Nighty Night

I watched the first series of Nighty Night straight through over an evening and an afternoon. It was addictive. I laughed out loud on several occasions, smiled more often than not and couldn't wait for the next episode. Aside from the humour the show ropes you in just to see how things turn out. It has a brilliant premise, which is how a selfish, yet very attractive, woman can play havoc by threading the needle between her own assumed 'good intentioned' authority and others' political correctness. Night Night is a brilliant satire on British manners. A must see for fans of British humour.

This is such a hidden gem if you like dark comedy ,, the manipulative Jill Tyrrell is played to perfection. Brilliant performances by the 2 leading ladies Julia Davis and Rebecca Front both deserve far more recognition than they get. I suspect this hits far more notes with female audiences than male ones .. big thumbs up !

This show is billed as coming from the makers of Alan Partridge, but whilst Alan is a complete imbecile, the awkward situations he finds himslef in are often ones caused by his inflated ego and at the end of the day whilst he is a nasty chap, he isn't evil. Now lets come to Jill, the main character in this wicked (but very entertaining) new dark dark comedy. She is pure evil. Whilst her husband lies in hospital apparently dying of cancer, Jill tells the world he's dead and decided to start dating. In the first episode she meets her new neighbour Dr .Don, played by Angus Deayton ( the Beeb did say they'd find him new roles post the HIGNFY scandal!) who's married to Cath (the brilliant Rebecca Front of The Day Today - a show from the same creators) who happens to have MS. Jills nastiness ensues and you really squirm watching her ( a mix of David Brent and Alan partridge at their worst with a much more EVIL edge). The show is a guilty pleasure as you'll laugh at the nastiness and then feel really bad later on! BBC3 airs these shows and they do eventually come to BBC2 ( like Little Britain) and when it arrives, make sure to catch it. It's not your typical sitcom, but who wants typical??!!??

Whether you like "Nighty Night" is dependent on whether you like this sort of thing. I will grant you this, it is not easy to watch at times, it is very dark, often unsubtle, heartless and extremely vicious. But there are some very funny parts too, thanks to the stellar performances and the deliberately over-the-top writing that is most likely to shock people with the amount of depth it goes into. Plus it is very unfliching at how cruel the characters can be to one another. There are times when we find the characters unsympathetic, with the exception of perhaps Cathy and Terry but I personally think that was intended.

The performances are stellar. Julia Davis throws herself into this, and gives a genius turn as Jill, an "evil" neighbour and an incompetent hair stylist. Angus Deayton is also superb as Don Cole, who is facing a very difficult situation, as is Rebecca Front as Cathy, a really sympathetic character that we constantly feel sorry for. Overall, clearly this isn't for everyone, but I for one find it entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox

One has to categorise this show as as satirical comedy, and indeed the first season begins humorously and playfully enough. After just a short time however, the personality disorders portrayed must inevitably lead to a rather more uncomfortable experience. Jill is nothing other than a psychopath, blatantly unaware of the extremity of her behaviour. The other characters all incredibly tolerant and unbelievably sympathetic to Jill's activities. Whilst the humour is maintained throughout, it is hard not to feel that genuine personality disorders such as these surely do exist around us in the real world. Of course the events are all extremely exaggerated, and that forms the basis for the humour. Were the show a little more subtle, then it would probably be billed as a psycho-thriller. I personally enjoyed it very much, as I find extreme humour quite entertaining. However, I would not recommend it for the squeamish, or prudish, or the particularly emotional. The second season even surpasses the first in extremity, if not in humour. I have knocked off points for plot, repetition, and incredibility.