Money's too tight to mention in the Moone household. Which means Martin (David Rawle) has to get a job if he's ever going to own a Sega Mega Drive, 'the single greatest thing my little eyes have ever witnessed.' So he heads to the golf club, where Chris O'Dowd's charming comedy drives us into the heart of a green-eyed rivalry between Martin's dad Liam (Peter McDonald) and his nemesis, the devious local bank manager, which stretches back decades. Cue flashbacks with very tight shorts.

Following in the wake of children's classic Swallows And Amazons, this comedy gem sails the action 60 years on, to a small-town backwater in Ireland, where young Martin (David Rawle) and his best flesh-and-blood buddy Padraic (Ian O'Reilly) are lashing together a tatty raft for some aquatic Halloween adventures. Of course imaginary best friends Sean Murphy (Chris O'Dowd) and Crunchie Haystacks (Johnny Vegas) jump aboard and when they see land ahoy, things really get rollicking...

Radio Times review

The funniest visit yet to where eccentricity isn't just welcomed but actually celebrated. It's summer 1990 and, while Martin and his best (strangest) pal Padraic build a raft for some Huckleberry Finn-ish japes, Martin's sisters are both having size issues. Mother Moone is tiptoeing around Sinead's weight gain, and Fidelma is fired from Bible readings in church for being unmarried and pregnant.

From a priestly Mexican stand-off to a bargain-basement Enya video, Chris O'Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy's crackpot sitcom fires on all of its numerous cylinders. Joy, bottled.

Going back a few years to 1990 was the second series of Sky One's Moone Boy which catapulted us right into the time that Ireland was gripped by World Cup fever. Both Martin Moone (David Rawle) and his imaginary friend Sean (Chris O'Dowd) are obsessed with the tournament and want to stay in and watch every minute of the match. Even Martin's mother (Deirdre O'Kane) is gripped with the action and only his father (Peter McDonald) remains unconvinced by the joy of the beautiful game. So the Moones remain dejected when they are forced to go on holiday by Mr Moone. Martin is so frustrated that he aims to hitch all the way back to Boyle, but ends up being taken in by a Romanian family. The only problem is that Martin has to watch the clash between Romania and Ireland at the house of said family meaning he finds it hard to show any joy when his team wins the match.

The first series of Moone Boy was a glorious treat that Sky One gave to us back in 2012 and I was worried that this second run couldn't live up to it. Thankfully, I was wrong and by the time we saw Mrs Moone screaming at her TV, I knew we were back in safe territory. Incredibly funny, Moone Boy also rings true primarily when it deals with the dynamics of the Moone family and the characteristics of Martin's three sisters. O'Dowd employs the period setting to maximum effect as he focuses on an event that we all remember and then creates as many comic scenarios as he possibly can. Young David Rawle is perfect as Martin, combining the wide-eyed innocence of a young lad with superb comic delivery. O'Dowd himself is better used as a writer than star with Sean's presence becoming seemingly unnecessary in every episode. Alongside Rawle, it is some of the other younger cast members who really shine namely Aoife Duffin as Martin's sister Trisha and Ian O'Reilly as his extremely enthusiastic friend Padriac. Ultimately Moone Boy is a joy to watch as it's a comedy that's actually funny and one that presents realistic characters in an identifiable situation.

In Moone Boy, David Rawle's Martin Moone took us back to the painful days of the school disco with a Dirty Dancing routine that managed to be funny and touching and sweetly embarrassing all at the same time. You don't get that on Strictly...

It's only two episodes in but Chris O'Dowd's memoirs-of-an-adolescence sitcom set in a rural Ireland backwater at the end of the 1980s is already shaping up as one of the comedies of the year.

It's a long time since I had a crush on a teacher but it's a blush you never quite lose and, as Moone got caught up in the wafting skirts of his dreamy new art teacher (not literally, that would be pervy), I was right back there in second-year geography, puzzling over the miracle of how terminal moraine could be so darn horny. No names, not even now, my cheeks are burning up.

Can romance do the impossible - literally, impossible - and drive a wedge between young Martin Moone and his imaginary best friend, Sean? They've both got a crush on hippychick art teacher (Amy Huberman) and their shared passion comes to a head at the school dance. But nobody's going to put Sean or Martin in the corner when there's a Dirty Dancing lift to be pulled off... David Rawle and Chris O'Dowd charm the socks off us in this peerless comedy.

Radio Times review

Here's something to consider: if we lost The IT Crowd star turned Bridesmaids big-hitter Chris O'Dowd to Hollywood completely, we wouldn't have this fizzy and fabulous Irish sitcom. And that would be disastrous, frankly.

Clearly a very personal project, it fancifully depicts the 12-year-old O'Dowd - in the shape of Martin Moone - growing up in 90s County Roscommon. The quirk is that O'Dowd plays Martin's grown-up imaginary friend, Seán Murphy, and that quirk is given a fresh twist tonight in the context of a school disco.

It's the first day of secondary school and while Martin is nonplussed by the girls' conversation topics, the dishy, bohemian art teacher Miss Tivnan turns his little head. Less hyperactive than previous episodes, it's nevertheless a scrumptious buffet of sight gags, knuckle-gnawing cringe and punch-the-air individuality.

Chris O'Dowd: I turned down big movies for Moone Boy

You get the sense success has caught laid-back Chris O'Dowd on the hop.

Moone Boy is hair-rufflingly, cheek-pinchingly cute, with its little-boy-and-imaginary-friend premise, but this series opener is a little short on laughs. It's now 1990 and the Republic of Ireland are playing in the World Cup for the first time. Little Martin Moone is disgusted at the thought of a family holiday at such a crucial moment, but his dad is determined that they should all head to Donegal. Cue a trip to a mystery house with imaginary friend Sean (Chris O'Dowd) and a suitably nostalgic fallout.

Sporting their matching knitted bobble hats, Martin Moone (David Rawle) and his imaginary friend, Sean Murphy (Chris O'Dowd), make a welcome return for a second series of O'Dowd's enchantingly bonkers semi-autobiographical tales of growing up in small-town Ireland. It's summer 1990 and Ireland is gripped by World Cup fever - all except Martin's dad (Peter McDonald), who packs his clan into a van to head across the county border for a holiday filled with football-free adventure. At least, that's his plan...