Press clippings

As the flat-footed comedy about PAs nears the end of its first series, Roger (Peter Wright) is surprised by a woman from his past just as his wife comes to visit. Sally (Morven Christie) tries to avoid Steven (Tom Ellis) on their first aid course and Christine (Fay Ripley) turns to medication to try to control her drinking.

Robert Collins, The Telegraph, 17th August 2009

Apparently Monday Monday has spent a couple of years gathering dust on ITV Drama's shelf prior to broadcast. It is difficult to understand why, as this eight-part comedy drama is nothing if not likeable.

An ensemble piece, Monday Monday follows the lives and loves of white collar staff at a recently relocated supermarket chain.

It is hardly the most innovative or challenging of dramas, but it has charm and humour to spare and a top notch cast that includes Holly Aird, Jenny Agutter and Fay Ripley. Miranda Hart, comedy actress du jour, has a minor role, which gives you an idea of how long ago the series was made.

Ripley, an actress I have developed an irrational aversion to, is actually very good as Christine, an ex-alcoholic working in human resources who is totally lacking in any resources of her own.

Harry Venning, The Stage, 14th August 2009

Tonight's episode takes as its dramatic theme one of the corporate world's more abhorrent phenomena: the 360-degree appraisal. Christine (Fay Ripley) orders her staff to record their frankest thoughts about each others' "strengths and weaknesses", then while distracted by her attractive young PA commits, with a mouse's click, a managerial faux pas of pitiful daftness.

The Telegraph, 10th August 2009

Despite every fibre of its being screaming "I am but a competent ITV comedy-drama", Monday Monday is pretty likable. In this second episode Fay Ripley's Christine is in AA and trying to take back control of her working life. That's all well and good, except that she has to deal with a sexual harassment claim against resident office hunk Steven, who also happens to be sleeping with scary chief operating officer Alyson. Awkward. It's so light as to be weightless, but with a great cast (featuring Jenny Agutter, Holly Aird and the charming Morven Christie) it's definitely watchable.

The Guardian, 20th July 2009

Review of 'Monday Monday'

This is the perfect example of a good cast that are stuck with a terrible teenage script with nothing new or interesting to play with.

The Custard TV, 16th July 2009

Bad day at the office

ITV1's new recessionary comedy drama, Monday Monday, is set in the head office of a struggling supermarket chain, though it could be the head office of pretty much any struggling business, so generic is the writers' idea of a white-collar workplace. Departments like "marketing" and "human resources" are more or less interchangeable; the only visible staff members are the heads of said departments and their PAs; and the plot of the first episode was hung on such overfamiliar dramatic hooks as an office party and a hazily rationalised PowerPoint presentation.

Tim Walker, The Independent, 14th July 2009

I do love a comedy drama. The head office of a supermarket chain has moved from London to Leeds, which gives some of the characters the chance to leave messy lives behind and start again. We're talking the office environment as a source of comedy here. So the head of HR is a hopeless alcoholic. The boss is a bumbling fool. A new hotshot manager is parachuted in, complete with tarty bimbo secretary, whose job description includes sleeping with hotshot manager boss... No, you're the sexist, for thinking that she's a he, and he's a she. Unless you saw it, of course, in which case you're an idiot for not switching over to The Street. Because Monday Monday is hopeless - lame and laboured, tired and predictable, it's as if The Office never happened. It's my fault, I'm the idiot, for wanting respite from the misery.

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 14th July 2009

If BBC Three's Personal Affairs hasn't put you off office-based comedies forever, try this slightly more pleasing effort from ITV. Set in the Leeds HQ of a failing supermarket group, it sees Fay Ripley lead the charge as the firm's incompetent alcoholic Human Resources manager, Christine, with Morven Christie as Sally - her put-upon PA whose love life is even worse than her work situation. While well-known faces such as Jenny Agutter and Miranda Hart are left largely on the sidelines in this first episode, it's a rare complaint for a sitcom to have too many classy actors, even if the script is fairly mediocre.

Gerard O'Donovan, The Telegraph, 13th July 2009

Fay Ripley (star of Cold Feet and Reggie Perrin) is the best thing about this new series set in the head office of supermarket chain Butterworth's.

As the alcoholic, incompetent head of Human Resources the only reason why she still has a job must be that she's the one in charge of all the hiring and firing. But despite considerable odds, Ripley manages to make an unlikeable and unlikely character human and watchable.

The company has relocated from the capital to Leeds, and a new boss has been brought in to oversee the old boss, but that's where all similarities with The Office end as this only serves up broad cliches of office life.

You'll spot Jenny Agutter as a Battenburg-baking secretary and you might recognise Tom Ellis - Oliver Cousins in EastEnders.

He was the doctor who fell in love with Little Mo and then left Walford for a new job in Leeds. Spookily, that's exactly where Monday Monday is set and his character Steven is the tastiest item on Butterworth's stocklist, being tussled over by his own boss (Holly Aird) and put-upon PA, Sally.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 13th July 2009

Fay Ripley plays a drunken, shambolic mess of a human being in this likeable if lightweight comedy-drama series.

She's Christine Frances, head of human resources at the HQ of a struggling supermarket chain, holding things together only thanks to her trusty yet savagely abused PA, Sally (played by Morven Christie) - and looking as if she's finally facing the chop when a ruthlessly ambitious management troubleshooter (Holly Aird) comes to shake the firm up.

Sally herself, meanwhile, has fallen for hunky Steven (Tom Ellis), the arrogant guy who's personal assistant to this new bigwig - only to find he and bossy-drawers have more than just a working relationship.

A strong cast also includes Jenny Agutter, Neil Stuke, Peter Wight and Saikat Ahamed.

Mike Ward, The Daily Express, 13th July 2009

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