British Comedy Guide
Tracey Ullman's Show. Tracey Ullman. Copyright: BBC / Allan McKeown Presents
Tracey Ullman's Show

Tracey Ullman's Show

  • TV sketch show
  • BBC One
  • 2016 - 2017
  • 12 episodes (2 series)

BBC sketch show starring character comedian and actor Tracey Ullman. Also features Tony Gardner, Elizabeth Berrington, Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Katherine Jakeways, Samantha Spiro and more.

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Series 1, Episode 2

Tracey Ullman's Show. Image shows from L to R: Tracey Ullman, Steve Pemberton. Copyright: BBC / Allan McKeown Presents
In this episode Tracey plays the Duchess of Cornwall as she babysits Prince George for the day, a man who treats the local coffee shop as his own personal office, and the wife of a Midlands couple returning from holiday to find an illegal immigrant hidden under their motorhome. Plus Dame Judi Dench causes trouble in a five-star hotel, the tutor in a Silver Surfers computer class offers some extraordinary tips, and Angela Merkel entertains embassy staff with a song.

Preview clips

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 18th January 2016
Time
10:45pm
Channel
BBC One
Length
30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Tracey Ullman Various
Tony Gardner Ensemble Actor
Daniel Lawrence Taylor Ensemble Actor
Samantha Spiro Ensemble Actor
Gwen Taylor Ensemble Actor
Jason Forbes Ensemble Actor
Zahra Ahmadi Ensemble Actor
Jamie Demetriou Ensemble Actor
Lucy Montgomery Ensemble Actor
Joan Linder Ensemble Actor
Sue Elliott-Nicholls Ensemble Actor
Guest cast
Kim Wall Ensemble Actor
Steve Pemberton Ensemble Actor
Callum Biggs (as Callum Briggs) Ensemble Actor
Derek Griffiths Ensemble Actor
Writing team
Kevin Cecil Writer
Andy Riley Writer
Georgia Pritchett Writer
Laurence Rickard Writer
Jonathan Harvey Writer
Jeremy Dyson Writer
Jeremy Dyson Script Editor
Gemma Arrowsmith Writer
Carrie Quinlan Writer
Production team
Dominic Brigstocke Director
Caroline Norris Producer
Tracey Ullman Executive Producer
Ben Farrell Executive Producer
Myfanwy Moore Executive Producer
Nigel Williams Editor
Miranda Jones Production Designer
Richard Thomas Composer
Andy Marlow Composer

Video

Camilla Parker Bowles babysits Prince George

Camilla Parker Bowles babysits the heir to the throne.

Featuring: Tracey Ullman & Kim Wall.

Press

More comedy as Tracey Ullman's Show continued. She hammed it up as the Duchess of Cornwall, all wellies and dressing gown, grumpily agreeing to babysit Prince George ("I'm not bloody Yoda! Who calls me Yoda?"); Dame Judi Dench unleashed a five-star mission of destruction, while milking her status as a national treasure ("I'd hardly spend my mornings blocking toilets in five-star hotels in London just because I could get away with it," she bluffs when a toilet attendant calls her on it); while Angela Merkel broke out of her uptight diplomacy rountine by jazz-scatting her way through an official reception ("Eins, zwei, drei, vier, get me an Uber over here").

Ullman is at her best in these lighter celeb sketches, but on much sketchier ground in scenes such as the Midlands couple who arrive home from holiday, discover an illegal immigrant clinging on under their motorhome and take him in to teach him about life in Britain ("Do you think he'd like to watch Eggheads?").

Richard Vine, The Guardian, 19th January 2016

The second episode of Ullman's new sketch show sees a deviant Dame Judi Dench return to wreak more senseless havoc upon an adoring public, a ludicrously practical (in the style of French and Saunders's "stuff and nonsense" ladies) Duchess of Cornwall babysit Prince George, and some middle Englanders become accidental people-traffickers after a trip across the Channel. Ullman is a brilliant mimic, but her subject matter can feel slightly random and the skits are strangely structured, often resulting in no discernible punchline.

Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian, 18th January 2016

The second episode of Ullman's new sketch show sees a deviant Dame Judi Dench return to wreak more senseless havoc upon an adoring public, a ludicrously practical (in the style of French and Saunders's "stuff and nonsense" ladies) Duchess of Cornwall babysit Prince George, and some middle Englanders become accidental people-traffickers after a trip across the Channel. Ullman is a brilliant mimic, but her subject matter can feel slightly random and the skits are strangely structured, often resulting in no discernible punchline.

Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian, 18th January 2016

Tracey Ullman's Show, episode 2, BBC One, review

Why commission a series from a bona fide comedy icon, only to tuck it away at 10.45pm?

Gabriel Tate, The Telegraph, 18th January 2016

Radio Times review

If this series has confirmed anything it's what a brilliant impersonator Tracey Ullman is. This episode treats us to her pitch-perfect Camilla Parker-Bowles, a raucous hunting, shooting 'n' smoking laugh-a-minute lady who spends the day looking after her grandson (a child who bears more than a passing resemblance to the real Prince George).

Ullman's Dame Judi Dench continues to cause mayhem (this time deliberately blocking toilets in posh hotels), while her Maggie Smith auditions for the part of James Bond. Angela Merkel makes a welcome return from episode one.

Ullman's less well-known characters also hit the mark. I loved her retired Wimbledon line judge, and a sketch about a computing lesson for silver surfers shows Ullman's gift for satire and spot-on social observation.

After 30 years away it's clear that this is a gifted woman who is returning to her native UK in triumph.

Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 12th January 2016

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