles Jupp would be 'surprised' if Rev returns

Rev star and comic Miles Jupp has said he does not envisage a return of the popular TV comedy Rev, in which he starred with Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman.

BBC News, 8th September 2015

This phenomenally darker, third (and possibly final) series ended, as was mete, on a hanging note of cochineal bittersweet. Tom Hollander's Adam has pretty much lost the parish but regained a few friendships: friendships he didn't particularly want in the first place - archdeacon Rob, and lovely archfiend Colin (Steve Evets), than whom few supporting characters in a "sitcom" have ever been more subtly drawn or well portrayed. But their dogged belief in him, now reciprocated with genuine warmth, has been one of the many lessons on our journey through Rev, and at times it's been a gruelling one. Crucially, of course, he's regained the forgiving friendship of his wife, Alex: Olivia Colman, of course, with that trainstopping smile. "You just stopped being a vicar for Lent."

Never twee, always in surgeon-skilled hands, and it would be a crime greater than all those above [cop shows previously mentioned in the review] not to have someone thinking furiously about the machinations required to get Adam back to our screens for a fourth series.

Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 3rd May 2014

This potentially final series has been brilliant. The last two episodes in particular, featuring Tom Hollander's Adam Smallborne's crisis of faith, have been truly spectacular. With Adam's resignation at the end of episode five, St Saviour's was demolished and the former vicar was now left looking for a new job.

James Wood's brilliant script perfectly demonstrated Adam's breakdown as he started to stay in bed all day and ignore the cries of his own daughter. In a lovely narrative twist we heard the thoughts of Alex (Olivia Coleman), Nigel (Miles Jupp) and Archdeacon Robert (Simon McBurney) as they all spoke to God; which is a plot device usually only saved for Adam.

Rev is one of those programmes that I wasn't instantly entranced by but I've grown to love over the years. This last series has been particularly brilliant and is a testament to all involved particularly Hollander, Wood and director Peter Cattaneo.

The Custard TV, 3rd May 2014

Radio Times review

If you thought tormented vicar Adam Smallbone couldn't fall any lower than he did in the last upsetting episode, think again. Adam (Tom Hollander) is debased to the point of hopelessness. He's listless and depressed, and pretends that he doesn't mind being suspended. Who wants to be a vicar anyway, he asks his forbearing wife, Alex, unconvincingly.

Adam feels cut off and alone. Even decrepit Colin has turned on him in the most vituperative way, and his verger, Nigel, the cause of all the trouble, is angry and unrepentant.

As Adam frantically gardens at night, it is clear, in the final episode of the series, that nothing can ever be the same again. It's too, too sad. Much too sad.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 28th April 2014