Our Ex-Wife

The BBC pilot sitcom season has been rather mixed. Some promising funny material, some average and a few just plain bad. I expect the bad ones to be green-lit to become a series.

Our Ex Wife showed promise from the very beginning. It really hits it stride from the first scene and goes with it. It is probably inspired by the black comedy movie, The War of the Roses starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Jack and Hilary were once in love and a decade later had a messy nasty divorce. He calls her psychotic and she responds in kind and they fantasize about sadistically killing each other.

Five years later Jack is engaged to a sweet, kindly American vet, Sarah who wants to meet Hilary and think that both of them could get along for the sake of their children.

I was surprised how much the writer has painted Hilary out to be a monster. In the divorce court scene it is mentioned she repeatedly cheated on him as well as being a conniving liar. Our sympathies are clearly meant to go with Jack.

Melanie Lynskey as Sarah and Peter Egan as Jack's dad steal the show as their roles are more subtle.

However I did find that although I found the show refreshing I did not laugh that much and I also wondered how much mileage you can get out of two people hurling abuse at each other. There is only so many times you can call your ex a psychotic whore.

This show is LOL!!! I don't understand why they only made 1 episode. That's right... 1 episode, not 1 season. Why do they tease us with such great TV and then deliver all that other crap! More of THIS show please.

Why is this still not being made? I remember this pilot from years back and still find myself awaiting the series. Maybe Robert Webb should find it himself? Surely we can crowd fund it? Or Netflix can pick it up?

This is easily the most promising sitcom I have seen for a long time. I enjoyed it so much that I signed up to IMDb so I could write this review.

Having been through an acrimonious divorce myself, I wasn't sure if I would find this funny but this pilot has a similar excruciating resonance to that which made The Office so good.

I have been a fan of Robert Webb for a long time and this suits him down to the ground. In fact all the characters look very promising with plenty of scope for development.

The writing is very good indeed, very well observed and the humour is exquisitely brutal. Clearly some first hand experience at work here.

I cannot wait to see how this develops in the full series.

What a surprisingly witty, darkly funny, fast-paced, brilliantly cast and highly entertaining gem of a pilot. The half hour program felt like 10 minutes, and even though it felt like and end to a short movie when the last like was said- I immediately wished there was more entertainment like this. As this pilot is from 2016 I can only hope somewhere in the archives there are at least 4 series waiting to be released. I'll file it next to Absolutely Fabulous, Black Books, Fleabag.... If you do a series- at least 8 episodes, please.

And I don't want anything for my birthday AND Christmas this year 😉