Gigglebox weekly #33 - Milton Jones's House of Rooms

Having seen this pilot, I can sum up my reaction to it with one word: brilliant. This is possibly the best TV pilot I've seen, so much so I was laughing all the way through.

Review: Milton Jones's House of Rooms

More than any other Comedy Showcase sitcom this year, I'd most like to see House Of Rooms become a full-blown series.

Probably the only sitcom this year in which episode titles are carried off by binmen, letters are dictated with soundtrack and effects, and epic battles of good and evil are waged by gas salesmen, House of Rooms is a pleasingly off-kilter affair with lo-fi charm to burn. Jones the writer and performer has the rare gift of being appealing quirky without apparently trying too hard, while Cordelia Bugeja is adorable and faintly sinister as Milton's tongue-tied object of desire. Susie Blake (aged up convincingly as Milton's mum) and Alexander Kirk (as weirdo tenant Tony) round out an impressive cast of oft-unappreciated performers in one Comedy Showcase we fervently hope receives a full commission.

There's a surreal edge to Milton Jones's one-liners and wordplay and, in this sitcom pilot, things get odder still. He's a wide-eyed befuddled sort who lives with his mum in a house full of tenants, including an overconfident Aussie making eyes at the super-timid love of Jones' life. Whether it'll make a full series is anyone's guess; if co-writer Jones employs the quips and sight gags that serve his stand-up career so well, it's got a fighting chance.

Having proved his mettle on shows like Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Lee Mack's All Star Cast, the charmingly eccentric stand-up comic Milton Jones turns his hand to sitcom tonight with this one-off pilot episode. Sadly no preview discs were available, but the set-up looks promising, with Jones starring as a gaffe-prone man who lives with his mother and a handful of lodgers in a battered old house. If past form is anything to go by, viewers can expect a good deal of surreal humour and some brilliant non-sequiturs.

He of the wild, staring eyes, Milton Jones has until now been the preserve of the stand-up and panel-show circuits, but here he appears on our tellies as a 21st-century Rigsby. Milton and his mother live together, renting out some of their spare rooms to various peculiar tenants. But the equally peculiar landlord is entranced by Alice, a girl of few words to whom he cannot quite succeed in conveying his passions. When competition turns up, in the shape of new tenant Paul, Milton is forced to up his game.

Milton Jones interview

Milton Jones talks about House Of Rooms, the testosterone packed Mock the Week, and more...