Hullraisers

I've written reviews for each season of "Hullraisers" that you can find against the show's final episodes. Now the show is confirmed as not returning, I decided to post something here, to sum up my overall feelings about it.

Toni (Leah Brotherhead) is a mother and aspiring actress, living in Hull. Her older sister Paula (Sinead Matthews) is married to Dane (Yanick Ghanty) and has two children of her own, including Ashley (Natalie Davies) who is almost an adult herself. Rana (Taj Atwal) is Toni's best friend and Dane's sister and who is enjoying her single, childless, life. Toni struggles to cling to her youthful optimism, as it's drained away by parenthood.

I thought that the first season of "Hullraisers" was fine. It's not particularly hilarious, but neither is it a disastrous debacle. I really liked the performances though from our three leads. Leah Brotherhead came to my attention in "Zomboat" a few years back, this is a somewhat more realistic role though and, to my mind, she acquits herself to it well. All three roles could, in another version of the show, been reduced to their one defining characteristic, Toni is unfulfilled, Paula is a fishwife, and Rana is a maneater but there's enough shades to each performance to move beyond that.

The Hull setting doesn't get that much play and, having spent a bit of time there, the accents are a little more "generic Yorkshire/Lancashire" than specifically Humberside. I do like that its set in a more realistic working-class background and not extreme poverty though.

I would say that I thought the series improved in the second season, so much so that I would have looked forward to a third run.

This show grows on you.

I had avoided this show as it looked rubbish. However after watching a clip I decided to watch all the episodes in one.

They were thoroughly enjoyable and easy to watch. The laughs were subtle but they are there.

The characters are well developed and they work well together as a big family.

I hope I see more episodes and series in the future.

Very well written with lots of great one liners.

The characters are authentic and relatable. Just proper decent working class people living in decent houses having a proper laugh (at least trying to) not like the other grim northern sitcoms we are treated to.

I think it will only get better as we become more familiar with the characters.

A few clichés (eating pot noodles in the street) but it's a sitcom and we don't take ourselves too seriously in the north.

I wasn't expecting much from this, thought it be the latest one and done after the awful witch finder and Newark Newark.

It's really good, natural, daft, it doesn't try too hard to create ridiculous plots, they all feel like things that could happen. The lead 3 women are all great.

Toni though is genuinely hilarious, I'm a 35 year old guy with no kids, so I'm not even the target but I loved it. Hope they do way more series and longer than 6 episodes.

This is feel good tv. Can never get too much of that. Any silly blokes saying women aren't funny.... Watch this!

So good to see a sitcom that is well written, cast, directed and not overacted. I am a cynic, not much makes me laugh, or at least chuckle quite a lot.

Realistic, recognisable, endearing characters, attitudes n scenarios condensed into exaggerated, seriously smile/laugh slightly out loud comedy gold. Been a long time since anything this good has made it onto the screen.

Brilliant ...