Fear, Stress and Anger

Peter Davison ( Braithwaites) and Pippa Haywood (The Brittas Empire) star in this new sitcom from Michael Aitkens (Waiting for God). He describes the series: "When you reach a certain age, the phrase, 'What has my life come to?' starts preying on your mind. The baby boomer's are supposed to be keeping up these wonderfully dynamic lifestyles they've been slaving away at for 20 years or more, yet they're hemorrhaging cash from both ends – only to get ousted by the next generation." They're stuck in the middle - the sandwich generation. Martin is made redundant, Julie's civil service career stagnates, their two daughters won't leave home and Martin's senile mother is costing them a fortune in a nursing home. They try drugs, therapy and new jobs, but Martin's unerring ability to screw up absolutely everything, combined with Julie's rampant neuroses; just add to the fear, the stress and the anger. "But despite it all, the series has a nice, warm feeling running through it. You can see that they get on really well as a couple; they love their kids (sometimes); they love his mum; they just wish they weren't paying for them all the time!

Below par comedy wastes the talents of Peter Davison. Pippa Haywood fails to sparkle in this stinker. While Davidson, Haywood, Moffett, Essell and Rawle try to soldier on, and Katherine Parkinson steals every scene,it can't disguise the fact that this is a plodding and poorly written sitcom.

Lucy Aitkens is truly excruciating to watch in this series and what comedy might be there, is completely lost in her scenes. How on earth did she get cast?

Compared to US sitcoms, or even half decent British sitcoms, this is definitely one that should have been binned by the commissioning editor's. It's like watching something warmed over from the 1940s with a few 1990's topical phrases thrown in. It seems incredibly dated and stilted in portraying a family in that middle-class English way that fails to be either funny or interesting.

Definitely a miss.